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Tag - Mobile

An Introduction to Android Mobile Game Development – Part 1

February 20, 2014
Manindu
Games, Programming
2 Comments
7 min read

We all love mobile gaming and it has become a booming market today. Majority of the smart device users use their device for gaming. Most probably you might be a mobile gamer too. But, have you ever wanted to make your own mobile game?  And still don’t have a clue where to start?  Then this article will guide you for a quick start. We will be focusing on the Android platform in this article.

How mobile games differ from PC games

Though they have a less processing power compared to modern personal computers, smart devices are considered as small computers. Some smart devices are capable of running high quality 3D games.

Games themselves and developing games for mobile differs from conventional PC game development in several ways.

Simple concept

Most of the mobile games are built on a simple concept and a storyline. Think of the popular game “Angry Birds”. The player has to destroy different structures using a slingshot. Another example is “Cut the Rope” where the objective is feeding a monster with candy. These games became popular because of the simple design and easy to pick up playing mechanics.

 Simple controls

Mobile games use easy to use controls such as touch, tap, swipe, tilt etc. These are actions which are familiar to all smart device users. So it makes the learning curve of a game less steeper.

 Development team size and development time.

Conventional PC/Console game studios use hundreds of individuals for the development of product. But most of the mobile games are made by small teams, sometimes by a single person.

Usually a mobile game can be developed in few weeks to few months (This can change depending on the project). But most of the PC games take years to complete (Eg. Skyrim V took 3.5 years).

Larger audience

The global smartphone users are expected to reach 1.75 billion in 2014. In most of the developed countries higher percentage of the population owns a smartphone than owns a personal computer. 2013 became a lousy year for PC sales but the mobile devices are on the rise. Another thing to consider is that most of the casual gamers tend to play game on a mobile device instead of a PC. Because of these reasons mobile games have a larger potential audience.

Available game engines and frameworks for Android game development

Andengine

andengine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link: http://www.andengine.org/

Programming language: Java

Price : Free

Supported Platforms: Android

Pros

This is a free and open source game engine with an active user community. There’s a lot of tutorials and sample code out there to get started.

Cons 

The Major drawback of Andengine is that it lacks an official API reference . And it supports only for Android. You can make only 2D games using Andengine.

Cocos2D-x

cocos2D

Link: http://www.cocos2d-x.org/

Programming Language: C++

Price: Free

Supported platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8

 Pros 

This is a free and open source game engine so you can modify it according to your needs. And you can publish games on several platforms using the same code base. Cocos2d-x is one of the best engines out there when it comes to the performance.

Cons

Beginners may find the learning curve quite steep.

Libgdx

libgdx

 

 

 

Link: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/index.html

Programming Language: Java

Price: Free

Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Web

Pros

This is a free and open source cross platform game engine. This game engine performs well compared to other java game engines out there.

Cons

Beginners may find the learning curve quite steep.

GameMaker

Gamemaker

 

 

 

 

Link: https://www.yoyogames.com/studio

Programming Language: Game Maker Language (GML)

Price: Depends on the version (A free version is also available)

Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Web

Pros

The GameMaker is one of the easiest game development tools to use. You can just drag and drop objects into the scene and apply pre defined behaviors to those objects. You can make more advanced things using the GameMaker’s own scripting language GML. This is widely used by hobbyists and professionals both.

 Cons

The free version of GameMaker comes with some limitations. You can’t publish on mobile platforms using the free version. The paid versions are pretty expensive compared to the other solutions out there. You have to learn a new language just for GameMaker.

 Corona SDK

coronalabs
Link: http://coronalabs.com

Programming Language: Lua

Price: Depends on the version (A free version is also available)

Supported Platforms: Android, iOS

Pros

If you need to program a complete game from scratch without dragging and dropping, this is the easiest solution you have. The language used is Lua and it’s very easy to learn. You can even publish for iOS and Android using the free version of the Corona SDK. It is documented well and provides sample apps to get started easily.

Cons

The free version of the Corona SDK comes with some limitations. You can’t implement in-app purchases etc. Another drawback is that you can only make 2D games using the Corona SDK.

Unity3D

unity3D

 

 

 

 

Link: http://unity3d.com/unity

Programming Languages: C#, Unity Script, Boo

Price: Free and a Pro version is available

Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry , Flash,

XBOX, Playstation etc.

Pros

Unity’s main advantage is its cross platform capability. You can publish your games on every popular platform out there. Unity3D has a strong asset store where you can buy 3d models, scripts, sounds etc. And another huge advantage of using unity is that you can publish your game on most of the platforms even if you use the free version. However, when you reach a particular revenue limit you have to buy the Pro version.

Cons

Not observed.

Why I recommend Corona SDK and Unity3D

I’ve been using Corona SDK for a year and I believe it’s a good game engine to start game development for Android. Because of the very active community of developers and resources out there, you can get started easily. You can program the game in Lua instead of C++ or Java and this makes the development process fast. And it gives you the native performance. If you need to implement in app purchases in your game you have to buy the Basic version of the SDK which costs 16$ per month.

One disadvantage of Corona is that you can’t make 3D games using it. That’s where Unity3D comes into the action. Actually the latest version of Unity3D officially supports 2D game development. Unity3D is a game engine with an editor which allows you to create levels, manage game assets etc. It supports several languages such as C#, Unity Script (A modified version of Javascript) and Boo. Unity 3D is easy to learn but I recommend using something like Corona SDK because it improves the programming skills and gives you a better understanding of how things are tied together in a game. After getting some experience in game programming you can choose something like Unity3D.

Await Part 2 of this series!

5 Reasons you should buy the Google Nexus 5

November 5, 2013
TechWire
Gadgets
Add comment
2 min read

On the 1st of November Google unveiled its latest offering in the Nexus line up, the Nexus 5.
The specs and the shape were known well in advance, due to various leaks leading up to the launch. We have lined up 5 good reasons on why you should make this your next smart phone.

  1. Processing power – With the powerful Snapdragon 800 quad core processor and the Adreno 330 GPU, the Nexus 5 has been bench-marked as the best current Android gaming phone.

    2.  

  2. HD Display – The Nexus 5 boasts a HD display of 4.95 inches, with resolution of 1080×1920 pixels. This gives a pixel density of 445ppi which is just above the pixel density of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (441ppi) and way better than the iPhone 5S (326 ppi). The high pixel density will result in crisp graphics and text.

    3.  

  3. Value for Money – This is surely the top reason to buy a Nexus 5. Being loaded with some awesome specs(given below) the 16GB model is modestly priced at $349 and the 32GB model at $399. If your getting the Nexus 5 through Kapruka it would cost you around Rs 57,000 in total. When comparing with the prices of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One which are both in the Rs 80,000 range, the Nexus 5 is obviously a steal.

    4.  

  4. KitKat OS – The Nexus 5 runs on the latest Android version 4.4 (KitKat). With features such as  improved Google Now integration, printing capability, faster multitasking and immersive display, the Nexus 5 would provide a richer experience than its other Android counterparts.

    5.  

  5.  Feature packed camera – The 8MP camera might not be the best phone camera out there, but with HDR+, Photo sphere and its advance editor, it just might exceed your expectation.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ0XTJqFLIE

The full specifications are given below

Network: GSM, WCDMA, LTE

Display:  4.95-inch Full HD IPS (1920×1080, 445ppi), Gorilla Glass 3

OS:  Android 4.4 (Kit Kat)

Camera:  8MP rear facing with Optical Image Stabilization (1.3MP front)

Battery:  2,300mAh (17 hours talk time, 7 hours internet on LTE)

CPU:  2.3Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (quad-core)

GPU:  Adren 330, 450MHz

Weight:  4.59oz (130g)

Dimensions:  69.17 x 137.84 x 8.59mm

WiFi:  Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4G/5G) 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

GBG Colombo: Mobile for Business – Live Blog!

October 24, 2013
TechWire
Events
1 Comment
1 min read

Welcome to the Live blog of Mobile for Business event organized by the GBG Colombo.

 

Samsung Galaxy S4 – Champion yet again?

July 17, 2013
Lahiru Dissanayake
Gadgets
2 Comments
6 min read

Last year Samsung Galaxy S3, the leader in Android based mobile phones sold a whopping 30[1] million plus devices in 2012 alone. This year, the Galaxy S4 is off to a good start with 10[2] million units sold in less than a month after their launch. With the Galaxy S4, Samsung has introduced a whole bag of new features, while some of them may not be all that practical they definitely are some cool stuff to show off to your buddies.

The Galaxy S4 comes in two main flavours:

–          Octa-core variant (I9500)

–          Quad-core variant (I9505)

Before you get ahead of yourself, YES the Octa-core variant comes with two Quad-core processors, but NO they do not work simultaneously. Instead, the Exynos Octa-core processer packs two quad-core set ups being 1.8GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. Whereas the Quad-core variant is armed with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz processor. Apart from the processor, not much is different except the fact that the Quad-core variant comes with 4G LTE and the Octa-core sadly with 3G only.

Here’s a look at the key specs for the Galaxy S4 (both I1900 and I1905)

Galaxy S4

DESIGN

The Samsung Galaxy S4 may be one of the most anticipated phones of the year, but the design fails to surprise. Owners of the Galaxy S3 will see little difference on the look and feel of the Galaxy S4. Don’t be disheartened, the S4 is a looker but subsides when compared to Sony’s flagship Xperia Z and HTC’s One X, where the Galaxy S4 has a hyper glazed plastic finish. However, on the upper hand, the back panel of the phone can be accessed allowing users to change the battery if required – which is a No-No for both Sony’s and HTC’s flagships’.

The Galaxy S4 does bring slight changes on the outer bezel of the phone making it look sleeker adding to the only 7.9mm thickness of the device. The premium feel is lacking on this handheld even though Samsung have an aluminum-like finish covering the side of the phone. Samsung however have done a fantastic job in maintaining the height and width of the S3 albeit the larger screen. The build of the phone is quite good as well and feels sturdy and solid in the hand.

DISPLAY

Once the screen turns on, all subdues of the design are soon forgotten. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has an eye-popping display supported with the Super AMOLED screen and offers image quality that is par to none other. Both the high contrast and super colour saturation combine to provide the user with superb viewing pleasure. Some users aren’t great fans of the bright and toned look, and Samsung offers such users the ability to change the bright saturated look to a more natural display of colours. Additionally, S4 users will have nothing to complain about when viewing the phone in broad daylight and the viewing angles are great as well.

Galaxy S4

Image: Acquired from http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6832/DSC_9891.jpg

OS & USER INTERFACE

The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with the latest release of the Google mobile platform i.e. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and is loaded with Samsung’s Touch Wiz 4.0. While some users may prefer the vanilla user interface by Android, the Touch Wiz update does bring some advantages. For instance, the lock screen that supports minimal functions on Jelly Bean; Samsung has gone all the way to introduce multiple panes with support for many widgets such as Email, Google Now, Messaging, Music Player, etc. The Lock Screen on the S4 can be thoroughly customized to one’s taste with background images, personal messages or clock with a desired colour and font.

Galaxy S4

Image: Acquired from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p4.php

The notification bar contains five customizable toggles that allow users to quickly enable or disable the feature, and users may slide across to view other toggles as well. Or user may simply tap the newly added button that lists out the total of 21 toggles.

Galaxy S4

Image : Acquired from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p4.php

The notification bar also displays the brightness control slider along with the general notifications that come with Android. 

Home Screen

The home screen hasn’t changed much from the predecessor, and you can pinch zoom to get the overlay of all home screens with a maximum of 7 separate screens.

Galaxy S4

 

Image : Acquired from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p4.php

Apps Drawer

The Apps Drawer too hasn’t seen many changes, and you can access both your apps and your widgets from the Apps Drawer itself. The dedicated download tab shows you all the apps you have downloaded.

galaxy_S4_6

Image : Acquired from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p4.php

One interesting feature is when you drag out apps and widgets to the home screen, you would see below a small layout of all your home screens with existing widgets and apps and gives you an indication of how much space is available on the home screen. Once added, the widgets can be resized and moved across the home screens with ease.

Galaxy S4

Image : Acquired from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p4.php

 

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 sports a picture-crisp 13.1 megapixel camera and the picture quality is fantastic, but is it fantastic all round? And the answer is yes, it is! Pictures taken from the S4 during the day are quite amazing. They are crisp and full of colour, and with amazing detailing as well spanned across 4128 x 3096 pixels.

The S4 brings its users a vast set of options and modes. Here are the modes the S4 has in store for you:

–          Auto Mode

–          Panorama

–          Sports

–          Night

While the above are seen on most smart phones, here are some of the more creative modes:

Sound & Shot

Sound & Shot does exactly what the name suggests; you can record sounds while taking the photo. Even though, a practical use for this would be hard to find it is a unique feature none the less.

Drama

The Drama mode is loads of fun! If you have a planned action sequence you would like to take, you can use this mode to take a series of still images combining the shots of the animated subject against a steady background.

Galaxy S4 Drama mode

Animated Photo

Simply lets you take a series of images which will be combined to give you a nice little animation.

Rich Tone (HDR)

In this mode when capturing a photo, a series of images are taken at various exposure levels and merged to give a rich saturated result.

Galaxy S4 Drama

Eraser

This intuitive mode works by capturing a series of images and removing moving objects from the final image.

The S4 also allows you to set further options such as ISO, White Balance, Exposure Value, Face Detection, Anti Shake, etc.

galaxy_S4_11

Video

Video recording with the S4 isn’t the phones strongest suite, but there’s nothing to complain either. The S4 supports 1080p@30fps.

A Sinhala touch keyboard for mobile devices

May 23, 2013
Hasitha Liyanage
Apps
6 Comments
4 min read

Reproduced with permission from http://zen.lk/2013/05/21/a-sinhala-touch-keyboard-for-mobile-devices/

Google Transliteration for Sinhala has probably done more to encourage active participation of Sinhala speakers on the Internet than any other technology or initiative. Using a simple English character based transliteration scheme that most Sinhala speakers are familiar with, it enables the average user to input Sinhala text into a computer at moderate speed without any knowledge of local layouts such asWijesekara.

However, things are not quite so simple when it comes to touch-based mobile devices. While placing a standard QWERTY keyboard on a mobile touchscreen is in itself an awkward attempt to use a layout meant for one type of device in another, using the same thing for transliterating a different language is doubly awkward. No solution exists in any of the dominant mobile platforms — Android, iOS or Windows Phone.

An innovative and widely used touchscreen keyboard scheme known as Swype may point the way. As many users would tell you, Swype allows you to drag your finger across the letters that form your word in one smooth motion. A prediction algorithm generates the word when you lift your finger off the screen. While this is a good scheme for any language, the nature of the Sinhala alphabet affords special advantages when using it.

sinhala_keyboard_2

While the Sinhala language has a large number of characters (without even counting combined ones), the most basic characters are:

ක ග ත ද න ප ය ර ල ව ස ශ හ ට ජ ච බ ම අ ඉ ඊ උ එ ඔ

When we consider ‘mahaprana’, ‘sanyaka’ and ‘murdhaja’ as alternate forms and combine these characters with the various ‘pillas’, almost all Sinhalese characters may be formed.

Features of this keyboard are as follows:

  1. The user may swipe his finger from one character to another to form words.

  2. Swiping over a ‘pilla’ key immediately after a basic character causes that character to be modified by the selected pilla.

  3. Tracing a small circle over a ‘pilla’ key causes it to become its long version.

  4. Swiping over the ‘shift’ key immediately after a basic character causes that character to become its mahaprana or murdhaja version (the software determines which, based on the base character).

  5. Swiping over the ‘binduwa’ key causes the preceding character to become its sanyaka version. When the key is tapped in isolation, it produces a ‘binduwa’ character.

  6. If a predictive dictionary is present, the user need not always be explicit about long pillas, mahapranas and especially murdhajas. The software will be able to pick out the correct form from the dictionary, given an approximation.

  7. Punctuation characters and numerals may be typed by a press-and-hold action (similar to the Swype keyboard).

  8. There are no dedicated characters for the vowels. Using a pilla character at the beginning of a word produces the corresponding vowel.

Rationales:

  1. Unlike English speakers and the QWERTY layout, Sinhala speakers have not become accustomed to the Wijesekara or any other Sinhala layout. This will allow them to quickly become accustomed to a new one.

  2. The layout can cut the number of strokes required to produce a word by about one third to one half, depending on the frequency of ‘pillas’. For example, the word ‘ලංකාව’ requires six swipes (or seven taps) on QWERTY. In this layout, it requires only four swipes.

  3. Reaching for keys on the higher rows naturally results in keys on the lower rows getting obscured by the user’s finger. Therefore the number of rows must be kept to a minimum and difficult-to-memorize keys should not be placed on the lower rows.

  4. The number of columns must be kept to a minimum so as to not make keys too small. Sinhala characters require more display space than English ones.

Improvements:

  1. The consonants here are placed in near-alphabetic order. However, the most optimal placement can be determined by statistical analysis of a large enough sample of frequently used Sinhala words and phrases. For example, ස, ය, ල, ම should probably be in higher rows than they are in this crude layout.

  2. The placements of the enter, backspace, comma and full stop keys may require rethinking.

  3. Infrequently used keys such as ‘rakaranshaya’ and ‘binduwa’ may be converted to shift functions to make space for ශ (which is currently considered a shifted ස) and more punctuation

Exploring the mobile landscape – InfographicExploring the mobile landscape – Infographic

May 1, 2013
TechWire
Infographic
1 Comment
1 min read

The mobile space is getting important by the day as it is becoming an essential part of peoples lives. From interacting with people to buying goods to playing games, mobile phones keep finding various areas which it adds value and thus making its usage soar. The below infographic shows the impact of the mobile landscape and also how it is used. (Infographic credits to New Relic)

Mobile Appeal

  ජංගම ලෝකය දිනෙන් දින සීඝ්‍රයෙන් වර්ධනය වන බව අපි දන්නෙමු. මිනිසුන් සමඟ කත බස් කිරීම , පරිබොගික භාණ්ඩ මිලදී ගැනිම, games සෙල්ලම් කිරීම වැනි ක්‍රියාකරකම් රැසකට ජංගම දුරකථනය භාවිත වේ. පහත දක්වා ඇති දත්ත රුපයෙන්(infographic) ජංගම දුරකතනය සිදු කල ඇති වෙනස දැක ගත හැකිය.

Mobile Appeal

 

All you need to know about Dialog Mobile LTE

April 24, 2013
TechWire
Communication
3 Comments
3 min read

Not long after successfully bidding for the LTE frequency, Dialog launched its Mobile LTE network few weeks back. This enables 4G network on supported mobiles and USB LTE modems. Lets take a look at some of the aspects of this new service

 

Frequency

The frequency band used is 10 MHz from the 1800 MHz band. The 1800 MHz band is currently the most used frequency band for LTE deployment around the world. The 700 MHz band would have provided better coverage, but seems free bands on it were not available.

 

Coverage

The Mobile LTE coverage is currently available in the Colombo 1 – 15 area. Since the frequency band used is in the 1800MHz range, the indoor penetration of the signals would be less than in the case where the 700MHz band was used. However since there wont be large number of users initially, even with marginal signals one should be able to get good speeds.

 

Speeds

As the frequency bandwidth is 10MHz, theoretically one would be able to reach upto 50 Mbps speeds. However 20-30 Mbps would be the practically achievable speeds. This might also vary according to the bottlenecks in the server you are accessing and also the device category.

 

Supported Devices

You would require a FD-LTE 1800 MHz Band 3 compatible handset or a dongle to be able to use Dialog mobile LTE. The dongle currently available through Dialog is the Huawei E398U which is priced at Rs. 16,000. That is quite a price for an USB modem. The price of these type of units directly depends on the quantity in the production line. Since the demand is still less for these devices, the number of units manufacture in batches are low and hence the high price.

Only a few mobile LTE supported mobile phones are currently available in the market, although this number would increase significantly by the end of the year. Please check below for some of the supported mobile phones available in Sri Lanka.

  • Samsung I9305 Galaxy S III
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
  • Sony Xperia V
  • Sony Xperia Z
  • LG Optimus G

(Note: Mobile LTE is not supported on Apple devices have not enabled the service for Sri Lanka)

 

Use cases

Dialog Mobile LTE would be used less for personal broadband data as the price of the dongle is high. The dongle would be more appropriate for an office use, where it is used to create a Wi-Fi Zone.

In the initial stages Mobile LTE would be used more in phones. Streaming HD video would be a main usage. With the large HD displays on the supported handsets, watching HD videos would be a treat. Browsing and email would also be a breeze with 4G , and if needed one can always generate a hotspot from the phone for a high speed WiFi.

 

What do you need to start using Dialog Mobile LTE?

You will need a supported device (phone or dongle) and a 4G enabled SIM which you need obtain from a Dialog outlet for Rs. 150. Also you would need a postpaid connection as it is still not available for prepaid.

 

Firefox Mobile OS beta released as a Firefox Addon

November 25, 2012
TechWire
OS
1 Comment
3 min read

Few months ago Firefox promised that they will make a mobile OS of their own, and two days back Firefox announced that they have released a beta version of the OS and consumers can install it as an add-on for Firefox. This Mozilla’s operating system coded named “Boot to Gecko” based on HTML5 web standards which is good news for developers. ZTE, Alcatel and some other vendors have already announced that they are already developing ARM based hardware for this OS. However, I have major doubts on how Mozilla is going to survive from the huge mobile OS war.

Even for Windows Mobile, although their developers are giving their best against Android and Apple, they can’t see any big improvements. Recently Newegg said “Windows Mobile phone sales are slow” at the same time Nokia lost $1.27 billion in last 3rd quarter and its sixth quarterly loss for them. This shows just how hard it is for a new OS to break through in to the market. However Mozilla strongly believes in success, according to “the Guardian” website, Director of Research & Development at Mozilla Corporation Andreas Gal recently said “We wanted to break out of the “silos” presented by competitors like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7. We think we can change this by doing the same thing we did on the desktop,” that’s good because more competition means better products for us.

Firefox Screens

Firefox Screenshot 2

 

Before writing this article, I experienced the Firefox OS add-on so I can write what I personally think. The first moment I saw the OS I was like what? Is this Android? Yes it’s very similar to Android, it has a pull down notification bar where you can see your notifications and your toggle switches. If you long press the home button it will bring up the multi-task menu so you can close them by swiping up. There is no dedicated app drawer so if you swipe left you can see the app icons which already installed. Swiping right brings you the search menu and it’s bit similar to iOS search menu. I don’t think that’s a good idea for Mozilla to have similar features like iOS considering the latest legal battles. Anyway this is not the final version and who knows, the final version may be drastically different. This add-on version of Firefox OS is so sluggish, but no worries because it’s still a beta version. Firefox uses the Nokia maps for their map services. I don’t know why they chose Nokia Maps instated of Google Maps. This beta version already has a Marketplace built-in. I installed Twitter and it worked pretty nice. I hope we can see more essential apps from Mozilla when it’s available for consumers. According to Matthew Key, chair and chief executive of Telefónica Digital, the first Firefox OS based mobile devices will appear in Brazil in 1st Q2013. So next year we can see how it’s going to perform against other operating systems giants.

You can check out the Firefox Add on Here