1. Introduction

It is commonly acknowledged that the market for mobile phone has reached a level of saturation. There is a real need for new applications that encourage adoption of mobile devices and services. Owing to the growing importance of mobile game industry, skilled mobile game designers and programmers are highly demanded in this emerging market. However, building a high quality game is a surprisingly difficult and challenging process. In order to let students understand various issues arise in this challenge, the training provides fundamental hand-on experience of mobile phone game design and implementation using the most widely used technology Java ME.

2. Objectives

The major objective of this 7-week group project is to develop a mobile phone game using JavaME of reasonable size and complexity as a team effort. This project is designed to give you experience in:

• the game development process;
• the various issues that arise in game design;
• the trade-offs in game implementation; and
• the play-and-test iterative development model for games.

3. Pre-cursor

This project is intended for experienced Java programmers who would like to learn how to develop mobile games using JavaME. The pre-cursor of this project is EE3206 (Java Programming and Applications), that means students must have taken the course of EE3206 in order to allow choosing this project.

To make sure all the students have sufficient experience on JavaME programming, students are required to complete six JavaME lab exercises in the first four days of the training.

4. Grouping

Almost all real-world projects are carried out by a team. Students are therefore required to work on a proposed game project in a group of 5 to 6 students. Groups are entirely responsible for their own interaction and for ensuring that everyone does their fair share --- they are empowered to rate each other on quantity and quality of effort, and that will be considered in assigning individual grades on the projects. Student groups are expected to complete their project within the seven weeks training period.

5. Game Project Requirements

The project is intended to be open-ended, to give you the freedom to explore the game development process in a manner that best suits your own background and interests. Consequently, it is up to you to decide:

• what genre of game you wish to create.
• what features your game should include.
• what mobile phone you wish to develop the game on.
• and so on.

Here are some suggested types of game for your reference:

• Action game (e.g. Super Mario)
• Adventure/Role Playing game (e.g. Dragon Quest)
• Music game (e.g. Tap Tap Revoluation)
• Board/Card/Puzzle game (e.g. Mahjong, UNO)
• Educational Game (e.g. learning chinese input method)
• Strategy game (e.g. Sim City)

6. The Game Proposal

Each group is required to propose its own mobile game, thus each project group is required to submit a mobile game proposal and presents the proposal. In general, the purpose of a game proposal is to get approval to proceed with the development of a game. In this training, the proposal is intended to give sufficient information to provide some early feedback on the scope and content of your game before you are too committed to your initial ideas. This should help your game be more successful, and earn you a higher grade.

The proposal is not intended to be a lengthy and detailed document but it could provide enough information for someone to get a feel for what your game will be all about. Your proposal must not exceed 25 pages. For this training, your game proposal must include the following sections and information.

(a) The Team and Job Division
List the members of your group as well as what their intended role in the project is. Roles include designers, programmers, testers, documentation, as well as people in charge of story development, graphic design, artwork, music, and sound effects.

(b) The High-level Concept
This is a short description of what your game is all about. It should interest and excite the reader, and set your game apart from others.

(c) The Story (optional)
If your game has a plot, summarize it. Introduce the main character, identify the problems faced by the character, describe any villains in the game, and explain how the player will ultimately overcome all of this.

(d) Game Play Mechanics
This is a section describing what the player does in the game and how the game progresses. It is generally a genre statement, with an explanation of new twists that your game provides.

(e) Target Audience
This is a statement as to who the intended players of the game are. Is it targeted towards children, everyone, or a particular niche of players (e.g sports fans)?

(f) Target Platform
Here, you identify the target platform on which your game will be played. This should include mobile phone model, hardware requirements, operating system requirements, and any additional software requirements.

(g) The Features Summary
This is the list of features that will make your game exceptional and outstanding. Write this section as if you are writing the text that goes on the back of a typical game box, or in some other kind of advertisement.

(h) Risk Analysis
This section lays out all of the potential problems that you foresee happening during development, and how you plan to deal with such risks. For example, if you are trying some new software tool or development technique, problems could occur if things do not work out as planned.

(i) Work Schedule
List out your working schedule of the 7 weeks training.

7. Schedule

Please identify which lab you are going to work in and download the required lab manuals. Please print in advance.



Week	Date	Activities	Download
0	2 June 2008	- Briefing with introduction of projects - Meeting your lab supervisors	-
1	Day 1	- Lab1: Setting up JavaME Development Environment (Morning Session) - Lab2: Programming with JavaME GUI Component I (Afternoon Session)	lab1 lab2 images
1	Day 2	- Lab3: Programming with JavaME GUI Component II (Morning Session) - Lab4: Manipulating Graphics and Animations with JavaME (Afternoon Session)	lab3 lab4
1	Day 3	- Lab5: Writing a Simple Action Game with JavaME (Morning Session) - Lab6: JavaME Game API and NetBeans IDE (Afternoon Session)	lab5 lab6
1	Day 4	- Background study and review - Define your project - Plan your work	-
2	Day 1	- Submit a written project proposal with work schedule	-
2	-	- Project Design & Development - Presentation Preparation	-
2	Day 4	- Proposal Presentation (15 min.)	-
3-5	-	- Project Development - Project Documentation	-
5	Day 4	- Progress Presentation & Demonstration	-
6-7	-	- Project Development - Project Documentation	-
7	Day 4	- Submit Project Final Report - Submit Project Poster - Formal Project Presentation & Demonstration (20 mins + 10 mins Q&A)	Report Template Poster Template

8. Project Deliverables

(a) Presentation and Demo:
The presentation should be a professional delivery, carefully rehearsed to fit into the time allowed, with clear graphics, audible speech/audio, and other forms of multimedia as appropriate. There should be a brief explanation of the project goals and of the history of the effort, comments on problems faced and lessons learned, and a demonstration or description of the final project deliverables. The project presentations are arranged at last day of the seven weeks training period.

(b) Documentation and CD-R:
A written report with development menu and user menu is required to describe the technical details of your product. Also, there must be a section for users, saying how the project should be used. (In some cases this may be limited to be a one-page handout or flier, if user instructions and help are part of the project.) Every project must include discussion for those who may need to maintain, revise, or extend the project. It must describe all raw materials (soundtracks, graphics, etc.) used, how they were transformed, all intermediate files or results, documentation of any programs and their building or use, and thier given locations (physical or on computer file systems). A knowledgeable person reading this should be able to carry on the work or make revisions if there are problems. A one-page abstract/executive summary must also be included. In addition, all the documentation and software developed in the project must store on a CD-R and submitted with the final report.

9. Training Staff

• Mr. TING, Van C W, Email: cwting@cityu.edu.hk Room: G6418, Phone: 2788-7246
• Mr. Ng, Mike K H, Email: kahong@cityu.edu.hk Room: P1412, Phone: 2194-2770

10. Technician in-charge:

• Mr. Cheng, C Y, Email: cycheng@ee.cityu.edu.hk, Phone: 2788-7060
• Mr. Kan, W K, Email: eewkkan@cityu.edu.hk, Phone: 2788-9933
• Mr. Hui, W T, Email: eewthui@cityu.edu.hk , Phone: 2788-9957

11. Location

• Student Terminal Room (P1406)

12. Resources

• Sun Java MIDP2.0 API
• Examples: Creating a meter class using sprite / Enabling touchscreen in WTK
• Enrollment Form
  

Last Updated: 3 June 2009

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