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Creating mobile games : using Java ME platform to put the fun into your mobile device and cell phone (Technology in Action Press Book)
Hamer C., Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2007. 415 pp. Type: Book (9781590598801)
Date Reviewed: Feb 14 2008

With the sales revenue in the computer gaming industry surpassing that of major motion picture studios, it is no wonder that we see more and more books dedicated to the subject of game development. Casual games, which play the most prominent role in the mobile market, become increasingly popular as the users of mobile phones discover that their devices can be used not only for making phone calls, but also for taking pictures, sending text messages, and, most importantly, playing small but often addictive games. Java provides the developers of mobile games with an excellent platform, which removes the barriers of incompatibility across different mobile hardware and operating system platforms, such as Symbian and Windows Mobile. Once the mobile game developers choose to implement their products using Java, the only cross-platform issue that they need to worry about is the screen size.

This is one more book on the long shelf of titles dedicated to mobile game development using Java. I have read and used a number of similar books in several software engineering and game development courses I teach. As I began writing this review, I started asking myself several questions. What makes this book stand out from the crowd? Does it offer anything that its competition does not? If this book covers exactly the same topics as others, does it do it better? Unfortunately, I could not find any significant features that would make this particular title superior to others.

The book advertises itself as being for those readers who have only a basic knowledge of Java programming, but the very first programming example is four pages long. Clearly, either the book should have included a chapter or a supplement providing the reader with a brief primer in Java programming, or it should state that the reader is expected to be fairly proficient at reading and writing Java code. This brings me to the most significant flaw of this book. Many authors of programming books face the dilemma of how to maintain a careful balance between the amount of code included in the book and everything else: text, figures, diagrams, and so on. On the one hand, if there is too much code and little of it is well explained, the book may be very difficult to read and its usefulness significantly diminished. On the other hand, a title that bills itself as a book about programming is expected to have a fairly large amount of code in it. Unfortunately, this book suffers from the former problem--many code fragments run for pages and pages. Despite the fact that the code is liberally sprinkled with comments, for the most part the code appears to be somewhat detached from the text. Although the text of most chapters refers to the code, I was looking for a better explanation of many programming techniques placed in the text of the book, where Hamer would explain how things work, why certain choices are made, and what the possible alternatives are.

The book appears to focus on the technical aspects of developing mobile games. Most of the important and relevant topics are covered appropriately: using and creating MIDlets; manipulating sprites and layers; using mobile audio and graphics; network communications; and media. However, computer games are not just another piece of software. Mobile games need to be appealing, have a well-thought-out playing strategy, and have clearly identified objectives. The book suffers from not covering any of these subjects.

Professionally designed mobile games are a source of great entertainment, and they often provide us with an engaging way to kill time. The subtitle of the book reads, “Put the fun into your mobile device and cell phone.” Indeed, mobile games are fun, but, unfortunately, reading this book was not.

Reviewer:  Stan Kurkovsky Review #: CR135265 (0812-1181)
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