suggested development toolkit for games?

[Richard Franks]

On 1/10/07, Sven Neuhaus <sven-openmoko at sven.de> wrote:
> Richard Franks wrote:
> > In terms of retro gaming though, it's the perfect platform for 2d games:
>
> Unfortunately, in the last 4 years of using a Sony Ericsson P800 phone I've
> learned that there're only a handful of decent games (genres) that can be
> played well without 5+ hardware buttons (two aren't enough).

Unless it's because a hardware limitation on the touchscreen
interface, I'd have to disagree.

When I say retro, I'm thinking of all the Spectrum/Commodore 64/Amiga
games which worked beautifully with five inputs -
up/down/left/right/fire with a non-analogue joystick.

A 64x64 (resizeable/semi-transparent?) directional input square (on
bottom right or bottom left corner) should be big enough with a stylus
to provide directional input, and fits into the joystick/joypad
physical limitations. This also leaves the option of interpreting
input as analogue, although the platforms mentioned above provided
over a decade of excellent games with just those simple digital
inputs.

In fact, digital inputs makes multiplayer a *lot* easier - each game
round can map the player input into only 5 bits.. which can be reduced
with a 3 bit time-offset if the game allows for retroactive
application of 'world transmittable' events - in most cases ~1/5 of a
second is an acceptable maximum lag. If bandwidth is less of an issue
then you can trade that off for more CPU cycles. Either way, there is
a lot of development flexibility with only 5 digital inputs.

I haven't looked into Bluetooth networking too much, but if it could
be used for multiplayer games, then you've got a *very* attractive
platform for gamers - upload games to friends for free + start
playing.

Fun still beats out the 'wow factor' - case in point: GTA on the PSP.

If the digital input/stylus idea doesn't work, then there are still options:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050602/green_01.shtml
http://www.rav.efbnet.com/1w1b2/results.html

Richard