Transcript Slide 1

J2ME Game Development Platform:
3 months and so much to do…
19.12.2005
Chief Operating Officer
Juhana Hietala
Agenda
• Introduction
• Developing a platform for mobile
• Platform in actual use in game development
projects
• Summary
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Rovio in Brief
• Founded in late 2004 by industry veterans
– Profound understanding of mobile as platform
– Developer and self-publisher of high quality J2ME games
• All stages of game development in-house
– Today 34 employees
– Internal QA department
• Games sold via carriers and portals
– Games sold in 5 continents
– Customers include Vodafone, T-Mobile,
Orange, O2, Hutchison 3G etc.
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Darkest Fear
Darkest Fear™ defines an entirely new category of mobile games,
inviting the player deep into a haunting story of hidden mystery and
bitter despair. The game features 15 challenging levels, each with its own
puzzles to solve and hazards to overcome. Furniture and walls leave
realistic shadows, creating an atmosphere of intense horror that test the
nerves of even the most jaded player. One wrong move taken in haste is
all takes for you too to get torn to pieces!
• Light reacts naturally on walls, furniture, and to movement
• Light, shadows, and the presence of lurking creatures result in a
truly haunting atmosphere
• Solve tricky puzzles using different light sources, such as
flashlights, lanterns, lamps, fireplaces, mirrors, and moonlit
windows
• Three different endings to the game depending on your choices
• “This may very well be the most enthralling, original mobile
game we've played in 2005.“ -Gamespot
•“An ingenious horror game with fresh puzzle ideas and great
animated sequences.“ -Airgamer
Controls
2,4,6,8: movement
5: drop light/pick up light
In a nutshell
A fresh and innovative gaming experience with real-life lighting effects.
The first truly scary game in mobile!
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Introduction to mobile development
• J2ME game development is a challenging task:
– Over 300 different handsets
– Localization needs
– Phones have different features:
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Display size
Jar –size limitations
Heap memory
Processing power (PPP)
Different sound standards (OTT, MIDI etc.)
Keyboard layout
– Different APIs
– Channel requirements
– Network features
• Technological platforms’ purpose is to make producing different
conversions to different handsets more efficient
• And you’ve heard it all from Valtteri already, so let’s move on…
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Case Rovio:
• Market opportunity window to the publishing business was
open in the beginning of 2005 –for a limited amount of time
• Challenge of providing support for over 300 handsets
• APPROACH:
– Getting the right people…
– Developing platform that can deliver but realizing the
limitation of Java in the mobile environment…
– Setting up the processes…
….in order to be able to develop great games (which is a whole
new story..)
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Requirements for the platform
• Has to enable rapid, cost-efficient J2ME game
development and porting
• Modular and extendable
• User friendliness
IDENTIFYING and FOCUSING on ESSENTIALS
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Rovio’s platform strategy
•
LONG-TERM (has to be
aligned with the business
strategy)
Release /
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
Developing
environment
• xx
•xx
• xx
• xx
Mobile API
•xx
• xx
• xx
•xx
Device Database
•xx
• xx
• xx
•xx
Publishing tools
• xx
• xx
•xx
• xx
Module
•
– 2 major annual releases
– Planned 4 releases ahead
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SHORT-TERM
– Minimizing repetitive,
manual labor that can be
automated
– 1st release was very critical
in time-perspective
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Feature prioritization
Time-paced development
Focus on working software
Given all the resources
available
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
04/05
2005
12/05
06/06
2006
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12/06
Our platform concept
• Consists of four
modules:
– Mobile API
MOBILE API
DEVICE
DATABASE
DEVELOPING
ENVIRONMENT
PUBLISHING
TOOLS
– Device
Database
– Developing
Environment
– Publishing Tools
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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How we did it
• Dedicated team:
7
– Project manager
– 1 architect
– 1-5 other developers
• Identifying modules that could
be developed separately
• Piloted platform with an internal
game project (that was never
released)
– Played a vital role in finding all
the bugs
• Iterative development
– Planning the next milestone in
detail, the following roughly
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# of developers
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Month
• Daily plannning meetings: what
are we doing?
• Weekly planning meetings: what
should we be doing?
• Project manager played a vital
role
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Glance of the actual project plan
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Life in the fast lane...
ID
T ask Name
Duration
Finish
Start
Jan '05
1
T echnology development
50 days?
Fri 15.4.05
Mon 7.2.05
2
Pilot game project
80 days?
Fri 10.6.05
Mon 21.2.05
3
1st game proj ect
93 days?
Fri 29.7.05
Wed 23.3.05
4
2nd game project
78 days?
T ue 26.7.05
Fri 8.4.05
Feb '05
Mar '05
Apr '05
May '05
Jun '05
Jul '05
Aug '05
31 7 14 21 28 7 14 21 28 4 11 18 25 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 4 11 18 25 1 8 15
PROS
CONS
• Release ahead of schedule
• Pilot game project found
several bugs that had to be
fixed
• Excellent functionality that
enables fast time-tomarket
• Proof of concept internally
and externally.
• Several features postponed for
2.0 release (Dec 05)
• Convinced Tekes to grand
financing for the further
development
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Using platform in game projects
Pre-production
Production
QA
Post-Production
Game development platform
• requirement
definition
• project plan
• tech specs
12/19/2005
• 5-6 reference handsets
• 4-5 sets of graphics
• parameterized features
• Porting to different handsets
(300+ handsets)
• localizations (7 languages)
• channel customization
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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How has the platform worked?
Darkest Fear™
August
War Diary™:
Burma
Velvet
Backstage™
September
October
War Diary™:
Crusader
Paid To Kill™
November
December
Resources used on porting
Resources used for porting in different projects
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Project #
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Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Summary
• Mobile devevelopment is no rocket science, but...
• VC funding enabled having the resources needed
• Iterative development crucial when everything
can’t be fully planned in advance
• Intensive customer involvement (or putting them
to work...)
• Black box approach doesn’t work:
• EFFICIENCY =
PEOPLE + TECHNOLOGY + PROCESSES
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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Contact Information
Juhana Hietala
Chief Operating Officer
mobile:
email:
+358 50 385 3495
[email protected]
address: Annankatu 31-33 C
FIN-00100 Helsinki
Finland
internet: www.rovio.com
12/19/2005
Copyright © 2005 Rovio Mobile
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