Flash Lite For Mobile Game Developers

Via Hayden, Sony Ericsson has released a new version of their Themes Creator tool (v 3.27) on their Developer site. It allows the packaging of Flash Lite files (screensaver/wallpaper) into the Themes files. The devices able to use the Flash Lite files include C702, C902, W760, W980 (Flash Lite 2.0 devices). According to Hayden, for other devices one must distribute the SWF content separately from the theme.

“New Theme Generator feature
The Theme Generator is a new feature in the tool that lets designers quickly create harmonious themes based on a predefined color formula by allowing you to change the general colorization of the theme using the color wheel, color sliders or by directly changing the HEX values. When changing the color parameters, the tool will, in real-time, suggest a harmonious color scheme for the various elements in the theme and then apply the result to the whole theme. Another option is to use the Theme Generator feature as a starting point for getting a set of colors for the various elements in the theme and then go on from there and add images, graphics, animations, sound effects etc.”

The tool is available for Windows, OS X (MAC) and Linux.

Via Bill, there is a new article in Adobe Developer Center: Developing Flash Lite applications with dynamic layouts. Written by David Brown (from agencynet.com), and in this 5 page tutorial he describes the process of creating the Bacardi® Mobile Cocktail application, including reacting to environment changes (like current time of day), and how to implement automatic Stage size and orientation switching. This tutorial is for Flash Lite 2.0 and newer.

According to Bill Perry/Adobe, the device forecast for Flash (Lite) enabled mobile devices has been updated: the adoption rate of Flash is faster than previously anticipated, and there will be over 1 billion devices in 2009 (instead of 2010).

“Over 1 billion devices by 2009
We’ve updated our device forecast and expect that by 2009 there will be over 1 billion devices that will have shipped that support Flash technologies. Previously we stated that we would reach this number by 2010 – so this is more good news for the Open Screen Project and shows the explosive growth of Flash technologies in mobile phones.”

Adobe has announced details about the Open Screen Project, pretty important news for mobile Flash Lite developers as well. Mark Doherty/Adobe writes in his blog more details and thoughts to non-PC developers (mobile being important one).
“The Open Screen Project is dedicated to driving consistent rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics.”

“The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment — taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and devices, including phones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes.”

It is supported by technology leaders, including Adobe, ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal.

Some of the things this means:

• Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
• Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
• Removing licensing fees - making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

Sony Ericsson has created a tool that makes it possible to combine aspects of Java and Flash Lite in a single application. The tech is called Capuchin, and it is supposed to be available in the second half of this year (well, not that long time . In a nutshell, the tech will allow Flash Lite content to be encapsulated in Java ME applications; especially (or solely) the UI.

Flash has been used widely in creating UI for quite some time, including console games, and whole mobile phone UI’s. Capuchin sound like interesting opportunity, let’s see how things turn to.

Now, what would be really interesting, would be a Flash Lite application (a wrapper, really) that could encapsulate J2ME content - astonish us

Via Alessandro, more details about Capuchin:

“Project Capuchin is a Java ME API which makes it possible for Java to run a Flash Lite content file (*.swf) that is shown on the display. All system events (e.g. key events) are forwarded from Java to Flash Lite and the Flash Lite player has a choice of listening to these events. In case Flash Lite wants to access some information then it is done through Java. Communication between Flash Lite and JSRs are handled through an intermediate class that works as a translator. This class listens to Flash Lite requests, transfers these to JSR calls, and sends response back to Flash Lite. Communication between Flash Lite and Java is bi-directional meaning that Flash Lite can send requests to and receive events from Java. Requests send from Flash Lite are made in an asynchronous manner.”

Ugur & Kuneri have launched v. 0.9.6.1. of their Kuneri Lite:

New features

* Launch SWF in phone boot (startup)
* Days and month support for Timer plugin
* JPG resize command in Upload/Download plugin and Camera plugin
* Extracting zip files with Unzip command in File plugin
* Custom /predefined IAP (Internet Access Point) support in Upload/Download plugin
* Switch to disable escape decoding of a variable

Changes

* Fixes and optimizations for Flash Lite 3 devices
* Fixed install paths in KuneriLite Wizard
* Camera plugin buttons layout fixed in some phone models
* Fixed variable returning in Upload/Download plugin loadVariables command

Go Download it!

Via Symbian-Freak, Flash Lite 3.1. is now available to OEM’s;

“The new Flash Lite version brings lot of improvements in terms of stability and features,  performance has been optimized through more efficient resource management, resulting in improved rendering, scripting speed, and code optimization.

Speaking about features it’s important to say that new version is fully capable to process and render Flash 9 Web content as long as it is published as AS2 because AS3 engine is not ported to FL3 yet.

Annoyance of being unable to browse a Web sites on the Web Browser for S60, because the are Flash based, should largely disappear. It is much faster and brings much better browsability than FL3. Furthermore it has the native support for the h.264 codec and allows the smoother video playback with less processor requirements.”

Key features:

• Much better browsability than FL3
• Support for h.264 codec
• Flash 9 content will play in FL3.1 as long as it is published as AS2. AS3 engine is not ported to FL3 yet.

Via Bill, the percentages for Flash Lite devices in Western Europe and US have been released:

The total percentage (for 6 countries) of Flash Lite enabled devices on the market, is about 15%.

“Data for this PDF was provided by mmetrics and shows the active number of Flash Lite devices as of January 2008 for six countries: US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

[Also] Total Flash Lite devices, number of device models and number of addressable devices by platform are listed: Nokia S60, Nokia Series 40, Sony Ericsson and BREW.”

Download the 2 page long .pdf

Do remember that tomorrow there is a possibility to join a Forum Nokia Flash Lite webinar: go ahead and register

It is one hour webinar covering several Flash Lite topics, including content creation and web browsing. Presenters are Bill Perry (Adobe) and Stephen Ellis (Forum Nokia). There is also a QA part for all the questions you may have about Flash Lite.

Times are:

• Helsinki = 17:00 (5 pm)
• London = 3 pm (local)
• New York = 10 am (local)
• San Francisco = 7 am (local)

Gamasutra has published an article, where David Collier from Pikkle speaks about social mobile gaming in Japan; naturally, the focus is on Flash Lite. The article is based on David’s speech on this year’s GDC.

And the next big thing in Japan?

“the next big thing from Japan” for mobile: new mobile sits that mix mini-games, avatars, and virtual money into million-user game services, most off-deck and advertising supported.”

Go read it