The Mobile Development

Landscape

Whats happening in the world of mobile?

Overview

•High level introduction to whats out there

•Deciding on a tool

•What you need

•Whats coming

What’s out there?•Native for the main platforms - XCode

(iOS), Java (Android), Visual Studio (Windows Mobile), Java/C++ (Blackberry)

•Cross platform using either web technologies (HTML5 & javascript) or scripting - Lua is a popular script language

•No code development - however, often with royalties or monthly costs to pay

Native Tools

•Provide the best performance and user experience

•Typically free as each vendor wants apps on their platform

•Can be a steep learning curve - not easy for non-programmers

Cross Platform

•Great for reaching multiple platforms with one set of code

•Depending on your experience *can* leverage existing skills

•Shorter learning curve if you haven’t coded before

No Code Tools

•Great for non developers

•Allows you to deliver basic application or use as basis as spec. for a developer

•Typically hosted which means you are tied to some form of financial commitment

QuickTime™ and aGIF decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

So much choice!So much choice!

Deciding on a Tool

•No ‘one size fits all’

•Some tools only work on one platform or optimised for one platform

•The ‘sort’ of app you need to create will define your choice of tool

Making the choice

•Start with requirements; utility/business app or game?

•What platforms do you need to run on?

•What skills do you already have?

Business App Development

•Coder; Then go native with either XCode or Java or worlds your oyster!

•Web Person; Appcelerator, JQuery Mobile + Phonegap leverage existing HTML skills

•Non Tech; Look at buzztouch, appmakr, biznessapps or runrev

Game Development

•Coder; Can use native tools + framework, e.g. XCode + Cocos2d or;

•Web Person; HTML5 game engine, LimeJS, MelonJS, ImpactJS or learn Lua used in Moai, Corona and Gideros

•Non Tech; Construct2 or GameSalad both support game creation with *no* coding

Whats coming

•Lots of tools already available

•And more on the way

•Not all tools support *all* platforms, so is there a solution?

The next big (current) thing

HTML5

Why HTML5•Truly cross-platform, all devices

•Supported on iOS, Android; Blackberry 10 and Windows Mobile 8 are HTML5 centric

•Can use JQuery Mobile for business apps and ImpactJS (HTML5+Javascript) for games

•Browser performance on mobile devices only now starting to become good enough

Questions?

gary@59offers.com

TakeawayA small european software house released

50 games onto the app store.

They didn’t sell well and the company was close to bankruptcy.

For game 51 they had 4 guys work on it as background project for 9 months.

Total development cost $70,000

game 51 did a little better....