Want to Develop a Windows Mobile 6.5 Game?

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.adamdawes.com/books/wmgamedev.html' target='_blank'>http://www.adamdawes.com/books/wmgamedev.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Windows Mobile Game Development will tell you everything you need to know to write your own games, using the powerful Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and either C# or VB.NET. In Windows Mobile Game Development I give you everything you need to allow yourself to maximize your own creativity and bring both yourself and the world some fantastic mobile gaming opportunities. Just think about how a gaming device is always in your pocket, as a phone always is... it's too good an opportunity to miss, so I'll show you how to create the games you want to make."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//wpt/auto/1272047785.usr7.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Adam Dawes dropped us a line to tell us about his new book on Windows Mobile Game Development. It's out now, but covers WinMo 6.5, so it may not be as timely as some developers would want. Of course if you're into developing games for the excellent HD2 or similar premium hardware, then this may be the book for you.</p>

[paschott]

I like the idea of this, but with WP7 on the horizon, I can't imagine too many people are going to move towards the older WM versions. Even some of my favorite publishers seem to have stopped making games for WM. I guess time will tell what happens, but I just don't seem WM phones prior to v7 getting much dev time except for the true business apps once WM7 is released. Sure there will be some maintenance of the current apps and maybe one or even two new released, but I don't think we'll see much beyond that. Part of me is saddened by it, but hoping the future will be a little brighter and easier for people to code.

[d-signet]

I think the biggest problem with the timing of this book is the fact that there are no longer any current development tools for WM6.x
Since Visual Studio 2010 was released (without windows-mobile support) your only option is to buy VS2008 professional .... an out of date product that costs £500-£1000
Despite MS's assurance that they will still be supporting the platform, and despite the fact that devices are still being released with it, it seems MS have already given up on WM6.x , which is a big gamble on WP7 - an unproven system aimed at a different market and with no current devices.
WP7 is a totally different beast to code for - with the silverlight layer IMHO adding unnecessary levels of complexity (and needing different tools) to develop for enterprise applications which are governed more by functionality than flashiness.