It is a noob question. I want to start programming games for small devices such as ipod touch and other similar pocket mp4 players.
What do I need to know, where to start?

Here?

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It really depends on what specific device(s) you want to target. You'll have one approach for iPod/iPhone/iPad, and a totally different one for other MP3, phones, and similar devices.

If I were you, I'd choose a specific platform and focus on learning it before delving too much into learning multiple platforms.

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Thanks for that. My first thought was an ipod but then I thought how many applications are out there already and realized I might be better off trying a different, less popular platform. I am now looking at hardware I have at hand i.e. my Nokia phone and Creative mp3 player because I thought I would be able to test code that I write. Do you suggest dropping Nokia or Creative emails asking for details?

Doubtful they'd answer an email. Don't they have a Developers section on their websites?

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Machaira is right, they probably won't even bother answering you... unfortunately, that's just the way things are nowadays. I know that Nokia devices usually run on what is called "Symbian OS", so look into that. I'm not sure if you can develop games/apps for a Creative MP3 player at all, so you might want to google something along the lines of "Creative MP3 player development" or "Creative MP3 player programming" to see what comes up.

You could also check out things like the Android OS. Some newer phones (and possibly future netbooks) use this operating system.

If you're feeling really industrious, you could do a quick search for the "GP2x Wiz"... but know that this route isn't exactly for the feint of heart.

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The main options as I see it are:

iPhone: you need a Mac, and you need to pay, and you need to use Objective C (possibly C# through some stuff by Novell). You have a few advantages; the hardware is all quite similar (for now), so you don't need to think about things like "what if they have a keyboard"; there are probably lots of resources too since it is so popular.

Android: you can develop on any platform, you don't need to pay, but you need to use Java. Lots of devices are available, which is nice.

Symbian: Not trendy, but very possible. I believe it is a bit of a pain to do though. See the Nokia Developers page for official getting started stuff. I think you'll want to be coding in C (or maybe C++) for this one.

Pre: I don't know much about this one, but there is a Palm Developers site with details. I believe it is very similar to doing web app development (i.e. you code with html, css and javascript)... though I'm guessing there is also some way to write native code too.

Maemo: This is another Nokia one, only just starting to go mainstream. In terms of developing applications for it... it is an absolute dream. I "ported" my own desktop project to Maemo, and it took about 5 minutes. The OS is a debian derivative, so you don't have to fit with whacky mobile frameworks. They come with python out of the box, but you can compile C or C++ stuff for it easily, install ruby, or whatever. You will want an N900 (probably quite expensive if you are used to subsidised phones, and a bit expensive otherwise), though you could also get an older device (not a phone) like an N810... they are a lot slower though.

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b

Or JavaME? Works on a wide range of phones, there are lots of resources for it, and lots of limitations on what it can do!

I found it the easiest to get into, and as you learn more about it you find it can do a lot of quite powerful things on a range of phones. I've been particularly impressed with Opera Mini's interface and its inspired me to look again at JavaME development for a couple of projects.

Also NetBeans (disclosure: I love NetBeans) makes it easy to get started with a visual interface designer and a visual game designer for tile based games.

I do most mobile development for iPhone these days because thats what customers want but xcode, objective-c and the mac all make me mad sometimes.

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I've been keeping my eye on symbian developments as I used to work entirely on it It could easily gain some popularity again now as it finally got released as an Open Source platform yesterday. New versions of Symbian will also mean coding with QT, which isn't a bad thing cross-platform GUI to get your teeth into either

Andy is right though. Symbian is a C++ development platform, and it's not *quite* normal C++ either. You get all the language mechanics (Classes, inheritance, virtual functions, templates, etc) but it lacks built-in support for the C++ standard library and provides it's own standard library that can be a bit more difficult to get used to.

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Big thanks, that's quite something to chew on for anyone facing similar choices. I am really glad I turned to this forum with my questions.

For me, as I said it boils down to choosing between hardware that I have at hand. iPhone would be another option but for reasons Andy listed (you need to pay, you need a Mac) and that he did not listed (your apps need to be approved by Apple and they police things big time) I do not even want to start on that. If I had an established customer base, connections this would be an entirely different situation. Like dig said - I would probably have to get on with Mac and xcode.

@Andy - thanks for the tip about Maemo. I'll have to research into this to see if it could work on my N63. Can't afford buying new hardware now.



Now, that was the first thing I should have done. I feel foolish now. Thanks for pushing me in the right direction. Indeed both nokia and creative have these sections. Nokia's is easy to find, and Andy kindly provided the link above while Creative's is a bit hidden so I post the link here if anyone is interested. Their kit uses LUA:
http://www.creative.com/zenxfi2/adk/
I am now looking for some community, FAQs to get me started.

No, the only devices you'll be able to get it running on are the n770, n800, n810 and n900. You can also run the emulator on a pc, but that doesn't really get you anything special, except for a slightly slower version of the real hardware . The cool thing about this platform though is you can pretty much just port applications to it, rather than having to rewrite them for the particular quirks of the device... though I say that assuming that everyone is a linux desktop developer

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I found something which might be of interest to you. http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/fo ... .php?f=221
It has many developers in there who are working on the apps. Hope this helps!
Best of luck!
~

I downloaded the Android SDK last night as I'm toying with the idea of picking up a G2/Hero.

Looks fairly straightforward and supports OpenGL too.

I just have to get over my built-in dislike of Java.

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

You can use C/C++ for android as well using the NDK http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.6_r1/index.html .

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Even better. Although it looks like you still need a Java wrapper around your NDK stuff.

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

I'd completely missed that development Awesome, I may need to get back into android with that

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God must love stupid people, he made so many.
theraje: 'God doesn't love stupid people, they're just easier to make'
http://sharedillusions.blogspot.com