Quadrapop goes to the next level with Project Capuchin
Quadrapop, originally launched in 2005, is one of Sony Ericsson’s arcade style games for mobile phones and is pre-installed in many models. Quadrapop has built up a large fan-base.
For a major rework and upgrade of the game, Sony Ericsson selected BlueSkyNorth, a highly respected Flash® for Mobile development agency based in the United Kingdom.
The updated Quadrapop game has some great new features:
Hi-score portal at www.sonyericsson.com/quadrapop
Multi-player option
Listen to music while playing
New graphic look
Selectable skins
Users can create their own skins using Adobe Flash
Users can share skins via the hi-score portal
Quadrapop portal at www.sonyericsson.com/quadrapop
In fact, Quadrapop is so impressive that it has been short-listed as a finalist for this year’s Adobe MAX awards. Public voting begins 28th September and winners will be announced at the MAX awards conference from 4th to 7th October 2009.
Developer World spoke with Sam Miller a Flash developer at BlueskyNorth, to find out more about the project.
What is the technology behind Quadrapop?
Quadrapop used Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin technology to provide an exciting user experience via Adobe Flash and access data and handset features via J2ME.
The online features are provided using PHP and MSSQL.
What did Project capuchin technology allow you to do?
.
Essentially Project Capuchin enables developers to tap into more native functions and data belonging to the phone. For example accessing the user's media library, reading and writing to the phone's file structure, handling external events etc. It also allows for greater application robustness as activities such as error checking can handled more effectively in Java than in Flash Lite.
Was it easy to work with Capuchin?
The two main functions Capuchin provides (Data Requesting from Flash and Event Notifying from Java) were fairly straightforward. It was then a case of working out what was best to use for specific elements within the application. For example, it can be prudent to perform various operations in separate threads as this can speed up these operations considerably. Also, operations that can be performed by either Flash or J2ME (such as http requests for downloading data) are better handled in Java, particularly from an error-handling standpoint.
What possibilities does skinning offer?
Using the current Basic tutorial, developers can change background graphics for the game screen, splash screen and menus as well as creating new graphics for the game sprites themselves.
What's coming next?
We are also producing an Advanced tutorial for Quadrapop themes, allowing the developer far greater control over appearance including incidental animations for the game sprites.
Are you using Project Capuchin for other applications?
BlueskyNorth are currently working with Sony Ericsson to develop a number of other Flash Lite applications utilizing project Capuchin. These include a personal finance tracker and an interactive shopping list application
What was it like working with Sony Ericsson on this project?
Project Capuchin technology allowed us far greater scope in our Flash Lite development. We also got to work on prototype products for forthcoming technologies.
For a major rework and upgrade of the game, Sony Ericsson selected BlueSkyNorth, a highly respected Flash® for Mobile development agency based in the United Kingdom.
The updated Quadrapop game has some great new features:
Hi-score portal at www.sonyericsson.com/quadrapop
Multi-player option
Listen to music while playing
New graphic look
Selectable skins
Users can create their own skins using Adobe Flash
Users can share skins via the hi-score portal
Quadrapop portal at www.sonyericsson.com/quadrapop
In fact, Quadrapop is so impressive that it has been short-listed as a finalist for this year’s Adobe MAX awards. Public voting begins 28th September and winners will be announced at the MAX awards conference from 4th to 7th October 2009.
Developer World spoke with Sam Miller a Flash developer at BlueskyNorth, to find out more about the project.
What is the technology behind Quadrapop?
Quadrapop used Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin technology to provide an exciting user experience via Adobe Flash and access data and handset features via J2ME.
The online features are provided using PHP and MSSQL.
What did Project capuchin technology allow you to do?
.
Essentially Project Capuchin enables developers to tap into more native functions and data belonging to the phone. For example accessing the user's media library, reading and writing to the phone's file structure, handling external events etc. It also allows for greater application robustness as activities such as error checking can handled more effectively in Java than in Flash Lite.
Was it easy to work with Capuchin?
The two main functions Capuchin provides (Data Requesting from Flash and Event Notifying from Java) were fairly straightforward. It was then a case of working out what was best to use for specific elements within the application. For example, it can be prudent to perform various operations in separate threads as this can speed up these operations considerably. Also, operations that can be performed by either Flash or J2ME (such as http requests for downloading data) are better handled in Java, particularly from an error-handling standpoint.
What possibilities does skinning offer?
Using the current Basic tutorial, developers can change background graphics for the game screen, splash screen and menus as well as creating new graphics for the game sprites themselves.
What's coming next?
We are also producing an Advanced tutorial for Quadrapop themes, allowing the developer far greater control over appearance including incidental animations for the game sprites.
Are you using Project Capuchin for other applications?
BlueskyNorth are currently working with Sony Ericsson to develop a number of other Flash Lite applications utilizing project Capuchin. These include a personal finance tracker and an interactive shopping list application
What was it like working with Sony Ericsson on this project?
Project Capuchin technology allowed us far greater scope in our Flash Lite development. We also got to work on prototype products for forthcoming technologies.
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