Gaming company Hands-On Mobile, owner of titles like World Poker Tour and NFL Mobile Live, is offering a development and distribution platform which it says is superior to Java, the usual method of creating and deploying content across multiple systems.
The company has announced a Java alternative with its Hands-On Mobile Developer Network (HDN), and is basically opening up the platform it uses itself to build its games. On the client, like Java, HDN delivers a tiny piece of runtime code that will work on a large variety of mobile devices and operating systems. At the server side, HDN specific XML code is required to connect the network and device.
‘We, as is the case with any company in mobile today, have felt the pain of fragmentation very acutely,’ said CTO Michael Temkin. ‘We think there’s a big opportunity to help solve this problem for smaller developers.’
The system is best suited to information-based games with rich graphics, rather than ‘fast twitch’ games, and could be adapted to other types of applications. It is built around tools for exchanging lightweight data as well as code that lets a game work with native handset capabilities, such as contact lists and location capabilities.
To support distribution of games built with these tools, HDN has also released Mixt, a web-based portal for users to discover and download games and other content. Hands-On is working with cellcos to incorporate Mixt into their own decks, and AT&T is the first to adopt it. The company is building Mixt portal applications for various devices, including Android and BlackBerry, though Apple bans portal apps from its App Store. However, HDN games could be downloaded individually from the App Store.
Within the HDN environment, the default way for developers to make money is advertising, but the platform can also integrate with carrier premium service and billing services, which could support subscription and one-off charging models. In all cases, Hands-On will take a share of revenue generated from games created and distributed via its system.