Boxplode prototype on the iPhone

[davidn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7rHVacT6Nw

I've got a game running on the iPhone now (through the slight abuse of an Apple developer account from work). This is Boxplode from last year, which I had stopped working on when I realized how good a mobile game it would make - with Clickteam's iPhone exporter now well on its way, I've been converting it over from its original version and it's already looking pretty workable.

The game's heart, the detection of blocks to destroy and everything, remained exactly the same - what I did to convert it amounted to halving the horizontal size to fit it on the screen, reworking the way that levels were stored and loaded to avoid the use of List objects or the String Parser (creating an editor for them along the way, so that step is much easier now) and changing the controls to make more sense for a touch screen.

Now all it needs is a heap of levels, some presentation improvement, and for me to get my head around the mathematics of doing a touch scroll menu.

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

..... dang. <3

Have you tried anything more complex (animation-wise) yet? Is the performance alright? Because so far, this is looking like a way, way, way more viable option for easy iPhone game development than Flash's disaster of an attempt (which is basically slow to the point of uselessness).

Although unfortunately, from this video it looks like Flash is still the only one that directly generates an app file, which puts MMF in the same camp as Unity, i.e. "can't use it without a mac". :/

Out of curiosity, roughly how much would it cost for all the appropriate licenses (not counting apple's licenses) to get iPhone publishing through MMF, starting from nothing?

[davidn]

Yes, I believe it was done the Xcode way to get around Apple's restriction on software not made with their own tools, which was still in existence at the time this was started - perhaps it will eventually be changed now that that's been lifted, but I'm not sure what the plans are.

The speed is acceptable, though it's noticeably slower than the plain EXE version when there are a lot of transparent objects flying around, and it's not ever going to be as fast as a "native" application because it's going through bytecode. Playing sound effects seems to slow it down more than I would expect, but of course, all this is still in the testing phase and it'll probably be markedly improved when the release version comes round - and in this game, there are no noticeable speed issues to speak of.

Standard MMF2 is $120 US, and that allows you to distribute paid-for games as long as you include a logo, and the Developer version is $370 (not on top of the existing price - as an alternative to it) and has no restrictions on what you can do with anything made in it. The price of the iPhone exporter hasn't yet been publically announced, but I think that the expense of getting a Mac will still be the vast majority of the cost involved, here.

[davidn]

Actually, now that I think about it, how would you complete the process without a Mac even bypassing the Xcode step? The submission process to the device and everything seems to be fairly locked down, unless you jailbreak it, and that sort of limits your audience...

Nevertheless, I'm quite glad of this route for now, because the exporter is in a period where I've had occasion to fix a couple of bugs in the resultant Xcode myself.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

In Flash CS5, you generate a .app file, which you drag into iTunes while your phone is connected over USB. (It's as though you were using an app given to you through ad-hoc provisioning.) I'm not sure if it's possible to submit to the app store without a mac, but (while setting it up is rather convoluted) I know that it's possible to generate builds for your personal iPhone using Flash on a PC.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed with how quickly you turn these games out!

[davidn]

Seeing as I've been sitting on my main project for nearly four years now, that's sort of refreshing to hear - I do seem to be able to rapidly form a library of incomplete games ;)

But taken at face value, that comment is as good an advert for MMF as I think anyone could hope to have :)

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

1) I like your iPhone wallpaper.

2) Nice control scheme! It looks so intuitive, just running your thumb/finger across in the direction you want the blocks to explode, and shaking it to start over... brilliant. I do worry that the blocks might be a little too small for easy navigation, though.

3) Interesting ending. Was it supposed to be a full stop to mark the end of the video, or am I reading too much into things?

[davidn]

The correct answer when asked about poetic things like that is to say that yes, it was intentional all along and I'm glad someone picked up on it - but I hadn't noticed ;) I just wanted to fade it in and out of black at the start and end without having to deal with iMovie. (This iPhone video was recorded on another iPhone!)

The size of the blocks was something I had wondered about - it looks more difficult than it is in this video because I had to stretch my thumb over and half-look at what I was filming at the same time, but I haven't had problems while using my finger as you would normally. (Fatter fingers than mine are not guaranteed to have the same ease of use.) I was more worried about the sensitivity of the shaking, but I think I've got it to a point that's reasonable now, where you don't reset accidentally but it's not like carrying a lit stick of dynamite either.

And I'm actually wondering how many people in the wider community who watch this will comment on that :) But honestly, if they don't know that about me already, they're not going to pick it up from this.