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Guys forgive me if this is well-trodden ground, I was just wondering if any of you have had any experience doing this with Haxe or via other means.
My latest game is perfect for the Iphone and it seems like there's some nice $$$ to be made uploading stuff to the store there it so I was wondering how much effort it would actually take to do. I've been hunting around the net for info on the said subject but there's not a lot out there, save some basic tutorials.
Any pointers?
I've been thinking about this too. Got a project that I might eventually port across. There are a few haxe related sites out their for iPhone dev and iPhone dev in general. Just found this one then.
http://gamehaxe.com/
Basically for flash content there is no propper halfway automated and publicly available porting way right now.
A few are evolving but not really usable in production yet (like the haxe porting path), others are about proprietary tech the public has no access to (like btween) and then there´s the options of "porting" it oneself in a way that is more rewriting it than porting existing code or visuals to big parts really, like when using unity3d for example.
I went that route and ported a few games with unity3d and overall that´s totally doable and of course nice to have one´s games on the device.
I´m basically always working a while on client work and then doing some iPhone stuff in my few spare time in between :) Since i´m meanwhile an uncle and look after my nephew in between cause hes way too cute i have even less spare time now than when it was just about being a tech enthusiast who wants to play with 1000 things and the damn day only has 24 hours :)
Regarding the "there´s some nice $$$ o be made" sure that is true in theory but in reality without a propper promo budget behind a project or just a lot of luck most released apps already have a tough time to get noticed among the literally thousands of apps coming out weekly.
That´s why i personally do flash aswell as unity 3d web, standalone and iPhone games on my own and for clients but usually those i make on my own i make cause i´m into working on them out of geek interest or cause i think they would be fun to have on the device, not because i expect to get rich quickly with em.
I suggest you should better not get into a goldrush mentality, the thought of it being ideal for making the big buck very quickly even if you´re a small indy with no promo budget, cause well, that can lead to big disappointment cause it doesn´t work out for the large majority.
If you´re just in it to try it out and make some fun stuff for the thing, well, that can be quite enjoyable :)
I agree on the "$$$ to be made". All depends on Apple. Your game might be featured or not on the store. If it's not featured, the game must be highly viral, and spread by word of mouth (which IS the true jackpot but happens for VERY few games so far).
I've ben porting a flash game to iPhone and I used cocos2d opensource 2D game framework. It's pretty straightforward : MovieClip = CocosNode
Of course you don't work with vector graphics but only with bitmaps. But you can use the same properties you use on a movieclip : rotation, scale, scaleX, scaleY, opacity, RGB, addChildren, and many more. And it's free (of course if your game becomes #1 on the app store, you are supposed to make a nice donation to the project but you are not forced to). Cocos2D has akready powerd many games that have reach the top 10 paid apps.
OK after hunting around a bit I've found a few decent articles.
Thanks for the info. I agree it would be worth porting a game over simply for the joy of a seeing your own game on the device is well worth it as long as the game doesn't take months to develop. Seems like Unity3D is my best bet being that it's similar to Flash.
However I'm not going to be putting my toe in the water until I'm more educated about the whole thing. I don't even have an Iphone but everyone I know keeps hacking at me to get into the scene "Hey dude you'll make a million if you put this-and-that type of game on the Iphone!"
We'll see. Cheers.
Having done a few apps for the App Store i can say its really quite a joy having your own apps running on the iPhone/ iPod :)
Regarding the business side with the App Store though:
Its one of those things where the ups are in another way the downs, too.
The biggest plus of distributing for iPhone and iPod touch: the App Store:
You have a unified distribution system accessible to all owners of the device and people can easily buy your goods from all around the world and you as developer don´t have to bother much with handling payments etc.
Great :)
The biggest minus of distributing for iPhone and iPod touch: the App Store:
You only have this one way of distributing your content to the audience.
(
Sure there are ways for jailbroken devices but at the end of the day how likely is it you´ll make propper money by distributing to a channel that mainly caters to people who are into running cracked software? :)
)
So only having this channel makes it increasingly more difficult for indies to get noticed at all. Titles released by big companies get listed instantly and broadly while a game by one guy or a small team already has to have achieved some propper buzz going for it by itself or has to have caught the extreme interest of a certain group at apple to get some way of promotion besides what the developer can do on his own.
Again, yes, its not impossible that an indy can get that right lottery ticket but also again, don´t be in it with the idea to make tons of money if you´re doing stuff on your own.
I´ve made some good money with games for clients of which several also sell quite well, on the other hand some games i´ve made on my own and released on my own don´t sell nearly as good. Some of them are also clearly way better games than the others that make way more money, they just don´t have any PR push behind them.
Regarding the porting options cocos 2D and similar packages can be a better option for basic 2D stuff, unity3D is a solution which is more tailored for 3d and physics heavy games and less ideal for doing 2d games with it. It still can totally be done with it, i´ve coded Puzzled Pet Planet ( http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...315478103&mt=8 ) in unity for example, but yeah, its less ideal for 2D than 3D or physics intensive stuff clearly.
Regarding porting flash games in general and more specifically regarding how feasable it is and how quickly it goes to port something over basically that depends a lot on the game type and the setup of the game.
Something that is done more codeside, using a bitmapdata only setup, no timeline or other things specific to flash goes way quicker to port than anything that uses anything very specific to flash.
Its of course funny that those things that are easiest and quickest to port from flash to another environment are also those where one could think in first place: if i create things in this manner in flash, why don´t i just do it in another environment right away and can sell it in other way or have it running on another device etc.
Reagrding jumping into iPhone dev in general: As long as you don´t do it with the goldrush dollar signs in the eyes there´s no reason why not to try it in between really =)
You need the device, a mac next to it wouldn´t be bad either for more streamlined dev and testing and you need the developer license which weighs in at 100 bucks but even with all those you´re still at way less money spent than when getting full fledged dev tools and kits for any other console etc. Basically you can only develop cheaper for the pc or mac but there you of course don´t get some of what´s special to the iPhone/ iPod :)
Unfortunately porting flash games to the iphone means a lot of abuse. My game Abstract Sea has recently been stolen and is being sold on the App store under a new name as we speak.
Abstract Sea:http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Abstract-Sea.html#game
iPhone rip off: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=324446495&mt=8
Ali
Well, that´s sad man, ts a bummer those guys didn´t ask you for a coop on it.
And yeah, while i know of many nicely done ports of games from other platforms where all were in the know and share and happy about the outcome sure everytime there´s money involved there are sadly also stories like yours.
God damn rip-off monkeys get me furious.
Some of my games pop up around the net with different graphics, it doesn't bother me except when they change the author name, THAT really peeves me. I spend a little time on every game now playing with the code to make it hard to impossible to decompile. Plus I put little 'signs' in the game which under questioning I could explain and one of these rip-off artists wouldn't have a clue. EVERY game. It's best you start to create your own recognisable style/brand, colour schemes etc- then people will have a hard time getting away with it. Obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate.
@alilllm They made a copy/paste game, you should contact Apple to get their opinion about this. This is insane.
one another amazing example is Ragdoll Blaster which is #1 top pai app in the app store and is making bg money ( http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...315282163&mt=8 )
They totally copied Ragdoll canon gameplay ( http://www.bubblebox.com/play/action/1098.htm ) but they were smart enough to change the art. The guy behind the ragdoll canon must be very angry right now, unless he has an agreement with them.
Sietjp - Yep I'm already in contact with apple. Their first reply wasn't very helpful at all, but I've sent another e-mail to an address I was given by a sponsor who has also had one of their games ripped off by the same "author" and I'm waiting for a response.
Sorry to hijack the thread by the way. Carry on as you were :).
Ali
Well,sure the copycating of game concepts is very en vogue on the app store, then again maybe still less widespread than in the flash games space. Regarding that ragdoll cannon game, well, i made a game for the iPhone which had several modes and one of em was one where you shoot a guy out of a cannon, too, and that came out way earlier than that ragdoll cannon game, too.
Not bringing it up to complain, more to stress my point which is: Its tricky with such things, where does one draw the line of what is tolerable inspiration and usage of concepts and what not?
Shooting a character out of a cannon surely isn´t any game developers original idea, so i don´t complain about someone using it, too.
I agree that the guys who copied alilm´s game went too far with "similarities", on the other side me personally i don´t bother much anymore with people using similar or same concepts as i have in some of my games, even if its a clear copycat approach, at the end of the day it will always happen so either i could spend lots of time being upset about it or just go on working on the next thing.
Then there´s also the point that unless i go out and come up with a totally unique game concept i probably one way or the other end up using many gameplay elements in my games which have been in many games before, so i´d feel a bit like throwing stones while sitting in a house of glass by complaining :)
Maybe if there is no clear line of tolerance to follow one could say once a game shares the same visual style or music next to core gameplay concepts things start to get really fishy, dunno :)
Alilm, i´d be interested to know though if your contacting apple attempt was any fruitful. I´ve heard mixed stories about some having success with that and others not at all.