iPhone + kev g

Nothing wrong with JOGL, but it doesn’t provide me on a GLES interface on the desktop - while it does provide ES bindings it doesn’t bind these to the API on the desktop since it GLES isn’t present on the desktop.

At the moment I’m using OpenGL to simulator GLES, but that’s not going to be accurate as actually providing a GLES stack on the desktop - which is what DGLES (another open source project) attempts to do.

Performance arn’t much of a concern here since I’m simulator a phone’s rendering performance on the desktop - if anything it being a bit slower is more accurate to the target platform.

Kev

Learning Objective-C really isn’t that hard, though.

For most people - who just want to write stuff for iPhone (in addition to wahtever else they write for web) - it’s only going to take a couple of days at most to learn ObjC.

Pretty much: learn how to use basic ref-counting, learn how to use Apple’s rather crap @property syntax (and the bizarre rules about usage), learn the basic method calls for the Apple rendering libraries, and finally: learn how to write anythign at all in Xcode (the IDE you are forced to use).

I was shocked that it took me a mere 7 hours - from scratch - to write my first game on iPhone (including time taken to write my first hello-world App). It also took an extra 7 hours or so just to read various obj-c docs, so all in all I started one morning, and finished the following evening.

For comparison (I’m not a great nor an especially fast coder) that’s about how long it took me to get my first game working with Slick.

So … while I eagerly watch the experiments with Java->ObjC compilation, that really shouldn’t hold anyone back from just learnign ObjC and going and writing some games right now. Especially given how easy it is to earn real cash from iPhone apps right now (it’s very easy to earn a few thousand dollars per app; earning tens of thousands is hard, 100’s of thousands very hard, and more than that is a lot of luck - even for huge dev teams (I know three teams that spent more than 400k dollars on iphone development and failed to make a profit)).

Except 1 thing. Unfortunately, I don’t have over $1000US to by a Mac product to program on.

Do what you like, I’m not trying to stop anyone learning ObjC. I learnt it first and hated it with a vengence. What I’m doing here is just interesting to me (and evidently someone here who posted originally).

Could you post your stats sources for your iPhone application sales btw, most of the anecdotal stories out there tell a pretty different tale. The market is mostly flooded now, most small apps make close to zero with a few special ones making plenty - little middle ground.

So in an equally meaningless and off topic comment, don’t let Blah^3 glowing profit analysis of the iPhone market jump to making your fortune there - if you’re focused on nothing but cashing in the smart market might be Android, predicted 900% growth in 2009 alone. For that too you won’t need XMLVM, but at least it’s familiar territory.

Kev

A bit of an update, good news on the publishing stuff. The first game Fruity Pops using this stuff is now a dual release on Android and iPhone, which is pretty cool.

It’s also available on the web as an applet using a web play password.

Kev

Gratz on the release!

BTW how does XMLVM deal with iPhone’s lack of garbage collection?

It uses AutoRelease pools (alot!)

I tend to code carefully to avoid GC as much as possible (since thats better on android anyway)

Kev

You can pretty much emulate Java’s garbage collector if you just follow a specific method of autorelease pools. The only difference is that you still need to call retain when creating the variable and release when you’re done with it. But otherwise it works pretty well, you’ve just got to override dealloc methods in a smart way. I’ll bet that would be pretty easy to mechanize.

Wow… Very impressive Kev… Downloaded aboid a couple of hours ago and manage to configure eclipse/upgrade to jdk6 and get your Demo applet running in couple of hours… Downloading Eclipse 3.4 at moment to Test Android SDK Stuff…All seems pretty smooth so far…

Do you plan on releasing new versions/updates of aboid? Am seriously considering writing a little puzzle game using this (cba with Obj C, looks like you and the xmlvm guys have done all the hard stuff)…

[quote]It’s also available on the web as an applet using a web play password.
[/quote]
Congrats on the release too… Hope goes well… ps. Whats a webplay password? Your website has a textbox for this but no explanation on what it is or how to get it…

S

aboid is still going on in the background. Hopefully news soon. The stuff that’s been released already should be enough for puzzley things and I’ve just submitted a nice big patch back to XMLVM to add OpenGL support :slight_smile:

We’ve yanked the Fruity Pops release off iPhone at the moment after finding a rather hideous bug in the XMLVM implementation of System.currentTimeMillis. We should be re-releasing Fruity Pops (along with a Lite version) to iPhone very soon now. There’s also two more games (with both lite and full versions) ready for dual release on Android and iPhone - I’ll post once they’re live (assuming Apple don’t shoot us first).

WebPlay is part of what you’re getting when you buy the full version. It’s nice to play on your phone on the bus, but once you’re in the office wouldn’t it be nicer to play the games as applets? :slight_smile: The full versions come with a button that gives you a code to type into the website - that lets you access the lite versions of the games on the web.

In the mean time I’m hacking away at an RPG and then on to new stuff… http://www.cokeandcode.com/rpgagain/dungeondesigner3.png

Kev

[quote=“kevglass,post:30,topic:33791”]
That looks a lot like HeroQuest !
Oh the memories…

Glad you said that, sorta the feel I’m going for, albeit in a very lightweight way so it works nicely for phone players.

Kev

Sounds good, look forward to seeing it in action (in Applet form ofcourse :P)

Seeing it made me consider buying a copy of HeroQuest off ebay… strictly for my nephew ofcourse ;D
Or maybe SpaceHulk would be more appreciated…

Did you know there’s an anniversary edition of space hulk coming out?

I’ve preordered! :slight_smile:

Kev

Hero Quest! There’s something I’ve not heard about in ages. I remember enjoying it much more than Space Hulk, but I can’t for the life of me remember why.

Time to go see which of it’s rules I can go and pinch now. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the reply/clarifications kev.
Spent the evening playing around with Android SDK/Eclipse Plugin and seems to work nicely…

However, couldnt figue out how to get the TestGame in your aboid distribution running using the Android Emulator…

From your blog.

[quote]I use the Android Eclipse integration to build the Android project and test on the emulator.
[/quote]
By this ‘Android Project’, do you mean in Eclipse you need to create another project (an Android one) on top of the 6 projects inside the aboid distribution (and copy the android package from the TestGame project to this new project)… or do you convert the existing aboid-android project into an Eclpse Android Project. ps… Sorry… I know u mentioned no support, but I figure this may also help others :-\

Na, the TestGame project should be an Android project (along with being a Java project). Then you can either export an Android app from it (though you’ll bundle some unrequired resources) or use the ant script to produce an Android apk.

Kev

Aaggh… Thanks for clarifying, this makes sense. Will give it a bash tonight, if it works I’ll think I’ll splash out on a new Android mobile :slight_smile:

Some more progress, just done a couple more dual releases; Block Knockers and the one I’m really proud of, Funky Football. Both android and iphone stacks are now based on OpenGLES rendering. We’ve a long way to go with producing everything we want but the games writing is starting to feel quite productive (almost 4k ish ;)).

http://www.mobileium.com/images/funkyfootball-shot2.png

http://www.mobileium.com/images/blockknockers-shot2.png

CokeAndCode Blog Entry

Hi Kevin,

Super interesting stuff you are doing! I for one would be really interested in hearing about the download/ sales figures on the two platforms and how they compare! I released Air Attack on Android 1 month back. Sells maybe 15 copies a day, Lite version has maybe 1000 downloads a day. Would be super interesting to hear your experiences - especially because you have iPhone to compare with!

All the best,

Martin