What has your iOS/Android publishing experience been like?

Hi everyone,

I have been inputing ideas on another recent thread over here about suggesting that C2 (or C3) consider bringing the publishing process to iOS and Android (at least) into the C2 engine.

In short I've found games to be easy to make with C2 (which is why I love it so much) but publishing to iOS and Android via Cordova (and needed 3rd party plugins) to be very unstable and unreliable. Yes I have published successfully with it.. plugins and the methods of publishing and C2 itself are constantly updating..

The other thread had some great input from folks but it this is a chance to open up the broader question to as many C2 users out there who see this to weigh in..

How easy / successful have you been at publishing C2 games to iOS / Android with C2?

What flavor of Cordova are you using? (XDK, PhoneGap, Adobe PhoneGap, Cocoon IO, something else?)

how has it been using plugins to monetize your game like rewarded video? banners? IAP? etc.

Even if you see this and publish to Web or other platforms speak up because I'd love to know what the statistics are of developers using C2.. perhaps 80% of you out there are targeting Web.. or PC.. or something else?

Thanks,

Caleb

Its frustrating to say the least... I have built many games and published them to the android store.

But, like you said... when it comes to using the third party plugins like IAP and admob the XDK and others change so often that the plugins break. Then you spend more time trying to find new plugins and a fix for the problem... is it C2 ? is it XDK? who knows??? it just doesnt work anymore... It used to work, now its broke. story of my life with this software.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE Construct 2. Its amazing!

But every time I goto release a new app something has changed and features like in app purchases just dont work.

Im stuck right now... I have built 6 versions of the same app trying to get IAP to load and keep getting errors and im using the C2 house plugins.

Makes me want to give up and sell hot dogs or something. .... ....

Exporting is a pain in C2. I have been able to publish just a single App to Android since I started using it. I have about 6 projects done and all had to end up as webApps.

Sad.

I mean, I am VERY SAD. Very VERY.

My experiences:

I have successfully published to Android and iOS.

Android: Crosswalk, Intel XDK. It's pretty simple to do that, except the file is too big.

iOS: Intel XDK (Scirra prefers PhoneGap, which is great, it's simple, you can test the built app quickly - by scanning a QR code, it installs to your device. But: when I tried to publish it to App Store, I received some random errors, missing icons and files etc. That's why I'm building with Intel XDK.). This one is complicated. Full screen, for example, doesn't work, you have to include plugins (File and StatusBar to XDK). It's hard to add all icons (you can add the ones in the Icons dialog, but then you get a Codrova icon in Settings, Spotlight Search, App Switcher). I hope I'll success with the next version. The main problem for me here is, that I can't test the app until I submit it to App Store. I receive an error "App Name could not be installed at this time".

I don't use any monetization at this time.

Also, I've published to my website as HTML5, and this one is incredibly simple.

I hope more can share their experience (good or bad) please keep them coming because if it's really only 3 people who are having a tough time then Ashley doesn't have much to be concerned about. I wouldn't do anything about it if this is all the response we get.

TonyW use the crangberry IAP plugin.. the one form C2 doesn't work from my testing for iOS / Android. Cranberry one does. it's still tricky but if you follow his provided example you should be able to get it to work. I am using XDK. I can't vouch for phonegap.. i dabbled with it but handling plugins seemed a little more mysterious than XDK though nowadays i think XDK's has become more mysterious because you have to import a new project to get all the plugins registered right.. this is a pain in the ass if you want to add new plugins to an existing XDK project.. it's unpredictable and maybe unnessesary but i've gotten into the habbit of blowing out projects on XDK and making new ones IF i change plugins.

metalmuscles you published 1 to Android with any monetization options or as a free/paid up front app? I admit it seems like android is slightly easier to get working since apk testing is faster than iOS/itunes etc.. but the reality in my experience even to this day (market shares mean nothing to the bottom line in my experience) is iOS make more money.. "more money" doesn't mean lots of money just more.. than the android counterpart. So my focus is iOS first and pretty much only since it's such a hassle to support both.. ooo i made $10 instead of $6 because I supported android. heh. I'll skip the platform until I make a noticeable amount of money. Others might have more success than I have on the app stores in general, but I haven't found my angry birds game yet.

grigrizljac cool about your success. yes crosswalk is too big. I hear that Cocoon IO makes a smaller APK, but I got errors when I did the tutorial so I never got that far to do a real comparison.. I've had good luck overall with XDK.. some issues with certificates, but that's more of an apple thing that I had to work through and now pretty much have it down.. until i don't again.. heh. Where does it say PhoneGap is their preferred method? I also had some good personal support from folks over at the Intel XDK team, but I can't say that they are ready to support an entire community of developers with issues like mine.. at the time the support guy was a dev here in Boston so there was that human element there but he got relocated and another guy started helping. He did right by me but i think i've used up my coupons over there at this point.. heh.

Also are you talking about the adobe phonegap service or the standalone free phonegap? the free one seemed a bit intimidating. I never saw a tutorial for how that one works. Or was C2 in favor of the Adobe one which I had some success with but found the plugin stuff got weird once i needed to start using those. Also you are not doing any monetization which is VERY helpful in making a smooth publishing path.. it's been things like IAP.. rewarded videos.. and other services that got weird at times.

Yes HTML5 is very simple and as long as you use web-friendly plugins (not cordova) then you can do a lot with web. At this point I'm still considering doing web only from now on for games. While the market is arguably just as flooded at least more time is spent making games and less time fighting mobile publishing / monetization.

I purchased C2 in april, had my first game done in may but didn't realize how much of a pain it was to export to ios with xdk. But I successfully did but the game wasn't what I wanted it to be. It kept lagging and was missing some features that I wanted. I then looked for other solutions and discovered cocoon.io but it was in beta at the time. By the time of august/september was when cocoon.io was out of beta and was able to compile for ios in a desirable state.

I would say C2 is ok at best to export to android but not ios. My game "Bouncy Panda" in my experience doesn't run smoothly like I wanted it to be even with how simple the graphics are.

Also, xdk to me is complete trash

llfstudios thanks for sharing. are you using any particular plugins to monetize?

I'd love to know what people are using with cordova. I'm using the cranberry plugins which are still a great value but because he's priced the plugins so well that he's not making enough money to support it.

people bitch about about $35 or whatever he's asking for to have access to all AND FUTURE plugins he makes or made before he took a break to do other paying work.

Unfortunately I really feel like Scirra needs a dedicated developer to provide official plugins for various VITAL plugins like IAP.. video rewarded ads.. they have some like i think i heard from Volkman that the admob plugin works but really there is no way to know that IAP wouldn't work which it doesn't from my testing.. cranberry's is the one that works.

there are all kinds of strangeness and it's not always Sang Ki's (cranberry developer) fault.. i had a crazy crashing issue on iOS that turned to either be me agreeing to some ToS on Apple OR an update to XDK.. what sucks is that I really won't know what fixed it.. but ultimately it wasn't the plugin's fault.. so you know but it goes back to the fragmented market we have after C2.. there needs to be a standard. is everyone else in the C2 community having zero problems and are they intuitively knowing how to make apps they can fully monetize?

part12studios i use the plugins that cocoon have created here https://github.com/CocoonIO/cocoon-plugins-c2

CocoonAds is what I use to monetize which allows for admob or mopub

I've published one game to iOS and Android, Lonk's Awakening. I used PhoneGap and it was a nightmare to find any sort of helpful documentation on how to get it on the app store. After a month or two of trial and error, I finally figured out enough to get it submitted and approved. Android (Intel XDK) took longer, but that was mostly because of how awful Google Play was to deal with.

I've got a decent set of notes for how to get a game on iOS now, I'll write something up for others when I find some free time.

I have stop my last project before i have finished. My idea was to make an oldschoolpinballgame because the touch-control and the resolution in landscape-mode (up and down-scrolling) are perfect for this kind of game (like pinball fantasy or pinball dreams).

Have learned blender with over 80 hours of learn videos.

for the music-making lot of hours spend.....

have make an interview on youtube on a channel for artists.....

and then came the performance-problems with smartphones. I have check it on many Phones by friends. on 95% there are big problems (perform, music not start or to late, framedrops, game not start, !!!!smartphones go hot!!!!, batteries in 20 minutes down.

And everytime the upload-waiting-time because you must upload to wrap/compile the game (hard time!). I am now 33 and play at the end 80s early 90s (began with c64 from my uncle. But now in the year 2015 it was the first time in all this years with a dark shadow on my hobby. it called C2! This software has destroyed completly my plans!

----bit offtopic----

I think visual scipting is the future (node-editors are a wonderful!!!! [blender or Unreal-Engine), but when Ashley leave his fanbase alone with no resolutions...... sry! No c3! He makes a lot of money with c2 and will tell us there is no way to remove this problems in all this months????? Construct and all the Fuc***g standarts are with new windowsversions, new browserstandarts, Smartphone-updates...... its to big for one person! My biggest wish for the future is that he give the export-section to another people (more worker ---> more confidence!!!! Another point: more transparence ---> When i make make bad things in Blender or Unreal engine and scratch on the limits this programs warns me (The advert video from scirra lie to me [easy making for smartphonegames"]

Oh, and that the Scirra-community-zombies ---> "its your mistake, you have it bad perform blabla" shut up! I think here are now enough examples that ashley have c2 in the actually stat drive in a tree

Ashley: Sry for the words again and again! Don´t understand me: You have make a wonderful 2d tool for making games. The workflow is ultrapowerwonderful!! But on the important function, the export of games has scirra complete refused. Its an complete desaster and you write it nowhere offical on the homepage. No, you let (mostly young) people on the belive its absolute easy to make games and than they spend here money (or parents spend the moey) and many many many many many many time to make the dreams true and then come the bad end!

Actually: When i read, that a game (pc/smartphone) is make with c2.....: I will it not buy it because all this problems. My first notion: Its make with c2.... it cant good run! There are many examples that i will not write here but there are 2 games on steam they i have not buy: Why? ---> i have read in a forum-thread here thats are games make with c2.

The Problem is, that in this long time many people have listen to this problems and say c2 is not more as an toy!

Hurry Up, Ashley!

My experience is similar to everyone elses. I released one game on iOS and Android and had a really hard time exporting it. Ended up using Intel XDK and although the process was an absolute mess I ended up getting it out on both stores after about a month of trial and error. Actually had to pay someone to help me get FB to work as a mobile app.

Conclusion - The lack of an in-built exporter is the single biggest weakness of Construct 2 and I can absolutely see how it could be a complete show-stopper for new developers trying to build their game using C2.

I've only released one game for Android and I used xdk. It was a very simple game, used the built in Admob plugin and cranberry Google Play Services plugin for leader boards.

First question everyone asked is why it runs so poorly...

Construct 2 is great software, I love how quickly I can put something together, however, don't expect to make any decently performing mobile games because of the wrapper situation. And the massive apk size, it's so unprofessional!

I bought the Gamemaker humble bundle and am now using that, still love prototyping with C2 though.

Perhaps I will attempt an export with Cocoon IO and see if I can get their plugins to work.

I believe Scirra should provide a lot more built in plugins, especially for monetization and social services. But the nature of it being html5 means you'll always have export and 3rd party wrapper issues.

llfstudios so you stick to using strictly what CIO supports.. how has it been? did you implement everything? IAP? Ads? etc? I certainly like the idea of a single plugin to do all that.. any problems with locking orientation? that's something that other devs (and myself) have experienced at times. Rewarded video, has anyone found a service that works with Cocoon IO? This is a pretty hot option for developers right now and is hard to ignore / leave out of a modern F2P game.

— yea it's rough. i haven't worked out google play or game center at this time. That would be great. To me it's not just figuring something out the first time. the really challenging part to me is that it seems like things coming in and out of working. Having a tutorial that's current would be super welcome!

BasicTribe while I don't think Ashley's totally misleading, it's just something I think could be given more attention too. Publishing to Android for example with XDK is pretty painless these days. However IF you want to make money with it.. that's where things break down and that's the part that needs work IMHO. It's not just getting a game on a phone, it's all the vital things needed to make a game that can generate revenue. I feel your frustration though and I hope that a conversation like this could help us expose an important need in the community. I would still like to see more people reply though with their experiences.

I'm a huge fan (like all of us here) of C2 and I am looking forward to C3 (finally running on mac without emulation or bootcamp!) but I just feel like there needs to be more attention / support for the publishing option. I don't know if Scirra will ever endorse Cocoon anything again since they had a pretty rough relationship it seemed with the cocoon.js stuff.. IO takes advantage of Cordova as I understand and it has other benefits as well. I'd be willing to go that route, I just think there needs to be some established standards coming from Scirra officially so we can all focus on the same platform and support each other knowing that C2 offers some guarantee that x y and z plugins work and specific tutorials for those plugins with the specified platform C2 officially supports.

Again I'm not saying that this declaration means other export options are deemed useless.. some developers may want to keep using whatever they like and if they have javascript experience may be able to make things work for them that average C2 developers are unable to do. I'm one of the non-programming fans so I looking for a stable solution.

I exported to google play with cocoon.io. It took some trial and error but everything seems to be working well and performance is pretty good too. Using canvas+ only added 6 mb to my cordova install size so my game ended up only being 10mb!

big Infinity that's pretty awesome. is there a good (current) tutorial you used to get it launched? Was the 6mb only for iOS or was it for Android as well? I have a project that's android only for a client and they don't even need any monetization features so it's a straight export, but crosswalk makes the game a bit bloated.. +19mb! I'd be willing to revisit Cocoon IO.. though I do not know if the client would expect the splash screen to be cocoon io free.. When I used Cocoon IO I was getting all kinds of plugin related errors but then after i removed all the plugins i still got errors so I gave up and went back to XDK.