Teacher: Moving from browser games to phone apps

Hi all!

I'm a fresh teacher and last year started using Construct 2 in my classes. I had a good Year 9 class and their final projects was this game:

scirra.com/arcade/action/2114/zero-g-game

They had to build the game and then make modifications like a reverse thruster and also build their own levels.

I will continue using Construct 2 this year, but I'm very interested in creating phone apps, but I feel overwhelmed as to what I need to get.

I'm not looking for a guide, just some pointers to resources / manuals. Personally I have a Windows Phone 8 (Lumia 620), but I read something about having to use Visual Studio and that confused me.

As a teacher I am looking for the "easiest" solution to be honest in terms of getting everything up and running and access to good resources.

Also what devices are recommended. I will likely only purchase a single device, the students will work on a Windows 7 PC with Chrome.

Well. If you're looking for the most straight-forward solution, you can't go wrong with CocoonJS' cloud service, the Intel Appmobi XDK or Phonegap Build.

My personal favourite is Phonegap Build, which doesn't even require any additional software. Just sign-up with them or sign-in with an existing Github account, upload a zipped folder with all your files and press "Build".

Supported platforms: Android, iOS, WebOS, Bada, BlackberryOS 5/6/7, Symbian and Windows Phone 7.

In addition to the aforementioned platforms, the regular (offline) Phonegap also supports Tizen and Windows Phone 8, but requires quite a bit more work.

As for suitable devices: it very much depends on what OS you want to implement with and how much money you can spend.

For Android, I'd suggest either the Google/Asus Nexus 7 (powered by the purest Android Jellybean) or an Amazon Kindle Fire HD/Nook (both quite affordable).

Thank you for the reply!

So I had a further look.

Please let me know if I understand this correct:

One option is:

• Get a Nexus Android device (Tablet for example)
• Create the game with touch controls on C2
• Export via COCOONJS
• Copy the exported files as a zip onto tablet
• play the game via CocoonJS Launcher App
• Compile it through the CocoonJS site to Google Play store

Is this the gist of it?

And phonegap is similar. You upload your zipped project, phonegap buils it and you can run it through a phonegap app I take it?

I can't speak for CocoonJS (though I do think that launcher app is simply to get development started), but that's how it works with Phonegap Build.

1. Create the game

2. Add a description, author and name of the game.

3. Export to Phonegap via Construct 2's exporter

4. Zip all the contents of the exported folder

5. Sign in with Phonegap Build.

6. Upload the zip folder

7. Click "Build"

8. Download whatever file you need (APK for Android, IPK for WebOS, etc)

9. Play the game

In order to sign the APK for Android you either need to unpack the APK and sign it yourself (if you don't know whether you can trust Adobe or not) or, preferably, add the key to your Phonegap Build profile before upload.

Here's the whole gist about signing an Android app.

build.phonegap.com/docs/android-signing