Bob Thulfram's Forum Posts

  • Nice too see things moving. But it's not clear what screens are mobile. The bottom right one is it not appears to be running that smoothly. I hope things continue to get better. The top two screens are the actual game. The bottom left is a debugging screen. The screen on the bottom left is blank for half a minute, shows a 3-screen setup, and then shows the tablet that the game is running on.

  • At the Google IO conference this week, one of the many interesting announcements was the production of a game called Strike Fortress. This game is written entirely in JavaScript and looks like it used HTML5 all the way (Web Audio API, Web Sockets (with node.js), WebGL, etc.). The impressive thing is that it was written in 5 months by 11 students.

    The game was sponsored by Electronic Arts but is more of a tech demo than a commercial game. You can read about it here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/e-a-and-google-got-game/. And you can see a video of the game in action at the blog of the guy who led the team here: http://noahbench.blogspot.com/2012/06/strike-fortress.htm.

    At the moment, the game only runs in Chrome and only on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and (I assume) on the new Google Nexus 7 tablet that was unveiled today (I'm a hardware person as well as software and I salivate at the idea of a 4-core Tegra tablet made by Asus ... and only $200).

    Anyway, this can do a lot to convince people to look at HTML5 and help Construct 2 grow.

  • I can upload a game to the Google Chrome Store, but there all the games are free.

    sorry for my English, I speak Spanish

    Actually you can charge for your games in the Chrome Store. And I believe you will be able to charge for your games on Facebook and in the Firefox store. And definitely this fall in the Windows 8 store.

    Your English is just fine. Better than my Spanish!

  • Yes, IE10 has a lot of cool HTML5 features and even some interesting proprietary features. I also suspect that the performance will be a lot better than IE9 on the phone, so stay tuned.

    More information has come out of the conference, and the official info is that they will support HTML5 apps in some kind of browser control, but not as tight as the HTML5 apps in (big) Windows 8. Everyone seems focused on the ability to write C/C++ apps on the phone using the refactored NT kernel, and many are confused about what aspects of XAML/.NET will be supported.

    But there will be HTML5 support and maybe we can wedge Construct in there somehow.

    Maybe a tempest in a teacup since the market share for Windows Phone is pretty small now and may not do well since none of the Windows 7 phones can be upgraded to Windows 8. I guess I'll chuck my Windows 7 phone in the same pile as my Blackberry, Palm, Windows CE, and other dead technologies. <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • Phonegap is simply a wrapper.

    The real bottleneck is the default browser so we have to hope a full support of HTML5 features and hw acceleration on WP8.

    BTW I didn't find WP7 performance so bad (20-25 FPS), the real problem on IE mobile is the awful touch support.

    The default browser is IE10 which has support of almost all HTML5 features. WP8 will have an NT kernel and lots of hardware acceleration. Definitely worth watching.

  • Microsoft just announced their plans for Windows Phone 8. If the reports are correct, you will be able to create HTML5 apps using PhoneGap. This is slightly different from the Windows 8 PC where HTML5 is directly useable in Visual Studio. Until the WP8 SDK is released, the exact details are not 100% clear, but this looks like a good solution since Construct seems to work with PhoneGap (unless it doesn't).

  • HTML5test.com doesn't test performance at all, as far as I know. So a device could score higher but be too slow to use.

    Does anyone have a PS Vita? Have they tried to test performance? This is my standard performance test now since it gives a pretty representative score: http://www.scirra.com/labs/sbperf/

    I just got a PS Vita today and haven't even unpacked it. I'll run some tests and get back to you. I also have a Nintendo 3DS. It would be really great to run HTML5 games on either or both of them!

    In particular the 3DS is really picking up and having a lot of cool downloadable games!

  • Well spank me hard and call me sally!

    <img src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • If you're interested in JavaScript lint, check out this recent article: JavaScript Style Guides

    It is primarily about style guides, but mentions some other lint tools.

    I just wish Crockford was a better writer. But he does cover why the code you singled out doesn't always work and you're better to put everything in curly braces. Crock reminds me all too much of K&R - everything is there but not easy to find or read.

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  • This is ... awesome. It looks like you can use their products for a variety of game packaging. It is also free if you are an indie developer, which means you make less than 100K from your games (that's me, for sure).

    I love Linux and would like to explore this when I get a bit more time. The Ubuntu store is very cool right now and getting cooler. There are days when I'd like to just plain live in the Linux world and my favorite magazine is Linux Format. Isn't it everyone's? <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle">

    Awesomium

  • Hey Ashley, yeah I downloaded the most recent release (v5.1.7). It's not a problem to me though, as from looking at various stats Safari Users account for around 5% of all users globally (Mostly Mac). On top of that Mac/Safari Users can turn on WebGL, which I'm guessing will solve the problem. That just leaves PC/Safari Users in the dark, but then they are an even more minuscule group (probably less then 1%).

    On the other hand, I tested out a C2 game quickly with the most popular browsers IE9, Chrome, & Firefox and all of them play beautifully, so I think our most important bases are well covered.

    Interesting statement. IE9, Chrome, and Firefox are the big three, but IE9 doesn't support WebGL and probably never will. I test everything I do on Chrome, Firefox, IE9 (and sometime 10), Opera, and Safari. All these are on Windows. Safari consistently crashes or doesn't do something I want more than all the others combined.

    Honestly, I think Safari on Windows probably gets the least attention of everyone in Apple-land. They just don't care about Windows.

    I suspect most HTML5 game players are pretty happy with Chrome or Firefox. But Safari on Windows seems like a sad neglected step-child. Even Opera fares better.

  • > If IE can run the games properly by then, this could be interesting. <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

    I know what you mean ;)

    With such promised tight integration between Windows 8 and Xbox, the Windows 8 app store might let people buy and run games in Xbox. After all, its only HTML5!

    Something to keep track of. Maybe even a reason to buy an Xbox.

  • More about the Facebook app store: it looks like they will be advertising/selling mobile games for Android and iPhone.

    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227039/Facebook_App_Center_targets_mobile_users

    I don't know why, but I like the idea of a Twitter game. Not sure why or what it would do. But the mind boggles at playing with lots of people in real time.

  • Facebook has opened an App Store. Read all about it here: http://asia.cnet.com/facebook-announces-app-center-62215065.htm

    I think everyone is opening up HTML5 app stores and what could be better for Construct 2?

    I'm assuming that the exporter will work for this but I'll definitely be trying it out!

    PS: Is there an exporter planned for Google+? I just played my first game on G+ and I want more. I'm finding I'm spending a lot of time on G+, probably time I should be spending on making games. <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle">

    On the not-so great, I just found out that Digital River will be handling the App Store for Windows 8. I have never been ripped off by them, but I've also never liked them either. Maybe I'm just weird. Yes, that's it, I'm just weird.

    So will Twitter open up an App Store next?

    And speaking of App Store news, EA just announced that they are putting two games in the Ubuntu (Linux) store. Let's see, off the top of my head, here are paying App Stores:

    • Chrome
    • Windows 8
    • Firefox
    • Facebook
    • Ubuntu
    • Android
    • Apple desktop
    • Apple phone/pad

    Did I leave out any paying app stores that will take HTML5 games? Actually, I might be wrong about Linux, maybe that's just native Linux apps.

    ===UPDATE===

    Facebook will take 30%. Fine with me!

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57431426-93/facebook-app-center-more-showcase-than-store-actually/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

  • Did you change all the icons that were exported with the project? Have you tried editing the project after its uploaded to the Chrome Web Store and making sure you've updated all the icons? Have you followed this tutorial as well?Oops, my bad. I'll fix 'em ASAP!