Zebbi's Forum Posts

  • hey, can I ask about the status on The Next Penelope on Wii U? I don't beleive there's been an update for some time

    [quote:2cv4orgp](I'll be the most transparent I can, please read until the end if you have a bit of time. Also, please excuse my experimental English, I wish I could be more subtle with words now)

    Is Penelope cancelled on WiiU?

    Sadly yes (not my decision, coming from the company who proposed to port the game and invested months and money in it).

    Even if the game is a very small one, being made using html5 and pushing it hard definitely makes it nearly impossible to port on consoles without recoding everything from scratch (= more expensive than the money a niche game like mine could ever bring back).

    That's the 3rd very capable company to throw in the towel after investing in this project ("3.5th" if you count my own attempt during the first year using the official Nintendo html5 framework).

    These news made me super s(/m)ad, but I know they're very good people and sincerely tried their best.

    From here, I since have done everything I could to find other solutions, even with the WiiU now being discontinued ( < hint: this doesn't help to find new partners).

    In my mind, the game was made for a Nintendo console from the beginning, so... well, you get the idea. It's not pleasant.

    I also would like to add how people at Nintendo Europe have been supportive and helpful with me.

    It sounds like PR bs? It's not. Having the feeling you're talking to (good) humans is very much appreciated, rare, and they rock at this. (Guys, if you're reading this at some point, me and my clunky English are very grateful for your time!)

    Now, some other brave/cuckoo/masochists friends of mine are trying to port Penelope to the Switch, but nothing sure yet.

    It could be as technically difficult and never happen, so please don't hold your breath on this (I hold mine but shhh).

    This is absolutely *not* an announcement or something. I so learned my lesson here, let's not announce anything until it's 100% finished now.

    Speaking of lessons, the new game I'm working on for more than one year now is made using Unity, so this situation never happens again.

    (http://wccftech.com/unity-nintendo-swit ... mario-run/)

    I can't wait to show some fresh stuff in the coming months so we can share some more joyful news : )

    Cheers, and thanks a lot for caring!

    Aurelien.

  • I'll have to try that sometime.

    Magically make a living by making my code open source.

    Enjoying your Linux servers? Android OS? Html5, even?

  • >

    > > Short Answer : No.

    > >

    > So, benefits? Besides less effort?

    >

    > The Export would become more reliable than before since it will directly be connected to IntelXDK.

    > But that still depends on what kind of exporter it is. Whether it is single click build inside C3 or a separate program from C3.

    > Another benefit is that we can file bug reports directly to Scirra if their Export isn't working. So lesser excuses from Scirra.

    > And since we are in a cloud subscription, the exporter is supposed to be well maintained so there would be lesser bugs and no more workarounds for supporting third party plugins and building. It should be as easy as pie to export if Scirra wasn't false advertising. That's the greatest benefit.

    > But regarding the performance... It stays the same.

    >

    Any issues you run into with XDK will likely exist with any other web-based exporter, because you don't have control over it, and if you're doing anything it's not expecting the build will fail. The idea that Scirra will be able to provide better maintenance than Intel? What makes you even think that's possible, given the resources of each company?

    If you want the option to optimize your builds as much as possible, you're better off installing node.js, cordova, java & GIT on your local machine and compiling locally, which takes much less time and doesn't require uploading your assets to a 3rd-party server (that may potentially be unreliable), which is going to be configured to support a more generalized build as opposed to something specifically for your game projects. Reliability aside, if you're working on a bigger project, uploading over even a fast connection adds a lot to the build time - whether you're using Cocoon, XDK or Phonegap.

    Once set up locally, Cordova isn't difficult to use, and just requires a few command-line options or your setting up a batch (.bat) file when you want to compile. If you're interested in doing this, install in this order: java, GIT, node.js, then Cordova. Installing Cordova last allows it to set up the connections to the other components automatically and no manual configuration will be necessary. Plugins can be installed from the command line/powershell, and I'm sure there's a GUI-based installer for them as well if you're more comfortable with that after setup.

    I just don't believe it's possible to achieve the same performance as Canvas+ does with any exporter/wrapper, none of them seem to disassemble the inner workings and recompile as well, or whatever the hell it does. Would self compiling with a batch file improve performance? And by performance, I obviously mean fps. I don't believe optimising code could improve matters to the point where xdk or a batch file build would ever reach the smooth, fluid gameplay cocoon is providing, but it should.

  • Short Answer : No.

    So, benefits? Besides less effort?

  • Im confused.

    Are you expecting that they wrote a new wrapper?

    Not a difficult question. Yes, the question is: did they write a new wrapper that has improved performance?

  • The paid subscription model guarantees longevity.

    Singular, one-off payments are ultimately damaging for long term businesses that do not release cyclical paid versions or cut their main product up into modules.

    Scirra's current business model has users paying a one-off cost for an ongoing, evolving product and services - this is not sustainable, and would, without failure, end up bankrupting Scirra if continued ad infinitum.

    This concern is entirely mitigated by subscription fees.

    Yes, but elliot has a point, what if the company does run into some unforeseen troubles, what legal ramifications might protect those subscribers who need to be able to legally continue working on their games?

  • Ashley Tom preferably the reliability of XDK/PhoneGap with the performance of Canvas+ by Cocoon.io. Can you tell us if it will be as good if not better than this, or will it be the same as XDK, just more convenient?

    I'll be absolutely honest, I took an old game with a lot of badly optimized code, HD screen resolution intended for desktop-only, loads of layers and extensions (even some 3rd-party that weren't comparable with the exporter and wouldn't build) in Fusion 2.5, and slapped on a thumbstick and compiled my very first ever android apk in F2.5. And it worked. Flawlessly. Perfect performance. Smooth fps and gameplay. First. Apk. Ever.

    I've build hundreds of apks in Cocoon, Phonegap and XDK. And none of them have come out well. So far, my only "succesful" compile with cocoon on GooglePlay doesn't even work with some phones (thanks to cocoon, XDK was painful slow).

    That's just my experience though.

    Not expecting a response

    Interesting point...

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  • 99Instances2Go this'll prolly go down like a sack of hammers, but how do I reduce the tile size without the character running off to the corner of the screen when you click on an unwalkable tile?

  • Lol

    ?

  • Okay, it's dawning on me that maybe by designing my games with pixel art, then scaling the layout to 3x zoom and using a resolution of 1920x1080 might NOT be the best idea for performance. Or maybe there's no other way of getting crisp, non-antialiases pixels without using the native resolution of the device (usually 1920x1080 these days) and scaling the layout. I've only used this technique as a way to keep the pixel art scaled properly, but should I be using 320x180 window size, and just letting the tablet/phone GPU upscale, and hope it doesn't anti-alias the pixels?

    > Worth is an entirely subjective value; discussing it does little to change what is a fundamentally personal perception.

    >

    > One off payments vs subscription is ultimately an ideological debate; and one that I find people shift from left to right on as they get older. Much like taxes, the older you get the more you realise they're not only necessary but vital for society.

    >

    > Anyway...

    >

    > One off payments effectively floor the amount of money Scirra can earn each software cycle, sure they might make more initially, but once they've made a single sale, they've removed that consumer from the market. This is completely fine if you're selling a static product, but Scirra are selling software, software that they continuously update and improve, that dramatically changes throughout it's lifespan (Compare C2 of 4 years ago to C2 today!), and services like multiplayer servers and mobile builders.

    >

    > Subscription is the only logical commerce for a product like this - to say otherwise is damaging and needlessly consumerist. To sell it at a fixed one-off price and make sound business sense Scirra would have to hack the product into modules and sell it ala carte; which is terrible.

    >

    That's the strongest argument I've heard so far for a subscription model. It's understandable that the company wants to make lots of money from their product, but it's also understandable that the consumer wants to get value out of what they pay for. It's important to find a middle ground or someone loses. I really feel that the consumer loses when they are renting software tools.

    The value doesn't come from the experience in using the tool. The value comes from the hard work the consumer puts into the game and creating something fun for other's to play. The recoup value is if you make money from those games. How many of the 120K registered users make more than $120 off their games? How many success stories does C2 have? How many people are getting their value out of paying once for C2? And now Scirra wants us to pay forever to use C3? Where can we meet in the middle to make it fair for the most people?

    I never expected to make a penny with C2, which is why I paid one-off. Someone just told me they couldn't even play my excuse for a game cos it gives them a black screen because I had to compile it with Cocoon, because XDK/PhoneGap was too slow. I have no reason to believe C2 will come up with a cloud compiler any better than XDK, and I certainly don't expect it to reach speeds of Cocoon, even if it is more stable for the tradeoff.

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  • > This is my crap game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... bbi.srduke

    > That was built 8 months ago or so with canvas+ and was/would be very slow with xdk.

    >

    I only get a black screen with your game, I have a galaxy 6s with android 6.

    Doesn't surprise me, canvas+ does one job and only one job well. Starting up reliably was never one of it's strong points, so I gather.