STARTECHSTUDIOS hopefully Ashley has some thoughts on this for us in the near future. I don't want him to feel like we're ganging up on him or C2.. we just would like to at least know IF there is a way to address this stuff. C3 is a great opportunity to address these challenges and create an even better product. I look forward to what is resolved.

Please continue to share your experiences, especially people who haven't posted here before. It seems like the overall consensus is the same, but we need to hear from everyone! It's ok if you had a great experience publishing.. or bad one.. I'm in the middle of the road personally.. I've done it.. so I know what's possible but I've also had long stretches of dead / discouraging development time as well.

CDogs1964 you may (and you may have already) blow out the project from XDK or whatever and do a completely new / fresh export and treat the whole thing like a new project. i've never experienced that kind of problem but yea that is bad and it should be an easy fix.

ArcadEd the errors you found in the c2 plugin, did they get integrated into the plugin now or is there a way we could obtain the fixed plugin you did? Maybe a tutorial to go with it. It does seem like CocoonIO is a good advancement for them. Their prior version was difficult to work with in my experience and the fact that they support platforms like Ouya (which worked) but wouldn't help us add IAP for Ouya games was frustrating as well. Seems them integrating Cordova themselves (as I understand it) opens up good possibilities.

rekjl i wasn't sure what was official and this is really something that should be stated in the software somehow.. if XDK is the preferred platform great. Bloated APK's is unfortunate, but not the worst problem these days. That's less important than plugins not working. However it is still bloat and knowing CocoonIO adds apparently 6mb vs 19mb.. is not something to be scoffed at.. but also bear in mind that iOS apps are very tiny with XDK.. like.. hardly anything is added to the game itself.

Yes we need someone (not necessarily a team) devoted to plugin support and expansion.. taking requests for services. I still agree that having one official service for each kind of service.. ads.. interstitials.. analytics.. rewarded videos.. etc.. but options are good and if someone is there to help really work with the plugins as part of the Construct 2 team, then we should see better support and more uptime.

Vegamon007 yes this is why we need some kind of decision from Scirra to help us all focus our energy in one direction. Ashley is very aware of the mobile / html5 scene and I know that if he were to make a decision it would be one we could all get behind. Ultimately we want something that works best for as many people as possible.

mercedescolomar Glad to year you had good results. I'd like to know the game you have because while I'm not saying my games are overly complex, I've found performance pretty good with crosswalk (only the bloatedYea but I wonder... since Cordova is open source, what would be superior is for Scirra to actually incorporate Cordova INTO Construct 2! If the actual service is part of the engine.. then Ashley has full control over which version.. what updates and changes are needed.

Happier more productive developers will mean more customers and sales.. Before I was using C2.. I used GameSalad and while it is VERY sandboxish.. I have to admit i was getting pretty efficient at build apps with it and publishing because everything was integrated. Sure it had some headaches at times, but overall I really miss being able spend more time on the game and less on publishing. This seems like a viable option to explore.. eliminate the need for any 3rd party platform.

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.

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.

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 ***** 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 ***** 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?

metalmuscles it can be for sure. what plugins / services are you trying to publish with and what platform(s) are you needing to reach?

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 *** 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.

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

$500 per splash is a lot, but its a flat fee so I can appreciate that, but i'm not paying $500 per game for something that doesn't work. I'm excited to see any updated tutorials that work well.

but i think this is the crux of the issue. HTML5 is moving so fast.. and mobile is too.. services like C2 are too far removed from the target platform to be relied upon.. even xcode and android studio developers deal with compatibility with OS's and such though not as bad..

There might also be two classes of C2 users.. ones who know javascript / coding which could be considered advanced .. and then standard users which don't know how to code or don't want too with C2.. each could offer different options.. imagine a setting in C2 that would hide certain features that standard users should avoid.. and advanced users know going into it.. results may vary..

but for standard users some level of support would be expected.. but this also isn't just to put more work on Ashley.. it's about allowing the community to unify under one solution and really pound on that when things go wrong.. more people will be using the same software and be in the same situation. there needs to be some standardization in the C2 community.. I don't care what and I think everyone would agree.. we just need it to work reliably.

yea what Ed said about Unity.

I say it's expensive because a client is not going to want you to make a game for them that says "made with unity" they are going to want it branded with their own splash logo.. and if you want a game for iOS and Android (pretty standard request these days) you're looking at $4500 to own a pro license or at least a 12 month commitment at $225 a month.. to lease the pro license.. so yea unity is not cheap for professionals.. it's fine for indies doing their own thing and don't mind some branding.. and you really can't expect a client to be billed an extra $4500 for software.. unless you've found a very very nice client.. heh

Now to C2.. yes this is the issue.. and honestly there is a problem that goes into software development in general.. tutorials for example.. are snapshots in time.. they tell you how to do something at THAT time.. but because everything is changing.. XDK.. phonegap.. CJS (now I/O).. C2.. tutorials themselves have to be somewhat living things.. and this can be a lot of work..

That said any engine has the same problem.. try googling tutorials or whatever on youtube for unity tutorials.. some go waaaay back to versions of unity where the interface is considerably different and methods change.. I don't expect C2 to solve this problem..

but what they can do is "pick a plot line!" to quote Fear from the movie "Inside Out". There are no certainties in life (like C2 ultimately abandoning CocoonJS for good reasons) but if C2 could declare the "official" publishing path(s) for various platforms then developers could team up and focus their energy to help each other work through things.. but right now we have a 3 way split.. XDK (my choice so far), Cocoon IO and PhoneGap.. and I guess Adobe PhoneGap Services (whatever it's called) so actually 4 routes..

This means that now when you ask for help with your platform a good number of people won't even be able to help other than "use what i'm using..." which is tiring after you've already put energy into one that pretty much does the exact same thing.. just at that moment unsuccessfully but will likely work again at some undetermined point.. heh.

I'm willing to go with whatever platform works best. I just feel like C2 needs to take ownership of this issue and offer its community a real solution. For now I'm going to stick with XDK as long as I can till perhaps Ed's tutorials are in place because i followed the other one and it failed with a bunch of plugin errors which pretty much was enough for me.. seeing plugin drama was the last thing I needed to see for a first impression of Cocoon IO. However i hear it's APK's are smaller than crosswalk so I'm very interested in that.