Game Development Buzz

Mega Pocket Carrom - now playing carrom is as simple as that

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 07:28:00 +0000

Csharks release new game on Android platform titled Mega Pocket Carrom. We made the carrom game play very easy so that even novice player can challenge professional players.

Carrom is a "strike and pocket" table game game popular in South and East Asian countries. Carrom is very commonly played within families, including the children, and at other social functions. Different standards and rules exist in different areas.

Megapocket Carrom brings this popular game to Android Deices. The touch based game controls give the players a realistic game play. You can play Carrom on it just like you own old Carrom board.

There are 2 play modes. Single player & Multiplayer.

The Single player mode is time bound and in multiplayer mode you can have 2 or 4 players around the board.

Main attraction of this Carrom game will be the easiest control. Do simple drag and shoot control to to hit the coins with the striker.

Rules:

Black coins are assigned 1 point and white coins assigned 2 points.
The red coin or queen, is assigned 5 points.
Pocketing the queen must be followed by pocketing another coin on the same or subsequent strike.
Pocketing the striker will cost you a coin
Highest scorer wins the game.

Features:

Multiplayer on same device
Smooth and very easy controls
Different play modes

Get your game development ebooks from Packt now!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:23:00 +0000

NEW UPDATE!!

Packt is back with their ebook offers with $5 eBook Bonanza!

From Thursday 18th December, every eBook and video will be available on the publisher’s website for just $5. Customers are invited to purchase as many as they like before the offer ends on Tuesday January 6th, making it the perfect opportunity to try something new or to take your skills to the next level as 2015 begins.

With all $5 products available in a range of formats and DRM-free, customers will find great value content delivered exactly how they want it across Packt’s website this Xmas and New Year.

Find out more at promotion page.

I would advise you to check out the game development section. Couple of books I would suggest will be

1. LibGDX crossplatform game dev cookbook
2. Learning Cocos2D-X game development
3. Mastering Unity 2D game development
4. LibGDX game development essentials
5. Starling game development essentials

City Encounter – An android encounter game on Mumbai streets

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Mon, 26 May 2014 05:09:00 +0000

We released our Android game City Encounter. The action game set in the streets of Mumbai City is available on Android market.

Inspector Vijay is an encounter specialist in Mumbai Police Department. An anonymous tip has taken him to the streets of the city where it turned out to be an ambush. Goons & terrorists had planned it perfectly but Vijay was not going to let it be the end of it. He needs help to stand against waves of enemies across the streets before the backup arrives.

The goal of the game is to shoot all the terrorists and keep Vijay safe from their attacks. The weapons can be changed while playing. The game gets very challenging & interesting at higher levels. Guns, grenades, bullets, armor & helmets are available for purchase. To survive the enemy waves the player has to be very agile & make some strategical upgrade purchases.

The character Inspector Vijay is heavily influenced by the Bollywood film Dabaang.

Find the game on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.csharks.cityencounter

Big Block - new puzzle game from Csharks

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Mon, 12 May 2014 13:25:00 +0000

Csharks released new Android game in Google Play. The main theme of this game revolves around an African tribal man & his family. Voodoo masks have become integral part of the tribal family. The family is trying to make their moves for the benefit of all. But things can go very wrong if they let the voodoo get the better of them. The goal is to match & destroy as many voodoo masks as possible & release all the positive energy.

The game play involves removing tile blocks by taping on it. A tile block can be removed if its adjacent tile blocks are similar. Tap & Swipe LEFT/RIGHT on moving tile blocks will change its path.This game is basically an infinite level game where the player has to survive as long as possible by reaching higher levels & score maximum points. Big Block uses the well known match 3 mechanics which is easy for all age groups. The pace of the game does not let the player relax & the player needs to be fast to make his/her choices

Unique Features:
•Well known match mechanics
•Easy for all age groups
•Great pace
•Make you decide faster

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.csharks.bigblock

Demo Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OITzXyORfAc

Big Block - New Android game trailer released

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Thu, 08 May 2014 05:14:00 +0000

Jungle Cafe - Game Released for Android and iOS

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Thu, 08 May 2014 04:55:00 +0000

Jungle Cafe is a time management game with a jungle restaurant theme. You have to manage the restaurant by helping the waiter monkey to serve the customer monkeys and timely deliver the fruits as they demand.

Game Android link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.csharks.junglecafe

Game iOS link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.csharks.junglecafe

Sheep Hunter - another puzzle game for iOS and Android

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 14:20:00 +0000

Csharks released a new puzzle game for iOS and Android.

Game is about managing a spaceship which is in a mission to collect sheep specimens from a planet. Spaceship has to pick all sheep to find its way out and unlock the level. It requires moves with some tactics to pick allsheeps by avoiding the traps in the level. Spaceship move can be controlled by swipe through screen.

# Easy to learn game play

# Challenging puzzle game

# 25 unique levels

# Unique space theme for a puzzle game

Quash Board - puzzle game for iPhone and iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:10:00 +0000

Csharks released a new iOS game in AppStore - Quash Board.

It is a puzzle game. Game starts with quite simple puzzles but you have to use your all puzzle solving skills to finish all 80 levels. Puzzle objective is so simple, you have remove all the balls from the board expect one.

Game USP:
> 80 levels
> Touch Controls
> Simple play mechanics
> Addictive Time Killer
> Puzzle game
> Leaderboard
> Social sharing

Drag any ball to next for knocking them off the board. You cannot drag one ball to its adjacent ball. You cannot drag any ball directly off the board.


Game link in iTunes :https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quash-board/id597388387?mt=8
Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quash-Board/169000363250091?ref=ts&fref=ts

Announcing game development contest - Game Srishti

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:44:00 +0000

Hello there. Are you a gamer? Do you have a great imagination? Happen to be good at programming? If you have answered yes to any of the above to are just the 'curious' type, the team at Csharks have just the right challenge for you. Crack this & you could take home awesome gifts as well as get your 15 minutes of fame as well!

Presenting 'Game Srishti' - Game development contest for College Students in Kerala conducted by Csharks. Main details are as below

* Platform Agnostic. You can develop for any platform, it just need to be a game

* Open for students from Kerala pursuing degree / post graduate degree. Professionals please excuse

* 2 months development time is allowed

* Prefer individuals over team. All in One ninjas

* Submit game applications before deadline

* Expert panel of judges including designers, developers & game reviewers

* Awesome gifts for 3 top games & 10 promotional gifts for interesting submissions

* Any guidance & support will be provided by Csharks team

* Good games can be published by Csharks with necessary changes

Game development is one of the most challenging & engaging task you can undertake. It not only requires good technical skills but also demands lot of imagination, observation, problem solving skills, lateral thinking and much more. At times you will be writing algorithms, solving complicated level logic, analyzing the visual elements, thinking about the player psychology, brainstorming with artists, creating new UX for next ten devices or just playing some awesome games for inspiration. This is what we say full spectrum involvement. A person capable of this is worthy to be recognized and Csharks team is trying to provide the recognition as early as possible through Game Srishti.

Contest Rules

1. You need to be a student from any of the colleges in Kerala

2. Submit your completed game entry on or before deadline

3. Be awesome, try to create unique content for concept, art & game play

4. May use art & sounds available on the net, but if you want it published, then we need to avoid using other's stuff

5. Weed out all bugs, we mean this. Game can be simple, yet cool, but a complicated game with lot of bugs is not cool.

6. Originality takes priority. Yet a better implementation of an exiting game is also great. Main idea is whether your game delivers an enriching, engaging , fulfilling & satisfying experience.

7. Avoid nudity, avoid offensive propoganda, avoid promotion of illegal substances

8. Decision by Judgement panel will be final

Prizes

1st - Apple iPad Mini

2nd - Microsoft Xbox

3rd - Sony PSP

10 promotional prizes sponsored by ezyby.com

Registration

www.csharks.com/gamesrishti

Submission Date

Submit your entries on or before May 30th, 2013

Submission Methods
* send CD/DVD through postal mail

* directly submit CD/DVD at Csharks offices

* send zip files through email, Dropbox

Submission Materials

* ReadMe text : with details of platform, minimum requirements, tools/softwares/IDE/SDK used

* Game Info : with details of game story, game play, help/instructions text

* Game File : playable/installer file depends on the game platform ( for iOS games we will give our devices UDID )

* Game Images : few game images including feature images, screenshots etc

* ID Card copy : copy of your college id card

Email: gamesrishti@csharks.com

Phone : 0485 2825030

We will share general details with links related to game development for starters as a new blog post.

So what are you waiting for? Get those bulbs burning! Good luck!

Escapade - iOS game released in iTunes

noreply@blogger.com (Eldhose Csharks) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:07:00 +0000

Csharks launched our new iPhone/iPad game Escapade in AppStore. It is a casual 
skill game with story mode and action mode game play.

The game is about managing the life of a guppy mother fish and her offspring in 
a dangerous sea. Manage their voyage through the sea bed. There are a number of 
enemies waiting to have them. The  player have to safeguard the guppy and little 
guppies tactfully from enemies. Avoid enemy fishes and bombs and collect coins and 
treasures.

Game is have a simple controls so that player can easily master it. Control the 
guppy fish either using touch or can use accelerometer by tilting the device.

 * 20 plus levels
 * Touch & Tilt controls
 * Simple Pickup & play mechanics
 * Addictive Time Killer
 * Game Center
 * Purchasable Action Modes

Links

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/escapade-the-game/id602579431?mt=8
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Escapade/348483755261954
Youtube Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vniRNewVCsc

Looking forward for your valuable review on the game!

Complete crossplatform solution - Game Closure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:56:00 +0000

Game Closure is so far the most complete crossplatform solution which is free :)

The valid alternative is Cocos2d which has swappable HTML-5, -X & - iPhone frameworks with JS bindings. I tend to believe that Cocos2D may be having a much better performance as it uses native code for each builds. Another one will be LibGDX , but setting it up is not for the faint hearted & coding may not be as easy as JS or Cocos2D. LibGDX tend to be a bit low level & demands more from the programmer than the other ones. But it is by far the most powerful & capable framework for Java/Android.

There are always premium alternatives Unity, Gamesalad, Corona, Marmalade , AIR & many more. But it is the age of HTML5 & open source development :)

Developing Exoskeleton - Starling, AIR crossplatform game

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:49:00 +0000

Our first try at an Adobe AIR based cross platform game was Gabriels Revenge on App store

It was the days of AIR 2.6 & we realized that it was not a very practical thing to do in terms of performance. But things have evolved or rather took revolutionary paths with Adobes focus onto gaming & the release of Stage3D. Csharks was finally able to revisit the AIR development model with Exoskeleton. Play the game for FREE!

Mochi link: http://www.mochigames.com/games/exoskeleton/

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id571586137
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.csharks.exoskeleton

We used starling for this game with the help of super awesome tutorials from Hemanth Sharma. The other special packages used in the game are starling particle effects, feathers UI (slider, checkbox), Fscoreboard (local leader board) & loanshark (object pooling).

The game was simple & straight forward & we had stripped down the features as well as functionality as the main aim was to have a working prototype to understand the feasibility of this model of development. Couple of issues which we faced initially were

1. limitation of the starling texture atlas to support multiple asset sets for different screen sizes

2. limitation of the starling texture atlas to have more than one 2048x2048 texture

3. memory getting used up in iPad1 & older generation iPod devices

4. lack of monetisation methods directly addable.

5. lack of global score tracking, leader board system for cross platform deployment.

6. too much hacking & command line stuff as we were using Flash builder 4 ;)

For monetisation we finally ended up adding Admob ANE. The only issue was in order to support a rotation change we needed to purchase the extension. But We decided to stick with the default orientation & aligned it to a border to not look too bad ;) More help on using ANEs can be found here You may need to upgrade your AIR android version for these things to work f you are having an older version of AIR installed.

For leader boards we used local storage with Fscoreboard. But we aim to have a update soon with the GREE AIR sdk based leaderboards. This works for desktop, Android & IOS, hence solves the issue.

Regarding the memory usage issue, we had to follow all the optimization tips out there to make it perform well on most of the devices. Eventually we decided not to release it for iPhone/iPod, but the code works just as well in all screen sizes. I will get to the way we approached multiscreen deployment later. Major tips will be

a. use jpg textures wherever you don't need any alpha

b. load all assets dynamically, do not embed

c. use object pooling

d. reuse as much variable as possible

e. optimize like no tomorrow

In order to solve the starling texture size limitations & support for multiple screens, we implemented our own dictionary based atlas which loads art assets created for 1024x768 screen & dynamically converts art for current screen size. We used a method to divide each screen based on its size/density to ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, xdpi & xhdpi, then create art for a fixed size for selected DPI & stretch the stage to fit screen. Below are the highlights for obtaining such a setup.

[SWF (frameRate="60", widthPercent="100%", heightPercent="100%", backgroundColor="0x000000", wmode="direct")]

stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;

stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;

stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE;

var screenWidth:int = stage.fullScreenWidth;

var screenHeight:int = stage.fullScreenHeight;

viewPort = new Rectangle(0, 0, screenWidth, screenHeight)

starling = new Starling(Game, stage, viewPort);

starling.stage.stageWidth = DeviceManager.GameWidth;

starling.stage.stageHeight = DeviceManager.GameHeight;

Where DeviceManager.GameWidth/GameHeight are preset values according to the DPI. The different presets are 320x240, 480x320, 800x480, 960x640 & 1024x768. These may not be ideal as the first one is not need to be included & the highest one should probably be 1280x800 instead. But our focus was to make it look right in the iPads as a priority. Art was created with default iPad resolution in mind. I would advise against it, you should instead create a 1280x800 based art and convert to other resolutions. You can use my Asset resizer app for this purpose :)

For dynamically converting art asset created for 1024x768 to the needed DPI size the following functions are used

private static function scaleBitmapData(ARG_object:BitmapData):BitmapData {

var ARG_scaleX:Number= convertFrom1024Width(ARG_object.width)/ARG_object.width;

var ARG_scaleY:Number= convertFrom768Height(ARG_object.height)/ARG_object.height;

// create a BitmapData object the size of the crop

var bmpd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(ARG_object.width * ARG_scaleX, ARG_object.height * ARG_scaleY,true,0x000000);

// create the scaled Bitmap object from the BitmapData

//var scaledBitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bmpd, PixelSnapping.ALWAYS, true);

// create the matrix that will perform the scaling

var scaleMatrix:Matrix = new Matrix();

scaleMatrix.scale(ARG_scaleX, ARG_scaleY);

// draw the object to the BitmapData, applying the matrix to scale

bmpd.draw( ARG_object, scaleMatrix );

ARG_object.dispose();

ARG_object=null;

return bmpd;

}

private static function convertFrom1024Width(value:Number):Number {

var retValue:Number=0.0;

if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesLdpi){

retValue=(value/1024)*320;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesMdpi){

retValue=(value/1024)*480;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesHdpi){

retValue=(value/1024)*800;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesXdpi){

retValue=(value/1024)*960;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesXhdpi){

retValue=value;

}

return retValue;

}

private static function convertFrom768Height(value:Number):Number {

var retValue:Number=0.0;

if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesLdpi){

retValue=(value/768)*240;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesMdpi){

retValue=(value/768)*320;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesHdpi){

retValue=(value/768)*480;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesXdpi){

retValue=(value/768)*640;

}else if(DeviceManager.usesDpi==DeviceManager.usesXhdpi){

retValue=value;

}

return retValue;

}

From the above code you understand that Game class is the starling class. I save the reference to this class in order to switch scenes easily.

gameRef=Starling.current.root as Game;

Coming to command line compiling 7 development methodology, have one word for it. Pain in your a$$. So get the latest Flash builder instead. But i will explain how i did it.

Some help can be found here

Writeup on running on IOS simulator can be found here

As i use a mac, here is the release compilation bash script. It asks for which platform to compile for, switches to the bin-debug folder (where the 'release' swf is) & compiles. I store all icons & external assets in 'media' folder & the ANE is stored in 'ane' folder. All these folders are placed along with a Default image (for IOS) & the XML.

#!/bin/bash

#killall Terminal

#will compile based on options

echo "Select release platform: 1. IOS, 2. Android, 3. Both"

echo -n 'Selection? :'

#wait for user input

read target

cd /

cd Users/juwalbose/Work/"Flash Builder Projects"/Exoskeleton/bin-debug

if [ "$target" = "1" ] ; then

/Applications/CS5/Adobe\ Flash\ Builder\ 4/sdks/4.6.0\ AIR\ 3.4/bin/adt -package -target ipa-ad-hoc -provisioning-profile /Users/juwalbose/Documents/AppleCertificates/Exoskeleton_Distribution.mobileprovision -keystore /Users/juwalbose/Documents/AppleCertificates/CsharksDist.p12 -storetype PKCS12 -storepass xxxxxx ExoskeletonAdhoc.ipa Exoskeleton-app.xml Exoskeleton.swf media Default.png -extdir ane

elif [ "$target" = "2" ] ; then

/Applications/CS5/Adobe\ Flash\ Builder\ 4/sdks/4.6.0\ AIR\ 3.4/bin/adt -package -target apk-captive-runtime -storetype pkcs12 -keystore /Users/juwalbose/Work/android.p12 ExoskeletonRelease.apk Exoskeleton-app.xml Exoskeleton.swf media -extdir ane

else

For release we compile for ipa ad hoc for IOS & apk captive runtime for Android. Captive runtime saves the user from downloading the AIR runtime, but creates a large sized app. These things work out of the box with latest Flash builder, so this way is not recommended unless you know your way around.

The game has had very good response on the web, Android & IOS. . Meanwhile there has been new stuff happening in the industry which could help creating better approaches for solving memory issues, reducing app size etc.

Skeletal animation system dragon bones is a must have for device deployment.

But the catch is that your artist need to be able to do development accordingly.

ATF textures are also another way of further optimization.

Dynamic texture creation from vectors is the ideal way if you aim to support all screens from a single asset.

Creating art assets for a default resolution in an SWF & dynamically creating bitmap assets based on screen size is highly recommended. Alas I couldn't follow this method due to the complicated nature or the art at hand.

Hope this writeup helps you with your starling crossplatform ventures.

Javascript game development with CreateJS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:55:00 +0000

Flash IDE & Dreamweaver is now having JS export via CreateJS framework. Check out these videos which explain how a simple game can be made.

Creating art assets taken from here

The developer workflow taken from here

Native browser gaming is sure a reality with such great tools.

HTML5 game development issues

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:28:00 +0000

As most of us game developers are also looking to explore HTML5, I wanted to make a list of issues that we should all be aware of before we jump right in. This list is supposed to be a check list for us for developing a better Game Engine to solve most of the issues. Also this would serve as reference for clients who are looking to create their next game in HTML5, so that they too are aware of what they are asking for.

For some basic web shortcomings, you may check this link

Now one more clarification that should be here is that by HTML5 we generally mean the whole set of HTML5, JS, CSS3. An HTML5 app essentially has just more robust JS code which leverages the new HTML5 tags like Canvas or Audio etc.

1. Audio
Major concern as there is still no solution. Concerns are details here and here
Some solutions which leverage a flash fallback are AudioEngine & SoundManager2

2. Hackability
You can view the source of the web page, element. You can directly access the assets used like the graphics, sounds, music etc. Anyone can create a new game using the assets from your other game hosted on your server, how bad is that? Check this post on hackability
Game logic can be easily manipulated and spurious results can be submitted back to server.

3. End of proprietary content
For an app developer this would be the end of closed app ecosystem.
More details here

3. Lack of proper tooling, IDE
This still lacks. We will need very specific game development related tooling.

4. Lack of proper debugging system
Think about debugging in JS. :)

5. Browser compatibility issues
This will take ages to get fixed.

6. Security
Non existant

7. Performance
Getting a decent FPS for a moderately complex game will be a challenge of epic proportions.

8. Assets loading
Managing game resources is tricky as you will need to some how hide it from potential theft & misuse and make those available before game starts. Pxloader is a decent step in that direction.

9. Facing new IE issues
Web devs have IE in their worst nightmares and they do have numerous valid reasons for it. HTML5 just adds to the list. Chrome frame may help fix some.

I will be adding to this list as new ones are discovered while we progress with our HTML5 game engine.

An exhaustive list of HTML5 game engines can be found here

Developing Android game using LibGDX, Balancing Mathai

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:14:00 +0000

After flash ActionScript, Cocos2D for iPhone, next up was the Android space where Csharks needed to prove their skills. We are blessed with easiest of games to prototype & as done with Cocos2D, we started with Balancing Mathai.

Please find below Balancing Mathai for Android

Please visit my post on supporting android multiple screens and resolutions here

Choice of LibGDX was not easy as there were other feature rich frameworks out there, some of which are AndEngine, Unity, Corona and few others. Among these LibGDX may be the most difficult one to adapt if you come from a design background or flash background. But the decision to go with it was due to the following reasons.

1. The author, BadLogic site, ever growing features and this book
2. better performance than many others
3. extensive test codes in svn and here
4. support for texture packer, hiero, TweenEngine, Particles
5. ability to test on desktop (awesome)

Wiring LibGDX for the first time is a bit complicated as we need to create 2 different projects, one for desktop and one for android. But the wiki helps us out here. The apis can be found here

We had a test device in the form of HTC wildFire which was a Ldpi device without much graphics capabilities. So my aim was to get a decent FPS which should be near to 30. I started with support to Android 1.6 and higher and later on decided to change it to 2.1 and up. This helps with performance and helps us reach better FPS. But the desktop mode with LibGDX rocked the show as the Android simulator plainly sucks. :(

We needed a global leaderboard system for which I decided to test out OpenFeint and Scoreloop. After integration I found out that OF was very resource hungry and almost crashed lesser devices. Scoreloop was much better in this, yet i would have loved to use OF as we use it for our IOS projects.

For sounds we need to use ogg format which meant yet another sound version. Mp3 for flash, ogg for android and caf for IOS.

Everything else was really straight forward other than the feeling that developing for android was only 10% as smooth as developing for IOS in Xcode. But no complains as most resources are free. More games are in pipeline now as we have increased resources for android and are currently also doing client works as well.

Please find Balancing mathai for all platforms here

Supporting multiple screen resolutions, densities using LibGDX & AssetResizer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:29:00 +0000

LibGDX is an awesome framework to start your next Android game project. I decided it over jMonkey, AndEngine and many others after much thought and am proved right with all the great work Mario is doing. Once you have LibGDX most of the complexities involved with Android Game development is being hidden from you and managed by the framework for you.

For me there are 2 things which may be the most complicated part for any Android LibGDX game project.
1. supporting all different screen densities, resolutions & aspect ratios.
2. working with standard UI components. (stage2D and Actors solve this, but some how I am still doing things manually)

This post is about AssetResizer, an app I did at Csharks Games to save lot of time involved in creating art for different sizes and supporting most of the densities and resolutions out there. Let me start with an overview of how we go about creating art for LibGDX games. We use LibGDX Texture Packer GUI to pack all images (.png) in any folder into multiple sheets texture which lays out the images inside a POT texture. We will get a pack file which we load into our TextureAtlas.

But creating original art itself is tricky as we need to support multiple densities and resolutions. Some insights on this issue can be found by reading the following links.
Android documentation
Marios solution in LibGDX
Density independent pixel
Same size, different densities
Another solution

Mario's solution is the best one and it should be followed if you understand the whole thing and is able to make your artist too understand the same :) For me it is a bit difficult and i needed a simpler solution which can work for simpler games. Let me simply start by explaining how we can support screens for the font used. This is easier as we use hiero to create bitmap fonts to use. Seems mario have recently made TTF fonts available, which solves any density/size based problem.

As we have 4 base set of densities, we can classify them in laymans terms as .75x, 1x, 1.5x & 2x. ie, when designing for a MDPI screen we use 1x font size, for LDPI 0.75x, for HDPI 1.5x & for XDPI 2x. So we need to create 4 bitmap fonts for each base set. Please check the image for the project structure. You may notice that we have pack images for each base set as well.

After much thought i decided to relate each base set to a corresponding resolution and create 4 sets of art. Ldpi = 320x240, Mdpi = 480x320, Hdpi = 800x600 & Xdpi =960x640 (this may also be 1280x800 if you need to support tablets). So we end up creating art for 4 sizes, pack each with Texture packer and include in project as seen in the image. The project should switch art as per device. This enables each device to show a better quality art and in case of any aspect ratio issues, the Orthographic camera used in LibGDX along with OpenGL magic will stretch and fit any screen. Problems with this approach is
1. you need to create all art sets. If there are say 500 sprites, then its very time consuming.
2. app size increases (obviously, but it is a compromise you need to make for quality art)
3. need to find a way to place each art correctly one all screens. (i created a class for this)
4. need to handle issues with values of logic which may break when screen is bigger/smaller. (imagine speed=20 taking different times to reach screen border)

For solving most of the above issues i created an Air app called Asset resizer which solves issue #1. You need to create art assets in either 1280x800 or 1024x640 resolutions and this app will automatically create all the other image sets.

The app also supports art sizes for iPhone development as well churning out 3g and 4retina sizes if you provide iPad resolution (1024x768). It will create the folders, create all resized images in the same name as originals. Resulting folders can be used with texture packer to create packs.

I have created a class called AssetsHelper which helps in loading art, font, sound & music depending on the device.

Implementation for Landscape orientation
In your main game class create() you call

if(isAndroid){

//isAndroid can be easily set based on constructor

AssetsHelper.load();

}else{

//use defaults for desktop

AssetsHelper.loadDefaults();

}

Then in any screen class you create an orthographic camera

guiCam = new OrthographicCamera(AssetsHelper.assumedWidth, AssetsHelper.assumedHeight);

guiCam.position.set(AssetsHelper.assumedWidth / 2, AssetsHelper.assumedHeight / 2, 0);

You can get any texture by calling

myTexture=AssetsHelper.allTexture.findRegion("mytexturename_withoutpng");

Positioning can be done using

batch.draw(myTexture,AssetsHelper.convertWidth(20),AssetsHelper.convertHeight(40));

Where 20,40 is the location on an Mdpi screen. So we do everything for a Mdpi screen and conversion happens automatically.

Care should be taken to convert logical values too, for eg, horizontal speed should be used as

hSpeed=AssetsHelper.convertWidth(speed);

AssetsHelper also loads fonts, sounds and music, which should be self explanatory once you see the code. I would love if other developers checked this out and pointed out any errors with my approach or implementation. Currently the AIR app does only convert PNG images. This helps us with converting art fast for our Android & iPhone pipeline.

v0.3 : Portrait support added
v0.4 : jpg support, sub folder support, file extension capitalisation issues fixed (.png, .Png, .PNG etc)

You can download the helper class and Asset Resizer app as is from here
Standard disclaimers apply as always :) Please do ping me on twitter @juwalbose if you found it useful.

Cut the rope in HTML5, insights video

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:11:00 +0000

HTML5 games are making a noise now. It all began with the highly polished Bejwelled game which also plays in non HTML5 browsers as well. Things are about to get more interesting. Cut the rope has been a hit on mobile ecosystem and now with support of Microsoft, it is out to blow our minds on the browser.

Lessons from Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:10:00 +0000

Steve Jobs legendary speech at stanford.

The Molehill story video

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 06:48:00 +0000

Adobe Flash Molehill with Stage 3D is going to revolutionise gaming. See how it all came about.

Stage3D (Molehill), the story. from Thibault Imbert on Vimeo.

The above embed code supports IOS devices too :)

AIR 2.7 command line compiling on Mac for IOS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:07:00 +0000

I was looking for the solution to compile AIR 2.7 from terminal on a mac. But most were windows based solutions only. Below is the general syntax to follow on the mac terminal.

[AIR_SDK_HOME]/bin/adt -package -target ipa-test -provisioning-profile [MOBILE_PROVISION_FILE_PATH] -storetype pkcs12 -keystore [CERTIFICATE_FILE_PATH] ./MyApplication.ipa ./bin-debug/MyApplication-app.xml -C ./bin-debug MyApplication.swf -C ./bin-debug assets

Just make the relevant changes and put into terminal window and hit enter to compile.
For example,

/Users/csharks/Work/SDKs/AdobeAIRSDK/bin/adt -package -target ipa-ad-hoc -provisioning-profile /Users/csharks/Documents/AppleCertificates/development/GabrielsRevengeProfile.mobileprovision -storetype pkcs12 -keystore /Users/csharks/Documents/AppleCertificates/development/Certificates.p12 -storepass games /Users/csharks/Work/AdtIosCompileFolder/bin-debug/GabrielsRevenge.ipa /Users/csharks/Work/AdtIosCompileFolder/bin-debug/GabrielsRevenge-app.xml -C /Users/csharks/Work/AdtIosCompileFolder/bin-debug GabrielsRevenge.swf assets Default.png

Icons are inside a folder called assets along with the .swf, Default.png and .xml files. The code is for ad-hoc local testing and not for distribution, hence the provisioning profile selected should be for development.

One thing to notice is that AIR 2.7 doesnot support 2nd generation devices.

HTML5 games by Game salad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:10:00 +0000

Embeddable HTML5 games are here, thanks to Game Salad.
You may need an HTML5 ready browser to play the game. It may take a bit to load and initialise each scene ans user feedback of the loading process in non-existant. Yet physics based game play works super smooth.

The thing to note here is the audio performance. Till this time audio was the main issue with HTML5. No idea if they have also tricked using dummy flash object solely for audio as other apps out there. Yet a good start for native browser gaming.

Terry Paton - Developing games in Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Indie game developer speaks about flash game development.

Facebook Graph API development with Flash - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:28:00 +0000

Let me start by extending my sincere thanks to Michael James Williams for giving the opportunity to review this precious facebook development resource. Check out his post and blog here.

Here is the link to Packt publishing where you can buy the book, if you are serious about FB (facebook) development, then i assure you this is going to benefit you, so go ahead and buy it now. You can read the review later ;)

So if any of you have tried FB development with flash, or with out flash for that matter, would definitely know that it is a PIA. The API keeps on changing every fortnight or so and even as i write this it had changed 2 days back, so you should hurry and get uptodate to give yourselves the edge thereby keeping ahead of all others. I am writing this review after half way through the book, realising that I would end up spenting a lot of time learning new things and testing new things related to the book. So i decided to spread the news right away as it would take time for me to finish it in a real sense.

Let me list down the points that i noticed

* Associated Codes are given in multiple formats, the Flash IDE, Flash Builder and Fashdevelop. This helps all kinds of users and we can easily see that even if your development environment is different, you can adapt the right one from any of these for your purposes.

* Starts simple, gives you the code base for 'Visualiser' app which you can go through and understand how graph data is parsed and also as an added benefit you get to learn implementing Minimal comps. :)

* FQL - get started with FB query Language, a very strong weapon in your FB development arsenal. If you have never used it, you will get to know what you were missing.

* AIR deployment with StageWebView, which is the latest update with new flashplayer feature.

* Start from scratch to deploy your app onto FB, either online or on desktop.

* You may end up amazed by how easily we can poll graph data directly using the browser. Neat hacks and tips which can help you really understand how graph, connections etc work.

* Searching for relevant data in the FB ocean.

* Easily decode the json data returned by the graph using the AS3CoreLib

So this makes us realise that it is not for AS3 newbies, but you need to be good enough with AS3 to get started right away. Most of the support code of the visualiser app is not explained as it is out of context of the book, so you would need AS3 power to understand all those. You will fnd real solid OOP usage and implementation with examples which can really help out the developer in you even if you are not much interested in FB development. One thing i had noticed is that Michael could have used external Debuggers like Arthropod to show log data instead of a custom dialog event, but then we could easily make that change.

So in the end, when it comes to FB you need to start early and proceed as fast as possible as social media is fast changing. FB is at the forefront of the revolution and we cant blame them for changing APIs so rapidly. This book surely helps you get started right away and get into the thick of things with the latest graph API and FB AS3 SDK. Even if you dont want to use the AS3 SDK (as updates for this is usually late when FB updates APIs) you can extend the native parsing information used in the earlier stages of the book to write your own classes for accessing FB data.

So rush to download the book and get those source files and start exploring the vast FB ocean. Who knows what you may end up creating, but dont thank me, thank Michael.

Unity makes waves with camera gaming and iPhone, Android game controllers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:30:00 +0000

Unity is sure making waves with latest technology, making huge potential in near future.

Unitys camera based gaming

Controlling Unity game using iPhone and Android

Blackberry Playbook - great for flash games & uncompromised web

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:15:00 +0000

Check out how BB playbook delivers the full web experience, including flash games.