HTML5 is meant to be a supplementary platform to publish to, and Flash will remain the primary platform of choice for web publishing for the foreseeable future.
What does that mean for speed though? Are HTML5 games too slow? Could something like Angry Birds be made with Stencyl in HTML5?
I don't like it, especially now that my understanding of ActionScript has dramatically improved, but Flash is dying. Plus, I'm seeing some pretty amazing things being done with HTML5. I thought Stencyl 3.0 was going to be in the group of awesome things with HTML5. Is that not the way it is?
I think vector graphics aren't supported.
Hey! Nice post!
So what happens if a 2.x game has a "Draw Circle" block and it is ported over to 3.x? I thought all the blocks would still work.
Although, with 2.x, those drawing blocks don't quite work right in iOS... which is one of the things I'm planning to check with 3.0. Maybe I should stop using Stencyl for drawing lines and shapes. The bigger issue is that the graphics don't scale. Even if I stick with Flash, I don't like how things get so blurry in full-screen mode.
- HTML5 Speed - Is it as slow as Swiffy conversions or is it playable?
No idea.
If you haven't used Swiffy, it's a pretty awesome swf conversion tool by Google. It recently added some ActionScript 3.0. (Unfortunately, it doesn't work with files from Stencyl... not since last I checked anyway.) The only major problem (aside from a 1 megabyte upload limit) is that animation can be very slow. That's why I was surprised with Hype. Even with large graphics, things can still move with that software.
GameSalad has some HTML5 support, but it's very limited. From what I'm reading here, I'm starting to wonder if Stencyl HTML5 is better or worse than that.
Although, maybe this is good news. If Flash is seen as the primary mode of publishing, then maybe HTML5 publishing will be included with Stencyl Pro. Sure, Flash can still be a money maker, but there's a saying... "skate to where the puck is going."
Years ago, I was adding lots of Flash content to my site - Flash Games, Flash Paper and Flash video! But right now, about 75% of my website visitors (not including IE browsers) have Flash. That means Flash-only isn't going to work for my projects... not unless I want to ignore the ~25% of my site visitors that don't have Flash. Sponsorships are cool, but that's not my focus. Maybe Stencyl isn't the best tool for what I'm trying to do. That's disappointing.
Not sure what you mean here. Setting the transparency for drawing blocks or for actors? Don't we have both already in 2.x?
Maybe I'm missing something. An actor can be made transparent, that part is easy. But if you wanted to change the tinting on that actor, it only seems to work in Flash. And even then, it's not something that's meant to change often.
I was thinking that Stencyl 3.0 would completely surpass GameSalad, but it seems that there are some minor issues that make major differences with game development.
I have a big project planned for Christmas (and lots of little Stencyl projects on-hold) and I'm stuck wondering what's the right tool for the job. If Stencyl HTML5 is dependable, then it's a no-brainer. The feedback here seems to suggest that it might not be as cool as I thought it would be. Sure, I wasn't expecting absolute perfection, but now it's starting to sound like something as simple as Super Mario World could be a problem.
- Particles - Fire, Smoke, Cool Effects
In 3.0 you can put many more actors on the screen before the performance drops (at least in Flash) so that makes implementing particle effects much easier. In many cases you can probably just use actors as particles and don't need to "draw" the effect.
This is the good news about 3.0. It seems that Flash performance has improved.
why? not enough people paid for the V3 beta yet?
just kidding...
Ha!
I'm surprised that it's still in private beta.
Also, the front page changed again. It's more informative and easier to read. It's not very flashy though. See why HTML5 is important?! Perhaps those three boxes could be interactive areas - made with Stencyl!