Create iOS games with Stencyl - (Launched on Dec. 15)

I'll ask someone on our team to give AIR 3.1 a spin, but what I've yet to see is a decently complex Box2D game done with it that runs at 60 FPS and doesn't gobble up memory. Does it play nicely with Alchemy, or would we have to look into using the direct AS3 port of Box2D?

The best example to date is Machinarium, but the fact that it requires an iPad 2 to run doesn't inspire the most confidence in me. It's a gorgeous game with lots of animation, but it's a non-physical game.

Workflow is another concern. If you want to test on the device, how do you do that? Do you have to generate an IPA and sync it, or does it provide some other means to get on the device quickly? This is where generating an Xcode project has a leg up, I think.

Development wise, we actually finished about a month ago, but it's taken a bit longer than expected to get the non-technical parts of this in order. After we launch iStencyl, we'll start off right away on an Android port, which will take a lot less time than this all did.

I havn't used Box2D yet since none of my projects (so far) ever required it. I've seen demos of it (http://box2dflash.sourceforge.net/) and they perform well according to the info in the top left. I personally use the GPU mode when exporting apps from Flash since that REALLY helps game performance.

To test a game in flash before you export to your phone (Yes, once you export the .ipa you need to transfer it to your phone via iTunes. I just SSH it to my phone and install it to my phone via Installous. I really hate iTunes.), you can easily hit Shift+Enter and it runs the game in a normal window and you can play it normally. Oviously any special things such as use of the gyroscope requires you to test it on the iPhone.

I do my app testing 90% on the computer, and onces it all runs fine on the computer, I just export it on to my phone to do final testing.

EDIT: My first app, Avoid!, uses alot of event listeners which all the adobe pros say you should limit as much as you can. But when the actual game is running, I probably have 40 of them running at the same time and runs fine. I can't wait for the iPad version to be approved in a few days since it's a quick action drag type of game and the bigger screen on the iPad makes it 5x more fun to play. And just for kicks, here's a screenshot of the workspace. http://i43.tinypic.com/f1fr4l.png (It may seem simple, but each frame on each layer holds a TON of code to make it work properly. And then there's all the MC's that hold even more code).

You have to jailbreak to use that method, don't you?

You have to jailbreak to use that method, don't you?

Hah, yeah. But in all honesty the whole certificate/profile system that apple uses is so annoying. For the iPad 2 I was testing with, I had to use iTunes since it wasn't jailbroken and I swear that Apple wanted to give me a hard time. Half the time it the app would sync fine, the other half of the time it would go "I'm sorry this device isn't authorized to install this app".

With a jailbroken device, just install and go. (I personally don't get the security system they have, either way apps are being cracked so easily.)

No matter what method I use to develop apps, that will always be a pain in my side if I use iTunes.

I wish I would've been accepted for the beta . Btw I know the istencyl deal is more than fair, but I hope when you finally publish the price and release date that you'll reconsider the price.

This is great, but you won't be able to upload the ipa to the app store without a MAC. It says in Itunes Connect developer guide: "Application Loader is a small Cocoa app that you will use to deliver your binary to Apple. Application Loader requires a minimum OS version of Mac OS X 10.5.3."

That's true and will be mentioned on our site and FAQ. Thus far, we've seen success with a dual-machine workflow where a user owns both a Mac and a PC, prefers to work on the PC but does the final submission via the Mac.

That said, it hasn't been an impediment for other alternatives that let you develop entirely on Windows (like the Flash exporter). Because of the interactive nature of the app (or the alternative which is to use Xcode's submitter), I don't think that we can build it into our automated builder like we have for everything else. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know.

This all said, it can be easily worked around via a friend's Mac, using a semi-automated online service that we *may* provide in the future or using other means that I officially can't endorse, but apparently Adobe think it's OK?

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/app_store_guide.html (See the first instance of "Note")

Another option would be to allow developers to use your Itunes account, so you'll act as a publisher. Developers just submit the app and if you approve it you publish it in Itunes. This will be great for developers as they won't need to pay the $99 a year to Apple and also the game will get more downloads because it's on your channel. You can take some cut of the developer's earnings for this service.

This is great, but you won't be able to upload the ipa to the app store without a MAC. It says in Itunes Connect developer guide: "Application Loader is a small Cocoa app that you will use to deliver your binary to Apple. Application Loader requires a minimum OS version of Mac OS X 10.5.3."

There are services around that let you "rent" Mac's for a time period. For example, this particular service lets you rent a Mac via the cloud for a fee. $8 for the day, that should be enough time to get your certificates set up and then you can do your entire development on PC. Once you're ready to submit your app, rent it again for the day and use the app loader.

http://www.macincloud.com/

This is great, but you won't be able to upload the ipa to the app store without a MAC.

I was wondering when this would be mentioned. A while back, Apple changed the way things worked — requiring that the Application Loader be used for uploading. There used to be web based option.

So, while the games can be created on a PC, publishing to iTunes seems like an issue.

I'm not so sure it's in the best interests of Stencyl to be an app publisher. In order to protect the account, all the apps uploaded would have to be reviewed. Otherwise, one malicious app could get the whole account banned.

The macincloud.com service does seem like a possible solution. Personally, I have a Mac and I prefer to run Stencyl from my Mac. With Pixelmator and iWork... the money I spent on hardware translated into a savings in software. I now laugh at Adobe's upgrade pricing.

I just use a virtual machine running OS X Lion for application submitting. I hope iStencyl runs well in windows and doesn't go "Mac only" like other development workspaces.

I just use a virtual machine running OS X Lion for application submitting. I hope iStencyl runs well in windows and doesn't go "Mac only" like other development workspaces.

I've done at least 90% of development on my next iOS game using iStencyl on a PC. It's not different than the Mac version of the software.

Development wise, we actually finished about a month ago, but it's taken a bit longer than expected to get the non-technical parts of this in order. After we launch iStencyl, we'll start off right away on an Android port, which will take a lot less time than this all did.

I'm just curious as to the technical reasons of why it won't take as long. Is it because it's Java and Stencyl was made in java, or because you and your team now have  experience with mobile devices?

I was actually referring to non-software work, such as building a new section of the site, building in the "cash register" to to speak, coming up with a new launch video, modifying the existing site, documentation, etc. etc. Ironically, I feel it took longer to do all that than originally prototyping iStencyl itself.

This is great, but you won't be able to upload the ipa to the app store without a MAC. It says in Itunes Connect developer guide: "Application Loader is a small Cocoa app that you will use to deliver your binary to Apple. Application Loader requires a minimum OS version of Mac OS X 10.5.3."

There are services around that let you "rent" Mac's for a time period. For example, this particular service lets you rent a Mac via the cloud for a fee. $8 for the day, that should be enough time to get your certificates set up and then you can do your entire development on PC. Once you're ready to submit your app, rent it again for the day and use the app loader.

http://www.macincloud.com/

Thanks for bringing this one up - I forgot about this site and will recommend it to our users as a solution for those who can't use the other routes. It sounds like the 1 hour trial (provided it doesn't restrict this kind of thing) is more than plenty to submit an app. I might also get in touch with them to get the latest copy of StencylWorks on their VM's seeing that they've preloaded a couple other packages on there too.

So, the just of all this is... we still essentially need a mac / access to one ?