Flash Lite

[vlad]

I know I know, I'm shooting everywhere. I still haven't got a full plan for mobile development but I'm working on it.

Question is: being Flash somewhat supported by many phones what's the main problem with using it, except for the current performance issues?

[Adam Schmelzle]

I dunno. I've never really looked into flash lite. If there's an in game ad system for it, than I'll check it out....

Holey crap that sounds retarded. I've never done flash before, but I just read '10 tips to make you game better' or something like that at Adobe.com. Flash lite 1.1 doesn't even support ARRAYS. How the hell to you write a program without arrays? I mean they show you how, but it's convoluted.

I wouldn't mind learning more about flash, since I've never used it, but that sounds absolutely ridiculous. I guess flash lite 2.x and up are more popular now, and maybe that has support for fundamentally required programming constructs.

So to answer your question: They don't like arrays. That'd be my gripe.

[vlad]

I just finished a game with using arrays with Flash... I have no idea what you are talking about.

I'm going to find out how ads work with cell phones using Flash. If that turns our nice, I have a pretty nice idea on how to work on IP based games for multi platforms.

I'll keep you posted.

[Adam Schmelzle]

What version of flash lite are you working with?

[vlad]

As far as I know, that's is not relevant since all flash players will be substituted by the new Flash Lite when Flash 10 hits the streets, it's now in Beta. So right now, I'm just using Flash CS3 Professional and this cute app called Device Central shows the compatibility issues with the app I'm working with and I found none so far.

I'm not saying this is a great solution since I'm just testing it and I don't want to draw any conclusions too early but the integration seems quite painless.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Flash lite may be a little different from standard desktop flash...

"Emulating Arrays

Arrays are very useful for creating and manipulating ordered lists of information, usually variables and values. Unfortunately Flash Lite 1.1 does not support the array() constructor, so you must emulate the creation of an array to reference throughout the application. This is referred to as a pseudo-array."

www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/as_flashlite_03.html

This is just about flash 1.1 though, and there are of course bigger and better versions out now on mobile.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Are you trying to say that even the old devices will auto-update to a newer version of flash lite?

[vlad]

Nope, not at all. That's an issue of course.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I wonder if any of my phones support flash lite. At least the newer ones must, though I have never used it before. Know of any good sites to get free flash lite games? I'm interested in trying some out.

[vlad]

I only know from device central, an app with Flash Pro. What phones do you have, I can check it out and we could make a little test since I honestly don't know how to market mobile flash games.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I've got...

Newish:
Samsung A920
Nokia 5200
LG TU500
Sony Eric z710i
Sanyo SCP 6600 (katana)

Older (I haven't used these in a while):
Sanyo SCP-2300
Nokia 6585i

[chrisl]

Seeing the katana phone in the list, are you localising your games in various languages? or is it to check your games appearance on non-English phones?

[vlad]

Samsung A920 not on the list.
Nokia 5200 - Flash Lite 2.0 (all new models have 2.0)
LG TU500 - not on the list.
Sony (several 700s series but none exactly z710i) - Flash Lite 1.1
Katana - not on the list (list is quite small with Sanyos)

[Adam Schmelzle]

In London, Ontario, Canada the Sanyo's are fairly common for the CDMA networks. I have only done my games in English so far. I find it strange that the CDMA and TDMA networks have entirely different devices. Why don't the manufacturers save money on design and simply put out one device or 2 versions of the exact same phone?

From the short compatibility list posted here, I don't think I'll care about flash lite yet. These phones that I have are the top phones performance(game performance) wise available where I live. If these devices don't all have the latest Flash version, I'll have to wait for better adoption.

Maybe Flash lite is more popular in the US. You also get BREW in the US, but not around here.

I'm in London, Ontario, Canada eh!

[chrisl]

On the localisation subjects again, did you see this news? mobilegames.blogs.com/mobile_games_blog/2008/06/greystripe-laun.html
Could that mean that GreyStripe will start requesting localised builds to address these new markets?

On another matter, did you also try InnerActive? (http://www.inner-active.com/)
I'm wondering if all these companies will lead to another market fragmentation, with all sorts of ad-wrapping solutions and business models appearing everyday... Do you see this trend as an opportunity or an added difficulty?

[vlad]

Performance wise it's not amazing either. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what I find out in the meantime.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Re: Chrisl

That Simyo news is awesome. I hope more carriers follow suit. I don't think Greystripe will start to require localized builds any time soon. At the moment, they don't have any way to distinguish what language teh build is for in their system. I can see them adding support for localization, but it's not there yet. They aren't very quick to change their publisher interface/options. I've been trying to get them to put some of the old options back into the system since October, and kept hearing 'we're working on it', but I gave up.

I filled out the form at www.inner-active.com, but will they respond with the SDK download? I doubt it. Most places I contact will completely ignore me. I'll let you guys know if I get a response...