Team Pok Pok

Captain Skyro now on iOS!

dan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:07:09 +0000

It’s all ramping up pretty quickly. The game has hit the app store and less than a day later people have picked it up and are playing.

No idea on numbers yet but the response is pretty good so far. A few people are asking about future Game Center support which we’ll definitely consider if the demand is there.

Our main focus has been to get the game out there and test the waters. If it takes off we have a few ideas up our sleeves.

In the meantime check out the updated trailer, or even better, check out the game! Now on iOS.

Captain Skyro for Android performance so far

dan — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:28:24 +0000

Here’s a few links and stats of our coverage for Captain Skyro for Android.

Downloads

106 downloads through the Android market
6 ratings
Unknown amount of downloads through pirated versions
Note: there’s 244,000 results on Google pointing to pirated versions

Reviews and promos

Kotaku - Follow up post from a previous interview
JayIsGames – Great review
DroidGamers – Quick promo for the game
PocketGamer - Mixed review but good to know

Video statistics

Captain Skyro – Preview Trailer (from September 2011) – 635 views
Captain Skyro Official Launch Trailer – 2171 views
Captain Skyro – Official Gameplay Level 1-1 – 95 views

Definitely a slow start but maybe the iOS release will help both markets pick up a bit.

AIR for iOS dev using Windows

dan — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:26:16 +0000

This is a relatively short post to share a few of the most useful code snippets and resources I have found. They cover a few of the trickier ins and outs of building iOS apps on a PC without Xcode.

iTunes developer account, certificates, provisioning profiles and devices

Emanuele Feronato has put together an awesome post that is unbelievably detailed and useful, covering all the itunes account setup, certificate creation and provisioning profiles. I’ve had to use this process a few times and I don’t know how I would have got things done without it.

Check out the original post here: http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2011/09/22/creation-of-an-iphone-app-with-flash-and-without-a-mac-for-all-windows-lovers/

A good thing to note (that I innocently missed) is that when you go to upload your iOS app for review you must go through the same certificate process again using a Distribution certificate, not the development one described in this post. Along with that is a distribution provisioning profile and an updated p12 file.

Deploying your app for testing

This part covers deploying your app ipa file to your iphone or ipad via your website without the need for itunes.

The .plist file is a manifest that is placed on your site (not the one that gets packaged in your ipa). Basically you substitute your app and site details into here:





    items
        
		
			assets
			
				
					kind
					software-package
					url
					http://yoursite.com/YourApp.ipa
				
			
			metadata
			
				bundle-identifier
				com.yoursite.yourapp
				bundle-version
				1.0
				kind
				software
				title
				Your App

Here’s the orginal post: http://idevblog.info/wireless-ad-hoc-app-distribution/

Once you have the manifest ready and saved as yourapp.plist and you create a small html page with a special link to point to that manifest.




  OTA Test App





    Tap Here to Install the Application

The original code is part way down this page: http://iphonedevelopertips.com/xcode/distribute-ad-hoc-applications-over-the-air-ota.html

So with all these files ready you now upload your .plist, .ipa and .html files to your server in the locations you’ve specified in the code.

To download the app you navigate to the html page and hit the link.

Keep in mind, the app can only be installed by the devices specified in your provisioning profile. If you update the app you just re-upload your ipa file.

Adobe AIR Native Extensions for iOS

dan — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:59:17 +0000

Lately we have been working on the iOS port of Skyro and it’s going pretty smoothly. It was amazing to have the exact same code from the Android version running on the iPhone within 2 hours. I’ll cover more on the porting process in another post.

So far there have been very few issues moving from Android to iOS. Most of the work is dealing with different screen resolutions until I came across a small sound issue. The in game sound controls work perfectly and the iPhone’s volume buttons work as expected. What doesn’t work is the phone ‘mute’ or ‘silence’ functionality.

As I understand, the mute switch on the iPhone is used to silence all system notifications such as ring tones, message sounds and other system alerts. However, most phone users have come to expect that same mute switch to silence the sounds made by applications too. With AIR, this doesn’t work. The mute switch has no effect on the game sound (at least with the version 3.2 of AIR I’m using).

I proceeded to do quick search and it seemed like Native Extensions for Adobe AIR was the answer, and someone had already created the extension for this exact mute functionality (http://www.enriquedavid.es/adobe-native-extensions-ios-mute-button.html). Sweet.

After hours of trying to include the .swc and .ane files in every which way, I could not get this thing to work. Everything I tried came up with some sort of error. 10 hours in and I finally got it working so I wanted to document how I got it running so I can save other people the same issues.

Step 1: Set up your environment

I generally use the Flash CS5.5 IDE on Windows for all my compiling. This has worked fine for me in the past, but apparently it doesn’t successfully package up native extensions.

The solution is to export the swf from Flash IDE the use the command line and AIR Developer Tool (ADT) to package the .ipa file.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Up to date AIR SDK. This includes the ADT.
SDK: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplatformruntimes/air3-2/
Instructions: http://www.yeahbutisitflash.com/?p=2949
Up to date swf exporter to allow Flash Player 11 swf’s. I’m not sure on the official name, but all you need is the Adobe extension manager to install the .mxp file you can get here: http://blogs.adobe.com/rgalvan/2011/11/adding-fp11-support-to-flash-pro-cs5-and-cs5-5.html
Java Development Kit. Needed to run the ADT packager. Grab it here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Step 2: The native extension

Firstly, grab the extension from here: http://www.enriquedavid.es/adobe-native-extensions-ios-mute-button.html

Then follow the instructions here for “Using the ANE file with Flash Professional”: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/air/build/WS597e5dadb9cc1e0253f7d2fc1311b491071-8000.html#WS08cc5e527b0868243ea2ffcd1314dff873a-7ffc

You can skip the first step in those instructions as the .swc file is already provided.

Now in your code you will have to add a few basic lines to enable the extension. I added the following code to the document class.

import com.devilishgames.nativeextensions.Mute.Mute;

Mute.Enable(Mute.SOLO_AMBIENT_SOUND);

You can find the other settings for the extension in its documentation.

In your application xml (MyProject-app.xml) you need to add the extension ID:


com.devilishgames.nativeextensions.mute

Step 3: Exporting the swf

In the Flash IDE with the .fla open, hit Ctrl + Enter. Simple as that, we just export the .swf file.

Some people may get a runtime error regarding the Mute variable. I received a 1065 error and it got me stuck, but with some luck the following steps should help resolve the issue. I wrapped the Enable code in a try/catch just to handle it while not on the phone.

Step 4: Packaging the IPA

I didn’t invent these steps so I’ll point you to the best instructional video I found.
http://www.sworl.be/air-native-extensions-in-flash/

Simple, clear and concise. Ensure you include the .ane file in the external directory (extdir).

I ended up creating a batch file to store the command line instructions. I had several errors with the command line work but hopefully the steps above should limit these. Just in case, here’s the solutions I found:

java is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file
Solution: Ensure the JDK is installed.
error 303: Icon images/icon.png is missing from package
Solution: in the command line instructions, add the file path for each icon after you define the .swf file to use.
Spaces in the file paths break the instructions
Solution: any part of a file path that you have a space, wrap quotation marks around that section.For example:

D:\Flash\Games\"My Project"

Here’s how my batch file turned out with a few adjustments made to shorten file path:

D:
cd D:\Flash\Games\"My Project"
C:\"Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5.5\AIR2.6\bin"\adt -package -target ipa-test-interpreter -storetype pkcs12 -provisioning-profile MyProject_Profile.mobileprovision -keystore iphone_dev.p12 My_Project.ipa My_Project-app.xml My_Project.swf Build/MyProject_Icon_29x29.png Build/MyProject_Icon_57x57.png Build/MyProject_Icon_114x114.png Build/MyProject_Icon_512x512.png Build/MyProject_Icon_48x48.png Build/MyProject_Icon_72x72.png -extdir ext

Step 5: Deploy and Test

Hopefully you should now have a packaged .ipa file. Deploy it to your device then test if the music and sounds mute when you flick the mute switch.

Good luck!

Maru – Global Game Jam 2012

brian — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:31:40 +0000

After 48 hours we were really tired with the lack of sleep. At least we managed to create something according to the theme the organisers provided.

We created Maru (circle or round in Japanese), a very experimental interactive flash experience.

It is a game about life, death and self sacrifice. You’re alone in the dark trying to find your loved one…

Here is a video:

So our take on the theme was to make a game of self sacrifice. As you walk through the darkness you slowly die, but when you die your corpse leaves light which is safe for you to travel through when you re-incarnate. The earlier you die, the more light you leave behind.

The aim of the game is to strategically sacrifice yourself in order to explore, activate the hidden switches that release the gates that are blocking you from your love on the right on the map.

On completing the level we show you the number of moves you took so you can improve on it next time round.

Team Pok Pok at Global Game Jam 2012

dan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:04:10 +0000

Fresh after the release of skyro this week we’ve jumped right in to a new challenge or the 2012 Global Game Jam.

We’ve got 48 hours to create something amazing according to a theme the organisers provided.

As a nice little bonus, the participating teams were interviewed about the event and Team Pok Pok were first up.

Team Updates – Day 2, Update #1 from IGDA GameJam on Vimeo.

Meet four of our brilliant game development teams here at GameJam Sydney 2012.

They are:
POKPOK
LOBSTAR
WHITEWALL
RASPBERRY

Also revealed is this year’s Global GameJam Theme – the mysterious Ouroborous. More updates soon!

Shot by Ange Graf and David Molloy.
Produced, Directed & Edited by Ange Graf.

Music: ‘Pure Progression’ by Digimode. [Licenced under Creative Commons for commercial use.]

Official Launch Trailer

brian — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:15:04 +0000

It’s taken some time but we’re proud to say that Captain Skyro is finally available on the Android market! Here is a video trailer for the launch:

The trailer uses a lot of in game footage and some of the cut scenes from the game itself. In the end it was a matter of nicely presenting and putting together all the rich assets that we had handy.

Captain Skyro has kept us busy during our spare time but it’s been a journey of discovery in the process of creating that first game from concept to the final push to the Android market.

We hope that you appreciate the time and effort we have spent on this special project and can spend less than a dollar to show some support. Thank you.

Official Gameplay Level 1-1

brian — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:41:21 +0000

Ahoy! We would like to share the game play video of level 1-1:

OK we have to admit that the video show Dan the developer playing, so he obviously knows what to do to get a perfect fly through!

Boss 03 : Bella Bounce

brian — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:10:14 +0000

Name: Bella Bounce
Favourite food: Light cheese
Weapon: Small knives

Boss 02 : Bourbon

brian — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:06:55 +0000

Name: Bourbon
Favourite food: Bourbon
Weapon: Bottles of bourbon