old school race
TRANSCRIPT
Multiplatform Games for Computer & Tablet
with Flash & AIR
Old School RaceFrom the web to tablets and much more!
Andrea PontiggiaCo-founder e CTO
Stefano MagniTechnical Director
Andrea Pontiggia• ActionScript developer since 2001
• Co-owner and CTO since 2004 of Creeo Studio
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Twitter: @andreapontiggia
Who is Creeo ?• Creeo started in 2004 as a Web Agency
• Our team was specialized in the web design with a high level of creativity and interactivity
• Our developers were highly skilled in Actionscript development (since Actionscript 1.0 and Flash 5 )
Early 2010 in ItalyMOBILE
• iPhone 3G, 3GS was a status symbol and it’s more or less everywhere
• The App Store has got 100.000 app and reached < 3.000.000.000 downloads
• Apple released the iPad
• Despite some difficulties Android can placed its first interesting smartphones
Early 2010 in ItalyWEB DEVELOPMENT
• HTML5 and CSS3 were growing up really fast
• Javascript advanced programming was a must-to-have
• Social API (Facebook, Twitter, Live SDK)
Creeo - early 2010• Our team: 4 developers, 4 creatives, 1 account
• Creeo had just been doing business with some big international companies in Milan
• Some strategic partnerships started to yield benefits
Our choiceCreeo chose to consolidate the business opportunity that it had just been created.
The development team had an important technical updating about company core business: Web Development.
In that year Creeo didn’t have enough resources to strongly innovate its team in the development of mobile applications.
Creeo - early 2011• The technical team was updated on last web
development innovation
• The development of mobile application was a must-to-have service
• Mobile devices were, as expected, always more popular (iPad 2, Android based sp., BB Playbook, Windows Phone, ...)
• Creeo had to improve its know-how compared with its competitors experience
iOs developmentADVANTAGES:
• solid, tested and affordable platform
• in continuous vertical growth (thanks to the new iPad)
• today Apple devices are still the most attractive and most appealing to the market
• Creeo could plug the gap in its services. It finally could say ‘Yes, we develop for iOs!’
iOs developmentCRITICALITY:
• long training time (ten months?)
• Objective C is a closed language (syntax and development patterns are really peculiar)
• Objective C is a complex language
• iOs native development is a strong challenging market (maybe saturated)
• What about the multiplatform growth?
iOs developmentWE DON’T LIKE THIS WAY
• Creeo will be competitive too late
• Creeo will lose out to its competitors
• Creeo will not take any benefits about multiplatform growth
MultiplatformCreeo does not believe that the all the world will become Apple addicted.
Apple is changing our business (and our life) especially in these 5 years (Apple released the iPhone 1 in the 2008), but the future is for everyone!
Creeo believe that a multiplatform approach will be successful in the mobile market.
Adobe Flash Platform has grown in the last two years ... is it a real possibility TODAY?
Adobe Flash PlatformCRITICALITY AND DOUBTS:
• A.F.P. is new platform for mobile development ... is it reliable? is it strong?
• A.F.P. builds native apps, but they are recognizable ... maybe this could be a problem (again) for the app store policy?
• Today the A.F.P. has some lacks (eg. in-app purchase). Will Adobe improve and innovate the platform with a strong team, a strong developer support and a release roadmap with frequent updates?
Adobe Flash PlatformADVANTAGES:
• The team has to (strongly) update its know-how. It is no longer studying a new language.
• The team will use its 10 years experience
• The team could reuse its AS framework (+/- 70%)
• The first app could be in the market in 2/3 months
• Market differentiation
• To achieve know-how in the multiplatform market
Adobe Flash PlatformWE LIKE THIS WAY
Creeo can strongly reuse resources (human resources, development, know-how)
Creeo may be on the market in a short time and with a service that differs
Creeo can faces today in the multiplatform mobile market
Stefano Magni• ActionScript developer since 2008
• Responsabile tecnico di Creeo Studio
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Twitter: @noriste
The web version• multiplayer game
running as WLM activity(using the WL API)
• constricted gameplay (500x500 pixel)
• no performance troubles
Can we moving to mobile?
• The team chooses to review the graphic into a horizontal gameplay
• The team designed some new features, such as the multiplayer, and to capitalize the devices with a good resolution (tablets)
• The team starts a deep analysis of the Flash Platform advantages and criticality
First test: export for iPadWe try to export the project like it is. It works!
After two minutes the application works perfectly fine on our iPad.
No compatibility issues.
No problem with the deploy on the device.
Fast optimizationThe performance was really bad; the application ran with real frame rate of 1 fps (it should be 35 fps).
Few fast optimizations(GPU, cacheAsBitmap) made the application ran at a real frame rate of 10 fps.
Deep optimization• we reduced the
background size
• we designed the GUI optimized for a minimum size of 1024x768, but we considered to cover a maximum size of 1280x800
• we reviewed the gameplay. The track was still while the car moved.
Deep optimization• we converted the cars into
bitmap images
With these fixes the game played at 20 FPS
Our team developed all these fixes without any past know-how about ‘mobile application optimization’
The engine is fully developed with Flash Professional
AIR runtime and SDK• AIR2.6 → AIR2.7
performance was improved by 2x/3x
• AIR2.7 → AIR3.0 performance was improved by 2x
AIR 3 SDKAnother thing really important.AIR3 contained a list of big updates and new features such as:
• captive runtime su Android
• native extension
Beyond iOs• At the beginning we
centered the analysis on the iOs porting, because Apple devices where the most problematical devices to deploy the A.F.P.
• Android supports AIR. Its performance are better.
• BB TabletOS is distributed with AIR installed. Its performance are excellent.
Beyond iOsWithout any changes on the game engine Creeo deployed the application to every tablet Android based and to the BlackBerry PlayBook.
This is a great opportunity to increase the economic return of the project.
Today• Creeo published Old
School Race on the Apple Store, on the Android Market and on the Blackberry App World
• Creeo is estimating the porting in the following stores: Nook Store, App Store, Amazon Store
Tomorrow• Creeo planned the
porting on the iPhone and every Android smartphone
• Creeo is estimating the (experimental) porting on some SmartTV
• Our team will use A.F.P. for a new casual game application
Old School Race• On the occasion of View
Conference the application is free on every store
• Take a look at the site: www.oldschoolrace.com and download the app perfect for your tablet!
Thank you!Creeo Studio
www.creeostudio.it
@creeostudio