After AppStore and Ovi, Windows Marketplace

Via Mobile Games Blog, after Apple's AppStore and Nokia's OVI Microsoft opened its own mobile store. and we're still waiting for Samsung's Marketplace

You'll notice the ID price : 99$/y....like AppStore
So...
Apple --> 99$/y
Microsoft --> 99$/y
OVI --> 200$/y + 20$/app
Samsung --> ? still unknown ?

Sudoku Classic by Animion

Yesterday, Animion, who seems to release iPhone apps only until recently, added Sudoku Classic on GetJar.

I'll let you play the game, I'm more interested on how they used this free game to promote their not-free screensaver : apart the classic "more stuff" on the menu screen, a flashy "Get cool screensavers here" button is available on the game screen.

I'm good at Sudoku no ? :)

I would be very interested to know how many people actually click on this button.
It's a good idea to use a (now) classic game like sudoku, there is always a lot of people looking for mobile version. And I think the 2200 downloads on GetJar the first day is a perfect example.

I also notice they used a mobile payment solution I didn't know yet : Bango

Stange static text width

I'm currently playing with auto layout.
My goal is to make an application handling any screen size.

I so managed to make an extended MovieClip class which change its _x & _y according screen size.
Unfortunatly I got some problems with MovieClip with static texts inside.
I so made some tests and, well, I'm very surprised with the result.
Test it yourself :

- create a new FLA for FL2.x+
- add ascode Stage.align="TL";Stage.scaleMode="noScale"; on first frame
- create a new symbol-movieclip
- in this symbol, add a textfield at 0,0 with a width of 200 for exemple, Arial, 48, "bitmap text"
- add a "HELLO" within
- add as-code trace(this._width) on symbol 1st frame which will give you the size of the symbol which, I thought, SHOULD be 200
- run it -> trace gives 152, which is NEAR the size you'll find if you break HELLO in symbol (2 * Ctrl+B)
- use "anti alias"
- run it -> trace gives 183.55, value I don't understand !
- use "device font"
- run it -> trace gives 225, value I also don't understand !
- now, make the same tests with a centered text
- traces will give you the exact same value
- convert it to dynamic
- run it -> trace gives 200

It comes from the fact than when Flash compiles the FLA, it transforms the static text to shape and so the width of the movieclip isn't from 0 to right of textfield in author mode but from left side to right side of the converted shape. In fact, the same way width is measured with shape and movieclip inside another movieclip.

So, the main problem is the way it measures it when you have centered text OR antialiased text OR device font. The value is for me totally unusable.
For example, imagine you have some thing like that

TITLE CENTER
What do you think Flash will measure ?

Flash will in fact measure something near

TITLE CENTER
What do you think Flash will measure ?

so if I want to center the movieclip containing this text, using _x = (Stage.width - mclip.width)/2, the result won't be the one I hoped for :(
Even worst if I use device font!


2 "workarounds":

use the dot method
add a 1x1 dot at (0,0) and another one at (textfield_width-1,textfield_height-1) so they will be used in movieclip measure
BUT remember antialias text/device font gives really poor result, so always make your textfield larger than your text
BUT doesn't work with centertext !!!! I don't understand why HELLO centered with dots give 208.7 in width !

use dynamic textfields
nonsense but measure will be perfect
BUT it will use more memory : HELLO use 129K in static, 132K in dynamic
BUT you'll need to include font, else height won't be correct (!!)

Frustrating APIs

For the FL developer challenge, I planned to make a video-based app.
So I looked for available API to use.
I found a lot BUT everytime the same 'Terms and Conditions use' statement

the contents are ours and you can't use them nor alter them.

I understand you can't alter video and hide ads, these websites can't only distribute free content.
But what the use of these API then ? Just a "how to add OUR videos on YOUR site to give US money" ?
I even found a website taking the right to ask your website or app source to be sure you use their data correctly !

As I said, I understand but it's very frustrating to think you could do a killer app with what seems to be free API and be stuck reading the terms and conditions...
For every of these websites, I was able to find the mobile video files...but since I don't use the API nor agreed with their terms, it won't be a valid entry for the challenge...so no sense to use it...

Too bad...I now remember why I wanted to use FL only to make games : time is only use to code and draw...not to get rights and authorizations or talking with a lawyer.

Sorry, it's not a really useful post but I feel better writing it !

Adobe Mobile Packager UX

I think you know about Mark Doherty last post, asking for Flash Lite community feedback about Adobe Mobile Packager ?

I personnaly only use AMP for CAB packaging, to avoid future issue with Nokia so I don't know a lot about AMP's SIS packaging.
One of the interesting feedback I read is Emanuele Cipolloni's one since it's about UX on Nokia devices.
It also could explain why people had problems installing Nespresso's app.

...installation and actually setup & running will still be a nightmare..

I won't copy/paste his comment here, so jump read it (and post a feedback to Mark if you haven't already did it)

Samsung and Flash Lite

I knew Flash Lite was supported by some Samsung phones.

In Device Central CS3, some devices are available.
They support StandAlone player or Application (BREW).
But it was difficult to find a Samsung's official list.

I so use info from S60.com and Samsung Innovator

I don't know if Device Central CS4 include them but here is the list of Flash Lite supported device, as StandAlone Player




If Nokia has Remote Device Access, Samsung has its Lab.dev for Symbian devices.
They use the same solution from Digia so you won't be lost.
(Unfortunatly, Samsung Lab.dev for WiMo devices is still in beta and unavailable for classic member.)

I was so able to test Poulpy's Game on available devices and noticed a problem on S60 3rd FP1 devices :
using a simple SWF file, sharedObjet didn't work
install this same SWF file using Nokia's Packager/SWFPack, sharedObjet worked fine
no problem with other devices.

On a side note, I didn't test yet if Omnia HD is a 'clone' of the Nokia 5800 with Nokia Platform services and if the FLite 3.1 Distributable Player works or not on these devices.

getURL - part2

getURL finally works on every tested devices.
It took me some days, waiting for availability of some devices on RDA.

When I tested on N82, getURL didn't work. I was very sad because I thought I'll had to retest everything, if I find a fix.
Hopefully, I noticed the screen 'flash' when I call the getURL.

You'll find this tip on some others blogs and websites but, since I personnally lost a lot of time on this one, I'll share it too :

If you open a webpage with a getURL from your FlashLite app/game, be sure your default browser is closed.
Else the webpage will be opened on the background.