• Home
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Socialize With Us:
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • /
  • Linkedin
  • /
  • Vimeo Videos
  • /
  • Youtube
  • /
  • RSS Feed
  • Search Site

  • About UsAwards & Bio
  • PortfolioOur Latest Work
  • TrainingTips & Tutorials
  • BlogGreat Articles

You are here: Home / News / Industry News / Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development

Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development

Category: Industry News     |     Tags: AIR, Flash, Flex, HTML5, Mobile

THE CHOICES

Software development has gone mobile. We see a large audience using smartphones and tablets, and as developers/marketers/entrepreneurs we want in. When planning such a project there are myriad decisions.

CHOOSE – THE PLATFORM

The choice of target platform (e.g. iOS) and target device (e.g. iPad2) is a primary consideration. Apple’s iOS hits the majority of the market but with time others will mature and may offer more competition. Moreover to hit your market you may be best served to offer your software to more than one platform and more than one device-per-platform. Quite quickly a rather conservative project can target 5-10 unique pieces of hand-held hardware.

CHOOSE – THE DEVICE

Each device offers unique features. The market-penetration, platform, processor-speed, input-capabilities, screen-size, and other factors are all important. Two major form-factor camps are ‘phone’ size and ‘tablet’ size. There is some overlap between these categories such as the Samsung Galaxy 1000.

CHOOSE – THE MONETIZATON

There are many monetization schemes possible. Here are a few of the popular ones;

  • Free – To gain experience and reputation.
  • Freemium – Offer a free version and market within the experience for a pay-version with more features.
  • Ads – Integrate video ads, animated ads, or still ads into the experience.
  • Micro-transactions – Offer bite-sized purchase opportunities which enhance the experience.

CHOOSE – THE DEVELOPMENT PATH

When the platform(s) and device(s) have been chosen, the path to develop must be chosen. In general there are two strategies

a) Native App Development – This means you use the 1st-party language (and tools) offered by the platform creators. This means using XCode tool with Cocoa framework coded with the Objective-C language when developing for iOS. Native development generally offers the very best potential performance (i.e. for high-end gaming) and tightest integration to the devices (e.g. detect battery level, etc…) and OS/marketplaces (e.g. iOS in-app-purchase).

b) Non-Native App Development – Many 3rd parties offer code libraries and tools to ‘speed up development’. Some of these are in the native language and some are not. Some of these non-native solutions offer the ability to ‘code once (so to speak) and deploy to multiple platforms’.

c) Mobile Web Development – Instead of a standalone application, an experience can be made available via web-browser and development to fit the size of the target (mobile) device(s). With HTML5 much is possible, but in general this is used for less-expressive less-device-specific experiences. It can also be a very inexpensive way to ‘break into mobile’, as you can use assets/code from your existing website..

CROSS-PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT

While the ability to develop one project for multiple platforms offers many advantages in saved development time and ease in maintenance, it also offers many challenges. Designing a compelling application that takes advantage of the unique features of each device and looks polished on the dizzying array of screen sizes out there can be daunting. For Flash-To-Mobile there are many resources on Adobe’s Mobile Devnet to help you learn the basics.

BACKEND

It is possible for an application to be self contained, including all data/assets with the original install. This is common for games. However many projects require internet connectivity. The data/assets loaded can reside on existing servers outside of your control, or can reside on your own servers. Custom backend solutions using typical backend languages (c++, Java, PHP, Python, etc…) may also be required. All of this depends on your particular project. In general any of the development-paths can contact any of these backend solutions, but some may connect more easily than others.

EXAMPLE…

Let’s assume you have a great new game and want to capture a ‘big audience’ with ‘modest investment’. If the application does not require deep-device-integration a recommended choice is to target both iOS (iPad1/iPad2, iPhone3G/iTouch3G, iPhone4G/iTouch4G) and Android (various devices). If your team has Flash expertise the Flash-To-Mobile publish path may be ideal.

FLASH-TO-MOBILE

With Flash CS6 and more-so Flash Builder 4.6, Flash/Flex developers can publish ONE codebase to MULTIPLE platforms. Using Adobe’s AIR 2.7 (latest public release) you can develop many platforms & Devices.

Compatible Target Platform/Devices: Web-Browser (Mac+Windows+Linux+Non-iOS Mobile Browsers), Desktop (Mac+Windows+Linux), iOS (Ipad1+Ipad2, iPhone+iTouch 3rd Generation, iPhone+iTouch 4rd Generation-Retina), Android (Myriad Devices), Blackberry Tablet OS (Blackberry Tablet).

Supported Flash-To-Mobile Device-Specific Features: Flash-To-Mobile does offer view-persistance, data-persistance, video playback, still-camera capture, still-camera-roll save/load, internet access, in-app web-browsing, accelerometer/gyroscope, Microphone, Geolocation, Multitouch, File-system access. Not all devices offer the same features. In the future ‘Native Extensions’ (see below) offer a solution.

Project Setup: A recommended options is one bulky Flex Library with (most) all code and assets, and then one Flex Project *PER PLATFORM*. You add/edit to the library and publish each of the projects as needed. You can test with an mobile-emulator (fastest) window that appears on your computer, or on the device via USB (best to test hardware features like accelerometer. The ‘flash’ code is converted to ‘native code’ (so to speak) before deployment.

Deployment: Upon completion the platform-specific file is uploaded to the platform-specific marketplace (e.g. iTunes’ App Store for iOS). A Flash-to-Mobile project sits along-side native applications. Ostensibly users have no idea the application was developed with non-native tools. The marketplaces do not delineate this or otherwise make that info available in any way to users. The end-user experience can be indistinguishable from a native app (project type and project polish depending).

NATIVE EXTENSIONS

In light of the ‘Device-Specific’ features listed above, Flash-to-mobile currently leaves us without everything we may want to do (e.g. iOS in-app-purchase). The yet unreleased (release date is ‘early October 2011’) Adobe AIR 3.0 will include ‘Native Extensions’. In short, this allows for *ANY* Flash-to-mobile project to access *ANY* feature on *ANY* supported device (Android / iOS / Blackberry Tablet). Developer will require knowledge of both AS3 (flash) as well as the Native language(s) on the target device(s) to add new features. Or your team can find free and premium extensions which the community could share. This is not just for mobile, this technology will also allow AIR on desktop computers and AIR on TV’s to integrate with those devices too.

LINKS

Native Mobile Development

  • Google Android
  • Apple iOS
  • Blackberry Tablet OS

Marketplaces

  • iOS App Store (iTunes)
  • Google’s Android Marketplace
  • Amazon’s Android Marketplace

Non-Native Mobile Development – Flash-To-Mobile

  • Flash-To-Mobile (Using Flash and/or Flex) for iOS/Android/Blackberry Tablet OS… also Desktop/TV/Browser
  • Success Bringing Flash Games to iOS
  • AIR 2.6 (Available in Full Release) – Commonly in use today.
  • AIR 3.0 (Available in Public Beta Now) – Offering Native Extensions and more.
  • Example of Best-Seller Flash-To-Mobile Game for iOS
  • Example of Best-Seller Flash-To-Mobile App for iOS
  • Flash-To-Mobile for iOS – Using SWC files to build large Flash and AIR projects with multiple SWF files

Non-Native Mobile Development – Others

  • Corona for iOS/Android
  • Corona vs Adobe AIR (Great Article)
  • RhoMobile for iOS/Android
  • Appcelerator for iOS/Android
  • Mosync for iOS/Android
  • Phonegap for HTML5 Mobile-Browsers

THE FUTURE

Some of what is coming in the future is listed below.. This may or may not all be included in the very-next tools. Recently Adobe has announced What’s new in Flex 4.6 SDK and Flash Builder 4.6.

I. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Flash-To-Mobile Native Extensions

This future feature will ostensibly allow Flash-To-Mobile projects to access *ANY* feature on *ANY* targeted device (e.g. in-app-purchase on iOS).

  • Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Explained!
  • Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Demo Mapview on iOS
  • Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Tutorial 1
  • Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Tutorial 2

Updated Febrary 23, 2012: See Here…

II. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Stage3D


Stage3D (Formerly codenamed ‘Molehill’) is a set of API’s available in the future that will ostensibly allow Flash Browser projects (using Flash Player 11) and Flash-To-Mobile projects (using Adobe AIR 3.0) to show high-grade hardware rendered 3D. Finally, the Flash Platform can truly compete as a 3D gaming engine. The same API (despite the name) can also be used for radically improved 2D gaming performance too.

NOTE: These API’s are low-level and challenging to understand. We expect 3rd parties will wrap this functionality with easy-to-use API’s for free/premium use.

  • Stage3D – Explained!
  • Stage3D – Demo!
  • Stage3D – How-To! (For 3D Gaming)
  • Stage3D – How-To! (For 2D Gaming)
  • Unreal Releases ‘Citadel’ – The first interactive demo of UNREAL engine running in Flash Player.
  • BlackSun Game for Stage3D

Update March 10, 2012: See Here…

III. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Air 3.2 = Stage3D for Mobile + Many Stage3D Frameworks

So with AIR 3.2  (See Adobe Press Release) we can use Stage3D for mobile. This means GPU-Accelerated graphics on iOS/Android. I think there is a marketable benefit on getting the Flash Player to compete against other 3D gaming solutions (such as Unity3D) and perhaps compete less with emerging 2D gaming solutions (such as HTML5 gaming) so I can sympathize with Adobe’s (better late than never) focus on 3D for Flash. This article “Why Starling (or any other 2D framework on top of Stage3D)?” explains some really good reasoning.

Video ZPHATCbnHE0 not found

Mind-blowing Demo’s of AIR 3.2 on mobile

  • Five AIR 3.2 Stage3D Mobile Demos That Will Knock Your Socks Off 
  • Spaced Away is the first game in the iOS app store to feature Stage3D by developers Falanxia.

Regardless of why, Stage3D is here, and Starling’s power lies in how it uses the Stage3D – first available in Flash 11 and AIR 3.0. Stage3D is designed for GPU accelerated 3D. While its possible to use the Stage3D API’s directly, it is very difficult. There are 3D frameworks for AS3 , but for many game developers we can exploit its power for 2D gaming. That’s why Starling focuses purely on 2D. So an API like Starling helps developers make great content – quickly.

AS3 frameworks use Stage3D for 3D gaming;

  • Flare3D,
  • Alternativa3D,
  • Away3D,
  • Minko

AS3 frameworks use Stage3D for 2D gaming;

  • Starling
  • ND2D
  • M2D
  • AtomEngine
  • Citrus Engine (Recently Upgraded To Stage3D)

Key Articles I’ve written on the subject

  • Intro To the Starling Framework (Read It!)
  • Angry Birds Launches on Facebook with Starling

Stage3D Games

Spaced Away

Spaced Away

Falanxia brings its FWA Award –winning space physics puzzle game to both iPad and your web browser.

Play game Learn more

Angry Birds Facebook

Angry Birds Facebook

Join your friends on Facebook to take out Rovio’s famous pigs with enhanced special effects.

Play game Learn more

Waste Invaders

Waste Invaders

Waste Creative’s tech demo lets you blast aliens at a silky smooth 60 fps, across browsers and iPad, with Stage3D.

Show demo Get the source

Related Posts

  • Angry Birds’ Screams on Facebook with Flash
  • Setup Flash Builder For AIR 3.2 Stage3D for iOS/Android
  • Adobe Max 2013: Best Gaming Sessions
  • Fixing Memory Leaks with Adobe Flash Builder
  • Its Final. Adobe Flash Cannot Publish To Apple iPhone, Ever!
  • Flash-To-Mobile Dev: Flash vs. Flex

26 Responses to Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development

  1. Andrew says:
    September 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Excellent review!!!

    Reply
  2. Flash-To-Mobile Dev: Flash vs. Flex says:
    September 24, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    […] cross-platform / cross-mobile content. Flash-To-Mobile (as I generically call this solution) is a compelling choice when targeting iOS/Android and […]

    Reply
  3. FrankG says:
    October 5, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    Will the next round of updates include the ability to handle in-app-purchase for iOS devices?

    Reply
    • Anonymous says:
      October 15, 2011 at 1:43 pm

      AIR 3.0 Can access all iOS API’s via Native Extensions, yes.

      Reply
  4. MariusM says:
    October 19, 2011 at 9:22 am

    Great post!
    It Helps me to make decision about which type of mobile development I should learn.

    Thanks Sam!

    Reply
  5. website builder says:
    June 2, 2013 at 8:31 pm

    Woah this particular weblog is usually excellent i’m keen on researching your posts. Carry on the great artwork! You know, many persons want close to for this information, you can assistance these people enormously.

    Reply
  6. Skyrim keygen says:
    July 8, 2013 at 11:36 pm

    You actually make it appear so easy with your presentation but I to find this topic to be actually one thing that I feel I might by no means understand. It kind of feels too complicated and very large for me. I’m having a look forward in your next put up, I’ll try to get the dangle of it!

    Reply
  7. nhl 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:16 am

    Wow, gorgeous website. Thnx ..
    nhl 17 http://airattack-central.com/forum/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=OBYRegan80

    Reply
  8. madden 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:16 am

    Great internet sitewebsite! It looks extremely professional! Keep up the excellent work!
    madden 17 http://880kai.com/space-uid-45758.html

    Reply
  9. FIFA 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:16 am

    Highly insightful… looking onward to returning
    FIFA 17 http://www.lookboy.com/home.php?mod=space&uid=3146065&do=profile

    Reply
  10. pokemon go says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:16 am

    You’ve got possibly the best web sites
    pokemon go http://brslocal24.com/members/lorettamuramat/activity/126224/

    Reply
  11. nhl 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:17 am

    Really, this is a advantageous site
    nhl 17 http://juihsiang.com.tw/index.php/component/k2/itemlist/user/109692

    Reply
  12. madden 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:17 am

    I enjoy this site – its so usefull and helpfull
    madden 17 http://clubgoodfood.com/demo_work/vatech/2016/08/11/playstation-vita-release-time-announced/

    Reply
  13. NBA 2k17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 4:17 am

    Hiya, very good webpage you’ve here
    NBA 2k17 http://theinfidelest.com/groups/resident-evil-5-version-returning-liberated-to-ps-plus-subscribers/

    Reply
  14. nhl 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Love the website– very user friendly and great deals to see!
    nhl 17 http://rentnsellbd.com/user/profile/119256

    Reply
  15. madden 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Great looking website. Think you did a great deal of your very ownyour very own html coding
    madden 17 http://www.smartcore-lifestyle.de/index.php/component/k2/itemlist/user/88209

    Reply
  16. madden 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 8:29 am

    Thanks with regard to supplying these types of fantastic posting
    madden 17 http://scriptpage.de/index.php?site=profile&id=2499

    Reply
  17. madden 17 says:
    August 15, 2016 at 8:30 am

    Maintain the excellent job and producing in the crowd!
    madden 17 http://main.saintmaryclinic.org/ActivityFeed/MyProfile/tabid/61/UserId/2390726/Default.aspx

    Reply
  18. best garcinia cambogia extract walmart says:
    August 15, 2016 at 8:42 am

    Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) – Garcinia Cambogia IBD
    study shown that it possesses anti-inflammatory characteristics.

    Reply
  19. FIFA 17 says:
    August 16, 2016 at 3:41 am

    Amazing web page you’ve there

    Reply
  20. pokemon go says:
    August 16, 2016 at 3:41 am

    Wow cuz this is very greatexcellent job! Congrats and keep it up

    Reply
  21. FIFA 17 says:
    August 16, 2016 at 3:42 am

    Thanks regarding offering these sort of amazing data

    Reply
  22. magic show says:
    August 16, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    Lovely blog! I am loving it!! Will come back again. I am bookmarking your feeds also.

    Reply
  23. web design awards says:
    August 16, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    Hey there, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, very good blog!

    Reply
  24. Warren says:
    August 17, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?

    Reply
  25. bastcilkdoptb says:
    August 18, 2016 at 8:23 am

    Thanks for helping out, wonderful info. “The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations.” by Will Durant.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Support Our Sponsors

Category

  • Industry News
  • Standards & Best Practices
  • Full Tutorials
  • RMC News
  • Events

Tag

3D AIR API AS3 AS3.5 AssetStore Augmented Reality Business C# Charity Debugging Design Patterns DevDiary ECS Architecture Experimental Flash Flex Game Design Game Design Prototypes Games GUI HTML5 Java Loom Mobile MVCS Architecture Optimization Project Planning PushButtonEngine ReactiveExtensions Review Robotlegs Smash Testing Unity3D UnityApplicantTest WordPress WordPress Plugin

Brazilean Developers

  • Abendita.com
  • dclick.com.br
  • dm9.com.br
  • Fellyph Cintra
  • IgorCosta.org
  • MonadaSolucoes.com.br
  • PossibleWorldwide.com.br
  • Unit9.com

Developers

  • Adobe Blogs
  • Ben Forta
  • Colin Moock
  • Enrique Duvos
  • Flash Mobile Blog
  • Jess Freeman
  • Kevin Hoyt
  • Lee Brimelow
  • Paul Trani
  • Quasimondo
  • Renaun Erickson
  • Ryan Stewart

Free Assets

  • Free Sounds
  • HasGrafics

HTML5 Games

  • Closure JS Library
  • Eloquent JS Manual
  • Game Framework – CraftyJS
  • Game Framework – EaselJS

Italian Developers

  • alchimedia.com
  • corlan.org/
  • creativesource.it
  • dimix.it
  • fabiobiondi.com
  • gnstudio.com
  • Interpreting-tech.com/bemobile/
  • leonardorisuleo.info
  • lucamascaro.info
  • mart3.org
  • mxml.it
  • nxn.it
  • pirosoft.it
  • Preload.it
  • sonnati.wordpress.com/
  • webgriffe.com

Products

  • Adobe.com
  • Amazon Kindle E-Reader
  • ElectroServer
  • F*CSS
  • Flash Development Toolkit (FDT)
  • O'Reilly PureMVC Book
  • Samsung Galaxy Tablet
  • Unity3D

RMC

  • RMC Consulting

Spanish Developers

  • Flash Adictos
  • HTML Cinqo
  • Tutoriales Flash

Tutorial

  • Active Tuts
  • AS3-to-Unity3D Training Videos
  • Doing 2D in Unity3D
  • Learning C#
  • Unity3D Tutorials

Unity3D Games

  • AS3-to-Unity3D Training Videos
  • Doing 2D in Unity3D
  • Learning C#
  • Matt Eley's Blog
  • Unity3D
  • Unity3D Tools
  • Unity3D Tutorials

I Am Great!

   

Latest Portfolio

  • Coins And PlatformsMarch 19, 2014, 6:04 am
  • Paddle SoccerMarch 2, 2014, 9:13 pm
  • Spider StrikeFebruary 21, 2014, 4:19 am
  • Custom Game System APIJuly 8, 2013, 8:05 am

Latest News

  • RMC Primer: Everything Virtual Reality (VR)September 3, 2016, 10:29 am
  • Unity3D Architectures: EntitasJuly 29, 2016, 11:15 pm
  • RMC Primer: Get A Job In Game DevelopmentAugust 19, 2015, 10:18 am
  • Unity UI: Overview – Part 1 of 3December 10, 2014, 9:55 am

Latest Tweets (@srivello)

  • Stunning graphic design on the #MacPro page. https://t.co/NjUQMVvH9b
  • Apple's #IOS7 killer features are Control Center, AirDrop, Multitasking. https://t.co/G3BIx1Vlwb
  • Nothin in #OSX #Mavericks sounds interesting except BOTH Tags and Tabs. Psyched. https://t.co/DKLOxm2EUb
  • Working on a #Unity3D demo - a browser of architectural models. Nice!

© Copyright 2006 - 2018 - Rivello Multimedia Consulting - Flash / HTML5 / Unity3D Game And App Development With Tutorials