I have a Flash game that I'd like to port over to the iPhone but I don't have the time nor the patience to do it myself, I also have a limited budget.
Can anyone recommend a place to put out a tender for an iPhone developer to port my game?
You could wait for the beta of Flash CS 5, and use that to compile your Flash straight to iPhone....
If your game has an existing community and content around it, try to partner with an experienced iPhone developer. They would port the game, you would provide the content and the community, and the revenue gets split. I am in the middle of this process with my online game (http://robozzle.com).
Alternatively, you could try to contract the job to a developer you found on a site like http://elance.com/ or http://rentacoder.com/. But, iPhone games aren't quick to develop, so you'll be looking to spend a considerable amount of money that way.
I would recommend trying one of the many freelancer sites out there such as http://www.ifreelance.com/
They tend to be able to hook you up with relatively low cost developers. A google search for 'freelance software' will give you numerous good results.
You can post job offers right here on SO: http://jobs.stackoverflow.com/
Furthermore, you could take a look at http://www.mobileorchard.com (free)
You might want to try Game Salad, a game construction kit. It looks similar to Flash game creation.
Related
I am currently developing games for my company in Unity3d for iOS. I would like to start making games for myself but the initial investment for unity3d or unreal engine is way to high for me(for unity i would have to pay 1500$ for the engine itself and another 1500$ just for the iOS porting system). I like unity3d very much because it is way easier to organize your world, from lights and environment placement to physics, shaders, and mapping.
Is there a game engine with an editing graphical tool out there that requires no taxes for publishing your games? The game engine would also have to be able to port to iOS and/or W8; also i am interested in game engines that have substatial support both from the community and from the development team.
i got my eyes set on Irrlicht Engine but i don't think it has a graphical environment tool.
I haven't worked with Torque but in your case it might be worth to look at: Torque 3D
Another one is Bork3D but a look at their web site makes me thinking that they stop their business.
In general I would recommend to first think about your business plans, then make a pros/cons listing and finally decide what to use. What I mean is: If you think you have some good ideas and talking to other people reveals that they agree with you, you should seriously take into consideration, whether it is worth to invest some money your tools. If you dream of being an independent developer and earn enough money to live comfortably, this should be your goal to reach. And if on the other hand you're experienced Unity dev, so it might save you 100s of hours and lessen the project risks when you are taking what is proved.
Does anyone know of another good game SDK/Engine for the ipad or iphone other than CORONA?
Have a look at Cocos2d
Well since you didn't mention you need it to be free, I'd cast unity into consideration.
It's as powerful as it is expensive ;)
The above answers are great possibilities. I highly recommend unity as it just came out with its newest release that offers a gajillion wonderful features like batch rendering, beast lighting, etc. Its also ridiculously easy to program (im surprised there isn't a 'make this game for me' button in it). The price is worth it. By clicking a button, you can publish your game to pc, Mac, web, iPhone, iPad, xbox, wii, ps3, or android, depending on whether you purchased the license for each. It' bloody magic. Keep in mind that you need to buy the unity pro license before you buy the iOS license. One does not work without the other. It'll be a total of around 3 grand USD, but again totally worth it. Community is rad and helpful too.
If you're going the free route and have some coding chops, I'd run with openFrameworks. It's a c++ wrapper of the iphone sdk and has a very low learning curve. OpenFrameworks was created for artists who wanted to make interactive installations and art games but couldn't get really deep into objective c. Check out zach gage's work (stfj). He made bit pilot, unify, synthpond, and sonic wire sculptor all in open frameworks. He's also releasing his best yet very soon for the iPad. My own company is using oF (openFrameworks) for it's new game releasing this coming Saturday. Try it out. I guarantee you'll find something you love about it.
Good question. For very specific gaming needs, PhoneGap is worth a look. But considering it's JavaScript/ HTML/ CSS, it will not be as fast as the (IMO terrific) Corona. But if your game is in any way more page-related than sprite-animation related, give it a look. I created most of the games at VersusPad.com using PhoneGap, but now switched to Corona.
I have a pretty basic challenge-based iPhone game, and I wanted to know what my options are for player discovery & matchmaking. I may end up rolling my own server, but if I don't have to, even better.
So far, I've found OpenFeint and Scoreloop, but I don't really care about the social part or discovering other games, I just want a simple system with matchmaking, win/loss, and global rankings. CocosLive has the global ranking part, but not the matchmaking.
Also just found RakNet.
Thanks.
Check out the Google App Engine for a free to cheap alternative to setting up your own server. It also has the added benefit of being Google, which to me spells reliability.
I expect that RakNet and similar companies will want a bunch of money for this solution - one of their clients is Sony Online Entertainment which to me spells money.
Also as you search around for solutions I would focus more on searching for open source code to put on your Google App Engine rather than a service. Online services require bandwith, which costs money. Information is free.
Good luck!
Are there any libraries / frameworks that facilitate 2D game programming in Lua on the iPhone?
It looks like http://anscamobile.com/ and http://sio2interactive.com/GAMES.html are the only reasonable options at this point. Someone should create a simple Lua binding for OpenGL, AL and iPhone Events for the iPhone!
#richcollins: Actually, as of late last year you CAN test on the physical device using Corona (anscamobile.com).
If you want to check this out, download the free trial at developer.anscamobile.com, and it'll let you make developer builds for your phone.
The full version will also make App Store builds -- feel free to email support (at) anscamobile.com if you have further questions.
I'm trying out SIO2 as it apparently supports lua.
http://sio2interactive.com/GAMES.html
While it is for 3D and may be overkill for 2d it looks pretty powerful. Just make your models in 2d and fix your camera position.
--jdkoftinoff
There has been a fair amount of discussion of Lua on the iPhone on the Lua list. It appears that Apple is touchy about allowing user-supplied scripts, but has approved apps that used Lua internally as an implementation language.
I know I've seen reference to several approaches to wrapping iPhone goodies mentioned, but since I'm not personally an iPhone developer (or even user) I haven't paid attention to the details.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a site that potentially has some inspirational user interfaces for building my own iPhone Apps. It's straight forward to continually build out applications with the conventional UIKit widgets, but it does not set you apart from the competition. Some resources on how to build attractive interfaces is highly desired for inspiration. This is for someone with minimal Photoshop/Illustrator skills, but doesn't mind using sites such as iStockPhoto and working with custom views.
Apple is historically well-known for the user interfaces of its products and programs written for them, but in recent years it has come under fire for seemingly allowing its Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) to lapse. Some of the best Mac and iPhone applications are actually those that deviate from the HIG, but not so much that usability (or acceptance into the App Store) is sacrificed (see link text).
Examples of such innovative iPhone applications can be found in the iPhone app and web app showcases of Apple Design Award winners. These apps have been judged by Apple itself to be creative, inspiring, and exemplary of the iPhone platform's potential as a mobile computing device.
Go to your local best buy, game stop, or any other store with xbox360s, wiis and playstation 3s lying around. Play every single demo on these machines and rate them solely on UI experience. Triple A console games still lead the interface world in my opinion. Soft synths are a close second and also often have beautiful UIs (as Chris Schreiner pointed out). A quick trip through logic will give you a glimpse of apple's own work in that direction.
You might want to check out this article by Matt Gemmell about his process in designing the UI for his Favorites app.
10 Gorgeously Designed iPhone Applications has some very nicely designed apps.
I spent a long time getting this one together, it's a full list of every single ios inspiration / mobile css gallery I could find on the internet. Let me know if you find any others so I can add them!
http://www.kintek.com.au/web-design-blog/iphone-mobile-css-gallery-listing-ios-inspiration/
Maybe this will help: My source of inspiration comes from the software-synth domain. Circle from FAW comes to mind. Ableton Live is (in my book) something to look at.
Heres a good article about designing the Convertbot application. A very simple app that stands out because of its UI.
I hate to burst your bubble, but great design is not something you will get from finding a "site" to look at. Major universities have graduate design programs, that's the kind of place where some people learn to be great designers. Multiple courses and textbooks on design and all the related areas (art, architecture, psychology, biomechanics, etc., etc.) I've seen too many engineers, without at least some of this training, routinely suggest some really bad UI design ideas. Don't be another one of them.
Treat learning great design as something far bigger than finding a site (or learning another programming language, etc.), more like a multi-year endeavor, and you might have a chance.
Or find and team up with someone who's already an experienced designer.