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B4X is a set of simple and powerful cross platform RAD tools:
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we are waiting to see it =)
thanx tuvanv, the real game will be much more fun...
release date: 1-2 weeks..
If you want to develop a game that is really cross-platform, B4A is not the best choice. Nowadays, you have many game engines completely free like Unity or based on a fair agreement like Unreal Engine (they earn 5% of your sales only after your earnings go over a certain threshold). You develop only once and can compile for a broad variety of platforms (not only iOS, Android and Windows Phone, but also Windows on desktop, PlayStation, XBox, Wii, BlackBerry...). You benefit from an API specifically made for games and a bunch a tools dedicated to the specific needs of game development. You don't have to develop your own physics engine or navigation engine, and everything is already optimized. Unity, for example, has a visual scene editor that helps a lot to build quickly your game, a scripting language that is simple to learn, an API that is rich and well documented, an asset store that is well-supplied with top FX or models for your game, etc. What you lose by learning how to use it is quickly regained by all this code you don't have to write, all these things you don't have to manage or worry about...
So doing things with only the core libraries of B4A is probably satisfying for the mind, to learn a few things and test your skills, but to make games, it's a strange decision to my eyes. And the average phone is probably a lot less powerful than a Samsung S5, so without succesful tries on low-cost phones and tablets, you're probably aiming a specific target.
So doing things with only the core libraries of B4A is probably satisfying for the mind, to learn a few things and test your skills, but to make games, it's a strange decision to my eyes. And the average phone is probably a lot less powerful than a Samsung S5, so without succesful tries on low-cost phones and tablets, you're probably aiming a specific target.
you are right but it's too advanced for the simple games that are popular these days.
on the other hand Unity will be slower on a low cost phone aswell just like a self written one.
with the lib less method Ilan is the only one who's responsible for what's running in his app, with some libs you never know what is happening in the background
and it will work via B4x on Android & IOS.
Sticking with libGDX limits him to Android only that's probably the reason why he's testing all this.
on the other hand Unity will be slower on a low cost phone aswell just like a self written one.
with the lib less method Ilan is the only one who's responsible for what's running in his app, with some libs you never know what is happening in the background
and it will work via B4x on Android & IOS.
Sticking with libGDX limits him to Android only that's probably the reason why he's testing all this.
you are correct fred, to have one code and then export to any platform is a dream of any developer
not only for games also for apps.
unity is to complicated for me when I see a tutorial in youtube I got headache from it.
there is one really great tool where you can make really nice games and export to android and iPhone called BuildBox
but its to expensive (2650$)
another great tool that I think I will buy soon is Construct2 its not expensive and you can export your game to android/iPhone/html without any changes, what is a big advantage (you get also free updates for lifetime)
If erel could make one tool that will export your code to android/ios this will be a big winner ...
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I'm not convinced by the fact that simple games are as popular as you say but probably because we don't have the same meaning for the word "simple". Look at the best sellers on the Play Store. Almost none of these games can be created in just a few days. These very popular games are maybe very simple to play, but not really simple to do. We all know some exceptions (and I know at least 2 B4A users that made some money with games that anyone could do without game libraries) but they are exceptions. We cannot base a development strategy on exceptions. Look at all these clones of simple and popular apps; they earn nothing.
Games are not just code, they are also graphics, design, interface, gameplay... and their popularity may be due to one of these very important aspects, or because the team that released it has already made a few successful games in the past, or invested a lot in ads. Moreover, many popular games can be played by network with other players. Try to do a real-time multiplayer game and you'll understand why I prefer to stay away from this kind of game (it's a real nightmare when a player suffers from losses of connection or a very important lag). Simplicity is sometimes just an appearance.
I don't have the recipe for success (if any exists) but I'm pretty sure that creating low-quality games is not the way to go.
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No Unity. Unity 4 was free, the new Unity 5 is still free. You can pay for the professional version (75$/month indeed) but what it adds is of very limited interest for 99% of indie developers. When you launch a game and you see the Unity logo, that means it was made with the free version (the splash screen is mandatory; it's the only drawback).
if we are talking about games, graphics, design...
marcTG send me a link to a Free open source tool where you can build your levels and physics bodies and export it and libgdx should know how to use those files.
I believe we need to make a lib that will make the connection between the exported files and b4a libgdx lib
is that possible fred?? http://overlap2d.com/
marcTG send me a link to a Free open source tool where you can build your levels and physics bodies and export it and libgdx should know how to use those files.
I believe we need to make a lib that will make the connection between the exported files and b4a libgdx lib
is that possible fred?? http://overlap2d.com/
I don't know whether Flappy birds could be done only with the core libraries (it's probably doable without being too slow), but as stated by a few articles about it, the success of this game was unexpected and irrational. I tried it and didn't understand its success. Ugly, frustrating, not really fun... Clearly an exception among the successful games.well, I was talking about games like flappy bird, 2048, bounce like games Ilan mentioned.
they are not really rocket science games that do well from what I read here.
(I am not following game/app sites for trends so I don't have a clue myself)
2048 was a success on the web before being available for Android. It is based on an addictive concept. As the author of 2048 published the source code and refused to make money with it, cloning the game was easy and potentially profitable. In a short span of time, we faced an invasion of these clones. It was hard to miss the game.
2048 proves that you can make a good game with simple code and simple graphics, but how many games of this kind do we see each year? In 2014, I saw only 1: 2048.
The hope of a big winning against a small fee draws people to lotteries. But winners are very uncommon. What's the fate of the numerous low-quality games published every day on the Play Store? They are very lucky if they go over 5000 downloads during their entire life for the free ones and a lot less for the paid ones. You cannot bet on this model.
Yes I know Overlap2D but I don't need it for now so, on my side, nothing is planned.
i can list you maybe 100 stupid games that made more the million downloads..
maybe people are sick of big size games (>500mb) and that's why simple 3-4 mb games are big winner and makes lot of money...
like, AA, dont tap the white tile, follow the line,...
take for example this game: Geometry Dash
its a paid game (2$) and it has between 1m to 5m downloads... this is unbelievable
its not a 3d game or something special, its a nice game but how is it possible that it has millions of downloads and it cost 2 $
maybe you need more luck then knowledge to success in this branch...
I think, It's massive advertising and social network campaign , if we don't count a few that nailed it with a pure luck.i can list you maybe 100 stupid games that made more the million downloads..
maybe people are sick of big size games (>500mb) and that's why simple 3-4 mb games are big winner and makes lot of money...
like, AA, dont tap the white tile, follow the line,...
take for example this game: Geometry Dash
its a paid game (2$) and it has between 1m to 5m downloads... this is unbelievable
its not a 3d game or something special, its a nice game but how is it possible that it has millions of downloads and it cost 2 $
maybe you need more luck then knowledge to success in this branch...
Noone said stupid. "Earn to Die" is stupid but is not simple to do. It is fun, well made and addictive despite you just have to press a button continuously. What I call "simple" is most of the time synonymous of "low quality": poor graphics, coded in a few days, not fully tested, cheap music and sounds, unplayable on some devices (too slow, not suited for the screen size, etc.)... The lack of work or skill is obvious. Tons of apps like this are uploaded every day to the Play Store and there are many in the "Share your creations" section of this forum. You say that you can name 100 of them that are successful, but it's maybe the number of games submitted EVERY DAY. How many will be succesful ? Any weekly lottery have hundreds of winners after a few years. But how many players spent a few bucks to participate ? If you don't give you advantages to stand out from the crowd, you will stay in the depths of the Play Store. You can multiply games, they will just be added at the bottom of the list. On the contrary, do you see "Clash of Clans" or a similar game with only 1000 downloads ? I tried to find one, I failed. Some big projects or ambitious indie games may be not profitable (less downloads than expected) but it's the risk that you take with any new product on a market.
You have different people on such a market, with different ages, different opinions, different uses of a device... Some want stupid and simple games, some want complex games, etc. It's difficult to say "people want this/prefer this" without doing a market study.
I'd like to see a list of 3-4 MB games that have a lot of downloads. Even a "Follow the line" clone needs more.
I didn't play it. Maybe it's really fun. Maybe you can't stop playing it.
Maybe there was a lot of money invested in promoting the app. Maybe the company behind the game was already succesful with another game and they attracted easily players to their new game.its not a 3d game or something special, its a nice game but how is it possible that it has millions of downloads and it cost 2 $
maybe you need more luck then knowledge to success in this branch...
What I see on Internet about this game does not make me feel that's a game that I can do in a few hours. Absolutely not.
2 million downloads doesn't mean that guy or team earned $4.000.000 or (or 70% of that after google took their share)
you have 2 hours or more to get a refund if you don't like that game afterall.
Maybe if you copy the apk before the uninstall you could reinstall it again to play if for free?
you have 2 hours or more to get a refund if you don't like that game afterall.
Maybe if you copy the apk before the uninstall you could reinstall it again to play if for free?
@ilan To avoid any misinterpretation: I don't consider your work as a low-quality work. I even installed one of your games on my kid's tablet. I try to give my opinion about your choice of doing cross-platform games with only core libraries. I doubt that the result will be very impressive. The core libraries are very limited. Finding a profitable place in the market is very hard, so are you sure that you give you all the chances for that?
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i know you did not talk about my apps and actually i agree with you. the problem with google play is that after you pay 25$ you can upload every sh** you want
no control, no filtering... and the problem is that the market is flood with sh** and new dev's that work hard have problems to be discovered by new users in this chaos
i dont think my apps are high quality or medium i think they are simple apps (games), i dont know if i would make them more complex they would make more money.
but maybe i am wrong.
to make a game like "Clash of Clans" is to much work for me or for 1 developer. you need a team for such game.
thank you for that and i really respect your opinion and also agree with you. but i dont know another language, i know only VB and i could not find any other option then B4x
btw. how is your new game going?? hit allready the million downloads