Forums » Everything else » Progress saving in iOSImpact / AppMobi

Like last time I asked about both, I don't really have a preference at this point, asking more ahead of time to judge which is the best solution for me.

For normal web based stuff, if you want to save the user's progress, you have the choice of doing something with AJAX and sending it off to a server, or there's always localStorage (any browser that has a canvas will support localStorage), which means for savegames etc, there's flexibility in how you approach it.

But when you're doing it on a native app, it's a different ballgame. So I'm wondering how you'd tackle it in either of the above environments.

Main reason I thought about it was that I'd been playing Dizzy - Prince of the Yolkfolk that was recently ported to iOS, and noticed that it had save states, since it's a bit too long to be completed in one sitting in the 'usual mobile timeframe' (it takes about half an hour or so if you know what you're doing, longer if you don't)

Sure, the game suspends normally if you head back to the home screen, but it will also retain your progress if you actually terminate it, because it's saved that progress as you go. Some of what I have in mind would benefit from doing something similar (though probably a shade less clunky than it comes across in D-PotYF) so I'm just wondering how that might be achieved.

Of course, something similar would be required in the case of high score tables or other progress-saving anyway, and I'm expressly not interested in AJAX or anything that requires internet access. I would want my players to be able to save their progress on their device without having to be connected (e.g. playing the game on the train outside network areas)

i used localStorage for my appMobi game

See, I'm still not that clued in by how appMobi works (and still not enthusiastic about the fact that there's what looks like a 5 game a year production limit), so it never occurred to me that localStorage would work as expected there.

it works awesome actually. didn't know about the production limit, any link to that?

http://www.appmobi.com/?q=node/204

The GamePro package says you get unlimited builds for 5 game projects. But maybe I'm missing something (I have to admit I'm completely confused by what's actually on offer... some of it seems to be free, some of it paid, and I'm not sure what I'd need seeing that I have a Mac and can thus do my own builds anyway)

ping Tyler from appMobi to clarify this. They're based on the east coast, US

> I'm not sure what I'd need seeing that I have a Mac and can thus do my own builds anyway

previously using appmobi required you to use their cloud build system. however they've open sourced a lot of stuff recently, so now you can build locally.

appMobi guys have implemented a lot more javascript APIs than dom did in iOS impact, eg:

https://github.com/appMobi/ios/blob/master/appMobiLib/Classes/DirectCanvas/JS_LocalStorage.m

previously using appmobi required you to use their cloud build system. however they've open sourced a lot of stuff recently, so now you can build locally.

Sure, but I'm also cognizant of the fact that they're still providing cloud builds if you don't have the ability to build yourself.

Consequently, given that I have an Impact licence, plus the ability to build myself, I'm not sure what the difference between the free and paid options is...

And yes, I know that appMobi is more thorough than iOSImpact, but without being funny, I know exactly where I stand with iOSImpact, I don't understand the difference between the free and paid stuff with appMobi or why - other than something like this - I should use it over iOSImpact.

But at the end of it, that's why I asked since I'm not committed to either solution at this time and can happily make the switch if appropriate :)

@Arantor

Hopefully I can shed some light on the differences :D

There are a couple differences between the paid version of Impact GameDev XDK and building an app using Impact and DC with our open source project.

Mainly, you get a block of each of our cloud services for a year. So if you'd like to add push messages to your game, or use our analytics to see what your users are doing in the app, you already have an allotted amount out of the box.

You also get unlimited game builds (with our build system) for both apps stores for 5 different games a year.

Now if you know how to build for iOS and Android, then this may be unnecessary for you, which is why we decided to open source our native container.

Thanks for the clarification :)

So, as I'm not interested in the cloud services and have my own ability to produce builds for iOS (not interested in Android), the free version sounds like it would be what I was looking for, though I might purchase the year's package as a thank-you anyway if I end up using XDK :)