Forums » Everything else » Thinking of Taking the Plunge (Appmobi and Impact License Question)

Sorry of this has already been brought up before. My goal is to make a game for iOS and possibly Android. From the looks of it Appmobi seems to be the best way to go since their DirectCanvas promises the performance I am looking for. But here is my question, will buying the Appmobi license give me access to the resources on this site?

Specifically, I am referring to Biolab Disaster. This is the kind of game I want to make and I would definitely love the have the source as a reference.

So, what should I do, should I buy the license directly from Appmobi?

Although it doesn't specifically say so I wouldn't have any reason to think that all the example projects wouldn't be included with the Impact license. However, the full source for Biolab Disaster is not actually available but many of the mechanics of the game are included as examples.

My advice... Take the plunge. If you want appMobi also, get it from them.

Do it! Do it now!!!!

AppMobi doesn't support android.

also iOS impact is included when you get impact directly from dominick here. not sure what his deal with appmobi is but i would really encourage you to support the original creator as much as possible.

if you're developing on a mac then having the source is obviously way better really as you get a project you can actually build with XCode and see what's going on - and can modify or extend as you need. you also get debug info when the javascript starts up, so you can really dig into whats going on even in the game. this was invaluable for me in terms of debugging issues with my JS code.

if you don't have access to a mac tho, appmobi will do the build for you in the cloud. if you are just changing the graphics of an existing game, it should be ok.

also note with appmobi i think they still leave a menu bar at the top of your app, so you cant get fullscreen. that was low on their list of priorities but maybe got fixed. with iOS impact you can get fullscreen, and pretty much anything you want.

appmobi solution also wraps a browser into your app so you can use normal DOM code for dialogs etc.

btw there are many other solutions coming for accelerated canvas. for example ludei, game closure, spaceport... and the platform guys themselves are hard at work on webGL (which is actually working in mobile safari, just turned off for security reasons - http://atnan.com/blog/2011/11/03/enabling-and-using-webgl-on-ios/ )

It’s not really a plunge, it’s more of a graceful dive into your desire to develop and design games.

If there’s little desire, the water will be deeper.

/EndMetaphor

@Hareesun deep metaphor

Quote from yatayata
AppMobi doesn't support android.

Yeah it does and they work on DC for android. Stop spreading wrong info. A lot of the stuff you wrote is untrue and just shows you haven't actually created anything with appmobi.

AppMobi's DirectCanvas is similar to iOSimpact - really man do your homework before you talk crap. With DirectCanvas I achieved 60fps steady consistent rate at all times in my game with minimum work.

I personally use AppMobi's XDK and bought Impact off here. Game Dev XDK is a very good value but it's your choice what you want to go with.

As regards the bundle you get from here - if you have at least some experience at OO JavaScript programming it will be enough for you to write your game from scratch in less than 10 days (at least this is how long it took me to write my first biolaby game including learning the engine). You will receive drop source code that will teach you the procedural way of creating game levels, jump'n'run that will teach you how to spawn entities, assign controls, deal with collision layer tile detection and other also you get Box2D demo for physics based games plus awesome community that is really helpful. And of course iOSimpact.

Buying impact is really a NO-BRAINER.

@fugufish - 20,000 leagues under the sea deep? ;)

This has given me a lot to think about. I do have a mac, so I have access to Xcode. Does this mean that if I use iOS Imapact I will be able to run my game via javascript, but I will still be able to call native iphone functions or possibly add gamecenter?

But if I purchase appmobi, and the ImpactJS license that I got from them also granted me access to the resources on this site (like iOS Impact) then this would not be an issue, I could try out both options and see which one would work best for me.

You need phone gap to package iosimpact.
Appmobi does the same but you don't need Xcode or mac to do that. Using phone gap or appmobi will give you acces to phone functions ( at least some of them ). You get iOS impact if you buy it off here with appmobi you get their DirectCanvas which is pretty much the same. If you have a mac then buy it here you'll get all you need to package it for AppStore.

Check out biolab disaster on AppStore. This was packaged for AppStore and is using iosimpact. Then try private joe which was packaged with appmobi. Both work the same and use similar technologies. DirectCanvas was actually based on iosimpact.

Two minor corrections to Jerczu's post: iOSImpact does not need PhoneGap; It's "stand-alone". And DirectCanvas isn't based on iOSImpact, but inspired by it. That's what AppMobi told me, I haven't seen their source ;)

@Joel:
AppMobi's license does not grant you access to resources here on impactjs.com. You only get iOSImpact with my own license.

The way I see it is this: iOSImpact is "experimental". It has a lot of rough edges, but you also get the whole source code for it and you can write any native iOS code and call it from JavaScript.

AppMobi's DirectCanvas is a lot more mature and easier to use, but you can't dig around in its internals.

If you want to try both, start with my license. If it doesn't work out for you I can give you a full refund.

Thanks for replying dominic, right now I'm at crossroads, I like that appmobi is easy to use, but ultimately I would want to be able to add game center and other native stuff, so I think I'll get the source from here.

On a related note, does anyone know of any resources that details how you would call cocoa and other objective-c stuff from Javascript?

You can always add the appMobi stuff at a discount later, if you choose.

-??

I would go with the license you get over here - $99 is not a massive amount of money for the engine you get.

There is some learning curve to it but it is not too steep and community here is great so if you get stuck you'll probably find an answer on the forums or you'll get an answer from one of the active users here.

If you are interested in making some $$$ on Apple AppStore or Android you can either use iOSimpact or AppMobi DC (apparently coming also to Android in January). You need to take into account also the fees on appStores - Apple charges you $99 p/a and you get 70% of what your game makes. Similarly is on Android but as far as I know there is just one off fee of $25 and then 70-30 ratio on sales as on Apple.

AppMobi has an awesome XDK and on their GameDev XDK you get a big discount if you already have Impact license.

Quote from dominic
Two minor corrections to Jerczu's post: iOSImpact does not need PhoneGap; It's "stand-alone". And DirectCanvas isn't based on iOSImpact, but inspired by it. That's what AppMobi told me, I haven't seen their source ;)

Ha ha... Thanks for correction - I was under the impression that in order to package the iOSimpact to an app I'll need to use PhoneGap - I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere over here. I personally use AppMobi's DirectCanvas (iOSimpact inspired) and it does work great and packaging couldn't be made easier - but you need to take into account that I never used PhoneGap or Xcode as I don't own a Mac.