Adobe Flash Platform Blog

Q&A with esDot Studio’s Shawn Blais

2012-01-31T20:53:49Z

We recently caught up with esDot Studio’s owner Shawn Blais to learn about some of his recent projects using Flash and AIR for game and app development. Check out the Q&A below to see what Shawn is creating, monetizing and having fun doing what loves. Enjoy!

What is your name, company, title?

Shawn Blais, owner/coder/marketer of esDot Studio, Inc. esDot is a company I started for the sole purpose of developing cool, polished AIR apps to mobile platforms. I started serious mobile development in late 2010, since then I’ve created 5 apps and am hard at work on the 6th. I code primarily on evenings and weekends, by day I’m lucky enough to work with a fantastic team at gskinner.com here in Edmonton. Without the experience and opportunities gained there I certainly would not be where I am today.

Where are you located?

Edmonton, AB.

Why did you use Flash/AIR to develop this app?

Two reasons really, efficiency and reach. Flash is so incredibly efficient at churning out high quality interactive apps, that you can literally code entire apps in a matter of 2 or 3 weeks, for me this is huge. I can use my skillset, and existing workflow to literally just fly through these apps.

In terms of reach, AIR allows me to take those 2 or 3 week apps, and deploy them to iOS, Android, BlackBerry PlayBook, Amazon Appstore and NOOK Color. That’s pretty crazy. And since there are two new markets opening up next year, Windows Metro and BlackBerry10, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to deliver my apps to those, too.

Diversifying my income across all these different app stores has really been a key part of my success. It’s been interesting to watch how different apps sell in different markets, SnowBomber for example took off pretty big on BlackBerry PlayBook, and Amazon Appstore, but was quiet everywhere else. TouchUp on the other hand, sells best on iOS. So it’s always different depending on the market, and it’s hard to predict, so it pays to just be in them all.

I looked hard at options like Corona, and Appcelerator, but I couldn’t get over the lack of strong typing in the languages, and the hit to my overall efficiency would have been massive. Also, the hard truth about HTML apps is that testing costs are massive, you really need to test on devices, on different versions of OS etc, and debugging is pretty hard, so it ends up being this monumental time drain. With AIR testing on a new device is usually just a couple hours, or even no time at all, and you get live debugging with breakpoints, so it’s usually pretty easy. That’s not to say there isn’t the odd issue that will drive you nuts, but it’s fairly rare!

How easy was it to deliver your app across multiple channels?

Signing up for the various portals, and passing approval is a pretty tedious process, but once you’re all setup it’s really a breeze. The fact I can build and install an iOS app, using a Windows box, is pretty awesome. Most other development paths would force me to buy a Mac to code on (I actually did end up buying a cheap mac for $500 off eBay, in order to do the final upload to iTunes).

Are you monetizing this app currently? If not, do you have plans to do so in the future?

Currently I’m monetizing ColorUp Pro, TouchUp Pro, SkyTunes, SnowBomber and RedditSolitaire across various markets. Most of my apps have free and paid versions, and TouchUp Pro and SnowBomber also have In App Purchase support on iOS, using an ANE.

Adding In App Purchase, and releasing a free version TouchUp Pro was a great experiment. It nearly doubled my sales on iOS, and I now get an even split between In App Purchase, and Paid Installs.

How many people are currently using the app?

With TouchUp Pro, there are about 12,000 daily users across all platforms. SnowBomber sees about 3000-4000 players a day, most of those on PlayBook or Kindle [is this Kindle Fire?]. Across all my apps, I see about 5,000-10,000 installs a day, with around 5% of those being paid.

What drives you to create these apps/games?

Primarily it was financial, new baby, new house, so something had to give and I saw this as the road to success. Plus, I’m just a complete gadget freak, so I was incredibly passionate about mobile devices, and bringing cool new UI’s to them.

Do you have anything else up your sleeve?

I have a new Photo Editor coming out very soon which will be stunning, it’s running at 60fps and the graphics are based on Android 4.0 UI. Then it looks like we might be teaming up with the awesome artists over at Cherry Sauce (http://cherrysauce.squarespace.com/contact/) to do some fun stuff. Stay tuned!

What do you want developers to know about creating apps with AIR/Flash?

Well, if you haven’t tried it lately, go for it. The performance is really great these days and the workflow is solid, it’s really improved a lot over the earlier AIR 2.7 SDK.

In terms of making money, from my experience the money is in productivity apps. Just make something really nice, really simple, that everyone needs, and you’ll do well. It doesn’t really matter if there’s good competitors in the space, because users love having choices. As long as that space is not completely oversaturated … the most saturated markets seem to be Games and Music, so maybe look elsewhere…

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Check out my blog for some tips and tricks on how to achieve fast rendering in AIR for mobile: http://esdot.ca/site/category/blog

2012: The Year of Gaming

2012-01-09T18:54:57Z

Happy New Year! We’re excited to start 2012, and the holidays have brought a bushel of new games and apps, including the first version of those famously Angry Birds using Flash Player 11 and Stage3D. If you’re all revved up and looking to build something new in the coming year, see how you can publish a car visualizer to Flash in 90 seconds with Flare3D Studio Workflow.

As we announced last year, we are investing in our Flash technologies to support the kind of innovative 3D and 2D games that developers and publishers want to deliver both in browsers and through mobile apps. To give developers access to high-performance C/C++ code, we told you we’re creating an improved, paid, fully supported release of Alchemy for production development. This new addition will be available later this year and will allow developers to publish content leveraging Alchemy technology in Flash Player 11 or AIR 3 and beyond. Meanwhile, a few months ago we introduced full GPU-accelerated graphics rendering with Stage3D, which provides 1000x faster rendering performance over the previous versions of Flash Player and AIR on the desktop. Stage3D in Flash Player already enables fluid, hardware accelerated graphics for more people in more browsers than any other web technology. And we’re now seeing exciting previews of Stage3D hardware acceleration coming for mobile devices like iPhone, iPad, and Android smartphones and tablets.

See for yourself what’s happening with the latest updates to Flash Player and AIR for gaming, and jump in on the fun by checking out the beta release of Flash Player 11.2 and AIR 3.2!

Q&A with SparkChess’ Armand Niculescu

2011-12-20T17:49:50Z

We recently caught up with Media Division’s lead developer and co-owner Armand Niculescu about SparkChess. Check out the Q&A below to learn about SparkChess, Armand’s process and why he relies on Adobe to deliver games across platforms and the globe. Enjoy!

Why did you use Flash/AIR to develop this app?

I’ve been using Flash since 1998 and over the years I’ve learned its strengths and weaknesses. Things that won me over were its availability across platforms, the rich toolset from Adobe and third parties and the ease in combining great graphics and animation with programming.

When I started working on it there was no HTML5, and even today I would not be able to deliver the same experience with Canvas & Javascript without worrying about compatibility or making compromises.

How easy was it to deliver your app across multiple platforms/channels?

SparkChess is built with Flash Professional for interface elements, and I’m using FDT5 and Flash Builder to manage the code base – about 25,000 lines of code spread in 80 classes. The code is the same but I have slightly different graphics and layout for each platform. The biggest challenge was that the game had to be tested on each device, not as much for functionality but for the user experience, especially on tablet devices. A 7” tablet needs bigger buttons than a 10” one, the aspect ratios are different, you need to take the onscreen keyboard into consideration and so on.

The packaging and signing process is different for each platform, and can be confusing at first, but once I had it worked out, I created some batch files to automate packaging and signing for all platforms. Submitting to the various stores requires some preparation and organization, but it’s nothing daunting.

The multiplayer functionality is built with Union Platform, providing a consistent experience across platforms.

Are you monetizing this app currently? If not, do you have plans to do so in the future?

Yes. There are some significant maintenance costs associated with the game – CDN, multiplayer servers and so on.

SparkChess is available for free with ads and as a paid version with no ads and some very nice additional features.

How many people are currently using the app?

In total, across platforms, there are about 420,000 weekly users (single player and multiplayer). 8,000 chess games are played in multiplayer every day.

What drives you to create these apps/games?

I wrote my first game when I was 11 on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It’s what got me started with graphics and programming. Games are some of the most challenging types of applications: they have to look great, run smoothly and above all, entertain. They are an excellent way for any programmer to push the envelope and learn new skills.

As part programmer – part designer (though I absolutely despise the term ‘devigner’), I was always interested in creating visually appealing apps. With SparkChess, my goal is to have a chess game that’s actually fun to play by casual players and that also helps them improve their skills. I’m also told by parents that kids love it, that it is a game for all ages.

Do you have anything else up your sleeve?

Yes! I’m listening to user feedback and I’m constantly tweaking SparkChess to make it an even more enjoyable experience and to take advantage of the upcoming features in Flash Player and AIR.

Based on this experience, I’m in the planning stage of a new multiplayer strategy game.

What do you want developers to know about creating apps with AIR/Flash?

Since the beginning, the beauty of Flash was its ability to deliver a consistent experience (graphics, fonts, animation and later program logic) across browsers and platforms. With AIR and native extensions, I can now deliver a native-like experience on all major operating systems and platforms. In a way, Flash is Java done right. Recent advancements in Javascript, CSS, the Canvas element and other HTML-related technologies can make HTML5 an alternative in some cases, especially for features that need to look integrated in a website. On the other hand, the browser quirks and lack of solid development environments make development of complex apps much harder, resulting in higher costs. An objective assessment should be done on a a per-project basis.

What I love about Flash, compared to any other platform, framework or environment, is the ease in combining programming with animation, graphics, sound and video in a seamless way, and with the new 3D support, the possibilities keep expanding.

FarmVille Features Flash Animation in Holiday Film

2011-12-11T00:35:49Z

FarmVille embraces the holiday spirit and helps children in the process! The loveable cast of characters from the addictive Facebook Flash game launched their first-ever Flash animated holiday film. T’is the season for giving! FarmVille has partnered with Save The Children to give players a fun way to contribute to a great cause. Watch “A Very FarmVille Christmas” or go to FarmVille.com for a super-cool way to contribute. By making select in-game purchases, you can make a real difference in a child’s life.

For more information on game development using Flash and AIR, please visit the Adobe Gaming Solutions site.

Developers: Game On!

2011-12-02T00:20:25Z

Compelling online games? Check! Pushing the limits of interactive creativity across multiple browsers? Check! For online game developers, Flash is the console of the web for delivering gaming experiences that draw committed gamers. Adobe’s investment in Flash for both desktop, in-browser gaming as well as apps for mobile and TV (via AIR) is a growing opportunity. We are currently defining new features and an updated gaming roadmap, which we’ll be sharing with you through blog posts, announcements and demos down the road.

In the meantime, if you’re an online game developer, you can continue to use Flash to reach the broadest audience across desktop browsers. To augment developer solutions for gaming, we recently released Stage 3D APIs for Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 for desktop and TV, and the stage is set for an upcoming release of Stage 3D for mobile apps. Given the range of incredible mobile games already under development in prerelease, I’m excited about the opportunity this provides game developers to reach new audiences and deliver unique and immersive 2D and 3D gaming apps.

Speaking of apps, we’re doubling down on AIR, which gives developers the ability to take Flash based content and create apps for multiple mobile marketplaces, including Apple’s App Store, Android Market, Amazon Appstore, and BlackBerry AppWorld. Developers can also deliver AIR apps that run on the recently released Amazon Kindle Fire as well as the Barnes & Noble Color NOOK.

Here are some great examples of a few recent hits powered by Flash and AIR.

Machinarium

Delta Strike

Ben Franklin vs the Dead Coats

La Carrera del Siglo, made with Flare 3D and Stage 3D

As we recently communicated, this updated strategy will narrow our focus and allow Adobe to prioritize development of Flash for advanced gaming online and via mobile apps with AIR. For more information on game development using Flash and AIR, please visit the Adobe Gaming Solutions site.

Winning Tablet Apps for Adobe AIR App Challenge, Sponsored by Sony, Announced

2011-11-17T14:53:09Z

Today, Adobe and Sony are excited to announce the winners of the ‘Adobe® AIR® App Challenge, Sponsored by Sony’. The contest launched in July to drive the creation of breakthrough Flash based apps powered by Adobe AIR for the Android-based Sony Tablet™ S and Sony Tablet™ P. The winners will receive a cash prize plus premium promotion* of their app for Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P via Sony’s Select App, the website with a shortcut icon on the tablets’ home-screen to highlight Sony-recommended Android™ apps.

Hundreds of entries were received from developers in eligible countries, including Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and USA. The winning apps in five categories (excluding ‘MAX Public Favorite’) were selected by a panel of Adobe and Sony judges and industry experts. Submitted apps were judged based on quality and performance on Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P, innovation and creativity, and overall user experience. All apps are now live and available for download from Android Market™ – visit the links below. Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who submitted an app!

List of Winning Applications by Category

Grand Prize ($100,000 US): Tweet Hunt, by RED Interactive Agency
- Tweet Hunt is a classic shooting gallery game powered by Twitter.

Best Game ($20,000 US): Conveyor, by drMikeyStudios
- Conveyor is an addictive word game – race the clock to score the most points!

Best Entertainment App ($20,000 US): Kidoodle: Pirate Scribblebeard, by Kidoodle Apps
- Join Oscar, Josephine and Pirate Scribblebeard in this groundbreaking new type of interactive, animated, drawing app for kids.

Best Business & Productivity App ($20,000 US): Conqu, by AsFusion
- Conqu is an easy-to-use yet powerful task management application that will help you conquer your inbox with style.

Best Lifestyle & Community App ($20,000 US): Sylvester’s Band, by Uncle Handsalt
- Sylvester’s Band is Sylvester’s Band an interactive book for children ages 2-7, with 35+ pages and English voiceover.

Most Innovative App ($10,000 US): LEVEL, by drMikeyStudios
- LEVEL is a puzzle-platformer with a twist. Designed specifically for the Sony Tablet P, LEVEL takes specific advantage of the two screen layout.

MAX Public Favorite ($10,000 US): Cassandra Stand – News & Clock, by Small Screen Design
- Transform your tablet into a useful stand with date & clock, weather forecast and top stories from more than 50 countries. (Announced last month at MAX 2011, Adobe’s annual developer and designer conference, based on a public vote from the ten applications selected for the Adobe MAX Showcase prizes).

The Android-powered Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P devices combine all of Sony’s innovations rolled into one including unique hardware, content and network services with seamless usability to create a world of engaging networked entertainment experiences.

Sony Tablet devices are distinguished by four key features that set them apart from any other tablets on the market. These include: optimally designed hardware and software, a “swift and smooth” performance, cross-device connectivity and network entertainment services including Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited, PlayStation® Store and Reader™ Store.

Sony Tablet S is optimized for rich media entertainment on its 9.4-inch touchscreen display and its unique asymmetric design allows for hours of comfortable use. With a powerful NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile processor, the Sony Tablet S lets you enjoy the web as well as your favorite content and applications on its large, high-resolution screen and built-in Wi-Fi® compatibility means Internet connectivity virtually anywhere there’s a hotspot.

Available in 2012 exclusively on AT&T’s mobile broadband network, Sony Tablet P is ideal for mobile communication and entertainment. With its revolutionary folding design and two 5.5-inch displays, it can easily fit into a pocket, purse or backpack. Sony Tablet P is both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G capable allowing users access to digital content including videos, games, and e-mail, while on the go, nearly anytime. Taking advantage of its unprecedented design, Sony Tablet P allows for dual screen functionality within specific applications, , such as playing games on one screen while using the other as a controller or reading e-mail on one screen while using the other as a software keyboard.

For additional contest details, please visit the ‘Adobe AIR App Challenge, Sponsored by Sony’ website at http://airappchallenge.com. For more information on Adobe AIR, go to www.adobe.com/products/air.html.

* Requires signing a premium promotional agreement with Sony

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Lights up App Creativity

2011-11-17T00:22:11Z

This is an exciting day for Adobe AIR developers who create amazing Flash based apps capable of reaching over 350 million smartphones and tablets by the end of this year, including the iPad. Today, Amazon began shipping the Kindle Fire, a new tablet boasting a 7” full color multi-touch display with 8GB of internal storage and free cloud storage for all Amazon content.

The Kindle Fire is already equipped to run AIR apps available on the Amazon Appstore for Android, right out of the box. Using Flash Builder or Flash Professional and the AIR SDK, developers can create and deliver Flash based apps via AIR, which run outside of the browser and deliver rich interaction and stunning performance. The Fire shipped with AIR 2.7, but developers can deliver AIR 3 apps by leveraging captive runtime. Apps created for the Android Market can also be published to the Amazon Appstore and there are currently many cool AIR apps available on the Appstore already, including:

Pyramix (interactive word game)

Pocket Penguins (live streaming video of penguins at the California Academy of Sciences)

TouchUp Pro (photo editing for your phone)

Politifact (the #1 news app)

We’re excited to see how the Kindle Fire will encourage new and creative uses for tablets, and the many ways new Flash based apps will help deliver those experiences through the Amazon Appstore.

Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5

2011-11-16T02:38:37Z

[Also posted on Adobe's Conversations Blog]

Adobe is all about enabling designers and developers to create the most expressive content possible, regardless of platform or technology. For more than a decade, Flash has enabled the richest content to be created and deployed on the web by reaching beyond what browsers could do. It has repeatedly served as a blueprint for standardizing new technologies in HTML. Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices.

However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.

These changes will allow us to increase investment in HTML5 and innovate with Flash where it can have most impact for the industry, including advanced gaming and premium video. Flash Player 11 for PC browsers just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. Flash developers can take advantage of these features, and all that our Flash tooling has to offer, to reach more than a billion PCs through their browsers and to package native apps with AIR that run on hundreds of millions of mobile devices through all the popular app stores, including the iTunes App Store, Android Market, Amazon Appstore for Android and BlackBerry App World.

We are already working on Flash Player 12 and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences. We will continue to leverage our experience with Flash to accelerate our work with the W3C and WebKit to bring similar capabilities to HTML5 as quickly as possible, just as we have done with CSS Shaders. And, we will design new features in Flash for a smooth transition to HTML5 as the standards evolve so developers can confidently invest knowing their skills will continue to be leveraged.

We are super excited about the next generations of HTML5 and Flash. Together they offer developers and content publishers great options for delivering compelling web and application experiences across PCs and devices. There is already amazing work being done that is pushing the newest boundaries, and we can’t wait to see what is still yet to come!

Danny Winokur is the Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development at Adobe

[UPDATED: 11/15/11 at 6:40 p.m. PT]

Read these related posts from Adobe’s Ben Forta, Thibault Imbert, Lee Brimelow, Pritham Shetty, Mike Chambers, Andrew Shorten and Deepa Subramaniam:

Some Thoughts on Flash and Devices
By Ben Forta
http://forta.com/blog/index.cfm/2011/11/9/Some-Thoughts-On-Flash-And-Devices

Adobe AIR and Flash Player Team Blog- Focusing
By Thibault Imbert
https://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/11/focusing.html

Flash to Focus on Apps for Mobile
By Lee Brimelow
http://www.leebrimelow.com/?p=3151

Adobe Flash for Premium Video
By Pritham Shetty
http://blogs.adobe.com/ktowes/2011/11/adobe-flash-for-premium-video.html

Flash Professional and the Future
By Mike Chambers
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/10/flash-professional-and-the-future

Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers, the Flash Platform, and the Future of Flash
By Mike Chambers
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/

Your Questions about Flex (UPDATED: 11/15/11)
By Andrew Shorten & Deepa Subramaniam
http://blogs.adobe.com/flex/2011/11/your-questions-about-flex.html

Reach the Final Frontier with Circ and Flash Builder

2011-10-25T20:53:18Z

Circ, available for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS, is so simple in its gameplay but challenging at the same time—players navigate their spaceships collecting stars and points, while escaping from planets and stars trying to pull the ship away from its course. It’s the kind of game that’s perfect for passing the time between train stops or even just for a quiet few minutes at home.

Similarly, the challenge for Scrape Apps, the brains behind Circ, is navigating the hurdles related to releasing the game across platforms in spite of a limited budget and limited team resources. That’s why they turned to the Adobe Flash Platform, specifically Flash Builder.

The team leveraged features in Flash Builder such as reusable coding, automatic debugging and streamlined optimization to make the game available on as many platforms as possible in the least amount of time using the least amount of resources. Now the Circ team is looking forward to building new enhancements into the game, while taking advantage of Flash Builder’s flexibility and extensibility.

To learn more about how the Circ development team worked with the Flash Platform, visit here. Also be sure to check out www.adobe.com/gaming for more about our gaming solutions.

Adobe at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011

2011-10-19T20:17:42Z

Adobe’s VP and General Manager of Interactive Solutions, Danny Winokur, joined RIM’s Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development, on stage at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011. Danny spoke about the exciting possibilities that Flash and HTML5 bring to the web and mobile app development – specifically for the BlackBerry PlayBook and BBX in the future.

Danny discussed the native implementation of Flash based apps on the PlayBook and announced that more than 4,000 apps are now live on BlackBerry App World – including Facebook and Evernote, an app which aggregates and synchronizes everything from notes to videos with your Mac or PC. Danny demoed Flash based apps running on the PlayBook including Machinarium, which is coming soon to BlackBerry App World. Machinarium, a puzzle and adventure game app, has experienced great success on the iPad 2 (formerly the #1 iPad game in 13 countries and the iPad Game of the Week”) – and is now being ported to the PlayBook using AIR.

Danny also showed off Zombie Tycoon, a console gaming experience originally created for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), using a pre-release of the mobile 3D APIs in Flash Player 11 to display eye-popping 3D effects on the PlayBook. For more info about Adobe’s gaming solutions, visit www.adobe.com/gaming. Check out Danny’s keynote appearance and demos below: