With the new update we’ve just released, we are introducing some great new premium items like the Hydra Rocket Launcher and the Instant Repair consumable. To save some time hunting for crystals and gathering cash we’ve added an option to buy Cash and Crystals using Facebook Credits.

Redisigned shop and icons

To make the shopping experience even more appealing, we’ve redesigned the in-game item shop. Watch out for the new premium items that you can buy using Crystals.

New inventory items also made it into this update. Nice, aren’t they?

New premium items

Buy Cash & Crystals using Facebook Credits

Can’t wait to try the new Hydra Launcher which fires 6 rockets at once but haven’t gathered 22 crystals yet? No problem, you now have the option to buy Cash and Crystals using Facebook Credits. With just a few clicks you can add a package of Crystals and you’re ready to go shopping!

More new features

But that’s not all, there are even more features that made it into this update:

• New background music with dynamic battle theme
• New options dialog and quick access settings panel
• Performance improvements to guarantee smooth gaming experience

Have fun with the new features and make sure to drop some feedback in our community!

Click here to play the new version right in Facebook, enjoy!

I’m sure you’ve heard people saying: “Flash doesn’t work on mobile” or “Flash is dead“…
I would say: “Flash is currently the best cross platfom technology for developing games for both desktop and mobile devices, including iOS!”

Read about how we got the Delta Strike prototype running on the iPad in just a couple of hours and what we’ve learned so far regarding performance and development workflows.

First of all, check out this video, showing the first prototype of Delta Strike for the iPad:

So how does it work? How did we get Delta Strike running on an iPad and how long did it take us to develop that prototype?

From Flash to iOS

The workflow is basically pretty simple. You take your Flash game, modify it a little bit to fit the screen resolution and touch input of your mobile device and export that exact game to iOS and/or Android with just one single click. The technology which makes that all possible is called Adobe AIR 3.2, which was introduced just a couple of days ago. With this latest update to version 3.2, developers can now make use of Stage3D (hardware accelerated 3D rendering) on mobile devices.

It’s native, no Flash Player required

The really cool thing about this technology is that Adobe AIR exports your game to a native application. In case of an iOS target, it exports your game to an .ipa file that you can simply drag and drop to your iPhone/iPad to install it natively. There is no need to install a Flash Player or anything else on your mobile device to run your game. Sweet, isn’t it?

Development Workflow

Adobe AIR makes the cross platform dream of a game developer like us come true: One single code base with multiple deploy targets for desktop and mobile. The requirement for developing a game for multiple platforms in parallel is a well designed and structured code base! An architecture of loosely coupled modules/components is a must have in such a development workflow.
This is how the Delta Strike project setup looks like:

After setting up the developer certificates and provisioning profiles in the Apple Developer Center and setting up the AIR project with the proper settings, it took us just a couple of hours to get the prototype running on the iPad. Almost no code changes were necessary.

Performance

The overall performance is great! I made several changes based on the desktop version of Delta Strike (DS) to get the best performance and highest frame rate on the iPad:

• Reduced the number of objects concurrently displayed in the 3D scene: In the desktop version of DS there are hundreds of asteroids floating around in the background of the 3D scene. I removed those.
• Reduced the number of light sources: In the desktop version of DS there are 4 light sources set up. With every light source I removed the FPS increased. For the video I have actually removed all light sources.

As you see in the video, DS runs at 50-60 FPS on the iPad 2. Between 20.000 and 40.000 polygons are rendered.  The little hiccups when destroying an enemy are caused by the removal and instantiation process of game objects in our DS3 game engine. We are optimizing this at the moment.

When launching the app on the iPad, it takes quite a long time to start compared to the web version. There is a lot of set up code that gets executed at start-up like initializing the engine, initializing all game components and parsing the 3D meshes (OBJ file format). I have not dug deeper in what exactly consumes the most time at start-up yet.

I’m happy to post more detailed performance results soon!

Demoed by Adobe

Adobe was so excited about our iPad prototype that they demoed it at the FITC keynote in Amsterdam and at Flash Gaming Summit in San Francisco a couple of days ago. Thanks to Thibault Imbert and Lee Brimelow for this opportunity!

Hey folks, it’s Delta Strike update time and we’ve prepared some nice goodies for all of you: newcomers and experienced Delta Strike gamers.

Lightbox tutorial

If you think you’d need some explanations regarding gameplay or you just want to show Delta Strike to your mother, we’ve come up with a Tutorial part that shows you (or your mother) how to play and destroy the Shar’dal. The tutorial is available for starting players, though, so if you don’t mind resetting your stats (Level, XP and HP – you don’t lose your Cash or Crystals), head over to the Settings Tab on the left side of the game screen and click on the red ‘Reset Player’ button, and you’re ready to go!

RAMPAGE Mode and social leaderboard

In order to make the Shar’dal hunting even more fun, we’ve come up with the RAMPAGE Mode! Now you can try to score as many Rampage Points as possible and compare your skill with your friends’ in the high score list. But how do you get Rampage points in the first place?
Kill as many Shar’dal as possible in the shortest time span possible – you will see the Rampage Meter filled a bit every time you destroy an enemy.

If you fill the meter completely, you’ll enter the Rampage Mode and the meter will start declining quickly. As long as you are in Rampage Mode, try to destroy as many enemies as possible and you’ll earn Rampage Points. When you destroy several at once, you’ll even get a bonus. To open up the leaderboard just click on the “Scores” button in the lower right corner.

More new features

If you feel uneasy in the confined space of the facebook window, you can hit the ‘Fullscreen’ button in the upper right corner and savor the depths of space without all the clutter around! That’s a really nice one. Beware though, it works only with hardware acceleration.

We also care about your nerves and patience. Nowadays time is a very precious commodity, for everyone of us. That’s why we’ve reduced the loading time – big time.

We’ve also added a new music track to put your ears in a state of delight. Please tell us how you like our new track!

The Delta Strike Shop has stocked up! Now you can also buy the newest weapons and armor. The Shar’dal enemies drop now consumables, too.

We hope you’ll enjoy these new features. If you do or if you don’t, please share your impressions with us!
Click here to play!

Thanks and have fun!

It has been a month already since we pushed the in-game shop online, starting out with 5 Consumables. So what happened ever since? Well, we were very, very busy preparing gifts and wrapping presents for Christmas!

However, the biggest gift we wrapped up is yesterday’s release of our current new milestone, Santa.
(Yes, that name was chosen on purpose and very considerately.)

Even though most changes happened under the hood (or bonnet, as Google’s Chrome teaches us), we took a first big step toward a finished game: social features and more tools for your combat experience! And a lot of gifts, polish and snow …

New Features

• New Missions
  • Commander Kozel and Sergant Noemi will guide you through the missions
  • Activate 4 Shar’dal Beacons to summon the ultimate Shar’dal boss enemy
  • Defeat the ultimate Shar’dal boss enemy to receive one ultimate, devestating, ultra weapon
  • New random side missions
• Facebook Mystery Gift Requests: Send your friends a Gift for Christmas!
• Added new Consumables to Item Shop, 3 levels each
  • Drones (Missile, Projectile)
  • Boosts (XP, Damage, Velocity)
  • Invincibility
  • Proximity Mine
  • Self-Destruct Virus
  • Blink (Teleport)
• Added new XP and Damage Text Effects
• Added Notification Popups
• Added particle effects
• Added Tooltips to Skills Bar
• Items are now sold when thrown into the trash

Have fun playing the new version!
Click here to play.

I will be speaking at the goToAndSki() – The COOLEST Flash/Flex/Mobile Geek Conference in Switzerland at the end of January. I’m really excited about this event because I love snowboarding and I love conferences!  The topic of my talk is “Workflows for Next-Gen 3D Games and Interaction”. Check out the description and the outline of my talk.

Talk Description

“Hell, it’s about time!” We’ve been waiting for hardware accelerated 3D content in the browser for so long! Using the latest Flash Player 11 Stage3D technology, we can now finally create stunning 3D games and interactive applications we’ve always dreamed of.
In this talk, Michael Plank from Pro 3 Games will upgrade your skills to the third dimension. Starting off with some basics about 3D geometry, shading, lighting and texturing, he will share his knowledge about moving art and development workflows from 2D to 3D and which kind of new tools, libraries and techniques are involved in this process.
Michael will demonstrate the work pipeline, starting with a concept art to finally interacting with the 3D asset in real time, using examples from the Flash 3D action game Delta Strike, he and his team are currently developing.
The pros and cons of other 3D browser technologies like Unity and WebGL are covered at the end of the talk.

Outline

• 3D Basics
  • Terminology (Vertex, Face, Polygon, …)
  • Shading, Lighting, Textures
• From 2D to 3D
  • 3D Scene Graphs, Depth Sorting
  • 3D Tools and Libraries
• Workflow: From Concept Art to 3D In-Game Asset
  • Modeling, Texturing, Importing
• Advanced 3D Topics
  • Posprocessing, Particles
  • Pros/Cons of 3D Web Technologies

I will post the slides of my talk after the conference.
Check out the goToAndSki() website, sessions and speakers.

Hey everybody, we’ve added a brand new shop to the Delta Strike Beta on Facebook! Finally, you can spend all your hard earned Credits on great new consumable items in the in-game shop!

The new Item-Shop

To open the shop at any time, press the “Shop” button in the lower right corner or press the ‘s’ key on the keyboard.

This is what the shop looks like:

The first 5 Consumable Items

Repairing Nanobots

You’re low on HP and the Shar’dal just keep coming? No problem: just use these little helping friends and watch as your ship gets repaired. Like magic! Except it’s technology.

EMP Nova

Surrounded by enemies? Just cast this EMP shockwave to fry their circuits! After that just take them out one by one. Make sure you do it quickly, as the Shar’dal will reboot their systems in a matter of seconds!

Destruction Nova

If you want to finish the job quickly, just activate this destructive shockwave. All enemies in your vicinity will take major punishment!

Repair Drone

G.O.R.E. scientists have managed to reverse engineer the Shar’dal drones and created these handy fellas. Cast a Repair Drone and you’ll be followed by a friendly drone that will repair your ship on-the-go!

Laser Drone

Need some additional firepower? Release some Laser Drones to help you fight off enemy squadrons!

Those are a new type of items: the Consumables; once a Consumable is activated it vanishes and you have to buy a new one if you want to use it. You can stack up to 10 Consumables of the same type in one inventory slot. For quick access, we’ve added a new Consumable Bar at the bottom of the screen, right next to the Skills Bar.

Make sure to return regularly as we’re going to release more fun items for you in the coming days and weeks!

Player stats reset

Due to lots of changes in our system we had to reset all player stats. But don’t worry, you still have all the credits and crystals you gathered so far and can spend them in the item shop right away. As a little bonus we gave 200 Credits extra to all of you playing the Delta Strike Beta.

Some smaller features and improvements

• Consumable Bar for quick access and activation of Consumables
• Weapons are automatically equipped if slot is available
• Inventory: Accepted slots are highlighted when item is dragged
• Inventory: Consumables and some mission-specific items are stackable
• Positive and negative status effects
• Game pauses when the window focus is lost
• Tooltips in Skills Bar

Play now and have fun with the new items in the shop!
We are looking forward to your feedback here in the Delta Strike Community.

The Delta Strike Beta is live on Facebook! A couple of days ago we launched the first beta version of our 3D social action game at the Adobe MAX conference together with the official release of Flash Player 11. Please read on or click here to play.

Beta Launch at Adobe MAX

Rumors told that the final version of Flash Player 11 (FP11) – with its Stage 3D hardware accelerated 3D graphics technology Delta Strike is based on – will be released around the Adobe MAX conference, taking place October 3rd – 5th. Since early February 2011, when we started working with this new 3D technology, our goal was to launch the beta version of Delta Strike together with the official FP11 release. But we never really had a clue when Adobe would finally release it! In August we decided to follow the rumors and prepare the beta launch for Adobe MAX on October 4th.

It turned out that Adobe really releases FP11 at Adobe MAX. And we made it just in time! After weeks of hardcore coding, designing, 3D modeling, story writing and soundtrack production we published the first beta version of Delta Strike on October 4th, the day Adobe officially released FP11. We managed to be the first FP11 3D action game on Facebook! Awesome!

Features

This first beta version features 5 missions, the Apis MK-2 space fighter ship, a persistent avatar and a lot of different items the player can collect. Fight against the mysterious Shar’dal alien drones and collect one of these items:

• Credits (money for future shopping)
• Crystals (premium currency)
• Energy Cores (to charge the shield)
• Weapons
• Supportive Equipment
• Armor Upgrades
• Healing Nanobots

Picking up items will add them to your ship’s cargo bay. By clicking on the “Inventory” button on the lower right you open up the inventory screen. Here you can equip your space ship with weapons, armor and supportive items.

By killing enemies you will gather experience points (XP). The yellow circle in the player stats on the top left shows how much XP you need to gather to receive a level up.

Next Milestone: Santa Claus

We are now working on the next big milestone scheduled around christmas. It will feature an in-game item shop where you can spend all your gathered credits, as well as all new missions, weapons and consumable items.

Play now and give feedback

If you haven’t installed Flash Player 11 yet, please do so now. Click here to play Delta Strike right in your browser on Facebook.  We are looking for your feedback to improve gameplay, performance, controls etc. Please post ideas/questions/problems here in the Delta Strike Community or right below the game on the Facebook App-Page.

Beta Launch Trailer

Just in case you haven’t seen the Beta Launch Trailer yet, definitely check it out:

First of all, I’m proud to present the video of ”Themes of Delta Strike” performed by the EJPO in Salzburg:

It’s been a fantastic week in July, being surrounded by so many talented musicians who were motivated and open to experimentation. “Themes of Delta Strike” being played a second time as encore at the Salzburg concert was the highlight for me personally.

This experience left its traces in the musical part of my brain, I took something from it that will feed back into future compositions for Delta Strike…stay tuned!

What are profiles?

A Firefox profile is the folder which holds all of the data that is not present in the program itself, for example the user settings, browsing history, cookies and extensions.

The profiles folder is buried somewhere inside your home-/user directory. The easiest way to find the location is to use the help menu of Firefox. On the Troubleshooting Information Page under Application Basics you will find an „Open Containing Folder“ Button which opens a new Explorer/Finder window at the location of your current profile.

This is the content of a new Firefox profile on a Windows PC. It contains some databases and configuration files.

Why would we want to use more than one profile?

One of the reasons why I use two profiles is the possibility to install different Add-ons for each one. This was necessary because some of the development Add-ons I use are slowing Firefox down or produce memory leaks and cause Firefox to crash after some hours.

The second case where profiles come in handy is when you use different versions of Firefox. As you might know, Firefox checks all your extensions for compatibility when a different program version is detected and as mentioned below you cannot start the same profile twice. Simply duplicate your profile for each version you use and create shortcuts as described later on.

If you know of other use cases I would be glad to hear about them. Simply leave me a comment below.

How do I create new profiles?

The easiest way to create profiles with Firefox is through the built in profile manager. Simply start Firefox with the command line argument “-profilemanager” and the profile manager will pop up.

Here is how you do it on different Systems:

• Windows: “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -profilemanager (or simply -P)
• Mac: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -profilemanager
• Linux: ./firefox -profilemanager

Now you can create, rename and delete your profiles and select one to start Firefox with.

The profile manager simply creates a new empty directory for the profile and writes the location into profile.ini and the first time you start with a blank profile, Firefox creates the necessary data. You can duplicate a profile simply by copying the data from the existing profile to the newly generated folder.

How can I use multiple profiles simultaneously?

You might have noticed that Firefox always opens a new window, if you specified another profile in your shortcut and already have one instance running. To circumvent this you have to specify the command line argument “-no-remote”, which prevents Firefox from searching for already running instances.

If you use Firefox as your default browser, you should start the profile you want other applications to open links with always without the “-no-remote” argument, otherwise the following message will show up.

This also happens if you use a shortcut with “-no-remote” again, while the profile is already in use.

To directly open a profile you can use “-P profilename” in the shortcut.

Are profiles only available for Firefox?

The answer is no, at least Opera and Chrome both have an equivalent to the Firefox profiles. For instructions on how to create them, visit http://www.ghacks.net/2010/08/02/how-to-create-new-web-browser-user-profiles/.

Safari in typical apple fashion does not support anything that could help irritate the developers users. Although someone found a way around this limitation (http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=96476#4) but it is rather inconvenient to apply and has some drawbacks.

And Internet Explorer? Let’s better not talk about it.

If you got interested in the possibilities of Firefox, check back again next week, for the next entry about Firefox Add-ons.

For much more detailed information about profiles you should also visit http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox.

We’ve just released an updated version of our Vanguard Tech Demo, which includes some requested improvements from the community, a leaderboard and optimizations for Flash Player 11 beta!

Flash Player 11 beta released

We are really excited about the release of the public beta of Flash Player 11! Its key benefit, which we use in Delta Strike, is Stage3D, previously known as “Molehill”. Stage3D is a new architecture for hardware accelerated graphics rendering in Flash, which enables the development of high performance 3D games for browsers and mobile devices. Previously to that beta release, users had to install the Flash Player 11 Incubator version to view the tech demos of Delta Strike, which added a nasty version label to the lower right corner of every Flash content on the web. The beta also fixed some bugs when viewing videos on YouTube or Vimeo.
Check out this blog post for more details on the new features of Flash Player 11 and download the beta here.

Vanguard Tech Demo v.1

We’ve released the first version of the Vanguard tech demo on the 10th of June 2011, which featured 5 unique skills, 7 different Shar’dal Mob enemies with different skills, fully playable in a survival scenario. Simply kill as many mobs as possible and stay alive as long as you can! Technically, the main focus of that demo was a full deep integration of the Away3D engine into our Delta Strike game engine (code named DS3 Engine). We also wanted to get early feedback from the gamers on the game play, controls and the first set of skills we’ve introduced.

Vanguard Tech Demo v.1 In-Game Screenshot

Vanguard Tech Demo v.2

Most of the feedback we’ve received here in the Delta Strike community platform has been implmented into the updated version of the Vanguard tech demo. The feedback was mostly about the controls and missing visual feedback for things like “why is my weapon not firing?”. The main feature we’ve added to v.2 is a leaderboard. Now it’s time to find out who’s the best
You will even see a live in-game leaderboard, to get a feeling on how well you are doing! Download the FP 11 beta and play now!

Please leave us some feedback in our Community. If you experience any issues please post them there as well.

What’s next?

We are already working on the next milestone of Delta Strike, code named “Scavenger”. It will feature a persistent, RPG style player character, a great number of random items you can gather as well as modifications and customizations for your space ship. Stay tuned!