Anybody using Adobe AIR for games?

edited in Questions and Answers
Completely new here! And 3D makes my head spin x.x

Has anyone managed to build a game using Adobe AIR? I've started on a project recently, and between jQuery and canvas I can probably get most of my ideas done, but more advice is always better :)

Comments

  • Has anyone managed to build a game using Adobe AIR?
    Machinarium used Adobe Air. http://machinarium.net/demo/ Defender's Quest used Adobe AIR http://www.defendersquest.com

    I'm certain a whole lot of other games have as well. My understanding is that a lot of Flash games that want a standalone or mobile build use Adobe AIR to get there. I used to make games in Flash before AIR existed (I now use Unity), and it seems to me the platform has gotten a lot more powerful in that time.
  • Incredipede was made in AIR too. I know a couple of developers overseas that really like using it, so much so that they've got cross-platform porting systems going for it.

    In general I don't think you should worry if other people have done stuff in a system or not: If you can build something playable in a system you're comfortable with, go for it :)
  • Thanks @BlackShipsFilltheSky and @dislekcia - It's good to know there are people who've pulled this off before, makes it seem a little less daunting :)
  • I played around with AIR a couple of years ago, as AS3 is by far my strongest coding platform, and I remember it being pretty awesome. You can pretty much do anything in AIR that you can do with AS3, and then some, right? If I understood that correctly, then the possibilities are (almost) endless - although I do suspect you'd need to keep your code/assets pretty optimized as I don't think it's designed for anything too "heavy-duty".

    Could be wrong, but those were my thoughts at the time.
  • I work in AIR for profit and paychecks ;) . At this point there are a million platforms, and they all have their competencies. Biggest change that's made AIR a decent platform for mobile/otherwise is stage3d (native gpu rendering). This means you'll need to use a library like starling and bitmap textures/spritesheets to get anything to show on screen. There's a lot to learn about the bitmap workflow, but at least familiarity with flash will provide you a decent starting point. Also there is a lot of support in the way of extensions and 3rd party libraries coming out, like the citrus engine - to take care of your game framework/physics.

    Really it comes down to what you want to achieve and what you can be most productive. Know Flash? Cool, use AIR. Know js and canvas? Cool, use js and canvas. As things like performance and mobile platform support start to become a critical question you can then evaluate your options and choose where your efforts will be best spent. Example: Super Hexagon was built in AIR and released on the app store to wild success, because it's creator was familiar with the platform. In taking it to other platforms however the game was ported to openframeworks (c++) because the creator thought that would deliver the best experience to people on those platforms. (Not suggesting openFrameworks is the better solution ;) )
    Thanked by 1hellojaco
  • @TheFuntastic So really, it's a case of "write what you know" :) Although you have given me something new to look into with stage3d, so I'll check that out.

    I've been poking around the forums a bit and it looks like I have a looooong way to go - right now, the stuff I'm best at, dev-wise, is systems integration, hardly a great place to draw game development knowledge from, lol.
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