Nate Beck covers some of the hurdles and headaches that Flash game developers encounter when they decide to take their games to mobile devices.

1. Going Mobile
By Nate Beck

2. ADL, PFI... WTF?
ADL - AIR Debug Launcher - Using ADL, you can run an
application without first packaging and installing it.
ADT - AIR Developer Tool - ADT is a multi-
purpose, command-line tool for developing AIR applications.
PFI - Packager For iPhone - Completely replaced by ADT.
iOS - The OS for iPads, iPod Touch and iPhones

3. The Markets
... that support Adobe Flash

4. Membership Fee $99 / year $99 / year
$25 $0 $0
¹
Revenue Split 30% 30% 30% 30% 30%
Overall Difficulty 5 1 3 2 11
1(easy) to 10 (hard)
Number of Apps ~570,000 ~395,000 ~30,400 ~3,030 ~4,000
¹ At the moment, first year is free
Source - Apple App Store - http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/
Source - Android Market - http://www.appbrain.com/stats/

5. Case Study – Word
Wars

11. Build Process
APK
Executabl ADT IPA
e
Assets BAR

12. Application
Id
Descriptor
Version Number
Render Mode
Auto Orientation
Aspect Ratio
Full Screen
Onscreen Keyboard Behavior
Icons Paths
Device Profile
Permissions
iPhone Settings

13. DEVICES
SUCK

14. Your finger is not
transparent
THIS NOT
THIS

15. Devices do not have
roll over or roll out

16. TouchEvents are
different than
MouseEvents
flash.ui.Multitouchflash.ui.MultitouchInputMode

17. Let’s not forget about
gestures
flash.events.TransformGestureEvent

18. Use Enter Frame
not Mouse Move

19. Screen Density
!=
Screen Resolution

20. Screen Density != Screen Resolution
150 x 40 pixel button
Desktop monitor Galaxy Tab Droid 2 iPhone 4
@100 dpi @160 dpi @240 dpi @320 dpi
= 1.5” x 0.4” = 0.9” x 0.25” = 0.6” x 0.17” = 0.46” x 0.13”
Same pixel count, different physical sizes
(Minimum recommended size: 0.25” x 0.25”)

21. Screen Density != Screen Resolution
3.5 inch diagonal screen
Same physical size, different pixel counts

22. Screen Density != Screen Resolution
Classification 160 DPI 240 DPI 320 DPI
Devices Most tablets Most Android iPhone 4
iPhone 3GS phones
Motorola Droid Pro
Mapped range < 200 DPI >= 200 DPI > 280 DPI
<= 280 DPI
Typical range 132 DPI (iPad) 217 DPI (HTC Evo) 326 DPI (iPhone
to to 4)
181 DPI (HTC Hero) 254 DPI
(NexusOne)

23. Devices have differing aspect
ratios

24. Some devices have
additional stuff...

25. Capabilities
flash.system.Capabilities

26. Devices have
orientations
StageOrientationEvent.ORIENTATION_CHANGING
stage.setOrientation( StageOrientation.UPSIDE_DOWN );

27. Accelerometers
Get your tilt on.

28. Emulators

29. Testing on the Device
!FAIL
WiFi Debug Only WiFi and USB Debug WiFi Debug Only
Long Build Times Faster Build Times Debug Tokens
Mobile Provisions Signing
Certificates

30. Full Screen

31. Permissions
(Android / Playbook)
android.permission.INTERNET
android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_ST
ORAGE
android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATI
ON
android.permission.DISABLE_KEYGUARD
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK
android.permission.CAMERA
android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_S
TATE
android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE

32. CPU vs GPU
CPU - blitting GPU - DisplayObject
iOS - 20 FPS iOS - 34 FPS
Droid - 24 FPS Droid - 32 FPS

33. Playbook is wicked fast

34. Molehill, Stage3D?
“Stage3D for mobile is planned for middle of next year,
but we are working hard on it to make it more like beginning of next year”
- Thibault Imbert, Flash Player Product Manager
October 31, 2011

35. “Adobe AIR 3.2 release candidate is now available for download.
This build introduces the Stage3D API to iOS and Android
devices, enabling full hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics for
mobile apps.”
- Adobe Labs, compliments of Thibault
February 27, 2012

36. Hugs For Thibault

37. Use a Framework

38. ANT is your friend
(or maven if you’re a cool
kid)

39. Build servers are
awesome
+

40. Hosting your build servers

41. Your game can (and
will) be interrupted, at
any time
stage.addEventListener(Event.DEACTIVATE, onDeact
ivate);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ACTIVATE, onActive);

42. Piracy can be a
problem

43. Please use Version
Control... please

44. Questions?

45. Thanks!
Nate Beck
Principal Architect
@jnbeck
nate@zaalabs.com
blog.natebeck.net