construct & cocoon js - collected experiences

Hey all,

doing mobile games with construct seems to be THE new oppurtunity at the moment. After just having finished a new Prototype from scratch and bringing it to my ipad today, I thought we could share our experiences with the new technology here.

I'll start with my experiences so far:

testing on ios, with a self-signed version of cocoon.

Creating a .zip file for cocoon js:

All you have to do is to export it as "cocoon JS", >>NOT<< HTML5 and zip up the content of the folder.

If you are using r99 and later, a .zip is automatically created for you.

If not, don't repeat that stupid mistake I did and accidentially try to 7zip it, it must be a .zip :)

Getting your zip file onto your device:

This may sound simple, but it took me a while to understand how to get an app into my cocoon app. The basic procedure is explained here: link, but at the moment, you can only read files via URL on android (works fine if you put your game into your public dropbox folder for example), but on Ios, you have to use iTunes.

-Using iTunes means selecting your ipad, clicking on apps at the very top of your screen, then selecting cocoon JS down in the installed apps section and THEN you get a field next to it, where your can drag and drop your .zip files into.

other small things to notice:

• with the newer updates, construct runs much faster than before (I had only 5 fps on Ipad 1, but now I have 40, which is playable and gteat! SO get the latest update.
• I didn't dig deeper, but when I imported audio as .ogg, it didn't play on my Ipad. If I imported .flac. it did.
• rendering text didn't work at first, so I used the sprite fonts plugin to render text on the ipad. - this may be resolved in the latest test-build of construct.

And finally a quick screenshot of one of the games that we tested with cocoon js today

<img src="http://spielebaustelle.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/leapfrog_cocoon.jpeg" border="0">

All in all, it was loads of fun to develop with construct and cocoonjs and I hope we can collect some other experiences, to make that workflow even easier for others.

All the best

i have just read in a new blog post that in r100 we will have direct cocoon js export.

i have no idea if this will be a one button click solution or we will still have to go through the process you mention though....

You can export the zip file to deploy in cocoonjs in r99 without zip it yourself.

Thanks for the info, farsmile90, I've updated the post above

Hello, Mau, I've tried also, to import the sounds as flac, but it doesn't work, all sounds are converted to ogg again.

Can you please tell me, how did you do that?

Thanks

Mau nothin1969 : don't use FLAC files ! They are huge, and it's a burden on the CPU on mobile platforms. You can convert your .ogg or .flac file in mp3, the ipad/iphone is going to play it fine.

i have tried cocoonJS today.

exported from c2 and loaded in the ipad player, all works great.

there is 1 thing i cannot understand. how can i use the special cocoon features like camera, ads, from c2?

I only have Leopard on my Mac Mini and the version of xcode is too old to work with the cloud compiler. Anyone know whether Snow Leopard will cut it? I think that allows for xcode 4.2.

xcode 4.2 works on lion, but with io6 coming soon, if you are going to update go for mountain lion

bjadams - do you know whether the cocoonjs cloud project is compatible with xcode 4.2? The current version that I'm running (xcode 3.x) throws out errors when I try to sign the files and create the ipa. The Mac Mini won't upgrade further than SL, so that's the reason for me asking.

Pode

Why you shouldn't use MP3 in your HTML5 games

Written by Tom

as far as i can understand the project file is for xcode 4.x

but i could be wrong, i could not find specs of the format!

Rory : yeah, I know all that. But if you publish for iOS, you can count how many sales you have done on the AppStore, and act accordingly depending if you are < 5000 or over.

Thanks bjadams appreciated, I couldn't find a spec either.

so how can i use the special cocoonJS features like camera, ads, from c2?