So I don't know that much about app programming but I was wondering how hard it would be to string a bunch of videos together with choices in between. A choose your own adventure movie, is what I was thinking about making, but I don't know how difficult it is to program that. Hysteria Project tried to do something similar. Can anyone tell me how difficult a project like this might be? The programming, not the shooting. Also, I heard some rumblings about Flash being able to export their programs as iDevice capable apps, has this been done yet? I know Flash well enough to do this there. Thanks!
A flash export is possbile, but its not "CLICK" your iphone compabile. theres a bunch of stuff you have to do and usually professionals do it, some indies though...
Hmmm, how about straight programming? Is something like this all that complicated? Also, if I were to supply all the files, could I hire a programmer to write the app for me? Any idea what that might cost? If it's not too much I would consider hiring a programmer instead of trying to learn some code .
Well it depends, your language, you OS, stuff like that. and yes, but you could 'pay' him were you give him something like a couple k's and he does it, or you give him a % of the profits. and yes, thats generallly easier. but its always fun learning it, making a small fake game then mkaing your big game like wellspentyouth and Empty City 3D, it all dpeends on the size of the project thogugh
Hey tylertv, this actually sounds pretty simple to program. Coming up with the story, the choices, and filming everything is by far the bigger job. The iPhone SDK includes a media player framework for playing fullscreen video. I haven't used it yet myself, but from a quick search it looks like MPMoviePlayerController is where the magic happens. It says under supported formats: So really it comes down to producing lots and lots of video clips, and making a flow chart of the possible choices. If it were me I'd probably make some sort of binary tree where each node represented a different video. Each node would contain the filename of the video, what the string of text would be for each option, and pointers to the other nodes that each option represents. And then I'd make a framework that would start at the head of the tree and start by playing the video, then popping up the questions and following the tree down to the leaves. And your other question about hiring people to do this kind of work, yeah you totally can. How much it would cost depends on exactly what you're looking for in a final product. It would help to make a flowchart of the entire story, and also notes on all the functionality that you want in the app. I would say somewhere between $800 and $3000 . Also, I recently took a craigslist job to develop a simple 2d puzzle game. It's kind of fun, developing games that have already been designed for someone else, and getting paid for it. I might be interested in doing your app, PM me.
Yeah, the clips I'm not too worried about since it's what I do all day anyway. It is nice to know the the SDK, contains support for video. I had assumed it would, but now I know. A flowchart would be absolutely necessary for something like this. Thanks Micah! I'm sending you a PM.
