Porting a game from iOS to Android with Apportable?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by jacopious, Feb 17, 2014.

  1. jacopious

    jacopious Well-Known Member

    Feb 16, 2014
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    I'm wondering if anybody here ported their iOS game to Android with Apportable, and how it worked for you? Did it pay off or would it have been better if you had rewritten the game yourself?
     
  2. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    I'm porting TripTrap now.. It's really amazing so far, you have to see it to believe it. There are still a couple of issues / bugs to solve, but way fewer than I would have expected (and even for those, their discussion forum on google groups is very helpful)
     
  3. jacopious

    jacopious Well-Known Member

    Feb 16, 2014
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    Thanks for your answer. That's what I was, kind of, hoping to hear. :)
     
  4. I haven't spent a lot of time on Apportable so far but my experience hasn't been very positive so far. But it might also be due to the fact that I'm using several third-party libraries and developing using cocos2D V3 :)

    My main issues so far have been:

    1. No real support for showing ads aside from iAds. I was told that AdMob mediation support was there in the Indie version of Apportable (not the free version) and the guys at Apportable were kind enough to give me a trial for the Indie version to test it out. But so far have not had a lot of luck getting AdMob mediation working. Had to comment the ad code out to get an Apportable build.

    2. My game's a universal app with different spritesheets for iPad, iPhone etc. This works fine in the iOS version of the game using the cocos2D V3 relative positioning. But when I compile the same game for Android, I get really tiny images on screen.

    The above are the two issues I've noticed so far in trying out Apportable. I do realize that these might be known issues and there might be known solutions. I have not looked into each issue yet. Just pointing out the things that were stumbling blocks for me in case that proves to be helpful.
     
  5. jacopious

    jacopious Well-Known Member

    Feb 16, 2014
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    Thanks for answering, that's some really useful info.

    I'm also making a game in cocos2d, although v2 instead of v3, but I imagine the porting experience should be similar. Haven't really looked into using ads yet, but it's good to know there could be potential problems there.
     
  6. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    I haven't tried ads yet, so I can't say anything about that. For 2., try adding
    Code:
    #ifdef ANDROID
        [UIScreen mainScreen].currentMode = [UIScreenMode emulatedMode:UIScreenBestEmulatedMode];
    #endif
    
    at the beginning of your didFinishLaunching: method. This worked really well for me in Cocos2d v2

    I also had a rough start at the beginning, but mainly because I was using very old devices. One of them wasn't working because it didn't have OpenGL ES 2 for instance, but it took me a while to realise that. In general, getting useful debugging info is a little hard, but luckily it's not needed too much (and the discussion group is very helpful)
     
  7. Thanks baris! The screen mode setting tip is very useful and I have a feeling that that'll probably do the trick :) I did take a look at the discussion groups but didn't do a search for my particular issue since I thought it might be due to an oddity in cocos2d V3.

    Will check it out soon. Thanks again!
     
  8. M.O.

    M.O. Well-Known Member

    Apr 10, 2012
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    Do you think that in the future you will move over to cocos2dx, or stick with the objective-C and cocos2d?
     
  9. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    I'll stick to cocos2d I think (since I'm not too well with C++, and so far it definitely seems like apportable will be sufficient for porting), but we'll also be using Unity for some projects
     
  10. I've already ported one game using cocos2d-x though it was about a year ago. The experience just left me wanting to get back to Objective-C :D So I too would stick with cocos2d, especially if Apportable turns out to be a good enough way to get an Android version out.

    Incidentally, my game works much better under Apportable using the tip that baris provided :) The ad issues are still there under the Apportable free plan but it does look as if that might be resolved if I upgrade to the Indie SDK.
     
  11. jacopious

    jacopious Well-Known Member

    Feb 16, 2014
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    Actually, I'm one of few who prefer C++ to Obj-C, so I think I'll try cocos2d-x at one point and see how it works for me. Even when I use cocos2d, I write all logic in C++ and only leave necessary parts in Obj-C.
     
  12. madfatcat

    madfatcat Member

    Feb 12, 2014
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    I just finished porting my game on Cocos2d V3 to Android. I started from reading documentation in the morning and got a completely working version by evening. The game works with no issues on Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nook. I can say that apportable is pretty amazing, but I'm not sure my game can bring me even $10 per month and therefore I'm not ready to buy Indie plan for $1000. There is a support of several ad networks, but only in Indie plan. Now I'm trying to find a way to integrate ads in apportable port. My advice to all who are planning to start a new project on obj-c and port it to Android in the future using apportable: think how you will monetize an android app cause there will be some hassle with integrating ads without paid Indie plan. Indie plan is only for those who have popular ios title or those who have many titles to port. I see no reason to buy Indie plan to port one small game which can be unsuccessful at all.
     
  13. Yeah, ads (and monetization) is the main issue I see with porting a game using apportable. I did some checking but basically decided that I'd release the game on iOS and if it did well (or there was user-demand), then look into porting to Android since then I might be able to justify the $1000 for the Apportable Indie SDK :)
     
  14. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    Or just build in unity3d and never need it :)
     
  15. And isn't that like $1,500 per platform or something? So how is that better? :)
     
  16. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    indie version is much lower in price and $1500 per platform cheaper than you state.
     
  17. Xaron

    Xaron Well-Known Member

    Oct 16, 2013
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    Actually it's free now for all platforms if you stay below $100k per year.

    Personally I use Unity3d for 3d games (obviously) but use Monkey for 2d games which is awesome as it targets almost every platform out there.
     
  18. The only pricing I can find on their site is on the following page:

    https://store.unity3d.com/

    And that still states $1,500. I do recall some reports about it now being free but if so, they really need to advertise that a bit more prominently on their site :)
     
  19. AxBattler

    AxBattler Well-Known Member

    May 8, 2012
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    Programmer at 48h Studio
    Italy
    #19 AxBattler, Mar 11, 2014
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2014
    That's for Unity Pro. You'll have to buy it if you make more than 100.000$ per year. If not you can use the free version.
    Check this page for a comparison between the two: http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses

    We released our first game made with Unity (free) and it has been very easy to go multiplatform. It's currently out for iOS, Android and Mac, and PC should follow soon.
    So far we are very happy with Unity and we plan to buy the Pro license soon. Well, as soon as we make some money ;)
     
  20. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    it is free for indie devs as mentioned on most platforms. If you want consoles then you will have to pay. It has been free for a long time!

    I have the pro versions and pretty much most of what I do I can do in the free version except for the profiler.
     

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