Flash to Ouya

tbowl

Hello,

I've been developing my adventure game, "TBoWL Theater" for several years. My tool of choice has been Flash CS4 due to artwork + AS3. 

It sounds like the only way to get this packaged up for Ouya properly is Flash CS6. Is that true?

Can anyone speak to what actually happens, how it's actually done, etc.? I have absolutely no money and want to make sure I know exactly what's going on before I try to do this. I'd want to do Ouya and probably tablets also if it's intuitive enough... 

Thank you kindly. 

-tbowl

TropicModsDev

CS5.5 should work as well.  5 or 5.5 was the first I believe to export with mobile code snippets and the correct file type, but 6 is the way to go since it creates sprite sheets and such now.  If you have a legal version of 4, then you should be able to get it cheaper by "upgrading."

Flash will export the final Android and iOS package name/type that is needed to upload.  As long as you are creating a single player experience, then all you need to do it map the buttons, but I'm trying to figure that out myself...If you are doing multiplayer, etc, then it will be a lot of work, just like on any platform.

If you figure out the button mapping, let me know.  I have not had a chance to look into it yet.

WillzZz

Making an AIR app is an easy way to put the game on multiple platforms using AS3. I can't speak to using the Flash IDE, but there is plenty of documentation online to help you on your way. The community has created a controller ANE as well, which is nice.

imaginaryhuman

You could also use Unity and use a flash-to-unity converter tool from the asset store.

tbowl

imaginaryhuman said:

You could also use Unity and use a flash-to-unity converter tool from the asset store.

Thanks all for the great feedback! 

@imaginaryhuman is there a good tutorial you can recommend for that? Otherwise I'll probably be looking for a cheap copy of 5.5 like @TropicModsDev was suggesting. Although I really want to try to swing 6.0 if someone can speak for actually doing it. 

Then I'll write a whole kit'n kaboodle on how to map buttons, because that'll be on my list also. :P

spigot

tbowl said:

It sounds like the only way to get this packaged up for Ouya properly is Flash CS6. Is that true?

When it comes to deploying to Android via Flash/AIR at the end of the day you're just packaging a .swf and related assets into one single .apk for Android.

CS6 is nice in that it offers a relatively painless GUI-guided path to creating the .apk, and an easier, menu-based way to overlay newer versions of the AIR SDK as they are released.

CS5.5 offers similar capabilities, and can be modified to support more recent versions of the AIR SDK by using this procedure (props to Christopher Caleb for having so many useful Flash/AIR links).  Keep in mind that the latest AIR SDK is currently 3.6, not 3.5- this link will get you the latest version.

If you are adventurous and/or would like to understand the AIR packaging process a bit better, here is a lot of information on that.  It is entirely possible to create your .apk by combining your game/app's .swf, .p12 certificate, icons & dependent files in one fell swoop via command line, vs. 'publishing from the Flash CS5.5/CS6 IDE).  It may also compile faster, though Android compilation time has nowhere near the delay associated with 'that other popular mobile os'.  ;)

Finally, it will be nice to know if Ouya 'ships' with any version of AIR installed, though with captive runtime possible on AIR 3.0 and up, this should technically no longer be necessary.  It is almost always a good idea to deploy AIR apps as a captive runtime (meaning that the app will carry the AIR framework with it, and end-users will never be prompted to download or update AIR- it will forever 'just work' as a standalone app/game).

Hope this helps.