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I almost forgot to talk about Bloblocks' underpants :)

Bloblocks:

• is programmed using the Haxe programming language,
• uses the Starling Framework (remember this post?),
• embeds some assets with NME to produce an SWF,
• is packaged for iOS and Android using AIR SDK

Bloblocks also:

• uses SickSports's GameCenter ANE to support iOS Game Center
• uses Lancelotmobile.com's ANE to handle AdMob on Android (Bloblocks lite)
• used Gree's ANE to communicate with the Gree platform an Android but I don't like this platform and decided to remove it and wait for Google to create some GameCenter equivalent

Except for the ANE part (which stinks) the development was a breeze, SWF is solid, looks the same everywhere, just work.

Starling's API is really easy to get and the stage3d GPU acceleration do a lot. Even if the game is simple I am pretty happy with its FPS. Plus the acceleration works on the web too.

I was a real novice in the mobile field and this project was a great experiment for me. Here are a few things I learned the hard way, may be useful to someone someday, may be not :)

On resources:

• use bitmap fonts,
• use sprite sheets (really),
• don't make your sheets too big,
• use Apple Instruments to check memory usage

On screen size:

• phones have really small screens,
• think dpi not pixels,
• poor man simulator is great,
• don't hesitate to create different controls for different sizes,
• layout for a resolution then scale and center is an easy solution :)

On feedback:

• target your friends' platforms first

On ANE:

• they stink but they usually work

• learn how to create SWC from project sources, sometimes it is as easy as running ant, sometimes you have to fight and acompc -source-path src -output Gree.swc -swf-version 17 -external-library-path+=/Users/lbedubourg/local/lib/flex/frameworks/libs/air/airglobal.swc -compiler.define BUILD_CONFIG::stub false -include-classes find src -name "*.as" | sed "s/src\\///" | sed "s/\\.as\\$$//" | sed "s/\\//./g"

• unzip the SWC to get the library.swf and use that as a -swf-lib for Haxe
• concerning the .ane file… well read adobe doc, I don't have the time to explain there :)

On Air SDK:

• it works out of the box, but the documentation is bloated,
• the iOS packaging is really slow, for quick tests not requiring iOS, using an android device is faster,

On Starling-Framework:

• peace of cake
• excellent community and doc
• use sprite sheets!