I have quite a few goals (ok, things) I want to achieve before I die, couple of those are writing an iOS app and writing a game.
I have had an attempt to write a 1945 style vertical scroll shooting game in python using pygames, and I cannot remember why I stopped and the source code went missing (sounds like a developer nightmare, believe me I had it version contorlled somewhere, oh yes, it was on an overseas VPS that gone bye bye).
Anyway. So I discovered “Crafty”, a javascript game engine. Tried the tutorial and it seemed very interesting (I mean I like it’s style), so I might give a go on this. And this time the repository is on bitbucket https://bitbucket.org/jameslin/crafty-1945-reloaded, so there is no way I can lose it again.
You can always check out the latest development over http://1945.lin.net.nz just mouse over the plane to control it’s movements.
[… some code development …]
So here we are, managed to get the plane following the mouse and shooting 2 types of bullets at the same time in a browser. Hmmm, in a browser, that means in theory I can run the game in Chrome on my iPhone too! And… it actually worked! Well, performance is not that great though.
The other goal I mentioned at the beginning of this blog is to write an iOS app, I tried learning Objective-C for 10 minutes and just literally fainted on the syntax and gave up, so how am I suppose to write an iOS app without knowing any Objective-C? Luckily Keran McKenzie (my ex-colleague Yellow NZ, now an evangelist in MYOB) mentioned services that will package “web pages” into in iOS app, and that was my plan, for the javascript game I am writing. Sort of one stone two birds.
[… some phonegap app building …]
Success! it compiled an iOS and installed on my phone, actually it runs way smoother than on ordinary phone browser. So from now, I will spend some time every now and then continuing writing this game till it’s done!
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- Actual screenshot of the game on my phone