Creating a Game for Adobe AIR

With Adlib I created an Adobe AIR version of the game alongside the browser version. Ultimately, it wasn’t too difficult to create the AIR version of Adlib, and I thought I would share some of my findings. So, if you’re curious about developing an Adobe AIR game and what some of the stumbling blocks are, read on!

As I mentioned above, creating an AIR version of your game doesn’t require too much work on top of what it takes to create the browser version. I would estimate that I spent a couple weeks learning and implementing new features for the AIR version of the game. So, if you’re familiar with the process — or you use this post as a starting point — I imagine you could outfit your game to play in the browser or on the desktop with about a week’s worth of additional work. Anyway, here are my thoughts in list form:

• Using Flash CS4 it’s straightforward to publish an AIR application
• Use conditional compilation when you need special instructions for AIR
• Though it’s “native” it’s dog slow, watch out for alphas, particles, etc
• Be mindful about how you use MovieClips, consider caching them as bitmaps
• Expect subtle differences between AIR and Flash Player and across platforms
• Older version of Mochi library worked but the latest version does not
• You are responsible for updating the application, use Adobe’s updater
• It’s easy to save state to the hard drive, take advantage of that

Hopefully, this list will help you get started working on a game for Adobe AIR. Perhaps a larger question is whether it is worth spending the extra time porting your game to AIR. Here’s my take:

• Supporting the desktop complicates testing, you now have to test it on Windows, OS X, Linux as well as the browsers
• Flash portals will distribute your browser-based game but you have to distribute the AIR version yourself or through Adobe’s store
• Desktop users expect bugs to be updated and possibly features to be added, you can no longer ship and forget
• Targeting AIR allows you to have fullscreen, access the file system, etc
• Users can now play your game offline
• AIR creates desktop icons, start menu shortcuts, etc

So like anything you have to weigh the pros and cons. In my opinion the added testing costs are significant. That said, if you don’t mind some additional testing porting your game to Adobe AIR might be a compelling way to monetize it.

Related Posts

• Profiling Flash CS4 Games
• Adlib: Play it now!
• Type-Oh! is go!
• Why Go Multiplatform?