Upgrading from Unity 5.4 to 5.6

Recently had the need to upgrade a couple of projects from Unity 5.4 to 5.6 and after much trial and error and scouring the net for solutions I finally managed it. My project uses two plugins which do not play well with Unity 5.6, these include:

  • TextMeshPro – Do not use the version that is currently on the asset store (Version: 1.0.55.0b11) or your project will explode, instead grab it from here. If you already have a version of TextMesh Pro installed into your project then delete it (backup fist!), then install the version this link
  • Chartboost – Update to version 6.6.4 as previous versions do not compile with Unity 5.6!
  • Facebook SDK – Deleted old Facebook SDK 7.8 including the Facebook related stuff in the Plugins folder, installed latest Facebook SDK from fresh!

By the way, if you see errors appear, shut Unity down and reopen the project them allow, most of the time the errors just disappear.

Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker 1.9.3b out now – Droidscript support added

It has been a long while since I released an update of Booty5, but at last it is here. A good fellow over at Droidscript got in touch to let me know that they had added a plugin for their awesome app (check it out to see what I mean by awesome) which enables developers to develop games using the Booty5 API directly on an Android device and / or via a desktop browser, which to me is coolness of a higher degree. I had planned a release of Booty5 to push out the latest changes to the engine as well as support for texture packer trimmed bitmaps amongst other things so I went ahead and interfaced the Booty5 editor directly with the Droidscript app allowing games to be sent directly to Droidscript and played on the device. This provides a very rapid development environment directly on device.

The changes for this release include:

  • By setting the host in project settings to the wifi address supplied to you by the Droidscript app and checking the Droidscript checkbox, you can run your projects directly on a connected Android device
  • Updated to the very latest Booty5 engine which includes support for features like tasks, events and smaller exported scene data
  • Open in IDE no longer opens in WebStorm by default, instead Visual Studio Code is used
  • Projects no longer deploy separate source files, instead booty5_debug.js or booty5_min.js are deployed
  • Socket.io can now be exported with projects
  • New export location added to project properties that allows you to specify where deployed files will go when running / testing
  • Host project property added which allows deployed projects to launch a specific host url when running / testing
  • Added two new canvas fit modes, Fit Greatest / Fit Smallest
  • Added Body and Head properties to project properties, additional html can be added here to be exported in the body and head sections of the html file
  • Added nodejs command prompt button
  • Fixed crash bug when creating a label with no font
  • Added animation sets to brushes
  • Removed animation frames, start frame and playback speed from actors, you now specify the animation name to play as default
  • Get actor size will now get brush size if no geometry attached

Note that the Booty5 plugin for Droidscript is currently in beta (see the beta group for more details.)

The manual and API documentation have also been updated so please don’t forget to view / grab them.

The changes to the Booty5 engine v1.5.2 include:

  • Added support for events and event notification (see b5.EventsManager)
  • Added support for tasks (see b5.TasksManager)
  • Added support to brushes for animation sets
  • Added support to actors for working with brush animation sets (see b5.Actor.playAnim)
  • Bitmap based actors now support trimmed atlas images
  • Image based actors that use an atlas will use the size of the atlas frame, can be overridden by setting ignore_atlas_size to true
  • Removed support for web Marmalade
  • All booty5 scene data is now loaded into the b5.data space instead of window
  • Xoml data property names have been minified to greatly cut down Xoml datas format storage size
  • Added polyfill for RequestAnimationFrame to support older browsers
  • Some examples have been updated to fix various issues

Booty5 is a free Javascript based HTML5 game engine available on Github and a fully fledged game / app editor available for free. See the Booty5 HTML5 game maker website for more details.

Happy coding, don’t forget to leave feedback and report issues on Facebook / Google+ etc…

Marmalade SDK 8.4 out now

The latest and greatest version of the Marmalade SDK is now available here
Highlights

  • C++11 support now available.
  • Apple Pencil pressure reading is now supported on iPad Pro in addition to existing 3D Touch support.
  • Slide Over and Split View multitasking now available to Marmalade apps on supported iPad models.
  • Compression of assets in APKs on Android is now supported.
  • Windows 10 ARM builds can now be directly deployed to any attached device without any special configuration.
  • s3eCamera can now return high quality still images on Android, rather than the viewfinder preview.
  • s3eWebView updated to use newer version of Chromium Embedded Framework on Windows Desktop.

A full list of changes is available here.

Marmalade SDK 8.2 is out now

The latest and greatest version of the Marmalade SDK is now available here.

Highlights

  • IncrediBuild support for ARM architecture
  • Improved video support for Windows Desktop
  • Updated version of ZeroBrane Studio for Quick
  • Multidex support for Android

A full list of changes is available here.

Developing games for mobile and desktop? Then why not go cross platform and try out the Marmalade SDK, its now free. Available in C++ and Lua flavours.

The Jazzlers for Android out on Google Play

Well, I decided to take a step back (literally) in game development, back as far as the 80’s. Remember the old Atari style games? well I wanted to create something like that, so the game is pure and simply about game play. Lets take a look at a quick screenshot:

Jazzler Android Game on Google Play
Jazzler Android Game on Google Play

Now this is how I remember games looking on the old Atari 2600, blocky graphics and vivid colours and I loved them.

Ok, so the basics of the game is that a Jazzle drops down the screen and you simply tap the screen to catch it. Each round the Jazzle moves a little faster and becomes a little shorter. The catching mechanism also becomes a little shorter, although it resets in size every 50 rounds or so. If you fail to catch a Jazzle then its Game Over and you have to start from scratch. 

New backgrounds colours are unlocked as you progress, because well I love all the different colours. Also the Jazzle will taunt you, but as you progress you begin to change the Jazzlers taunts from negative to positive.

In case you’re wondering, I can get to around level 50 so far.

Jazzlers is available for both Android tablets and phones on Google Play.

There are no plans for an iOS version yet, because iOS free games are pretty much dead without a big old marketing budget, maybe after Christmas, who knows.

Marmalade 8 is out now – New Hub, Analytics, Android Native Debugging, Asset Store

You can download the Marmalade SDK for free from the Marmalade SDK website

Looks like Marmalade have been busy beavers working on their latest release of the Marmalade SDK. There are a lot of changes, but I’m just going to focus on the highlights:

New Marmalade Hub

The Marmalade Hub has had a complete revamp. Its got a new look and feel and now feels like a proper integrated Hub including features such as:

  • Open, create and build projects for all platforms. Creation of new projects also includes a very handy and easy to use integrations section ghat allows you to easily add integrations such as analytics, game services etc.. very easily and intuitively. The project templates are also very handy, especially for new developers.
  • Handy recent projects and examples lists
  • Multiple projects can now be opened simultaneously and access to home is always available without backing out of a project
  • Centralised and direct access to asset store, documentation, community answers, blog and tools (one of my favourite new additions)
  • Platform settings are now better categorised and more easily accessible
  • Project libraries list which shows a list of all libraries used by the project
  • Proper import of different deployment configurations
  • Update from MKB feature

All in all, the new Hub is a massive improvement.

Marmalade Analytics

Marmalade Analytics for C++ and Lua, is a great new addition for developers that really want to drill down into the behaviour of their game players to help increase user retention and hopefully increase monetisation. Marmalade Analytics is powered by industry leader GameAnalytics. Marmalade Analytics is incredibly easy to use out of the box as can be seen in this IwAnalytics example.

Android Native Debugging

I’ve been waiting for this feature for a bit, its been in beta for a while, but its now officially released. To debug an Android app in Visual Studio simply open it in the hub then click the “Open in IDE for debugging” button. Note that the first time you do this Visual Studio 2015 will prompt you to install Android support for C++, go ahead and install that (this may take a while so go for a coffee or take a nap :)).. Once your app has launched in visual studio click the green start triangle to start debugging.

Asset Store

Marmalade now have their very own asset store, which includes all kinds of assets from audio and bitmaps to extensions and full game engines. Submitting assets to the store is very simple, take a look here for details.

Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker 1.9.2b out now – Web Audio API Support Added

Support for the Web Audio API has been added offering better control over audio playback. Using it is s simple case of ticking support for it in the projects properties (on by default).

Full list of changes include:

Game Editor v1.9.2b:

  • Added new use web audio export option to project settings
  • Added new auto play property to sounds which cause sound to automatically start playing once loaded
  • Added new export option force_round which will force all exported actors to use pixel rounding
  • Fix: Project property smoothing is now applied in exported code
  • Fix: Canvas centering on some mobile devices

Game Engine v1.4.8 and 1.4.9:

  • b5.Xoml.loadJSON now accepts 4th parameter which can be used to stipulate loaded data should be returned as binary buffer
  • b5.App.use_web_audio property added which can be used to switch on support for Web Audio if it is supported
  • b5.Xoml.loadJSON moved to b5.Utils.loadJSON
  • b5.Xoml.loadJS moved to b5.Utils.loadJS
  • Added support for web audio API to sound (default is enabled). To disable Web Audio set b5.App.use_web_audio to false. If web audio is not supported then it will fallback to HTML5 Audio
  • b5.App constructor now accepts a second parameter which enables / disables web audio support
  • Added b5.Sound.auto_play property to enable auto playback of sounds after they are loaded
  • JSDoc documentation added
  • b5.App.canvas_fill_window removed
  • Modified how the render scaling and canvas resizing works to make it easier to use.

Download the latest version of Booty5 HTML5 Gama Maker.

Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker 1.9 Available – Tiled Maps

Booty5 the HTML5 Game Maker v1.9.0b is now available for free download. Support for tile map rendering has been added to the engine, whilst support for tile map editing has been added to the game maker. A quick screen shot of the new tile map editor is shown below:

Booty5 HTML5 tile map editorBooty5 HTML5 tile map editor

Full list of changes include:

Game Engine v1.4.6:

  • Added new actor type called MapActor which can render tiled maps
  • Support added to Xoml for loading Booty5 game editor exported tile maps
  • Fix: Actor.vr wasn’t updating transform

Game Editor v1.9.0b:

  • Added support for tile maps (any sprite actor can now be changed to a tile map by changing RenderAs type to Tile Map)
  • Added pretty print export options that will export JSON in a tidy readable format

The Booty5 HTML5 game manual ebook has also been updated.

You will also need to replace all examples which can be downloaded from Github.

Free Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker Manual e-book now available

The first version of the Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker Manual e-book is now available for free download. Find out more on the Booty5 free e-book page.