Create a stand-alone game app for Android-OSX

Gabarts · Fri 06/12/2013 11:16:37

Is possible to export or create a stand-alone version of your game made in AGS for Android-OSX?

If not, will be a feature for the next AGS updates?

Thanks

monkey0506 · Fri 06/12/2013 15:01:04

I actually was working to develop this process for Android, but the current engine is still terribly bugged on Android. I haven't really had much luck tracking it down, but I think others have started to make some headway. Once the bugs are sorted out, I've already successfully created standalone APK files that can be published in the Google Play store (including games up to 2 GB in total size).

As for OSX, there's not a current engine build that runs on OSX, so that's not currently possible (yet).

Gabarts · Fri 06/12/2013 19:49:33

Nice to hear this. I wasn't actually thinking about a sort of commercial purpose (even if some AGS games are very good). It's always good to have your creation/game with you in tablets/phone nowadays. SCUMM is been succesfully implemented, I hope will be reality also for AGS...

monkey0506 · Fri 06/12/2013 20:52:33

Well you can definitely publish games in the Google Play Store as freeware, they don't have to be commercial games. I mentioned that because you had asked about standalone apps. I'm sure you're probably aware that there's a launcher app that can load from a list of AGS games (similarly to ScummVM launching from a list of SCUMM games).

StillInThe90s · Sat 07/12/2013 21:21:25

I think someone, maybe Joseph DiPerla(?), was making android stand-alones by wrapping games with a modded version of the launcher. Not sure how it turned out though. Would this be a way to go?

monkey0506 · Sun 08/12/2013 04:34:07

DiPerla is the one who said that games over 50 MB could never be wrapped in a standalone APK.

Essentially that's how it would work, but Google doesn't allow APK files over 50 MB to be published in the Play Store, so you have to use their expansion OBB files. That's where I come in.

StillInThe90s · Sun 08/12/2013 15:18:55

And we all love you for it.

So, to sum up: Small games are actually doable atm?
Did DiPerla create a template or something? Or would you have to hire a programmer anyway? - Old forum threads are "open ended", so to speak.

Joseph DiPerla · Mon 09/12/2013 01:50:34

I created an app that basically downloads the game and allows you to play it on AGS(AGS Stream), which hasn't been updated in a while because I am waiting for a couple of fixes and features for basic4ppc. The engine is still stand alone with a default launcher list in there. Standalone APK's are not hard. Like monkey stated, you can easily edit the source thats available now to do that. However, Any data over 50mb will need to be split up into .OBB extension files. You can have up to two expansion files at 2gb each. Generally speaking, your app should download those expansions automatically when being installed. However, there is a possibility the installation may not go as planned. That's where the trickier code comes in. My Java is very limited. I use basic4ppc.com to develop android apps. Unfortunately, in order for basic4ppc to be able to use expansion files would require me to create a class library in Java to run AGS and to download OBB files, which again, I am limited in doing since my knowledge of Java is limited.

monkey0506 · Mon 09/12/2013 02:23:19

Joseph, I'm not meaning to point any finger of blame at you. And really, I'm not trying to be secretive either. But I do have some interests I have to protect, pending the bugs in the Android port being sorted out (which has been my hang-up).

For what it's worth, I'm not even sure how you would go about reading game files directly from the APK, because I knew most games would have to use OBBs anyway.

I picked up the little Java I know rather quickly though, I think. It's really just a worse version of C#.

Joseph DiPerla · Mon 09/12/2013 05:39:52

No worries monkey. I didn't think you were blaming me for anything. Was just clarifying to the op what is needed for a standalone apk. As far as reading from an apk... it wouldn't do that. Once the apk is installed, it would extract all game data to the main apk data folder in root, I believe. You could retrieve it with file.internalcache or getinternalcache() or something along those lines.

Gabarts · Mon 09/12/2013 13:11:36

My programming knowledge is very limited, but what to do in case an AGS game (like mine) loads external video content (i've made an intro in flv format). Basically you just put all the exe and related content in your Android folder?

Joseph DiPerla · Mon 09/12/2013 18:52:00

It would actually need to be the entire game folder that is copied there.

monkey0506 · Mon 09/12/2013 19:30:32

The Compiled folder that is, not the project folder.

Crimson Wizard · Mon 09/12/2013 19:43:42

* you may also leave "winsetup.exe" out

.

.M.M. · Tue 31/12/2013 12:33:03

It is possible - even now, with a bit of changes in the original AGS engine Android port. I have almost no experience with Java, and even so the game works well, I haven't encountered any major problems. I started a topic about the game a while ago and recently made it freeware to get more feedback.
link to the Only the Good Die Young topic

monkey0506 · Tue 31/12/2013 15:52:02

MM, you may not have experienced major problems, but others have had major issues with the Android engine, possibly tied to the faulty audio code. Recent changes to the 3.3.0 branch may have resolved that though.

Crimson Wizard · Tue 31/12/2013 16:10:42

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Tue 31/12/2013 15:52:02Recent changes to the 3.3.0 branch may have resolved that though.

What changes?

monkey0506 · Tue 31/12/2013 16:18:29

Weren't there recent changes to the audio code?

Crimson Wizard · Tue 31/12/2013 17:04:23

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Tue 31/12/2013 16:18:29
Weren't there recent changes to the audio code?

Well, there were some, but I am not sure they may have any relation to Android.
There was one major fix that was only applied to Windows build.
Then, there was a minor fix for some clips that ended prematurely.

.M.M. · Wed 01/01/2014 13:29:30

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Tue 31/12/2013 15:52:02
MM, you may not have experienced major problems, but others have had major issues with the Android engine, possibly tied to the faulty audio code. Recent changes to the 3.3.0 branch may have resolved that though.

And the problem is that some games don't work, or the engine doesn't work on some devices?

monkey0506 · Wed 01/01/2014 16:16:32

MM the problem is that certain devices will silently crash across multiple games. I've been completely incapable of tracking down why this is, and I've never been able to reproduce it on any of my Android devices.

@CW: I thought there was also some Linux stuff. I could be completely off here, but seeing as Android runs in a Java VM on top of Linux, I figured that it might be related. I've been too busy lately to look much into it though.

Crimson Wizard · Wed 01/01/2014 16:47:50

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Wed 01/01/2014 16:16:32
@CW: I thought there was also some Linux stuff. I could be completely off here, but seeing as Android runs in a Java VM on top of Linux, I figured that it might be related. I've been too busy lately to look much into it though.

Hmm, all I remember was a patch made by Edward Rudd (from Humble Bundle) which supposedly fixes Pulse Audio, but it is still under question and wasn't merged.
There is also your MutexLock... if you don't have time, I can copy that myself

. But I think it may wait several days.

Crimson Wizard · Sun 05/01/2014 17:31:44

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Wed 01/01/2014 16:47:50
There is also your MutexLock... if you don't have time, I can copy that myself . But I think it may wait several days.

Ok, I copied the MutexLock fix. Hopefully that may improve something (I heard it fixed a deadlock in Primordia).