Merge HaxePunk with FlashPunk?

jacobalbano · 2014-09-17 00:12:35 UTC

The problems he’s having are almost certainly due to the fact that he’s using libraries that aren’t compatible with Haxe. It’s the same when going from any one language to any other.

I will point out that Haxepunk makes changes to the Flashpunk API that tripped me up in a big way the first time I used it. As a very simple example, the Image class in both frameworks has two methods: centerOrigin() and centerOO(). In Flashpunk, both of them do the same exact thing. In Haxepunk, centerOO() centers the image’s origin, then translates it so that it appears in the same position on the screen as before.

There are some changes that I like, some I don’t like so much, and a few I see no justification for. Ultimately it’s important to realize that Haxepunk’s existence doesn’t make Flashpunk redundant, and the two frameworks are perfectly capable of coexisting.

Darrin · 2014-09-17 01:26:53 UTC

Cool that is what I thought. I love Flashpunk. I get it. I’m not a programmer but I can make games. Awesome.

The problem I see though is Flash is very flat / declining at the moment. Porting to IOS and Android looks to be a bit of a PITA. Granted I haven’t tried it yet ( I will in a few weeks). I was hoping Haxe could do a better job at that. I mean the perfect system would be Web portals, IOS, Android, Amazon and consoles. That is the dream. Unit really doesn’t do web…but Unity 5 is supposed to do HTML5… but it is Unity, proprietary… they could just close up shop or get bought out… etc. HTML5 looks interesting but no game frame works like FlashPunk. Dunno, just seems like an interesting transition right now and nothing looks like Flash did 12 years ago.

Ultima2876 · 2014-09-17 21:01:41 UTC

HTML5 does have game frameworks; the most popular of which seems to be Phaser at the moment (phaser.io). HTML5 is a very immature market so at this point there is a LOT of crappy games around, but a few quality ones are starting to appear. Monetization of HTML5 is still a bit of a mystery, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it matures over the next 2-3 years to overtake Flash’s spot completely. It actually reminds me heavily of the Flash industry around 8 years ago - the reason I think HTML5 will build up to that level faster is because of the influx of Flash devs moving into HTML5. This will accelerate that process (and that a lot of the monetization of Flash games can be done with HTML5 also). The thing that will slow it down is the inability to surround a game with web ads to easily monetize - but that is offset easily by the interest shown by huge companies like Amazon and Mozilla in HTML5 mobile “web apps”.

I think early adoption of HTML5 is a risk, but can have a big payoff for the right developers.

zachwlewis · 2014-09-19 17:49:40 UTC

Don’t you dare mention that function’s name.

TTL_Anderson · 2014-09-19 18:21:16 UTC

I use centerOO all the time!

jacobalbano · 2014-09-20 03:27:16 UTC

Is there some history there? Besides this, I mean.

reopucino · 2014-09-20 03:51:59 UTC

I think these good for us… until now I always think about how make game with one engine and develop to every where. I absolutly love flashpunk and I want flashpunk / punkengine can be develop to every where.

TTL_Anderson · 2014-09-20 15:33:52 UTC

My reasons are about the same as Draknek’s were Does the same thing and is shorter to type.

AbelToy · 2014-09-20 20:02:45 UTC

We are definitely the best game development community I’ve seen, since the old days.

What do you mean with GamePunk Engine by the way? The name sounds interesting as fuck, what would it be though?

miguelmurca · 2014-09-20 22:18:45 UTC

I like centerOO().

B6ka · 2014-09-23 08:51:13 UTC

So FP2 is not coming along? Come on guys, do not really want to learn Phaser.

TTL_Anderson · 2014-09-24 03:14:10 UTC

Doesn’t make sense to make FP2 in flash because flash is sort of dying as a platform. Your best option right now is either Flashpunk or Haxepunk.

miguelmurca · 2014-09-24 16:20:25 UTC

Saw this, sounded relevant. (I don’t like Unity though.)

miguelmurca · 2014-09-25 13:54:29 UTC

10 minutes with Haxe and I want to throw my PC at a wall. I can’t say I’m looking forward to using it right now.

By the way, does anyone know how to fix this strange error? When compiling, FD builds then outputs haxelib run openfl run "E:\Documents\Flash Develop Projects\HAXEPROJECT\project.xml" flashnonstop, not doing anything else. When I close FD, however, it relaunches itself and runs the flash window. Help.

AbelToy · 2014-09-25 21:35:26 UTC

have you tried restarting your computer after installing haxe and haxelib? I’ve never had those issues, but a friend had some issues with haxe that were the result of not restarting after the installation…

VoEC · 2014-09-25 21:40:18 UTC

Have you tried a different target like neko? Does it do the same there? What when you use debug mode?

Also, and this is just a wild guess, sometimes having whitespaces in your filename/path can cause issues. Maybe removing those might help somehow.

miguelmurca · 2014-09-25 21:44:43 UTC

Nope, only flash in debug/release mode does this. Neko and windows work fine. Removing spaces or restarting didn’t work either.

Darrin · 2014-11-21 16:49:29 UTC

Please comment on this. We all want to know what game engine we can develop on to multiple devices over the next 10 years. We want the games to be seen everywhere. And most importantly, we love flashpunk.

So how do we get there? What is the right engine?

HTML5 does not have the penetration in portals that flash has.
AIR seems to covers iOS and Android and standalone for flashpunk.
Phaser.io gives iOS Android, and HTML5.
Haxepunk gives iOS, Android, and HTML5.
Phaser and Haxepunk do not give Flash portal penetration.
Unity 5 gives iOS, Android, HTML5, and Consoles (not handhelds).
Unity 5 does not give Flash portals.
Flashpunk does not have 3D acceleration.
Starlingpunk has 3d acceleration but has limited flash penetration
Starlingpunk’s feature set currently limited–one guy basically needs some love.

So currently FlashPunk’s weaknesses for the future are:

No 3D Acceleration / switch on or off.
Integration onto mobile seems to have a bit of a barrier.
No console support.

A) So what is the solution for 3D?

Merging with StarlingPunk.
Buying Stage3dPunk and make it open source.
Redoing Stage3dPunk as opensource.
Need someone to write the 3D layer.

B) What is the solution for mobile?

More tutorials I guess. Thoughts?

C) What is the solution for consoles?

Unknown. Not even sure where to begin on this.

Actionscript will be around for a long time. Edit Zach has pointed out the compiler has recently been updated (just no rebranding to version 4).

Anyway, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Darrin

zachwlewis · 2014-11-22 02:36:17 UTC

The solution for 3D acceleration lies in the community. Someone will need to rewrite parts of the library to support Stage3D rendering.

This doesn’t really make sense to me. That’s like saying, “C++ will be around for a long time. It just isn’t getting updated to C+++.” Adobe just released AIR 15 with the ActionScript Compiler 2, which greatly enhances the runtime performance.

Darrin · 2014-11-22 09:05:28 UTC

Zach,

Thank you for the comment and clarification about Actionscript. It is hard to sift through all of the doom and gloom about Flash and Actionscript 4. I agree AIR seems to be alive and kicking and from the white paper from Adobe it is the way forward. Important to remember.

As for 3D acceleration, yeah someone has to do it. I don’t have the skill set. How much work is it?