Developing a Game - Android or iPhone?

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Hi, I will be developing a mobile game for a Uni assignment, but I am not sure which route to go down...

iPhone or Android?

I will be developing the game through Adobe Flash.

Anyone know which is easier to do so?

Thanks
 
Hi,

I reckon any answer you get will be peoples preferences. For example, I would go for Android!

What I suggest is do research on both and post your findings and your choice in your report, listing Pros and Cons for both OSes. Think about the ease of development, as well as maintainability and portability. If you make one for the iPhone, you're restricted to that and iPad. With Android, you can cover more devices, but may mean more time and money (in the real world at least). Also, how do sale projections look based on current trends? If Android is going to be 5 times bigger than iPhone (iOS) in 5 years then will that affect your decision.

Overall, the end decision should be yours. And you should be credited for your reasoning.
 
If you're using flash then Android is the only real option, also are Adobe not keeping 'AIR' alive so things like this would still work/be easily portable if/when Flash does fully go? Although a moot point in this instance.

I'd also suggest Android as for a Uni project it's by far the cheaper, assuming you don't need it on the market then it's free, whilst I believe you need to pay $99 to get an app running on an iPhone (actually thinking about it, jailbreaking would get around this wouldn't it?)

Oh, and do you really have to use Flash?
 
Thanks for the replies guys! The main objective is to just make a game to present as my project, so I don't really need to worry about the cost of anything or sales of the product :) plus my iPhone is jailbroken, so I don't need to pay to be a developer ;)

I will be using Adobe AIR. It looks like the majority picked Android, is it actually easier to make it for android or is it probably the same? I am only interested in the development part of it for now :)

Thanks again for the replies, very helpful :)
 
In this forum your answer will be Anroid, in the Mac forum it will be iOS :p. I'd just develop it for whichever phone I had, so that testing wouldn't be a problem.
 
Haha that makes sense. I have an iPhone and will be getting a Sony Xperia S on Friday. It seems like there isn't a difference in terms of easiness for development, so I'll probably go for android since the Sony has a better screen.

Thanks everyone for your help and input!
 
I would say Android as well. Developing for iOS is more costly and since you're a student I'm guessing you want the cheaper option too, but then again you have a fair few Apple devices so you probably like spending money...

Post in the Apple forum to see the difference in opinion and it will probably be fun to read.
 
Haha, I hate spending money! That's why I mentioned above that I'm not worrying about money, as my iPhone is jailbroken ;)

Need to update my sig, I sold the iPad last week!
 
Probably been said, but why the hell are you doing flash for a uni course.
I would mark you down for not doing your reserch. Flash is dead, it's not supported on apple or MS phones/tablets and it's only support on some android devices.

You would be much better of doing it in a relevant language that is cross platform, or at least as small alterations as possible. You never know you might want to develope an app and see if you can make some money in the future and knowing how it works would be good.


Also w8 is totally free at the moment, including the developing software, so could be a cool project.

I want to learn, got a great idea for an app, just wouldn't have a clue of how to even start. Resonably cluttered market but 99% of the apps are crap.
 
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He is probably learning ActionScript/Flex, so it isn't meaningless.

Flash is far from dead. To clear up the misconceptions, it is still supported on Android devices, but not for future mobile web browsers it is not (i.e Chrome on Ice Cream Sandwich). Flash is still being developed.
 
If you don't have to use flash and you have a decent amount of time to do this then go for Android.

Go through this playlist, will really key you in. Then i guess this one. Then this one. And i guess this one could help.

I mean, if you're pushed for time or already know the basics then you could probably get away with just the Android one. But the background in Java does help.
 
I'm an iPhone owner and I say Android. For starters, you're limited to jailbroken iPhones if you're going to use flash anyway.
 
Isn't Flash for games completely different to Flash for web browsing? because Adobe Flash/Air supports making apps for iPhone/iPad so it obviously will still work?

I know how to get around in Flash so I thought it would be easier for me, but are there programs that I can learn to make really simple games in about 2 months? like the 2 suggested above?
 
Out of curiosity what course are you doing this for? If it's a programming based course then I'd just dive in the deep end and do it in Java/Objective-C depending on platform and presumably some OpenGL depending on what you want the game to do exactly...
 
I would develop for iPhone but not in anything adobe made if possible with a single exception for openGL which is apparently "dead easy" according to a dev here at orange towers on Android. The reason being that iPhone testing is simple, the documentation is very good and the wealth of knowledge will be broader doing this on a standardised platform. The Android emulator is a pig for what it's worth. The only problem for iPhone dev is you need the kit don't you? If you can't get this for free then you might have your hand forced.
 
Probably been said, but why the hell are you doing flash for a uni course.
I would mark you down for not doing your reserch. Flash is dead, it's not supported on apple or MS phones/tablets and it's only support on some android devices.

You can use flash actionscript to target adobe AIR which runs as applications on iOS, Android, Playbook, Nook, and Kindle
 
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