Adobe AIR for Android: Chroma Circuit, Gridshock, and Qrossfire Preview Videos

by Josh Tynjala

Updated! Added a video of Gridshock on a Nexus One.

Recently, the folks at Adobe gave me access to early builds of AIR for Android. With permission, I’m able to share a little bit about my experience so far. For your enjoyment, I’ve also uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube where I demo Chroma Circuit on the Motorola Droid along with Gridshock and Qrossfire on the Google Nexus One.

First, here’s a look at Chroma Circuit:

Since I’ve only been targeting a single platform so far, I hadn’t yet spent a lot of effort making my games resolution independent. With each one, I had to spend a couple hours making adjustments to ensure that the layouts would properly fit the screens of different devices. None of this new code that I wrote is Android-specific. In fact, now that my games have these changes in place, I shouldn’t need to make any adjustments when Adobe brings AIR to other types of smartphones in the future. That’s awesome. Of course, if a platform has an important UI paradigm, like Android’s hardware back button, then yes, I’ll make the necessary tweaks to ensure it is supported.

Now take a peek at Gridshock too:

Performance-wise, AIR for Android is fast. When I was making iPhone apps with Adobe’s Packager for iPhone in Flash CS5, I had to make heavy use of hardware acceleration to make even the most basic animations run smoothly. On Android, my games are all rendering in software, and they feel no less responsive on the phones than they do on my desktop. As Lee Brimelow pointed out, “[Adobe is] able to get tremendous performance on Android devices because Google and the various handset manufacturers have chosen to work closely with us to provide the best possible experience to the end user.”

Finally, here’s my third game, Qrossfire:

With barely any work on my part, I got my three existing mobile games running in AIR for Android. It’s exciting. This week, I’ll be starting a totally new game (finally!), and I plan to target my Android phones first. It’s a side-scrolling shooter, which is a nice change of genre for me, and the control scheme I have planned should be fun to implement with multi-touch.

About the Author

Josh Tynjala is an open source developer, entrepreneur, coding mercenary, karaoke addict, and bowler hat enthusiast.

Discussion
  1. Animations looks smooth. Good work! Looking forward to seeing the side scroller performance on android.

    posted by felix on 04.20.2010
  2. [...] app store). Josh recently updated and optimized them to target Flash Player on Android, and the results have been impressive. There have already been a couple of of developers who have moved their Flash [...]

    posted by On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications at Mike Chambers on 04.20.2010
  3. I’m really glad to see the performance is so good!
    Looks like these games ported to portable really well. Good luck with them Josh.

    posted by Lawrie on 04.20.2010
  4. [...] Circuit – Blog | [...]

    posted by The Flash Blog » Google Reinforces Commitment to Adobe and Flash on 04.21.2010
  5. [...] [...]

    posted by Adobe Drops iPhone Flash Support on 04.21.2010
  6. [...] "Performance-wise, AIR for Android is fast. With barely any work on my part, I got my three existing mobile games running in AIR for Android." -Josh Tynjala [...]

    posted by Flash And Air Deveopers Port Existing Apps To Android In 10 Minutes, Give Feedback From The Private Beta Of Flash/Air For Android | Android News, Reviews, Applications, Games, Phones, Devices, Tips, Hacks, Videos, Podcasts - Android Police on 04.22.2010
  7. [...] “Em termos de performance, AIR para o Android é rápido. Com o trabalho quase nenhum de minha parte, eu tenho os meus três jogos móveis existentes em execução no AIR para Android.” Josh Tynjala [...]

    posted by Aplicações Flash AIR para o Android em 10 minutos! - Tecinfor on 04.23.2010
  8. [...] För spelutvecklare som använder Flash är Air-stödet välkommet och innebär att man kan distribuera sina applikationer genom ex. Android Market och därmed enkelt få betalt för dem, därtill innebär det att man inte behöver ägna tid åt att specialanpassa sina spel för olika plattformar — såvida Air-stödet finns där vill säga “None of this new code that I wrote is Android-specific. In fact, now that my games have these changes in place, I shouldn’t need to make any adjustments when Adobe brings AIR to other types of smartphones in the future. That’s awesome.” –Joshblog.net [...]

    posted by Adobe visar upp Air-spel för Android | Swedroid on 04.23.2010
  9. [...] För spelutvecklare som använder Flash är Air-stödet välkommet och innebär att man kan distribuera sina applikationer genom ex. Android Market och därmed enkelt få betalt för dem, därtill innebär det att man inte behöver ägna tid åt att specialanpassa sina spel för olika plattformar — såvida Air-stödet finns där vill säga “None of this new code that I wrote is Android-specific. In fact, now that my games have these changes in place, I shouldn’t need to make any adjustments when Adobe brings AIR to other types of smartphones in the future. That’s awesome.” –Joshblog.net [...]

    posted by Adobe visar upp Air-spel för Android | Swedroid on 04.23.2010
  10. [...] barely any work on my part, I got my three existing mobile games running in AIR for Android.” -Josh Tynjala “Well with no code changes, about 2 hours to have the graphics tweaked (thanks to @pneal), I [...]

    posted by Adobe makes it easy to port Flash and Air Apps to Android. Does it game change? – Get Organize and Getting Things Done | The Productive Organizer on 04.23.2010
  11. posted by Neon Zero » Thoughts on Steve’s Thoughts on Flash on 04.30.2010
  12. [...] Circuit (Blog | [...]

    posted by Adobe AIR SDK per Android 2.2 rilasciata on 06.03.2010
  13. [...] Circuit (Blog | [...]

    posted by Adobe AIR SDK per Android (rilasciato) - Tutto Android on 06.03.2010
  14. [...] Chroma Circuit [...]

    posted by Pisz za pomoc? ActionScript 3 by tworzy? Androidowe aplikacje | gsm on 06.04.2010
  15. [...] Circuit (Blog | [...]

    posted by Adobe Air disponibil in Android Market - Android Romania on 10.14.2010
  16. [...] por Josh Tinjala, podéis seguir su trabajo en su blog. Chroma Circuit para [...]

    posted by UnAngelo blog: Adobe AIR para Android el próximo 8 de octubre y 33 futuras aplicaciones on 01.19.2011
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