RevoluGame

[FR] L’Open Data : un service pour tous

2 weeks ago

by Adrien in General

Malgré les efforts de l’État (etalab, data.gouv.fr), nous pouvons observer une grande disparité entre les initiatives des différentes communes françaises concernant l’open data.

De grandes villes ouvrent des portails accessibles par tous et mis à jour très régulièrement (pour ne pas tous les citer, on peut trouver Nantes, Montpellier, Toulouse et même Paris) alors que d’autres sont relativement en retard (non non, je ne parlerai pas de Lille…).

De mon point de vue, le partage de données publiques peut être d’une très grande utilité pour la collectivité. Des particuliers, voire même des entreprises, développent, depuis une initiative personnelle ou par le biais de concours (Dev’Kings, Dataconnexions…), des applications qui peuvent rendre la vie de tous les jours beaucoup plus simple.

Par exemple via des applications indiquant les emplacements de parking, les vélos en libre service, les transports en commun, etc. (la SNCF, la RATP, ou JC Decaux ayant ouvert leurs données récemment). Voire des applications touristiques, mais encore et surtout des statistiques.

Par exemple, voici une petite démo de ce qui peut être fait rapidement et qui pourrait être très utile dans certains cas, même si bien sûr je ne vous souhaite pas que ce genre de service vous soit un jour utile ;). J’ai décidé de prendre les informations concernant les défibrillateurs de la ville de Montpellier et de les afficher sur une carte, en y ajoutant la géolocalisation de l’utilisateur. Service tout bête qui ne m’a pas pris plus d’une heure (en comptant le nettoyage des données) pour afficher les positions des défibrillateurs sur une carte (via Leaflet).

Et pourquoi ne pas en faire une application mobile, et en y ajoutant un guide sur l’utilisation d’un défibrillateur, et un bouton pour appeler rapidement les secours ?
Voilà ce qu’il serait possible de faire, simplement en partant d’une liste de coordonnées GPS mis à disposition par la ville de Montpellier.

Pour prendre un exemple concret, récemment j’ai développé une application permettant aux utilisateurs du réseau V’Lille de vérifier la disponibilité de vélos proches de leur position (Lille Aux Vélos).
Il m’a été difficile de me procurer les informations dont j’avais besoin. A aucun moment Transpole ne fait mention de son API ni même de ses données alors que tout est accessible sans restrictions…

Pourquoi développer cette application me direz-vous ? Pour la simple et bonne raison que Transpole a jugé utile de développer une application sur iPhone, mais de simplement faire une application qui contient le site mobile (lent et pas vraiment utilisable) sur Android… Et puis, comme on dit : “on n’est jamais mieux servi que par soi-même” ;).

Alors on peut se demander pourquoi de grandes villes ou grands groupes ne font pas un petit effort qui irait certainement dans leur sens, en permettant à d’autres personnes de développer des services annexes aux leurs et donc de faciliter la vie de tous les jours à tant de gens …
(more…)

Haxe open data

Planets experiment

2 weeks ago

by Adrien in Games

So now, it’s officially the 1PAM (one prototype a month).

It’s a simple conquest game, my first targeting HTML5. So it was more an excuse to update my game engine, so that it can compile to js.

AGE is still an Haxe framework, but now NME is not required anymore.
The engine will be compatible Flash (again) soon.

Here is the link, if you want to test it.

1GAM AGE Haxe html5

Ludum Dare #26 : Post mortem

1 month ago

by Adrien in Post mortem

This weekend took place the 26th edition of the Ludum Dare event. So as I was busy for half the weekend, I decided to enter the contest, but with only 24 hours to make a game.

This time, with my coworkers from Atelier 801, we decided to work together, not on the same game, but at the same place, the company’s headquarters.
It was really a good experience, and it helped me to focus on working.

As I mention in my “I’m in” post, I’ve used Haxe to make a flash game.

You can find the game here : What the fish !! and the vote form here.

How I prepared

For each theme in the final theme voting round, I’ve tried to come with a game concept. So before the beginning of the contest, I had lots of ideas.
I went to bed early the day before, so I was able to get up in the early morning.

What went right

I found a really simple (minimalist) game idea, where you have to kill fishing boats with potatoes (wait… what??). And of course, do not kill the pink salmons ;)
I made all the sprites really quickly, because I didn’t want to lose time on this.
I make flash games for a living, so the code is not really what’s bothering me the most.
Working with other people also participating to the Ludum Dare contest sets up a really nice working atmosphere.

What could have been better

The theme :D, because I had other (great?) ideas, but ideas that didn’t really fit with this theme
To have a little more time…

Ludum Dare onegameamonth

Ludum Dare #26 : I’m in

1 month ago

by Adrien in General

I’m going to use this Ludum Dare for an excuse and make my first game of the year, despite all my efforts (… what a shame…).

This time I will be at Atelier801‘s headquarters (in Lille, France), with my coworkers who will also participate !

I will use :

Haxe
As3fxr for the sound
Gimp for the graphics
Tiled for the level design (if I need it)

Ludum Dare

Pull-to-refresh with Phonegap

2 months ago

by Adrien in Development, Tutorials

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been working on some projects that are quite time-consuming; that’s why I can’t (despite having 3 prototypes) work much longer on games for the one game a month challenge.

For one of my apps using Phonegap and JQuery Mobile, I needed a list with the “pull to refresh” fonctionnality. After somes searchs and tests, I ended up using the Jquery Mobile iscrollview widget, that works pretty well.

So here is a quick start for this feature.

First of all, what is this widget for ?

This widget is a JQueryMobile version of the iScroll widget.

According to the autor website :

The script development began because mobile webkit (on iPhone, iPad, Android) does not provide a native way to scroll content inside a fixed width/height element.

By the way, this plugin allows you to use a lot of features like :

Pinch / Zoom
Pull up/down to refresh
Improved speed and momentum
Snap to element
Customizable scrollbars

The code

Assuming that you have a Phonegap project already initialized, you need to add to your main html file :

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/jquery.mobile.iscrollview.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/jquery.mobile.iscrollview-pull.css"/>
 
<script src="js/iscroll.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="js/jquery.mobile.iscrollview.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

And a page like this :

<div data-role="page" id="main" data-position="fixed">
    <div data-role="header">
        <h1>Test iScroll</h1>
    </div>
    <div data-iscroll="" data-role="content" class="iscroll-wrapper">
        <div class="iscroll-pulldown">
            <span class="iscroll-pull-icon"></span>
            <span class="iscroll-pull-label"></span>
        </div>
        <ul data-role="listview">
            <li>Item 1 culpa aut nam qui</li>
            <li>Item 2 minima quam temporibus quidem</li>
            <li>Item 3 commodi sint facilis numquam</li>
        </ul>
        <div class="iscroll-pullup">
            <span class="iscroll-pull-icon"></span>
            <span class="iscroll-pull-label"></span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

The “list-view” inside the “data-iscroll” tag will now have the “pull to refresh” feature.
If you need to do some actions (like refresh the content, …) you have to listen for some events :

var document = untyped __js__("document");
document.addEventListener("deviceready", function(e) 
{
    new JQuery(function() 
    {
        new JQuery(".iscroll-wrapper").bind(
        {
            iscroll_onpulldown: onPullDown,
            iscroll_onpullup: onPullUp
        });
    });
});

Here is the complete list of events for the pull-to-refresh feature :

iscroll_onpulldown
iscroll_onpullup
iscroll_onpulldownreset
iscroll_onpulldownpulled
iscroll_onpulldownloading
iscroll_onpullupreset
iscroll_onpulluppulled
iscroll_onpulluploading

The event callbacks takes two arguments :

onPullDown(event: Event, data: Dynamic):Void

The event argument is a basic JQuery Event.
The data argument has only one member : iscrollview, that is the reference to the iscrollview object that made the callback.

And after that, if you want to hide the top or bottom part, just refresh the componant :

data.iscrollview.refresh();

Customization

You can also custom the pull label text. All these options has default values, but you can custom them all :

pullDownResetText (default: “Pull down to refresh…”)
pullDownPulledText (default: “Release to refresh…”)
pullDownLoadingText (default: “Loading…”)
pullUpResetText (default: “Pull up to refresh…”)
pullUpPulledText (default: “Release to refresh…”)
pullUpLoadingText (default: “Loading…”)

If you want to change those values from the html, just set the correct attribute :

<span class="iscroll-pull-label" 
      data-iscroll-loading-text="Custom loading text" 
      data-iscroll-pulled-text="Custom pulled text">Custom reset text</span>

For more informations, here is the place you want to go.

Haxe JQuery Phonegap

One Game A Month Challenge

5 months ago

by Adrien in Development, Games

What is the ‘one game a month’ challenge ?

The goal is to publish at least one game by month for a year (so 12 games … if the calendar has not changed since the last time I checked).

Why ?

In my (short) indie developper’s life, finishing games is like the most difficult thing to do, mainly because of the lack of motivation. On my computer, I have a lot of prototypes … but not a real game (by real, I mean finished).
So I hope this challenge will help motivating me, by showing my work to the whole community, and will allow me to improve my skills.

I’m not really a good 2D artist, but I’m really trying to upgrade this skill, so that I can make games without being limited by the design. I am aware that I’m not going to become a real artist, but if I can make basic pixel assets, it will be a fantastic move !

Earn XP for doing what you love: making games!

This challenge has an XP system based on the achievements you won. All this system is juste for fun, there is no gain, just motivation and pride (at least if games are published ^^).

To show you all of my progress, I will post updates about my games on this page : http://revolugame.com/one-game-a-month/. Don’t hesitate to comment the games !

My profile page : onegameamonth.com/RevoluGame.

Let’s start with the first game !!

onegameamonth

A quick start with nape and tilelayer

5 months ago

by Adrien in Development, Tutorials

Recently, I started a mobile game with NME, and I wanted to give a try to nape. Since I’ve seen the NME’s runnermark, I’ve wanted to try the tilelayer library too. So why not dot it at the same time !

Overall view

Nape

This month was annonced the 2.0 version of nape. Nape is an open-source Haxe/AS3 physics engine that lets you do cross platform applications. It’s fast and powerful (actually I prefer nape over box2d, it’s much easier to use, and really fast). See by yourself : http://napephys.com/samples.html.

Just download it through haxelib :

haxelib install nape

Tilelayer

To quote the github description :

A lightweight and very optimized wrapper over NME’s powerful but lowlevel ‘drawTiles’ which offers the best rendering performance (ie. batching) on native platforms.

To install the haxelib version :

haxelib install tilelayer

(more…)

Haxe nape NME

AGE – How to support physic engines

7 months ago

by Adrien in Development, Tutorials

In the previous post, we have seen how to use the Box2D support into the AGE engine. Now I just want to show you how simple it is to add a new framework/engine support.

For example, we are going to add the Nape support.

For those of you who don’t know, Nape is a Haxe/AS3 physics engine. Since Nape is really close to Box2D, it will be simple to understand how box2d has been added to AGE.

The behavior

Since AGE is based on a behaviors system, we are just going to create a new behavior, that we will call NapeMovementBehavior :

class NapeMovementBehavior implements IBehavior
{
    private var _entity : BasicEntity;
    public var enabled(default, null) : Bool;
 
    public function update():Void {}
 
    public function enable()
    {
	enabled = true;
    }
 
    public function disable()
    {
	enabled = false;
    }
 
    public function destroy():Void {}
}

Now we are going to initialize the data needed by Nape for the behavior’s entity :

private var _body : Body;
public static var world : Space;
public function new(pEntity: BasicEntity, pDynamic:Bool)
{
    if(world == null)
        world = new Space( new Vec2(0, 500) );
 
    _body = new Body( (pDynamic ? BodyType.DYNAMIC : BodyType.STATIC), 
                       new Vec2(pEntity.x + pEntity.halfWidth, pEntity.y + pEntity.halfHeight)
                   );
 
    var block:Polygon = new Polygon(Polygon.box(pEntity.width,pEntity.height));
 
    _body.shapes.add(block);
    _body.align();
 
    _body.space = world;
 
    _entity = pEntity;
}

If you need more information on how Nape is working, go check the documentation.
So for now, we have a basic entity initialized for working into Nape.
(more…)

AGE Haxe NME

AGE – Box2D support

7 months ago

by Adrien in Development, Games, Tutorials

Since Box2D is one of the most used physics engine, I’ve started to implement it into the AGE game engine.

I’ve used the box2d version from haxelib, so don’t forget to add the following to your nmml file :

<haxelib name="box2d"></haxelib>

I’ve implemented it with the behaviors system. So now we have a Box2dEntity that has a special Behavior (Box2dMovementBehavior) which initialize and update all the Box2D stuff.

For example, to define an entity :

import com.revolugame.age.display.Box2dEntity;
 
class Block extends Box2dEntity
{
    public function new (pX: Int, pY: Int)
    {
        super(pX, pY);
        makeGraphic(32, 32, 0xFF000000);
        initBox2dStuff(30, true, 0, 0, 0);
//                                     ^ friction
//                                  ^ restitution
//                               ^ density
//                          ^ if the entity is dynamic
//                     ^ conversion meters to pixels
    }
}

add(new Block(10, 50));

And that’s it !

The Box2D support works with Flash and C++ but needs some optimization for now.
(more…)

AGE Haxe NME

Case study: mobile app with Haxe

10 months ago

by Adrien in Development

Problematic

I needed to look for the best technologies to use for a cross platform mobile application.
I need to develop a simple application, linked with all Android/Iphone/Windows tools like the calendar, contacts, etc… and of course, the application must have a simple and integrated UI (as close as possible to the OS).

My first thought was to give NME a try for a non game application.

NME

NME is my favorite tool for a game or a big application (RIA) that needs good performances (when you compile, it produces C++ code and not Java or objective-C).

NME is not 100% integrated with all the OS. You can do it, but you have to code specific parts for each OS, and you have to know C++ and that’s not my case right now.

And finally, there is no simple UI framework that can be used with a cross platform mobile app (and for a commercial project, I’m not comfortable with using a young library like Cocktail or HaxeAsWing).

I’ve heard about PhoneGap, a simple tool that lets you code JavaScript and deploy it to all the most used mobile OS platforms. So why not give it a try?

What is PhoneGap ?

Developing with PhoneGap gives you the freedom to create mobile applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada and Symbian using the web code you know and love: HTML, CSS and Javascript.

How is PhoneGap working?

To deploy to a specific platform, you are going to need the SDK, and what’s best to compile and deploy (for Windows it’s Visual Studio, for the others you can just use the terminal with the SDK tools).

For each platform (I promise, that is the last time I’m saying that) you have to create a default project (look at the Getting Started Guide).

Now that you have the structure, we can start the JavaScript part.

Every JS (and html/css) files must be in the www directory.

Since I’m using Haxe, I need to generate all the externals for using code completion.
Here is an example of what you have to do :

@:native("window.device")
extern class Device 
{
	//public static var name	(default, null) : String;
	public static var cordova	(default, null)	: String;
	public static var platform	(default, null)	: String;
	public static var uuid		(default, null)	: String;
	public static var version	(default, null)	: String;
}

Now in your JS project, if you want to display your uuid :

js.Lib.document.getElementById("uuid").innerHTML = Device.uuid;

And the HTML part :

<h4>UUID: <span id="uuid"> &nbsp;</span></h4>

PhoneGap allows you access to all the device functionalities. Look at the documentation for more details.

So now we have a basic project working, we have to search for an UI framework. And since we can use any JS framework … we have plenty of choices.
(more…)

Haxe

[FR] L’Open Data : un service pour tous

Planets experiment

Ludum Dare #26 : Post mortem

How I prepared

What went right

What could have been better

Ludum Dare #26 : I’m in

Pull-to-refresh with Phonegap

First of all, what is this widget for ?

The code

Customization

One Game A Month Challenge

What is the ‘one game a month’ challenge ?

Why ?

A quick start with nape and tilelayer

Overall view

Nape

Tilelayer

AGE – How to support physic engines

The behavior

AGE – Box2D support

Case study: mobile app with Haxe

Problematic

NME

What is PhoneGap ?

How is PhoneGap working?

Recent Posts

Tweets

Blogroll

How I prepared

What went right

What could have been better

First of all, what is this widget for ?

The code

Customization

What is the ‘one game a month’ challenge ?

Why ?

Overall view

Nape

Tilelayer

The behavior

Problematic

NME

What is PhoneGap ?

How is PhoneGap working?

Tags

Recent Posts

Tweets

Blogroll