OpenFL for Home Game Consoles

[larsiusprime]

How we got Haxe/OpenFL to run on game consoles like the WiiU and XBox.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.fortressofdoors.com/openfl-for-home-game-consoles/

[larsiusprime]

Do let me know if anyone has questions. I'm happy to answer them!

[Chlorodatafile]

It's impressive ! And it will be available to everybody ? It's hard to belive because it's so incredible and exciting !

[B_Galliart]

Valve has been pushing to get more games on Linux but of the three funding partners, Yummy Circus is the only one that currently listed as running on Linux. So, while everything about the presentation is interesting/cool, what really caught my eye was: "you can do 'lime build linux' ..." Also, you stated in the QA part of the talk that OpenFL supports Linux.

So as part of step 2, will you be accepting beta testers to test OpenFL flavors of either Defender's Quest or Paper, Please? Or, more importantly, is there a way for Linux users that already have payed for either of these game to sign up to beta test them on Linux?

Lastly, is the OpenFL support for Firefox OS and HTML5 at all based around Mozilla's asm.js? Is there ever any use of emscripten?

[larsiusprime]

The original Defender's Quest I (written in AS3) runs on Linux, albeit via Adobe AIR, is it not listed as such on Steam? (If so it might be because it runs on regular flavors of Linux, but has issues installing on SteamOS due to a giant headache list I won't get it into at the moment, but suffice it to say I'm tired of Adobe AIR).

When we roll out the HD upgrade of Defender's Quest I (written in Haxe/OpenFL) we'll definitely be putting out a proper native Linux and SteamOS release.

And yeah I wouldn't mind a proper linux tester or two! For Papers Please you'd have to contact Lucas Pope and see what his plans are for that, I'm not sure if he has any.

As for OpenFL's FirefoxOS/HTML5, you should talk to Joshua Granick (@singmajesty on twitter, @jgranick on github) over at OpenFL.org about that. For regular HTML5, OpenFL uses haxe code that compiles to JS, and it has three separate rendering modes depending on the author's needs - DOM, CANVAS, or WebGL. I'm not sure to what degree it uses asm.js or emscripten.

[larsiusprime]

And it will be available to everybody ?

So that's "Phase 2." There will be some terms people will have to agree to (you can't develop on a console unless you are signed up with that console's owner, like Nintendo, MS, Sony, etc), blah blah, but as long as you can agree to the terms and whatever maintenance cost there is, the idea is we would like to make it available to you. We can't officially promise that of course, until we have approval as official 3rd party middleware from the various console owners. That's one of the things we're working on right now.

[B_Galliart]

Both Defender's Quest I and Papers Please are listed as for Linux on Steam. I am sorry about the incorrect statement before. Previously, the Steam Store used the Linux Tux penguin logo to indicate Linux support. Now they use a Steam logo (I guess to mean SteamOS) instead. I assumed the Steam logo was part of the Steam Play logo.

Personally, I don't care if a game is native or uses a runtime system. I still have fun with games that run via DOSbox or WINE. However, I am still glad to here there will be an alternative to using Adobe AIR given that AIR for Linux was discontinued in 2011 with AIR v2.6 (they are now up to AIR v17 which can't run on Linux).

[larsiusprime]

Ah, whew. Yeah it is a SUPER pain to get AIR to run on linux. We personally use a custom install script that does all sort of black magic to force it to run correctly on 90% of systems but we still get lots of support requests for it. Can't wait to leave that behind for good.

[Grimmr]

Okay, I am super sorry to necro a 2 year old thread but I have to know if this project is still going. I've done my best to find any information about this but there is literally nothing out there, barring a 3 year old reddit thread. I understand that working with console SDK's may mean that traditional update logs are imposable but it would be really nice to get a yay or nay on whether or not this project is still going as I'm super hyped to see proper cross-compilation working across such proprietary systems.

Again sorry for the necro but I just have to know, y'know.

[emilysweet]

Hey there!

I went silent because I realized in retrospect I announced it too early and I should have waited until more was done.

So here's your update!

We ultimately had to drop WiiU support because Nintendo killed that sucker fast.
PS4, PSVita, and XBox One are still go. Nintendo Switch is a possibility.

As for PS4, PSVita, and XBox One --- Defender's Quest will ship on all three of these platforms soon. Probably before the year is out. Specifically, the backend tech is done, the console-specific game UX code is done, and I am going through the certification checklist on all three platforms and we're most of the way there. I expect to enter certification itself imminently.

Once I have shipped my own games with this tech I will talk with my partners and put together a final plan for making it more broadly available. Things took longer than I expected and wound up being more complicated, such is gamedev.

(This is Lars, not Emily, I forgot I was on her account)

[Grimmr]

Thanks for the response. I'm glad to hear that this is still a thing as console cross-compilation still sounds like some crazy sci-fi tech even if it can only work with the reduced target set of PS4, Vita and XBox One. Best of luck getting this to fruition and I look forward to your next announcement.

[tomspilman]

Hi @emilysweet @larsiusprime.

I'm investigating solutions for a Haxe/OpenFL port to Nintendo Switch. We're already licensed Switch developers and have several games coming to the platform in the next few weeks.

Any chance we can maybe help you on this?

[larsiusprime]

Absolutely, Tom. Send me an email at lars.doucet@gmail.com and let's talk.