Background
I'm a noob programmer looking to create a simple turn based mobile game as a side project. I've pretty much got the game logic down and am left with implementing the online multiplayer/PVP portion.
More specifically, i'm looking to implementing a system when the player clicks play and will be matched with an opponent in a 1 v 1 format, without any lobbies etc etc.
I'm currently trying to develop my game in android studio(i'm new) but am also open to unity if it makes the development easier.(I have no experience in Unity).
What i want to know
From what i understand,i need to create and host my own server for the multiplayer to run(i.e matching of player to opponent). Do i also need the server to run the game itself or am i able to connect the player to the opponent and simply record the result of the game to my server/database?
Also, how would i go about creating and running/hosting the server? I heard nodeJS is a good choice for writing the server.
Can anyone point me to a good resource/tutorial for creating and running my own server, and if possible free(or cheap) hosting for my server?
Also, is unity a better choice than android studio for my game?
End Goal
I just wanna publish my game onto the app store,IOS store,etc etc.
If you don't have any experience with creating multiplayer games, I'd recommend looking into one of the several ready-made solutions available on the market (Unity Multiplayer is one such service). You could essentially make your entire online game without ever needing to code a server.
Coding game servers is more work than you think. You'd first need to make a working game server, then you'd need to consider hosting, data storage, scaling, ping, etc. The downside is that you'll get less customizability and less security (you'll need to handle much of the game client-side, which means you're susceptible to hacking by modification of the client, known in the android world as "mods"). However, if you're just starting out, a game server of your own will probably do more harm than good.
You should always choose a multiplatform engine for mobile games. You do not want to code your entire game twice. So yes, Unity is a good choice, and it's the de-facto standard for mobile these days. If you're going to be making games, learning Unity is a worthwhile investment.
Last, and this one comes from my personal experience only with no real statistical data to support it, people who implement game servers with node often end up discovering that their server just can't handle the load, which leads to a need for stacking a whole lot of technologies up on one another to scale the server(s) out or squeeze more performance in some way. It'll often prove to be bad choice in the long run. Or then again, maybe the people I know just aren't good with node.
Recently, I've wondered if a non-game mobile app like Facebook could have been written all in Unity?
I am planning to develop a Social Media app and I am a .Net Backend Web Developer with no iOS/Android background. I especially know to code Objective-C and Java, however I don't have any experience or know-how about designing UI and add some animations to it.
I encountered the platform Unity while I was playing Dead Trigger 2 on my tablet. When I learnt that Unity is a Cross-Platform Game Development Environment, I tried playing Dead Trigger 2 on my phone (Note 3) and friend's iPhone. Works perfect. Then, I saw it has something to do with Facebook and shocked when realized that I am able to play the same game in a Web Browser on Facebook. That's amazing...
Since I am convinced that such a 3D game can be developed in such a way, I have the idea to develop a normal non-game mobile app with Unity. If the Dead Trigger Team can draw such zombies in 3D, I think it would not be so hard for me to draw a sliding-menu in 2D mode that magically works in all mobile platforms including Windows Phone. I did, and saw that any kind of animation is done with drag-drop editors and C# scripting, wooww. So, Unity fullfills my lack of UI coding in mobile platforms...
The question is, how about some backend stuff? Sending web requests? Multi-threading? async/await stuff we have in .Net? Periodically checking something from a server in background? Integrating the data with the UI?
Would you go for developing a Facebook like app all in Unity?
Thanks
If you want C# on android, there is xamarin studio. I don't think that unity is ideal for such an application. You can use it, but if you don't need anything graphical, the overhead of the engine is not worth it. If you don't care about performance (think it more like power consumption, because it's not going to be slow or anything, just way more power hungry than a simple web browser), as the FB app obviously doesn't, then you could use unity.
What you are describing, already exists. It's called the web. It's as cross platform as it gets. And there are multiple ways to convert a web app (written in html5 technologies) to a "native" mobile app, both for iOS and android. I'd recommend that you followed this road, and not unity.
In short,unity is a game engine and as such it is designed for high performance. This means that even the lightest UI built can take up a lot of CPU and in turn - a lot of battery, which is kind of precious on a mobile device.
As stated here unity doesn't seem to handle threads very well, though Im sure this is something that can be worked out
Anyway I believe that it is not the platform that answers your needs in this case.
Yes, you can develop a non-game app on Unity. But, there are fallbacks, Unity will be a bit hard for developing the UI navigation part of the application. A social media like Facebook is more complex than just graphics. There is a lot of backend development. I don't think it will be too simple compared to coding it, but of course, you can do it. You should create non-game apps when you have to incorporate advanced graphics and/or physics.
I'm going to make a native (meaning; not in the browser) mobile app. Since I'm a web-developer I'm struggling to decide whether or not I should try Phonegap or just build an native app in java or objective-c.
The app requirements are simple. GPS/wifi location, Facebook integration and I guess I'll need a database to handle some of the application specific Facebook-friend relations. Like the highscores in a game, for example - stuff like that.
I'm a web-developer, and don't know neither java or objective-c, yet. I've never used Phonegap before, so I don't know if it's capable of fulfilling my requirements.
So my question is as follows;
Can I use Phonegap for my app, or do I need to dive into a new language?
Related:
Larger version of this article can also be found HERE, to be transparent it is my personal blog.
Hybrid vs Native apps
Hybrid apps:
Pro:
Quicker development, especially if you're a a longtime web developer.
1 language can be used on every available platform. This, of course, requires a Phonegap wrapper. You don't need to learn Objective C, Java, or C# to do any development. You need only to understand the basics of the Phonegap implementation. You will need to play with above-mentioned languages a bit but you don't need to understand them.
Phonegap can offer some native capabilities like iOS native tab bar or Android native tab bar and so much more.
Lower budget costs and a huge community of supporters and developers.
A hybrid app offers many of the advantages of both approaches access to the most common device APIs, and broad device coverage while not requiring the specialized skills, bigger budgets and longer time to market that are more typical of fully native apps.
Cons:
You will piss blood after some time, literally and metaphorically.
Mobile phones (even today's tablets) are not fast enough to smoothly run a hybrid app, mobile JavaScript capabilities are bed at best. Android platform is a nightmare, page transitions don't work smoothly not to mention lacking CSS/CSS3 implementation. If you think native Android 2.X and 4.X have differences take a look a Android 2.X bad JavaScript / CSS implementation. iOS fares better but still has a lacking CSS3 implementation thou much better page transitions. To make this short native apps will always have a better user experience and general feeling.
You will spend much more time fixing the app then building it. Creating an app for each and every platform is a pain in the neck. Browsers on different platforms do not uniformly support all the latest HTML features and APIs, which can make developing and testing a challenge.
If you don't have a good designer, don't even try to build an app; looks are everything.
If you don't know what are you doing there's a good chance your app will not get permission for Apple app store. Even Google Play Store will ban your app if they discover a 3rd party Phonegap PayPal plugin.
Native apps:
Pro:
A native mobile app can produce the best user experience — fast and fluid, can give you the best access to device features, and can be discovered in the app stores.
Without a doubt, native apps have full access to the underlying mobile platform. Native apps are usually very fast and polished, making them great for high performance apps or games. This is more then enough.
Cons:
Bigger budget, you will need at least a person/s with Java and Objective C knowledge, even C# if you want a Windows mobile app. Yes you can learn it yourself but don't live under the illusion you will do so in a short time. If you have never done any development, choose Objective C (iOS is still a better platform). In other cases choose Java. Java has a syntax similar to other available languages, so it is easy to jump from C# to Java and vice-versa. Objective C is a world of it own. It has a rather uncommon syntax.
It might take you a longer period of time to develop all of them and time is money. This depends on the complexity of the apps.
In your case, if you have a good web development/design skills and/or have a good designer you should choose a hybrid app. Go native only if this app is going to be a complex one. Everything you want can be done with a hybrid app. And you will find a great and supporting community.
Hybrid apps
What I didn't previously mentioned you need to be specially careful here. Even if you are seasoned developer you will find a lot of problems you can't solve. Hybrid development should not be mistaken for a basic web development.
Every mobile platform has its own set of problems, not to mention that mobile phones behave differently depending on a device. If possible always create a app that works on a slower devices because native app will successfully work on almost any device.
There's one last thing, when creating hybrid apps, app development will take you about 30%-50% of your time, rest goes to specific platform debugging and learning. Believe me, even after several years of mobile development sometimes I am facing problems I can't solve alone or fast enough.
So be careful when choosing mobile framework, pick 2-3 and spend several days reading about them.
Links
Here are few links to help you decide:
PhoneGap + jQuery Mobile 1.4 tutorial - This is a step by step tutorial for PhoneGap and last version of jQuery Mobile
PhoneGap + jQuery Mobile 1.4 tutorial - MacOS version - This is a step by step tutorial for PhoneGap deployment on MacOS. jQuery Mobile part is covered in a previous article, no point in repeating things.
jQuery Mobile vs Sencha Touch - jQuery Mobile Sencha Touch comparison
jQuery Mobile vs Kendo UI - jQuery Mobile Kendo UI comparison
7 best known HTML5 mobile frameworks - Name tells everything
7 less known HTML5 mobile frameworks - Name tells everything
if your application does't have animation effects and simple i prefer to create in a web(Phonegap) cz at less amount of time we can launch in multiple types of mobile OS.
if your app contain more UI effects and animation then it is best to go with native..
even though you develop in webview(Phonegap) you need learn some basic steps in Android and iOS
How Phonegap performs in devices
Ios
The animations and view loading in ios webview is stranded and good, the animation effects can observer clearly
Android
We have to consider the device version and device company for android while running the html code, Some high config devices in android give more clear and efficient animation display, but some devices (mostly old version and some company devices) cant give good animation effects, rendering effect varies from device to device in android,
In my humble opinion with Phonegap you can just develope simple apps, nothing more. The documentation is not enough and like others have said you will spend much more time fixing bugs and finding plugins than building your app. I would make the effort to learn Android or iOS or whatever, look at it as an investment of your time. (Yes, my comment is a little biased).
Last I looked into it PhoneGap was all html,css, and javascript. So, you may feel right at home. PhoneGap can handle GPS location, see this article from PhoneGap's documentation. Whether or not you want to pick up Objective C would depend on how fast you pick up new languages as it is a bit of a departure from web development.
It totally depends on your needs
After publishing my first app several months (native Android, database driven, restful connecting app), I decided to rewrite my app by using phonegap (since I want to clone the app to iOS, so instead of doing it in ObjC, why not javascript ?)
When on Android, it costed me, a Java developer, 3 weeks to learn and code everything from scratch. Banging my head to the wall several times for how to make the ListAdapter sync with the Restful Service from my server, how to theme the app (quite hard in my opinion, especially when it comes to special effects like transparent, border,...), and also, how to structure your code base effectively (if you are familiar with Java, you will find that all the classes are very coupled to each others, since that is what most of the tutorials write about)
When on Phonegap, everything is done in 1 week. Css, html, with onsenui and angular make the GUI development just like about 1 st year student 's assignment and theming is just a piece of cake. I don't need to run it on the real device, just use browser during the development, change code and refresh are enough. Angular provides 2 way binding with the DOM, and this makes a huge awesomeness when collecting and showing data. For example:
<ul ng-each="for sentence in sentences" >
<li>{{ sentence.title }} </li>
</ul>
When the variable sentences is changed (retrieved from server), the DOM is automatically changed as well. However, javascript is only javascript. I found myself struggling many time when debugging the app, especially when doing the MapReduce functions with PouchDB (big mistake, have to go back to cordova-sqlite-plugin tonight) and most of the time, I have to read the log in order to figure out the problem (Chrome 's tools and Firebug cannot catch the breakpoint). Also, it is hard to restructure your app (javascript, again) so if you don't organise carefully your code base at the first sign, you might end up with a mess (and debugging is a real pain, again). PhoneGap is also Web based, so sometimes, you will hear that "because on this platform, it does not support that bla bla bla" (e.g, localStorage) and you have to stand for it if you cannot find any good plugin.
Conclusion Except for the limitation of the web-based storage, PhoneGap works quite well with the database driven, simple GUI app (and most of the database driven apps currently has a simple GUI anyway). If you gonna develop that kind of app, then stick with it
check out using ionic, backed by angular.js to offset some of the cons mentioned in the accepted answer. Tutorial for launching an employee directory app: http://coenraets.org/blog/2014/02/sample-mobile-application-with-ionic-and-angularjs/
#Gajotres wrote a great response, but hybrid app performance has come a long way since 2012. I answered a related question that covers the difference between hybrid and native app development in 2017.
The moral of the story is that hybrid app development has improved tremendously in the past few years, but it still cannot match native for certain use cases.
With tools like Ionic (first released in 2013) and React Native (first released in 2015) it is easier than ever to build hybrid apps with native-like components. Hybrid apps are now faster, less buggy, and able to interact more deeply with the native UI.
The threshold for hybrid app performance is substantially higher than just a few years ago, but there is still a point at which you may need to develop your app in a native language.
Original Answer:
Yes, the general sentiment is that Hybrid apps are inferior to Native
apps. While this can be frustrating for developers more familiar with
web technologies, it does come for good reason:
Inability to interact with native components: Although plugins such as cordova-plugin-statusbar exist, there are limitations
interacting with and manipulating native components using web
technologies. One great (and frustrating) issue I have personally run
into is the inability to have an input at the top of they keyboard as
the keyboard animates in. This sounds like a nonissue until you look
at an app where this is an essential feature such as in a chat app
like Slack.
300ms delay: Although modern browsers are beginning to phase this
out,
the fraction of a second delay present on Hybrid apps makes the app
feel slow and non-native. This issue is becoming less of a factor as
more users adopt workarounds such as
FastClick.js and some
frameworks such as Ionic eliminate it
by default.
The haters are right (sort of): While Hybrid app development has come a long way, there are still minor glitches and laggy
functions that are just not present in a Native app. Screen
transitions, app switching, and battery life are still common areas
for bugs to appear and likely will be for some time, even if they are
starting to become less and less noticeable.
There are some great Native solutions: With newer languages such as Apple's Swift it is becoming easier to
code in a Native language. That being said, tools such as React
Native fall into a gray
area between Native and Hybrid by allowing developers to code in
friendly technologies such as JavaScript but compile into native code.
The moral of the story is that it really depends what is important to
your specific use case. Hybrid apps have become a viable option and
are no longer an embarrassing side show. Conversely, there are still
minor aspects of interacting with the Native UX that are not yet
possible except with a Native app.
Overall, I recommend mapping out your project and determining if your
app needs any of the benefits of a Native app. With tools such as
Ionic View app it is easy to put together a
basic mockup of your app and test on a real device whether or not a
Hybrid app will work for you.
There's also AppGyver Steroids that unites PhoneGap and Native UI very well.
With Steroids you can add things like native tabs, native navigation bar, native animations and transitions, native modal windows, native drawer/panel (facebooks side menu) etc. to your PhoneGap app. Basically, anywhere CSS + JS don't cut it, Steroids reaches into the native layer to perform the action.
Also, with steroids, you can (although you don't have to) use multi-page architecture (multiple webviews) rather than single. With single page apps, all things like transitions are just CSS workarounds, and as Mani said, even modern tablets and phones aren't fast enough to make them smooth. It's always obvious when it's a phonegap app, especially when you've got a bunch of processes going, or if you're scrolling since JS processes are haulted (being fixed in iOS 8).
Using the multi-page architecture means you get 100% native performance (because those parts actually are native). And unlike phonegap, you'll get consistent user interface behavior and easier debugging (with a single page app, it's often difficult to recreate a particular state in your app). Multi page makes it far easier to develop and maintain your apps since your codebase stays cleaner.
Check the demo: http://youtu.be/oXWwDMdoTCk?t=20m17s
I also find a every good article here http://www.comentum.com/phonegap-vs-native-app-development.html, it compares these two ways in different categories.
The summary is as below:
Design of Interfaces (Same)
Cost (Hybrid has Advantage)
Development Timeline (Hybrid has Advantage)
User Experience and Performance (Native has Advantage)
Maintainability (Same)
No Limitations (Native has Advantage)
Security (Same)
Support and Resources (Native has Advantage)
Tools and Debugging (Native has Advantage)
Platform Independent (Hybrid has Advantage)
Popularity (Same)
One overlooked of the great options here is development with Xamarin.
Though it doesn't help to utilize OP's web developer skills, it has many pros compared to PhoneGap and almost no cons.
Xamarin vs PhoneGap Pros:
Mature framework providing access to the most (if not all) native
features of mobile devices.
Learn only one language (C# for the most developers) for all mobile
platforms.
Have a performance of native apps on iOS/Windows Mobile (since app is compiled into the native code) and very close one on Android (it still compiles to a native APK, but has to have a thin wrapper that translates .NET class library API into Android classes API at the runtime).
Maintained by Microsoft which supports the overall generous quality of the
platform itself and development tools. For instance, you will use Visual Studio and it's probably the best IDE around and now has free Community edition with every feature available that you'll need for Xamarin development.
Xamarin vs PhoneGap Cons:
Needs some time investments for pure web developers to switch to C#
and Xamarin class library API.
Therefore, Xamarin is a very solid option for cross-platform development nowadays.
I'm thinking about making a mobile game (say something like Wordfeud).
Now I would like to publish this game on Android, iOS, WindowsPhone, facebook and normal browser.
I could go native on all these platforms.
BUT
Since a want it to be a multiplayer game, most of the functionality will be done via a c#.NET webservice with SOAP calls or something.
Now for another project i'm make a mobile website working in WebView (android) and the same website already works in an IOS app.
So.. why not make a jQuery/HTML5/.NET mobile website and some small apps just as a shell to get them in the marketplaces. That way everything will be in one place and updates/bugfixes will be a walk in the park.
What do you think?
Cheers
If you check the Apple Review Guidelines, you could see :
Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
You will be able to launch your android one, but you may have your iOS web bundle rejected.
I suggest to have a look to this page before posting to the app store
I think there are a lot of problems with this. If you look at tools that try too help you do this kind of thing, the most powerful ones being Google PlayN and Monkey. There are still a lot of semantic differences between a HTML/Flash/SilverLight game and a Mobile one, The most obvious being differences in input devices and screen resolution sizes.
It's also important to realize that the cost of integrating the different platforms (ie facebook vs. non-facbook, depending on what type of game you're making) may be significant.
Google PlayN: http://code.google.com/p/playn/
Monkey: http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/
I think that there are 3 things I always see in html5 apps :
-very bad integration to the different platforms
-bad performances, web based is way slower than native.
-nightmare to maintain.
I strongly encourage you to go the native way if you want to do a quality app.
HTML5 is not all wrong. I think it is the right choice if there are big time/budget constraints and/or you don't care about the quality of the app (for exemple if it will be only used internally).
Final thought : why SOAP ?? REST is faster and is not harder to implement.
I have a question about mobile application development. I'm wanting to develop an application for my Kindle and looking through the tutorials I found that HTML5 CSS and JavaScript could be used to develop Mobile Applications instead of native Programming language like Java, Objective C and so on.
Don't get me wrong I have nothing against learning a little more Java and the Kindle/Android specific APIs. But knowing that you could use HTML5 CSS JavaScript for the Android, Blackberry and iOS platforms AND WEBSITES sound very interesting to me. I've have also seen Game frameworks like Play'n from Google that seems to do a pretty good job with HTML5 and JavaScript.
My question is, is it worth the learning curve of each individual API, and programming languages or are HTML5 CSS JavaScript just going to change the way we do front end development?
Any input on this will be very appreciated.
In general it is worth learning the native SDK for the platform you're targeting because you'll have maximum flexibility, best performance, broadest API coverage keeping up with the latest advances from the platform vendor (e.g. iCloud, Siri APIs etc), and you'll find plenty of open source software that's built by and for the platform's native developers (see http://cocoacontrols.com as one example). So it's definitely worth investing in a platform's native SDK, especially if the platform itself is proven to be successful, such as iOS and Android.
However, sometimes it can be more practical to build an app using Javascript/HTML5 frameworks like Titanium Appcelerator. This can be useful in controlled environments like enterprise apps where your customer base is limited, or just to rapidly prototype a concept.
I would consider a Javascript framework a disadvantage if my app or game had to compete in the open market / App Store against thousands of other native apps. If my competitors are using native code and can rapidly evolve their UX or features, I don't want to be "stuck" with a limited Javascript framework.
On the other hand, if I worked for say, a large supermarket and my job was to create an app that only their staff would use for a few hours a day to do inventory, a Javascript framework would help me prototype faster without any threat of competition or unexpected requirements.
Hope this helps.
This topic can be debated forever but this is my take on it:
If you need performance on a device (such as for a complex game), then it's better to go native because you can fine tune to the specific device or set of devices and platforms you are targeting.
If you can build your idea and have it scale and function well using Web Technologies then it would be wise to continue using Web Technologies because it's extremely easy to scale to multiple platforms with relatively little effort.
If you want to leverage cutting edge API's for a specific platform then it's better to go native
Personally I think that if your app is going to be complex (doing beyond the standard enterprise data API stuff), then it'll be easier to go native in the long run. I've leveraged both methods and whilst Web Technologies were incredibly easy to implement and prototype, implementing anything complex increased the amount of effort needed by a large amount to the point that it negated any time saved by not going native. Eventually I just decided to concentrate on native apps but your milage may vary as Web Technologies are increasingly improving.