ATF to PNG Converter Tool

A few days ago a client asked me if I can convert ATF (Adobe Texture Format) to PNG images. Knowing that ATF files are used by some Starling developers when developing games and applications with Adobe Air, I knew that I could build a tool that will load the graphic, add it to the stage, then basically, take a screenshot of the entire stage and save it as a PNG image file. It took a a few hours to get the final application done. I’ve made it available for download in case anyone else needs to convert ATF to PNG (with transparency).

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MiniPong Game

My first game published for mobile devices is here.

Made in Flash Builder with Adobe AIR, Startling and Feathers (for the buttons and other components). Next on my list is to publish it to iOS, but for that, I need to get myself a Mac first, since Apple does not allow developers without an Apple machine to compile the application for the App Store.

For now, please check the Android version and let me know if you like it:
MiniPong Game on Google Play

Update:
The game has a new graphic interface and it’s also available online:
www.vamapaull.com/games/minipong

First encounter with AIR for Android

Today I made some experiments with AIR for Android. The process was very smooth and I like how simple everything is, in just a few minutes I managed to compile an application and play with it on my Android device. Totally love the way that I can reuse the ActionScript 3 code and make beautiful applications for Android!

Not so many good words about the Android Market. I started an account, then I was asked to pay a fee of $25 and then when my account was created I noticed that I can’t really make paid applications for the Android market since Google Checkout is not available in Romania. How messed up is that? You want people to develop applications for your marketplace, you request a fee and then they have no way to at least get some of that money back. It’s not that I can’t live without 25 bucks, but that really sucks, I feel like I’m giving them money so I can develop for their marketplace and help it grow a little more (so they can earn even more money). I love Flash related technologies and Android, but this doesn’t have any logic.

Anyway, I tried to implement an older youtube player into my AIR application so I can test it out and see how it works. The problem was that when I played a video and hit the hardware back button on my device, the video was still playing because the application minimized instead of closing (as I imagined it would). Then I started to search for a solution, and sure enough, I found it very fast on Tom Krcha’s blog. To close the button when you hit the back button you first need to register a handler:

if(Capabilities.cpuArchitecture=="ARM")
{
	NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, handleKeys);
}

Then you need to make the function for that handler:

function handleKeys(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
	if(event.keyCode == Keyboard.BACK)
	NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit();
}

That’s it. I will continue to work with AIR for Android and hopefully make some cool apps 🙂