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Hi all, i've been off busy working on a bigger project of late but I took a few days off to whip up a quick android AIR application as a little test.

Before I decide to upload the proper paid version I thought you lot could be my beta testers for a short while.

If you have the time i'd love it if you could check it out and let me know how it runs. Unfortunately AIR isn't too fast on older devices and i've done my best to optimise it as much as possible. On an HTC desire and Galaxy S2 it runs well right now but i'm really interested in seeing if it runs well on any tablet devices.

Anyway, here it is.

Worked perfectly on my Droid:Bionic running ICS

The game was really fun too, but what is the objective? Is it to hit the least amount of things?

Cheers for trying! As you may be aware I don't have the little question mark button working which explains the whole idea. The idea is to collect as many stars/powerups/clouds whilst dodging all of the other objects (unless you have a shield). Originally, hitting the objects would remove points, but it was very easy to get stuck into a loop of constantly losing points and ruining your score just before you land. It was aimed to be a casual mobile game so I removed the option to completely ruin your score at certain points of the game. I've been on the fence with this feature for now though and I might add it in. It seems the people who are either game developers or hardcore game players would like the score penalty to be included but the more casual players like the idea of not being punished too much during play.

There is another mode that is going to be added which adds a whole other section to the game. Either way, I'd like some ratings on the app (fair and honest obviously, not asking for 5 stars).
There is a way to include the needed AIR files inside the APK file itself aswell. Not sure how much file size this adds but I know a few casual players that don't understand why AIR is required to run certain apps and a few who didn't install games because it asked them to install something else. I'll check the file size difference and do a few tests and see if it's worth it or not.

There is also a problem with the service i'm using to save leaderboards in the fact that it usually takes some time to update. Unfortunately, being an AIR app on the android the only way I can directly control this is by creating my own server for leaderboards which I don't plan to do until this game makes me my millions(!)

I downloaded, but was put off by needing to install Adobe's AIR. I have heard mixed reviews about it and really don't want to install it. I think it's a neat thing for cross platform stuff, but I think just doing it in Java the old fashioned way would be much better for numerous reasons. Especially if you plan on selling it and making a profit. I wouldn't want to give a potential customer reason to not install it or buy it.

If the file size is too large (and, really, even if it isn't) it's a good idea to allow the user to install to their SD Card.

AIR itself is fine really, it's stable and its quite safe. The same exploits that can be done with java apps can be done in AIR and AIR apps are still required to use permissions. The only problem I have is that AIR itself is quite large especially seeing that my built in memory for the HTC Desire is only 100mb. You can install to the SD card from the settings on the phone itself but I don't know any way to directly install to the SD card from the marketplace.

I'm doing some tests now to check file sizes and to see if there is any change in load times (as i'm quite happy the fact it loads almost instantly now).

I know the concept is quite simple but I only have a little bit of experience with java and android and this was just a little project to get some cool down from my bigger project. So don't expect to see it rewritten. If the paid version makes enough money to buy an iphone license then i'll stick it on there as well just to see what happens.

EDIT: It turns out embedding AIR pushes the app size to 8.7mb instead of 400kbs. I'm not happy with that at all...

If you don't mind me asking, what does AIR utilize as far as code or source? Does it strictly use Flash?

As far as having it directly install to the SD card, you can put android:installLocation="preferExternal" inside the manifest tag of the manifest.xml file.

Cool, ta mate. I'll probably include that now actually. Still on the fence with the whole embedding AIR though.

The best way I can describe AIR is that it's just a wrapper for AS3 code to run on various applications but contains a lot of functionality within itself to make it work on all and every device that supports it. I'm a big fan of AS3 and the community that it has generated and the whole Stage3D implementation was very exciting. I will eventually move over to native mobile development but for now I'm more than happy with AS3.

EDIT: If you're playing you need to update the app because i've switched leaderboard servers to make it a little faster.

Just download to my Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro and work fine, No problems even went and found AIR by itself for me to download.

Great little game, So this what possable with android AGK.

Another device I can tick off the list, cheers mate!

The paid version is ready and I just want to put a quick questionnaire up to people.

Would you prefer to have the file size at 8mb and include AIR or would you rather it be 500kb and have to install AIR separately?