[Tux4kids-discuss] GSOC 2012 Tux4Kids Mobile

[Marius Constantinescu]

Hello,

When I first thought of this idea, I thought of it only as an iOS solution.
I want to use the Cocos-2D engine for 2D games. I had worked with it a bit
before, and nice things can be done with it :). In my application I will
link to a demo game I created. I just have to tweak it a bit.

I've researched and there also is Cocos-2D for Android. I haven't worked
with it, but I hope it will be easy to port an application from iOS to
Android, if we use the same graphics engine.

I would like to know what you want to focus on: porting the existing games
(TuxMath, TuxPaint and TuxTyping) on mobile platforms or creating new
educational mobile games with Tux? As I've already said, TuxTyping for
mobile may not be a very good idea, and TuxPaint should be targeted on
tablets, because the screen of a phone is too small. Is the point of this
project to create a game that gives the user the same experience as the
desktop version? Or to create new mobile games, with educational purpose?
(and, of course, with Tux).

Thanks,

Marius



On 25 March 2012 05:30, Brendan Luchen <cheezmeister at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Marius,
>
>
>> I'm Marius Constantinescu, final year student from Romania. I'm
>> interested in creating applications for iOS with Tux. I have a bit of iOS
>> game development experience, gained by learning on my own.
>>
>
> You've just said the magic words of FOSS ;)
>
>
>>
>> I think it's useless to create Tux Typing for mobile, because the
>> keyboard is different, it takes almost half of the screen. Moreover, typing
>> is not the main way to interact with mobile devices. Tux Paint should only
>> be targeted on iPads (the display on iPods and iPhones is too small to be
>> used as a canvas). That's why, I would like to create Tux Math for iOS, and
>> later, other educational games with Tux.
>>
>
> Cool. Keep in mind that while it's fine to focus on iOS, it should be
> easily portable to (at least) Android, and preferably many other devices.
> So rather than a plain old iOS app, you'll want to use a cross-platform
> framework such as Phonegap, Appcelerator, or Sencha Touch (those are the
> ones that have been discussed so far).
>
> Taking into account that the main factor that decides if a game is
>> successful or not is its graphics,
>>
>
> You haven't heard of Minecraft, I take it!
>
>
>> I am curious whether there will be a graphics designer who can help us
>> with the visual images. I'm confident that I can handle the programming
>> part, but a game for kids should also look good. I have some experience
>> with photoshop, but I'm far from being a good game graphics designer, and I
>> will need some images. I saw that there are some pictures with Tux on git
>> repos, and I will use free images from the web, but it would still be nice
>> if a graphics designer could help.
>>
>
> AFAIK, there are no dedicated artists or graphic designers with Tux4Kids.
> The typical approach to getting graphics is to fire up the GIMP and hope
> for the best. There have been a few people who can wrangle graphics better
> than the code monkeys, but these people come and go, and we take what we
> can get. That said, if you can convince somebody you know to spend some
> time putting together high-quality graphics for an iOS version, so much the
> better.
>
> Cheers,
> Brendan
>
>
>> Marius
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
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