75093053
submission
lars_doucet writes:
Released in 2012, Microsoft's TypeScript is perhaps the best-known "compile to JS" language, but it wasn't the first. One of the earliest was Haxe, whose JS target first appeared in 2006.
In his illuminating article, TypeScript vs Haxe, Andy Li gives an excellent rundown of the two languages' various merits, but the bottom line is:
"Existing JS developers will favor TypeScript as they are more similar in many ways. They can utilize their existing skills immediately. Non-JS developers with backgrounds like Java/C# or even from the functional programming world will appreciate Haxe more since it fixes a lot of weirdness of JS."
The full article includes an excellent rundown of the type systems, syntax, scope handling, compilers, and overall language design philosophy.
73400415
submission
lars_doucet writes:
At last week's World Wide Haxe conference, a coalition of game developers announced that the open source platform Haxe/OpenFL is coming soon to home game consoles. The first three games that will ship using the technology are Yummy Circus , Defender's Quest (HD edition) , and the award-winning Papers, Please.
Haxe is a programming language that compiles to other programming languages (everything from C++ to Javascript to Python), has been around for about 10 years and is quite powerful. OpenFL is a hardware-accelerated cross-platform reimplementation of the Flash API, built on top of Haxe (but does not have the Flash player's performance and security limitations and has nothing to do with Adobe), and is built on a low-level cross-platform layer called Lime, which can be used separately for those who have no need for a Flash-like API. This could eventually lead to console compatibility for engines that are built on top of Haxe/OpenFL, such as Away3D, Stencyl, HaxeFlixel, and HaxePunk.
Six console targets are planned: WiiU, PS4, XBox One, PSVita, 3DS, and PS3; footage of demos running on the WiiU was presented at the talk and are included in the linked article.
65340425
submission
lars_doucet writes:
Flash CC now has an SDK for creating custom project file formats; this lets you use the Flash IDE to prepare and publish content for (not-the-flash-player) compile targets.
Among these new platforms is OpenFL, a fully open-source re-implementation of the Flash API that exports to Javascript and C++ (no Flash Player!), among other targets:
http://www.openfl.org/blog/201...
When Adobe demoed the custom project feature at Adobe MAX the other night, they brought out Joshua Granick (lead maintainer of OpenFL) to show off a custom OpenFL project format that lets you make Flash Art in Flash CC, then compile it out to Flash, HTML5, and native C++ (desktop+mobile) targets.
Maybe Adobe heard us after all?
65208665
submission
lars_doucet writes:
Steam's new search page lets you sort by "user rating," but the algorithm they're using is broken.
For instance, a DLC pack with a single positive review appears above a major game with a 74% score and 15,000+ ratings.
The current "user rating" ranking system seems to divide everything into big semantic buckets ("Overwhelmingly Positive","Positive","Mixed",etc), stack those in order, then sort each bucket's contents by the total number of reviews per game. Given that Steam reviews skew massively positive, ( half are "very positive" or higher), this is virtually indistinguishable from a standard "most popular" chart.
Luckily, there's a known solution to this problem — use statistical sampling to account for disparate numbers of user reviews, which gives "hidden gems" with statistically significant high positive ratings, but less popularity, a fighting chance against games that are already dominating the charts.
More details: Fixing Steam's User Rating Charts
58165425
submission
lars_doucet writes:
The latest Humble Weekly Bundle is titled "Celebrating Open Source" features eight indie games, with charity going to the open source tools used to develop them.
The open-source programming language Haxe is strongly represented: three of the charities include the Haxe Foundation itself, OpenFL (recently featured on Slashdot), and FlashDevelop, the most popular open-source Haxe/ActionScript IDE. The fourth is Ren'Py, the Python-based visual novel engine used in award-winning games like Long Live the Queen and Analogue: A Hate Story.
The games themselves are Magical Diary, NEO Scavenger, Offspring Fling!, Planet Stronghold, and for those who pay $6 or more, Anodyne, Defender's Quest, Evoland, and Incredipede, as well as 6 soundtracks.
7 of the 8 games are cross-platform across Mac/Win/Linux, and all are DRM-Free.
57836493
submission
lars_doucet writes:
I am a 15-year Flash veteran and nobody hates to say this more than me: Flash is dying, and the killer is Adobe. Where to now? HTML5 doesn't help me with native targets, and Unity is proprietary just like Flash was — "don't worry, we'll be around forever! And so sorry about that neglected bug report — we're busy."
I'm putting my bets on OpenFL, a Haxe-based, fully open-source implementation of the Flash API that might just please both Flash refugees and longtime Flash haters alike.
My article discusses my experiences with it and gives a brief overview for newcomers. In short — I can keep making flash games if I want, but with the same codebase I can also *natively* target Win/Mac/Linux desktops, mobile, and more, without having to mess with Adobe AIR or other virtual machines.
