Andy Moore Blog: How to make iOS/Android games on a PC – for free

I’ve gotten a lot of EMails over the last few days demanding to know how I can make mobile games on a PC.  Some ask about Android, most ask about iOS, and everyone is all jaw-agape that AS3 code runs on these devices in some sort of native format (as opposed to in a browser instance).

Then they get all wobbly in the knees when they figure I’ve done it using completely free software.

There are plenty of (IMHO: Over-complicated) tutorials out there, and my knee-jerk reaction is to just … well, LMGTFY. After all, I didn’t divine this knowledge myself; it came with a  bunch of research, and thankfully following the path of other people.

I think I can simplify most of the tutorials though. Check it out.

Step 1: Boot up your PC.

These steps are for Windows operators only. The software listed here doesn’t play well in Apple environments, but then again, Apple users don’t have a lot of the iOS-related problems I do in the first place.

Step 2: Install FlashDevelop.

When I say “install FlashDevelop” I mean for you to install the latest version (4.0.1 RTM at the time of this writing). This is important: the next few steps don’t make any sense if you go even 1 version older. Also, don’t mess around with the default install folder, and don’t mess around with what sub-components are selected in the installer.

FlashDevelop is a development IDE, similar to Flash CS or FlashBuilder, except this one is free. After it installs, it also goes ahead and installs the Flex SDK (free flash compiler) and the Air SDK (the magic bit that makes it work on phones) automatically for you, and then links it all up internally – saving you like 4 dozen more steps.

Step 3: Start a new project in FlashDevelop.

This one’s easy. Open up FD, select “NEW PROJECT” from the “Projects”  menu, and select “AIR Mobile AS3 App” from the list of templates. This is the magical step that will auto-generate for you a bunch of instructions, batch files, certificate directories, and everything else you’ll need to get going.

You don’t need to even bother writing a quick “Hello World” application, as this template should compile immediately for you. Just hit up “Project > Project Properties” and give the app a bright pink background, then hit F5 and watch it run on your PC.

Yup, at this point, only at Step 3, you’ve already got your mobile-device-simulator installed (a cheap AIR projection version anyway), and you can start developing your application.

Step 4: Follow the included instructions.

The best part about FlashDevelop’s mobile project template is that it includes two text files in your project directory:

• AIR_Android_readme.txt
• AIR_IOS_readme.txt

They’re both around 6-steps long, and in painstaking detail (with web links, references, and cited blogs) tell you exactly how to get your app working on your mobile device.

After following those instructions, you’re DONE! That’s it! You are now making games that compile and run on the precious iPads of the world.

Now, those extra text-file steps can be easy (if you’ve setup certificates and things before, or have your phone drivers installed), or they can be new and intimidating. So I’ll outline some of those steps here. I’ll start with Android to give you a baseline of what the experience could be like:

Step 5: Install your Android USB Drivers.

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