Aqualux Lights up Kindle Fire!
Looking to challenge your brain with some puzzling fun on your brand-spanking new Kindle Fire? Milkman Games has you covered, because Aqualux for Kindle Fire is available right now on the Kindle Fire Amazon Appstore! This special edition of our top selling puzzle game is especially optimized to look, play, and sound great on the Kindle Fire. Get it now or read on for the official press release.
Developing Android Extensions for AIR 3: A Beginner’s Guide
Adobe AIR is a powerful platform, and its use on the BlackBerry PlayBook made deploying Aqualux there a painless and productive effort. For me, the choice to use AIR to translate my game on to mobile was informed by two major advantages; first, the relative ease of taking a fairly complex codebase already written in Actionscript 3, and quickly moving it on to other devices; and second, the advantages of working in an environment where 90% of implementation details of cross-platform development- rendering, I/O, networking, and sound- have already been handled. For that other 10%- platform specific features, like in-app purchases, DRM, and other OS-level specifics- you can now write and deploy native code inside your application with the Native Extensions features in AIR 3.
In this article, I'll be covering the process of building an AIR Native Extension for Android, step by step. If you're familiar with Java and/or Android, this is surprisingly simple. If you're not, don't worry- Actionscript 3 borrows a lot of syntax and features from Java, and if you know the former you'll have no problem reading and understanding the latter.
Announcing Nook Color Native Extension for AIR 3
This thing's pretty sweet.
Adobe has officially announced AIR 3, and Flash Player 11. Flash 11 has some very slick 3D stuff to offer (I suspect we're going to see some very high profile games start to show up in the browser later this year), but it's AIR 3 that's really exciting for Flash mobile developers. Adobe's done on a great job of picking up the performance across devices, as well as adding some key features that are closing the gap between platform-specific/native mobile development and AIR, specifically, captive runtime for mobile, and native extensions.
Currently, we're working with a partner on bringing some Actionscript 3 content on the Nook Color. The Nook is a great Android-based tablet, and it has a built-in AIR 2.6 runtime. With the release of AIR 3, the power of Captive Runtime and Native Extensions enable access to platform-specific features of the Nook via AIR apps.
Today, we're releasing an extension called NookColorTools. It's free, and it gives you a very simple AS3 API to the Nook SDK. AIR 3 isn't in its final release yet, but you can download the release candidate here right now and start experimenting. Grab NookColorTools v1 here, and checkout the readme file for instructions; there's also an example project to get you started. One feature for now- launching a product page on the Nook Color shop. This is a powerful feature to have for cross promoting your apps with a 'more games' button in the like. We'll be adding more features shortly.
Milkman Games will also be producing a selection of high quality AIR extensions for iOS and Android in the next few weeks- Game Center, in App Purchase, Android Intents, and all sorts of other goodies. To stay up to date, follow @milkmangames on Twitter!
Preview of OmnomBot on the iPhone!
Where has the Milkman been? Hiding under a rock? Hosing down the back of the milk truck? San Luis Obispo? NO! Polishing shiny metal OmnomBots and squeezing them into your deliscious iPhone! See some of the fun right here:
OmnomBot Consumes BlackBerry Playbook!
Get ready kids - OmnomBot the carnivorous robot is chomping down on your BlackBerry Playbook today in all his shiny metal glory! Read on for screenshots and the official press release!
Optimizing Adobe AIR Games for Mobile GPUs: 7 Simple Rules
For the last month or so, your friends at Milkman headquarters have been working away on porting Aqualux to the BlackBerry Playbook. The Playbook has an integrated Adobe AIR runtime, which means you can develop native apps for it using Actionscript 3.
Frankly, we're impressed. AIR runs on a number of other mobile systems- like Android and iOS, but on the Playbook it's hooked into the operating system on a deep level. Native AS3 APIs let you access in-app purchases, system state, and native GUI directly. On to of that, the device has a pretty beefy GPU and a dual core processor, so there's a lot of head room to create some very performant games using Flash.
Aqualux runs buttery smooth at 30 FPS on the Playbook- so let's explore some of the techniques for optimizing AIR games for phones and tablets.
#1 Puzzle Game on the Playbook; Free Update
Thank you everyone for making Aqualux the #1 purchased puzzle game on the BlackBerry Playbook!
A free update was just released that addresses issues on some devices with flickering text, along with various performance fixes.
Watch here for new announcements soon 
Aqualux is LIVE on Blackberry App World!
It's official. Milkman Games is very excited to announce that Aqualux is live on Blackberry App World. We've done a major overhaul for this release- all the art has been repainted in HD, there's a new storybook mode, some beautiful voice acting, and much more! If you've gotten your hands on a Playbook already, head on over to Blackberry App World and pick it up!
Read on for official press release and screen shots!
Aqualux is coming to Blackberry Playbook!
We're very pleased to announce that Aqualux is a launch title on the Blackberry Playbook, debuting tomorrow, April 19th. Keep your eyes on this site for updates, trailers, reviews, and an official announcement!