FullScreen iPhone issue

[CrazySam]

Hi all,

 

I'm using the development version of Phaser, and when I call:

if(this.game.device.desktop === false){	this.game.stage.scale.startFullScreen();}

Nothing happens on the iPhone. It works on my Android phone using the Chrome browser.

 

Can anyone confirm this issue?

[rich]

Sadly iPhone doesn't support the Full Screen API

[CrazySam]

Is there a way for me to maximize the playing area on that device, and remove the navigation buttons? There has to be a way to improve the player experience on that device, right now the playing are is miniscule when playing on an iPhone.

[negue]

I dont know if this works with Phaser (just started to learn how to work with it...), but iOS has the (sometimes buggy) Feature named "WebApp".

 

And Since Phaser uses HTML5 its "just" a Website.

 

Here's one of many tutorials for this Feature: http://andrewhathaway.net/posts/ios-web-apps

 

With "WebApps", you have control of a SplashScreen and no more Navigation Buttons.

 

Hope this helps a bit

[rich]

Is there a way for me to maximize the playing area on that device, and remove the navigation buttons? There has to be a way to improve the player experience on that device, right now the playing are is miniscule when playing on an iPhone.

 

Not automatically, no. There are a few techniques you could employ to get them to rotate their device, then rotate it back again (it'll swap to full-screen mode then). Alternatively if you embed the game on a long enough page and encourage them to scroll down, it will enter full-screen mode too. I've also seen on the Disney site they now just detect iOS7 and display a big banner saying "Add this game to your home screen".

 

You used to be able to use a window.scrollTo hack, but they dropped support for that when they left iOS6 behind. Chrome did the same actually, the difference is they at least gave us the full screen api in exchange.

[CrazySam]

Adding the game to the home screen seems like the best option (if it allows it to run full-screen). I've done some research on that and it seems relatively easy (also seems like the best way to encourage repeat playthroughs), but would it be possible for Phaser to include an example that shows how to do this?

[Michael Prescott]

Adding to the home screen causes a ridiculous slow down in performance. I confirmed or was rather reminded of this just minutes ago when I saw my test app become unusable when added to homescreen. Not loving Apple right now.

 

Apple started throttling apps added to the homescreen years ago in order to discourage web apps in favor of native apps to protect their 30% share of your creation (I hear it's at or about to be 40%).

 

I've experimented with a long list of game engines, libraries, and tool stacks over the past 2 months including SpriteKit, libGDX, gameclosure, Flash, Pixi, Unity, Impact, and phaser.  CocoonJS is next on my list, but I'm having a hard time accepting that Apple will get 30, maybe 40% and Ludei will get some unknown percentage of sales.  For creative expression or side income, this might be acceptable, but for a business endeavor that includes the cost of everything in between and then straight commission of perhaps more than 50% to online compilers and delivery stores, there is seemingly very little room for profit.

 

Rant aside, I've found that HTML5/JavaScript/CSS production is the easiest and by far the fastest approach to app and casual game creation.  Allows us to maintain and quickly revise our ever changing content, and allows us to reach the greatest audience even more easily.  Hopefully, competition and developers like us building up momentum with HTML5 products will force Apple's hand, and they'll find a way to keep their app store cut and stop encumbering performance of web apps.