Rebuild 2: Coming to iPad 2

Rebuild for iPad 2
I wrote most of Rebuild for iPad in the Philippines
I wrote about AIR for iOS earlier in the year, but got caught up with Rebuild 2 before I could actually release any iOS game. By the time I got back to it, Adobe had just released AIR 3.0, and FlashDevelop 4.0 now comes with an AIR Mobile AS3 project that makes building Flash games to run on iPhone/iPad and Android a snap.

AIR 3.0 is definitely faster than 2.6, but I still ran into some major performance issues when adapting Rebuild 2 for iPad. It came down to dragging the big map around. In its original vector form, the map moved slowly and chunkily as all the buildings were rendered at every frame. As one gigantic bitmap it was quick as can be, but a 2000×2000 bitmap takes up far too much ram. I found an optimum middle ground but including the bulky AIR interpreter I regularly need up to 100mb, and the iPad 1 only has 256mb ram in total. So, what I’m saying is… Rebuild 2 is coming to iPad 2 and only 2. Sorry early adopters, you should have waited a year for the iPad with twice the ram and faster cpu & gpu. And a camera.

I also had to work around a shocking number of bugs in AIR 3.0 Mobile. Mostly display issues that could be solved by converting things into bitmaps before displaying them, each time increasing the amount of ram the game needs. Then, I was pretty sad I couldn’t add Game Center support without fiddling with Native Extensions in Xcode. I’m looking to pay someone to do this, because of course I’m The Girl Who Wrote An IPad Game Without A Mac.

Almost. Apple removed their web-based system for uploading binaries around the same time 3rd party compilers made it possible to build from Windows or Linux. Now, you can only upload using Apple software running in Mac OS. Sigh.

New Buildings in Rebuild iPhone
What are those new buildings there?
But enough with the technical. Although the iPad version is a port of Rebuild 2 Flash, I added some new content to the game as a thank you for fans of Rebuild 2 who buy it. There are two new buildings, and one is linked to a new branch of tech. Some fresh events spattered about, and an entirely new story arc and ending written by my husband Colin. You can discover it for yourself (assuming you have an iPad 2) later this month.



Fun Rebuild fact: in the programming code, survivors are called “Colins”.

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15 thoughts on “Rebuild 2: Coming to iPad 2

  1. Will the new content be exclusive to the ipad? Or will say, the flash versions eventually be updated after the ipad users enjoy the new content?

  2. why not put a “donate” button on the flash game so some of us can make as generous or as cheap a donation we want in exchange for the new content? Most of us fans don’t have an ipad, so this way you can both get some revenue and make us happy, which of course is always welcomed in out side…..

  3. Well, as an iPad user I was holding out on playing Rebuild 2 until I could get it on my device. I have to say I’m disappointed it won’t run on the original iPad. Oh well.

  4. Adobe is supposedly focusing on AIR for mobile now. As Thibault Imbert put it: “We are not stepping out of the mobile space with Flash, we are just focusing on what makes sense and where Flash looks great, standalone apps with AIR.” So, hopefully this process will get easier!

  5. First time player. Plays great on iPad 2 but it would really enhance the game to have achievements as a goal. May be worth that programming hire ;)

    Great game!

  6. Will you be updating Rebuild 2 for the pc? By adding more events, story arcs, etc…? Or a Rebuld 3?

    I’ve just seen ‘Zafehouse Diaries’ and it is almost a clone of your game. I would love to see more events or possibly a way to add them? An editor? And as someone else said, a decaying cityscape where buildings degrade and food spoils, and buildings and weapons and tools become worn/unuseable… etc… :)

    I know its a lot of work, and I am not ungrateful, but just love your game and wish there were more to it. :) Hope you understand.

    Thank you for a wonderful and very interesting game!

    -Teal

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