Should I use Flash Air or Java to develop games?

[quuxbazer]

I'm a beginner android developer and thinking about making a decently big game.

I know that Flash air is only available to android 2.2 and future releases, but should I still make the game using Flash?

Using Java would imo be so much more difficult and time consuming, but I suppose all android versions would be able to run it.

Also, how efficient can android 2.2 run Flash Air? Can a game made in Flash Air run almost as fast as the game made with Java?

So, I would like hear what you guys have to say about this...remember that I'm planning to make a fairly complex game.

 

[Dan Fury]

Java makes everything easy, not hard. If you want the hard road, you use the NDK.
Flash is not a great base to start developing, it is more a necessity for people who already have a lot of code for the web.

If you want to build a complex game with little knowledge, I recommend getting a 3D Engine like Unity or ShiVa.

 

[quuxbazer]

Hmm, well I was comparing making games on the web using Java vs Flash, and obviously Flash is a lot faster at making your basic tower defense.

I don't think I'll be using too much 3D libraries for my first game on Android. Do you think OpenGL is enough for my needs? (Do many people using ShiVa to develop for Android?)

Thanks for the help!

 

[Dan Fury]

If you have any preexisting knowledge your best bet is to keep working with it, Java is deeply integrated with Android and has more possibilities, but you are right, you can probably build a very basic game faster in Flash. But then it would only work on newer devices.

There are a few ShiVa games on the Market, some even got positive press, but I prefer Unity, when you also want to target other plattforms it's way more powerful, but more expensive.