Making games for Windows Phone 8.1 – which exporter to use? XNA or HTML5 or UWP?

[Watter]

Dear Clickers,
Does anyone have the successful experience of making games for Windows Phone 8.1 with Clickteam Fusion 2.5?

I tried XNA. As I understand, XNA builds proper .xap only with Visual Studio 2012 (for Windows Phone 8.0).
Yes, I can deploy this Windows Phone 8.0 .xap by using “Windows Phone Application Deployment 8.1” to my Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia-phone, connected to a computer with a cable. But Windows Phone 8.0 .xap is unavailable now for Windows Phone 8.1 devices in Windows Store. So, I can’t distribute my made with Visual Studio 2012 .xap to Windows Phone 8.1 devices through the Windows Store.

I also tried HTML5-exporter with Visual Studio 2013. It works not bad for the games with no sounds. But I have more than 100 sounds in my game. So, I get a terrible long loading time and terrible lags in game-sounds. What settings do you use to get perfect HTML5 Windows Phone 8.1 games?

As I can see, UWP-exporter uses WinJS. I don’t understand how it works (before using Clickteam Fusion 2.5. I made my UWP games with C#/XAML). But, maybe, there is a way to use UWP-exporter to make Windows Phone 8.1 games? Does anyone try?

I know, Windows Phone 8.1 is a “history” and has no future. But it is still very popular in Russia and Ukraine (even more popular than iOS). Many of my friends and me myself still use Windows Phone 8.1 and don’t want to upgrade our Lumia-phones to Windows 10 Mobile. Cause, unfortunately, Windows 10 Mobile is still unstable and works terrible even on hi-end Lumia 950.
Also, it seems like, Windows Phone 8.1 games share the statistic with UWP games in Windows Store. So, by adding Windows Phone 8.1 bundle into my UWP-game’s Store-page I can rise the statistic of my UWP-game in the Windows Store.

Thank you for your advices.

P.S. This morning I asked Construct2-developers how do they build Windows Phone 8.1 games. They are "jedis" in HTML5-games - maybe, they know the solution

[advaith]

I also tried HTML5-exporter with Visual Studio 2013. It works not bad for the games with no sounds. But I have more than 100 sounds in my game. So, I get a terrible long loading time and terrible lags in game-sounds. What settings do you use to get perfect HTML5 Windows Phone 8.1 games?

What do you mean you are using the HTML5 exporter with Visual Studio? You do not need Visual Studio or any other program to create HTML5 apps.

Also, why are you still using Visual Studio 2012 and 2013? You should be using 2017.

[Watter]

What do you mean you are using the HTML5 exporter with Visual Studio? You do not need Visual Studio or any other program to create HTML5 apps.

Also, why are you still using Visual Studio 2012 and 2013? You should be using 2017.

Please advise, how do you make Windows Phone 8.1 app without using Visual Studio? And how do you build XNA-apps or HTML5-apps for Windows Phone 8.1 in Visual Studio 2017?

[Watter]

This morning I asked Construct2-developers how do they build Windows Phone 8.1 games. They are "jedis" in HTML5-games - maybe, they know the solution

[advaith]

Please advise, how do you make Windows Phone 8.1 app without using Visual Studio? And how do you build XNA-apps or HTML5-apps for Windows Phone 8.1 in Visual Studio 2017?

The HTML5 exporter is for making online games, you just upload it and the user can go to the website. You do not need Visual Studio.

Also, I haven't tried using the XNA exporter yet, but I believe the steps in 2017 are the same as in 2012/2013.

[Watter]

Here is the answer of “Construct2-guru” (Construct2 is the tool for HTML5-games):
“Unfortunately there is no solution for this. I had to give up on my game on Windows Phone 8.1 due to this issue with sound. I even "rallied" on various MS forums, got Scirra involved in making MS fix the issue, it didnt work. The reason is simple, WP8 uses IE browser that does not support modern WebAudio spec. As MS has moved on to Edge browser we can not expect any support to older browsers.
My suggestion would be to use limited sound effects at any given moment. You can have all 100 sounds within the game, but probably play 5 sounds at a time, see how the game performance and either increase or decrease the count. Your game will crash if the number of audio file played goes beyond certain threshold
All the best, let us know what happens. We will try to help you ”
Seems like, CTF2.5 HTML5 exporter also is not the best solution for Windows Phone 8.1 games…