Using phonegap I created an app using Canvas & javascript called Tank! (knockoff of atari combat). It was super simple to do and banged it out in two weeks on the side while working full time. I probably spent less time developing it that it would take to actually learn objective c to start developing it using that language.
The biggest issue was framerate, which when tracking 4 fingers at the same time, it drops down to 6-8fps on the original iphone. Tracking touches is more cpu intensive than actually drawing the sprites. I capped the framerate at 8 fps and slowed down the tank movement so that this effect wasn't noticeable.
The major upside is that you can test and develop in the browser every change you make without compiling anything, then dump it into the framework and push it to the device. This really speeds up development.
The biggest issue was framerate, which when tracking 4 fingers at the same time, it drops down to 6-8fps on the original iphone. Tracking touches is more cpu intensive than actually drawing the sprites. I capped the framerate at 8 fps and slowed down the tank movement so that this effect wasn't noticeable.
The major upside is that you can test and develop in the browser every change you make without compiling anything, then dump it into the framework and push it to the device. This really speeds up development.