According to Gamedev tus+ on the OUYA “All game purchases are done via in-app-purchasing.” All of them. Every single one of them. And if there’s one thing I’ve never seen covered it’s this. I know there are a number of people on these specific forums as well as many others that would like to see their game on the OUYA store. I’m not entirely sure how many are planning to make these games commercially but if they are, the obvious caveat is In-App-Payments or IAP’s. I’ve personally given it a lot of thought but I’m just not very familiar with networking or anything that involves any communication with something outside of the game. That aside however this among a few other OUYA/BGE problems has anyone ever tried this? Does anyone have even an inkling of an idea of how to do this thing call IAP’s?
Additionally one has to use the Ouya IAP system included with the ODK. Apparently one would have to have source making these calls to their servers.
The OUYA is a “dead on arrival” platform, in my opinion.
No need to lose sleep over any issue that pertains to it.
I could ask you why you think so. But I have a guess as to how you’ve formed you’re opinion. 73% of users that have an Ouya have never bought anything, Not much money has been made on the platform with the most being around 21,000 US and second 4,000 US, coupled with latency issues and overscan problems I truly get where you’re coming from. But I’m banking the future of my studio on it. And here’s why:
This is a platform with great potential and no one’s buying because of the content on the stores. Developer’s like you would decide not to develop any stellar titles on it and consumers would decide that without that stellar content they’d rather not buy it. A “vicious” cycle if you will. My team and I aim to change that and develop whatever the best we have to offer exclusively on the platform. Also it’s been out for a FRIKIN’ MONTH! You can’t really base all of your judgement on that. The ps3 had a rocky start as well but they didn’t have a single year to form a corporation and send thousands of product around the world.
I urge you to join and perhaps Ouya on.
Outside of that and the Ouya’s “pertaining issues” however IAP’s are still a thing and we can’t go around pretending they aren’t. They’re beginning to become an integral part of mobile games and shoot even PC’s. If you want someone to buy something from within your game- I see absolutely no way of doing that within the Blender Game Engine. This is why I ask does anyone even have an idea even an inkling of how to do it?
I would assume you could use C++ DLL or shared library (?) calls to do the API specific in-app purchasing. I assume different IAP providers would have their own APIs to deal with, Ouya’s being one of them. Of course, this is all based on assumption.
For developers, technical issues would be the primary point of disgust.
Beyond that:
I could care less about what ouya owners do or don’t do; Until they actually represent a significant audience, relative to the overall gamer population, they simply don’t matter. Even for developers who don’t have to worry about things like revenue (they do exist), the audience is simply not there, and the technical environment is not pleasant enough to make up for that.
Is this like a real studio, with a credit line and salaried employees, or is it just you and some friends?
I would generally recommend that you think about this again, in more depth, and especially if your “banking” involves other people.
Valve is working on the “Steam Box”, which is likely to make ouya, and things like it, completely irrelevant. However, even if that never comes to pass, the PC is still the most flexible platform, and Steam is a far superior market.
Why would anyone even consider developing for some flaky product from a zombie startup?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Why not develop for android market?
smart phones specs get better all the time, and people play what is in there hand…
the “future” of gaming is a hit and miss moving target, fun is fun…
Make a great game, that is in as basic of programing language you can use (for porting)
when you get near enough with game assets, choose multiple platforms that are doable…
While the Steam Box would make the Ouya basically obsolete, it’s also supposed to cost quite a bit of cash, so I wouldn’t really bank my studio on that, either. Also, by the time the Steam Box comes out, the Ouya could be fairly well established (it’s not like the Steam Box is coming out this year, and even next year is pushing it). It’d probably be best to focus on PC, or to just target the Ouya because you can when the BGE is developed for Android.
Once again IAP’s are still a thing. You wanna make an android game? Free-to-play? Better have IAP’s. I’m not entirely sure but I think there are IAP’s in Team Fortress 2 as well.
Goran, you’re complaining about an android development environment. With a controller. “Technical issues?”
Still, Why would I buy an Ouya if there aren’t any good games on it. Exclusively. You talk about a significant audience, but how would that come to be? Because of developers like you? There are over 21,000 developers that aren’t. There are almost 300 games on the platform.
I urge you to take the “risk” and try to challenge yourself. Like they say “The revolution will be televised.”
Is anyone actively working on a BGE for android port anymore? There are millions more mobile gamers than PC or console- maybe that’s a significant audience- I don’t even know anymore. Regardless IAP’s- SolarLune, you say make a call from a shared library to the Ouya’s Iap. From what I understand they want your game itself- in the source to have these identifiers and make calls. I don’t know- we’re a team of artists, not programmers.
*When I say “studio” I’m talking about 9 people that have gracefully taken the time from their own days to work on a project they believe in. And perhaps move in full time. And switch engines.
For ouya, it can’t, and that was my point; All platforms have technical issues, but developers are wiling to deal with them because there’s a viable market on the other side. If you’re not a multi-billion dollar company, and you’re starting from scratch, you better have your technical issues sorted out, because if you don’t, developers won’t bother.
There are millions more mobile gamers than PC or console- maybe that’s a significant audience
No thanks.
“No thanks.”
I wasn’t asking for your opinion. In fact you don’t seem to have anything constructive to add. Unless you do, I see no reason for you to remain in this thread. This isn’t a debate nor will it become one. I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish. I’ve made myself very clear.
Here’s the page from ouya documentation- if you can access it : https://devs.ouya.tv/developers/docs/purchasing
It requires you to edit from the source. So I’m thinking about having some functions you can call from your blend to the blenderplayer which in turn make these calls with Ouya’s servers. This is only an idea. Does anyone know where one can access the blenderplayer for android source?
I was confused by all the question marks.
I do not have to justify anything I do to you. If you have nothing constructive to add, get out of my thread. I do not want to see another unhelpful post in this thread. I am not asking you. I am telling you. Have I made myself clear to you? Did I leave a typo? You know what you’re doing. You know it’s unhelpful.
Anyone know where the source is? Anyone? BPlayer for Android?
As far as I know, this is a public forum, and I am free to state my opinions on the ouya.
Regarding the BGE and android in general: There is currently no export option for that platform, and it’s unlikely that we will have one in the near future. I don’t know the status of the gamekit project, which could load some data from .blend files, and run on mobile platforms, but that’s something you might want to look at.
Other than that I don’t know anything about “BPlayer for Android”.
That’s interesting, but it seems like it fizzled somewhere along the line (last year’s GSoC).
Well, in either case, you don’t need an “export to mobile” feature to make a really good game, and if you can actually do that, then getting someone to work with you on a port is relatively easy.
Making a good game is the hard part.
There are so many people who wish for “mobile”, but who don’t really have anything worthwhile to ship. And it’s basically the following thought process:
Awesome game idea -> I’ll need to ship on all platforms -> Can bge export to mobile? -> I really need this!
Instead of the normal:
Awesome game idea -> Prototype -> Alpha -> Beta -> Final -> Distribution/Publishing details.
I agree. However when one does have a great game idea it’s good to check for these future problems for when your future becomes your present. We’re past prototype. We have an unfinished game- but the core is there and it can be fun. So at this point we’re looking into options and quite willing to edit the source. Wherever that may be. We have to check for latency, overscan, and a host of other potential issues. Just have to make sure it works- early on.
Ouya’s ODK is java based. So on top of BPlayer for android (something I personally don’t recommend using for Ouya right now due to how it was made… but that is just me) You would need to make a wrapper of some sort (be it python, or Lua if you use gamekit) to setup IAPs, and Controller Setup, as the Ouya does’t recognize native joystick input last I checked (its in their ODK as well)
If you want it out there right away, after doing a bit of research, it may be best to build your game via jmonkeyengine or (if you are using windows/mac) unity.
I planned on developing for Ouya, but I am going to wait until a suitable Linux game engine comes into the field (I throughly dislike jmonkey)… until then, PC!
I don’t see how you agree, since I argued that publishing details matter only when the game is finished, and you’re arguing against that.
The fact remains: You don’t have a finished product, and the value of what you have is unproven. Even if you manage to finish everything, and push out a final build, which is anything but certain, people might simply dismiss your work, or your publishing partners bail, or something else goes wrong. The success ratio for independent games is virtually identical to the success ratio for general start-up businesses: The vast majority fail.
Statistically speaking, it’s more likely that you will never have to worry about publishing and distribution, not because you didn’t plan it out from the very beginning, but because you’ll never get to that point.
With the odds as they are, you’ll need every ounce of focus and energy just to complete something worthwhile. It’s not smart to waste that cognitive currency on trivialities that can be addressed when their time comes.