How about BGE for the upcoming Ouya Android Console.

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
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HI all.
I was wondering if I’m the only one who thinks that Blender DEVs (I’m not) should consider the upcoming Ouya console which runs the android OS (dont remenber which one) a great platform for the BGE ?
For those who are wondering what is Ouya: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console
The Ouya Devs were aiming for $900 000 and they received $ 8 000 000.

You can be sure Ouya will be a succes. Game Devs can already purshase de Dev’s developement kit for $99 US ( the console itself + 1 controlers) which as I understand it, will be the same price when Ouya mass market begins.

I you look at the Little Beast specs http://www.ouya.tv/devs/ this console will punch a lot of power.

I would realy like to see a GsoC 2013 ‘‘branch’’ for BGE/Ouya Game creation compatibility. You??:eyebrowlift2:

That said, maybe , He, who did this:http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:AlexK/Gsoc2012 would no where to start.:wink:

We would ,of course, need a good Multiplayer android template. :yes:

-TheElwolf

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Dudes… Lets find a way to do this. Let us indie game developers finally have a chance to bust into the commercial industry and take it over!!! And somebody make this thread sticky…real sticky

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@Sinan

  1. Because most people don’t have controllers hooked up to their Android devices, and as a gamer myself, I would much rather sit down at a game console than sit down at a phone, or even a phone hooked up to the screen. If you want to play a game, you want to get into it as quickly as possible. Having to sit down with your phone, back out of whatever you’re doing, connect it to your TV, navigate to the game, and then actually pick up the controller, and switch between games via the phone instead of the controller gets tedious. Phones aren’t optimized for gaming, and so both will run slower than a console that’s running Android, as well as have a more uncomfortable UI.

As for selling a game, I don’t think I would release my game, Valchion, for Android because it would cause me to butcher my game and/or the experience of (most of) the players. For example:

A) The player sees the game advertised and sees it was well-reviewed, and so he buys it on Google Play, not noticing that you need a controller to play. He can’t even play the game because he doesn’t have a controller. So, he wasted his money. I would then have to give him a refund (or just say “too bad”, and have bad customer relations). He might even rate it poorly, saying that the game was unplayable, not that he didn’t read close enough.

B) I could adapt some touch controls to my game for non-controller users, but that would make the game absolutely horrible for most players who play it, and so the game wouldn’t get a good review overall. They wouldn’t care that you would really need to connect a controller to get the full experience - they will rate it based off of its touch controls, and they would probably rate it poorly (and I can’t blame them).

C) The player can’t play the game at all because of hardware and software inconsistencies (the game may not run on a certain Android version combined with a certain phone platform).

D) The player can play the game fine, but it runs slowly because I tested it on a device that’s more powerful than the device the player has.

E) The player never even buys the game because he sees that it’s on Android, and so assumes it’s just another time-waster / touch game, which is pretty much how I see Android games. Most aren’t really deep games that I would want to play, though I know that there are / must be some.

The Ouya isn’t the cure-all, as they’ve mentioned some odd information recently about yearly sequels to the console (NO idea how that’s going to work), but it does help with some of that. The only players who can purchase a game on the store are those who are in a position to do so and have a good time (have a controller, have a powerful enough system, etc).

64,000 consoles of any description sold aren’t a lot, but that is still quite a few. There will probably be more in the coming months. While there might be millions of Android devices that have been sold, most of those don’t belong to people who play games, and most of those people who play games aren’t actual ‘core’ gamers (the kinds of people who would buy a deep game that I would personally develop over a casual one, for example).

  1. You can run Android apps on your Ouya, so it should be possible to sell one anywhere, load it onto your Ouya, and play it.

  2. The cost of the Ouya’s controller doesn’t relate to whether the Ouya is competing with the 720 and PS4 (and Wii U) or not. The controller could definitely be cheaper, but if the Ouya is $100 + a $50 controller, why wouldn’t the 720 or PS4 be $300-$600 with a $50 controller? Sony wouldn’t be very wise to suggest another $600 console, but they could go for $400 and some change.

The original Wii sold very well despite being only $100 cheaper than a 360 at launch, if I recall. I bought a 360 only because the PS4 was pricier than the 360 when I bought it. I stopped playing my 360 online because I don’t want to pay $60 a year to play infrequently. Don’t underestimate the power of cost.

Anyway, I’m not as excited for the Ouya as I was a few months ago, but it definitely could be a good idea depending on the execution. This is very much a product in motion - something that is developed on progressively. So, I agree that it warrants consideration and examination over time.

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  1. Why is implementing Android bluetooth support for BGE not good enough?

It may be… I’m not a dev so I dont know what work has (or not) to be done for a compatibility with Ouya.

If someone is making a game that needs a controller there is no reason it has to be for OUYA/GameStick. It can be a game that supports any sort of bluetooth controller that supports Android

True enough. And as for the HDMI port, I agree; it’s a ‘‘must’’ for futur version of android tablets.

  1. Don’t these consoles, specifically OUYA/GameStick have to sell a large amount to be commercially viable?

There is no doubt in my mind that they will sell a lot. Just look at what they achieved with their kickstarter project (10 times what they were expecting) and not to mention that a very small % of population are aware (or at least those who do go see the web site) of crowdfunding projects. So imagine when they start promoting their console. (tv, news paper, web adds etc…)

  1. OUYA/GameStick require their own stores, where other solutions like Project Shield for example don’t…

Making a game compatible with Ouya doesn’t mean giving them exclusivity.

In any case, features on my roadmap are things that I’m interested in (or looking for funding so I can implement full-time) and so they could be worked on by others. I’m pretty sure someone will port BGE to OUYA…

Fair enough; if you dont beleive in the Ouya project indeed you should’nt bother.

I just don’t see a reason to do it myself.

Just hope that not all Android dev think like you on this. :eyebrowlift:

That said I’d like to point out a few things that are some and some not, related to your ‘‘point number 4’’

  1. Additional OUYA controllers are $50 each. So we can argue all day long that it doesn’t compete with PS4 and Xbox Quad (or whatever the name of the next Xbox is, probably has to do with the number 4) but it actually does! Since the controller is about as expensive as higher end consoles people will just think about saving that extra $200-$300 and get a higher end console instead. I can see PS4 or the next Xbox to be around $399.

I realy dont think next Gen console will be in the $200-$300 price range. If they are, it would be a first.
To take the Xbox 360 as an example, nowadays they are fairly cheap. (you realize though that they are 3rd 360 generation) When they first came out, they were way more expensive.

I personnaly own consoles since… well, my first one was the XboX (not the 360) because of the game Halo (before that I was more of a PC gamer.) And as I can recall the Xbox was mutch more then 300$ more like 5-600$ same thing with the Playstation console. And that was the price before taxation. (wich in Canada is aroumd 15%.) So they were not cheap. They were as expensive as computers (well ok almost) the main advantage were that once you bought one you could be sure that all games would be compatible with their respective console as for computers you had to change=buy a new graphic card once a year ( if you wanted to stay up to date with recent tech games.)
Dont get me wrong, hard core gamers like myself are still going to buy the next Gen console(s) and be willing to pay an average $50 to $60 per game price tag. But I can also envision less fortunate individuals who cant afford them but a console like Ouya at $99 price tag with games ranging from ($)free to $5, $10…( well you get the idea). That said I know of the Xbox Arcade. But those games are not AAA games like Call of Duty or Gears of war etc. Well that’s not entirely true since games similar to those mentionned are available on the Arcade store but only after a long time being $59 elsewhere. So what I mean is, you wont see recent AAA games in the Arcade store.

Plus remember, that Xbox usually has lower tier, middle tier, and higher end tier pricing, so price difference between lower tier Xbox 720 and OUYA could be $150 with one controller? That’s why I don’t see OUYA/GameStick taking off at this point.

Following your example that would make the Xbox 720 with 4Gig of storage more then twice the price of the Ouya with 8Gig of flash drive.
As for the controlers, I dont understand what you are implying because what ever console you buy you’ll end up with only one controler anyway. What ever console you buy you’ll still need to spend $40-$50 more for a second one. So please explain because I miss the meaning of that comment.

Bottom line; I believe the Ouya console being one of the first low price Android Console with Hand held controlers, not to mention the fair low priceTag of future games, ( my thought on this is based on what we can already purshase on the android app store) and the fact that all games will be ''free to Try" (as mentionned on the Ouya web site) will be a great competitor to the other more expensive consoles and their game/priceTag.
An other Ouya andvantage is that it is less of a hassle to port your game to Ouya (OpenGame Console) than it is for the XboX or Playstation.

WoW! Sorry for the long reply.:spin:

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I might have come off a bit harsh in my response before, but I see what you mean now. Yeah, the Ouya does face a tough environment, and it might not make it in the end for a wide number of reasons. I personally didn’t see Android apart from a gaming console like the Ouya or GameStick to be a target platform for a ‘non-casual’ game developer.

However, with the recent trend of GameStick, Ouya, and now this Green Throttle SDK that you mention, it would seem that there will be some kind of Android gaming-focused hardware out there widely available soon. In any case, I hope that the Android port of the BlenderPlayer gets some progress - more platforms equals a wider audience.

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Before the plans on porting the BGE to work with Ouya is finalized, there has recently been news that has lead a large number of gamers to write off their support for the console completely.

In other words, the Ouya creators are going to follow the iPhone model which is a new console every year. (of course you don’t have to buy it every year and of course there’s going to be backwards and forwards compatibility), but taking advantage of the latest hardware specs. may mean you may have to make different versions of your game through the next several years because of the yearly update.

So if you were expecting a lasting platform like the Xbox where everyone is on the same page, you are sadly wrong.

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YHowever that truly depends on the weight of the changes each year. Besides has ANYONE here tried to submit a game onto a ps3 or a wii a 3ds- this console allows indie developers to rule on a console. Not just be stuck in the back of some store. The ouya is barely a year old from conception to release. Little pr and a few million dollars. This ouya is a really big oppurtunity for devs to get into the living room on a far more open device. It clearly has merit seeing as how many others are quickly following this. Also solarlune I don’t actually believe you can actually just run android apps. I was looking at the odk and it looks like someone would need to make source changes for the ouya to recognize and run an app.

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Odd, because I remember them stating on the KickStarter and elsewhere that it would be possible to sideload Android apps out of the box. While Ouya apps would be specially made for the console, it should be possible to simply run Android applications. It wouldn’t make sense for them to restrict it to just Ouya applications when they don’t if anyone will port Android apps (like Netflix or Facebook) over.

@Ace - Yeah, that is odd, and it’s what I mentioned in my post earlier about yearly sequels to the console. It is weird, but it is expected that with the mobile market advancing so steadily and rapidly, the Ouya wouldn’t last very long (nobody thought it would last as long as the 360, for example). Given that a year is so little time, it’s more likely that each yearly model will be an improvement on the last model, but games would remain compatible for some time.

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Better to have an Ouya than a Wii…

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Personally, for numerous reasons, I don’t see the Ouya having any kind of success. On the off-chance it catches on, BGE hasn’t really proven itself a useful platform for any commercial platform anyway. The closest I’ve seen is weird installation-type pieces, like for interactive planetarium exhibits. I don’t think that has much to do with its technical limitations but it is a weird ongoing quirk. But maybe things will change and it’ll be awesome.

What actually does interest me is recent efforts, especially by Valve, to put the PC in the living room. Unlike the Ouya, which mostly rings of that terrible early 90s trend when every electronics company had to have its own crappy console (remember when the NES, Genesis, Turbografx-16, Sega CD, Neo Geo, Game Boy, Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Gamate, and Game Gear were all for sale at the same time?) This concept kind of dumps the idea of mutually incompatible hardware between the desktop and the living room, and games themselves don’t just become magically incompatible with each generation. That seems a lot more sustainable and secure. There’s minor issues that come with having non-homogeneous hardware, but most of the other problems have been wrung out. Ouya just seems like a very backwards concept. We already have secure curated storefronts. We already have the ability to sell online content. We already have controllers. All we really need is basically a big cable running from the PC to the TV and you’re good.

Anyway long story short, I think, rather than piddle around with Ouya, Blender would be better served pursuing network and distribution issues. But if the controller’s good, go for that.

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I’d be hard pressed to find a 100 dollar pc with a controller. By the way I think one could use an android tablet or phone in conjunction with an ouya. A bit like xbox smart glass or gawd forbid the wii u- which is a great opportunity. Anyway, I’d just like to develop and deploy to an ouya from blender. And I will develop it myself if I have to.

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At the $100 level, I think the technology is very much there to make a simple hardware link from your TV to your PC and still throw in a decent controller, but nobody’s really put the money into developing it is all, since it’s made so much financial sense for so long to have closed platforms with enormous licensing fees. I think the power of digital distribution platforms, especially Steam and Amazon Digital, has put enough financial interest in that field that someone (probably Valve, Amazon, or Apple) is going to develop that little box and then PC will just steamroll consoles.

But again, that’s just what I predict for the future from my armchair. If Ouya somehow doesn’t tank and leave everyone feeling pretty dumb for buying a console less powerful than an iPhone, by all means develop for it. For me, Ouya doesn’t represent a future I’m interested in.

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Then what is a future you’re interested in because it’s really f-ing hard to get on a dedicated gaming device. I mean with fragmented android phones and tablets with different hard ware and software, the none gpl licence friendly apple, and the closed garden that consoles present to indie developers. I believe the very well backed ouya is the future of blender games. A mostly open game console - is that not what we’ve always wanted?

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I didn’t say anything about dedicated, I think that’s our misunderstanding. I already have an open platform, my PC, which I can use just as well to work in Blender as play Super Meat Boy. Ouya is just another dedicated platform with a closed store. Barf. I don’t want that at all. I can buy a new computer any day of the week and all my games will still work. That, I think, is why I don’t think Ouya will be meaningful.It’s less open than the existing platform, less powerful, less supported, and frankly less exciting.

So yeah, tl;dr, I don’t want a dedicated gaming platform. I want to run a cable from my computer to my TV and have an attractive easy-to-use interface to play games on the couch. I think that’s coming.

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I also believe it is our perspective - you’re looking at the ouya from a purely consumerist perspective , while I’m talking from a more dev centered perspective. Anyway why are you on a thread about a dedicated gaming device when that is exactly what you don’t want?

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Indeed, why would I go on a thread and talk about something that I think is interesting and want to discuss? A mystery indeed. Anyway, I’m not sure how, from a developer perspective, the Ouya is any better or more open than the PC. Maybe in terms of QA. That would make sense.

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OK, we’re talking about two different things now- I at first was talking about ouya vs. another dedicated gaming device. I totally agree that the pc is the better platform overall especially when connected to a television. It’s just the ouya is a great indie CONSOLE- it’s not a pc but it is a far cheaper alternative to that or another console. Ouya is simply a platform blender should support as a fairly open console.

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One of the problems with PC gaming is that there’s no standards. I don’t know that my game will run well on my computer, let alone the next guy’s. On a console, they’ll all run the same. Even if someone complains that having different Ouyas (one new one per year) defeats that purpose, it’s still a huge amount better than developing for the thousands of Android phones or combinations of pieces of hardware in a PC (plus different OS’s).

Another problem is input. The last thing someone wants to do to play is re-bind their gamepad buttons because I was using a PS2 controller to develop, and so to jump they press Back on their 360 gamepad. Multiply that times four for a multiplayer game (like Castle Crashers or Bomberman), and you can see why some might see it to be more fun to just pick up a console (especially for $100) and play - no hassle.

Consoles like the GameStick and Ouya can help to lessen problems like this. Even Steam’s Big Picture Mode, which is a cool idea (essentially turning Steam into a 360-dashboard-like menu), doesn’t help that much since the developers of the actual games still have to make their game work with gamepad controls. Since GS and Ouya are both Android-based, just getting the Android port of the BlenderPlayer up to a package-able state would probably be good enough. However, just improving Blender and its stability at all would probably be useful.

As for the different consoles having different stores, it shouldn’t be a problem since they’re all running Android. By the time BlenderPlayer gets to the point of being poised to run on Android, their markets will have become more stable.

Anyway, I’m not really as hyped for the Ouya as I once was, but I do want to see what games are on it, and how it does. It’s sold pretty well so far, and some developers have gotten ahold of it, so it might be a nice selection of games to kick it off. The good thing about this is that with so many Android devices coming up, and Steam Box running Linux, game and engine developers should make cross-platform compatibility a priority.

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This is good news !! :slight_smile:

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YES!!! i want ouya… rather, android support for BGE