General Discussion - OUYA Developer Forums

Important Question!!!

Rezex — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 04:08:59 +0000

Can I use Microsoft Visual C# to program a app or game and if not what other IDE's can I use c# in to program a game

Activities running behind system menu

paulscode — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:58:28 +0000

Something that has started since the last OUYA system update is that activities will pause when you go back to the OUYA system menu, then resume in the background (visible because the menu panel has an alpha gradient). It is not 100% reproducable (I had to keep starting/ stopping my app a bunch of times to get it to happen a few minutes ago when I was trying to get a screenshot for this post)

What this means for my app is that you double tap system, and the game auto saves and stops as expected. Then if you linger at the system menu for a few seconds, the game resumes in the background. Enter any sub-menu, and the game stops again and is no longer visible (the sub-menu panels are opaque). Return to the main system menu, and wait a few seconds and the game resumes in the background again.

I guess my question is if this is a bug with OUYA that will be fixed at some point, or do I need to do something special in the activity lifecycle to play well with OUYA?

To visualize what I'm talking about, here is a screenshot:

Is "default set of permissions" defined somewhere?

paulscode — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:41:54 +0000

As I mentioned in another earlier thread, my game submission was denied, apparently due in part to having android.permission.VIBRATE in the manifest. Presumably (I don't know this for a fact), it is a violation of OUYA's policy, based on this article. The relevant section from the article:

Permissions. Instead of the standard Android behavior where each app has its own custom permissions, we will define a default set of application permissions that will apply to all games.

Assuming this is still the official word on game permissions, is that "default set of permissions" actually defined somewhere? I would like to point out that OUYA's own "game-sample" doesn't even conform to the above statement (no extra permissions at all are defined in the manifest).

Or maybe there are pre-defined blacklisted permissions we aren't allowed to use? Or is every app going to be required to specify some pre-defined list of permissions in the manifest? Or will our APKs be altered before they are installed by the user?

I'd like some official word on this point, as it could have far-reaching consequences depending on how it is implemented.

SPANISH DEVELOPERS (bank info, tax form, international shipping, power adaptor)

greenbite — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:23:14 +0000

I created this thread to clarify specific aspects concerning to developers located in Spain.

In this thread we can talk about how to fill out the payment information required to create In App Purchases. About the tracking of shipping packages with Ouya, the tax form and the power adapter needed to make it work.

But for now I only can answer questions about my experience with receiving the ouya console and the power adapter.

Any one can help with the tax form or bank info?

IAP Keys

Fedora — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:49:16 +0000

This has been said before, but I can't seem to find where so though I would bring it up again.

It has been said that it will be possible to give out IAP Keys, or promo codes, to users, but to do so you need to pay the 30% fee for that IAP. I would like to know if this is still how this system will work. I don't see why you would need to pay a fee if you are giving away the IAP for free, as the Ouya team wouldn't need to take care of any currency exchange or bank fees. They would just need to save a receipt for each user. If there was a flat rate of say $.25-.50 I wouldn't have as big of an issue with this but if you are giving away say a full game unlock that usually costs $15 you would have to pay a $4.50 fee.

This will also be a pretty significant issue if you are running a Kickstarter and giving away IAP's as one of the reward tiers. You will then need to pay the Kickstarter fees and Ouya fees, leaving you with significantly less money to work with.

It would be nice to hear an official stance by the Ouya team regarding this issue.

Support for Bluetooth Smart

seismo — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:01:03 +0000

The spec specs for the OUYA says it supports Bluetooth LE 4.0 which includes Bluetooth Smart. Is the OUYA game controller a Bluetooth Smart device? Jelly Bean doesn't provide any support for this version of Bluetooth, and it's rumored to be part of Key Lime Pie.

Couple of questions:

1) Has OUYA provided this support as part of their implementation in advance of Key Lime Pie? If so, which device classes?

2) There are lots of different Bluetooth Smart devices showing up in the market. Is there a way for a developer to add support for a particular device class even if it's not part of the distribution from OUYA?

3) I assume OUYA's Android implementation is essentially derived from the official Jelly Bean release. Is it known how official Android releases and OUYA will relate to each other in the future?

Can we use Visual Basic to program games on the OUYA

Rezex — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:27:47 +0000

Can we use Visual Basic to program games on the OUYA

what languages and IDE's can we use to program the applications/games

Great news for c# game developerment

TheUndisputed — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:04:24 +0000

take a look at this http://www.dot42.com/

NO MORE microsoft vm and dalvik vm running side by side

only one vm dalvik ,, this how ever is the best c# option for android

i have done some test with opengl es 2.0 both in mono and dot42

dot42 is 2,4 times faster than monoandroid from http://xamarin.com/monoforandroid

allso dot42 has the new HOT renderscript support,, OpenCL on your ouya Compute layer

and for the first time er is fully hardware float point math support inside dalvik

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/renderscript/index.html

you will allso need the tegra pack for android from nvidia ,, then you get the OpenCL ,,

there are only software support in tegra 3 ,,

How Many Games Are On The Store

DoubleDracula — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:51:06 +0000

I don't have consistent internet right now, so I can't check. How many OUYA games are on the store now? Has it gotten up to 100 yet?

Flash to Ouya

tbowl — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:18:15 +0000

Hello,

I've been developing my adventure game, "TBoWL Theater" for several years. My tool of choice has been Flash CS4 due to artwork + AS3.

It sounds like the only way to get this packaged up for Ouya properly is Flash CS6. Is that true?

Can anyone speak to what actually happens, how it's actually done, etc.? I have absolutely no money and want to make sure I know exactly what's going on before I try to do this. I'd want to do Ouya and probably tablets also if it's intuitive enough...

Thank you kindly.

-tbowl

Important Documentary Promotion Questions

MidoBasim — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 04:33:23 +0000

I have questions regarding the documentary promotion for the 28th of March deadline:

Is the promotion applicable to games submitted before the 28th March deadline but updated with more content afterwards? e.g.: Upload the game with X amount of levels before 28th of March then update the game and upload the rest of the levels after 28th of March.
Are the games submitted allowed to have paid content? e.g.: The first 2 levels are free but the rest of the levels are paid.
Is the promotion applying to game devs outside the US? e.g. Australia/New Zealand

Can some one with authority please reply to my questions.

Cheers.

Tax Information form W-9 required only if charging money?

bp2008 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:03:15 +0000

I finally got around to properly setting up my developer account today and I see that a W-9 Tax Information form is requested but apparently not required in order to submit a game.

Am I correct in assuming that I can skip the tax information form until I am ready to add a purchasable product to a game?

XBMC hardware accelerated decoding. No more stutter for HD movies

greeniekin — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:41:32 +0000

First thing I did when I got my ouya was install the nightly of an xbmc android build. It was great. Though I occasionally found some movies that would stutter a bit. It made them unwatchable. It was not a network problem as all others were fine and I was using an Ethernet cable. So I just avoided HD movies.

Though I stumbled across this thread. Which has been able to remove the jitter I experienced. I only just tested it on one thing. So I do not know where it will excel.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=152005

Would be nice if it had the correct manifest file and image though for the ouya.

Level Director - support for OUYA?

retrofit — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:42:35 +0000

Hi,

I'm the author of Level Director (www.retrofitproductions.com/level-director) which is a level designer originally written to work with the corona SDK but I'm currently in the process of writing a template based exporter and wondered if the ouya dev community would be able to make use of it.

You can check out what Level Director (v2 soon to be released) will be able to export here;

http://www.retrofitproductions.com/level-director/export-templates/

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

OUYA Documentary Promotion - Intro

EdK — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:40:27 +0000

Hey guys, thought this would be a good time to allow some of you developers to introduce yourselves to our Unofficial OUYA forum. We have a bunch of gamers there waiting the release of OUYA. If you are a dev that is looking to have your game uploaded prior to the March 28th deadline for the Documentary Promotion, please introduce yourself and your game studio at: http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?1567-Which-Developers-Are-Planning-to-Upload-Before-March-28th-for-the-Promotion

Ed :)

can't login on "console"

furrie — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:40:20 +0000

I'm running an ouya emulator in virtualbox, when I tried to login using my ouya account, it doesn't login. All it does is switching between the "new user - existing user" and the "contacting OUYA servers", even when I restart the machine. Does anybody knows how to fix it?

Input Methods? (IME)

gregm — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:57:38 +0000

Will the OUYA platform support Android input methods (called IME's)?

Will the user have full access to the normal Android Interface? (they would need that in order to activate an IME)

I ask this because IME's can insert button presses into any app. This could be used to create interesting enhancements to the controller's functionality.

[idea] Peripherals/hardware game jam

SpoonThumb — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:27:47 +0000

The OUYA has bluetooth, USB and wifi, so there are in theory a huge array of devices and peripherals that should work with the OUYA. I suggest when OUYA comes out, it'd be fun to have a game jam or competition to see what sort of things people can do with the OUYA and whatever hardware they can make work with it

It would help highlight some of the exciting possibilities OUYA gives to hardware hackers and game developers through its open nature, and will help expose the OUYA to new audiences who are using those devices featured in the competition. Plus bragging rights about how "I bet your xbox/ps4 can't do that!!

Unity3D/C++ job in San Francisco

VoodooDoubloon — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:57:44 +0000

Hello everyone - This is the kind of community I'd like to work with and posting a contract job in San Francisco! If you have Unity3D and C++ experience with a decent portfolio please email me at alan@tribaloid.com - We need help with features. :)

Emulators

Zode — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:48:10 +0000

Does anyone know of better android emulators than the ones used by eclipse? The Galaxy Nexus AVD takes just under 20 minutes to open. The computer I am using is a Apple MacBook.

-Thanks

Zode

Flashdrives and savefiles: how will they work?

Evgiz — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:41:10 +0000

Hey.

The OUYA has support for both flashdrives and harddrives as far as I understand.

Im wondering how they will work together with the console.

Does the player chose where to save games and their respective savefiles? Can savefiles be stored on the flashdrive, while the game itself is on the OUYA or a harddrive for that matter?

I would really like to have all my savefiles on a flashdrive, allowing to move between two OUYAs without loosing all data. I sure hope there will be a standard for this, because if not, all games will be different and not compatible with this solution.

And I know OUYA Inc (thats what they are called, right?) is talking about cloud storage, but that would not allow offline gaming, which is a minus.

How to detect whether the game has been purchased offline.

liuyang — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:26:33 +0000

If a game is divided Lite version and licensed version, licensed version will need to purchase.If I have been purchased, how to detect offline

Unity Android Plugin

SamJ — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:03:23 +0000

Hey all,

As a dev gamer hobbyist (full time dev) I'm a little upset that I am going to need to buy the $400 Unity Android plugin to create my games for OUYA. (Newly married and on a tight budget) I understand why they sell this feature but since I will only be using it to create OUYA games so I feel a little ripped off as my audience is a lot smaller than the average purchaser of the feature. I choose Unity to develop my first game because it was "free" and thought building to OUYA was going to be added as a free feature.

Anyone else in the same situation? I'm guessing students would be the same?

Anyway that's my rant over with, I wish I was using Unity when they gave away the feature free in April, common Unity, help out some OUYA devs!

OUYA on GDC 2013?

Delpee — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:07:14 +0000

Hello OUYAs!

I was wondering if OUYA is coming to GDC? I found out recently that I'm going to fly all the way across the ocean and the USA to attend GDC and it would be great to talk with all (or some) of the Boxer8 team and other developers about OUYA! A once in a lifetime opportunity I would say (even though I hope I will do this more often :p).

In this thread: general OUYA-GDC talk + an answer from Boxer8 (I hope!) + will you be at GDC?

Delpee (Yuri)

Controller not connecting to Ouya

Scattershot — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:35:41 +0000

I'm having trouble getting my controller to connect to the Ouya. I had it working with one controller, but the one one just keeps either flashing the power button, or the four buttons simultaneously. I checked the batteries with a multimeter to be sure they're fully charged and they are. What is the problem?

Thanks

OUYA Store: Trending

SpoonThumb — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:26:07 +0000

Just noticed the OUYA store has been given an update.

Must say I'm not a fan of the idea of a "Trending" section. If it is what I think, it'll basically serve the same function as the Top Downloaded Charts on the various mobile app stores.

Anything that has the feedback cycle whereby something that is popular gets more downloads / playtime, and so gets more visibility, and in turn more downloads, really works against discoverability by solidifying the position of a small selection of games that do make it into the list.

It also damages the chances of indies getting a fair go at the store, without being drowned out by larger companies who can just plain spend more on marketing to get their games more popular in the first place

Edit: Oh, and also unless the metrics used are complicated enough that no one can figure them out, it could encourage game devs to manipulate the system (for example, encouraging people to leave their game running when they go afk by giving rewards for long play sessions)

Gabe Newell's vision for Steam: More choice, more democracy, less Greenlight

Aiursrage2k — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:11:48 +0000

I think something like this for ouya would be a great idea, the basic idea is rather than having 1 store we could have multiple stores (the "store owners" get a piece of the the pie). So lets say we have a bunch of people that are always playing the new games, searching to find the gems (now there is an incentive for them to do it -- rather than just relying on the featured category -- they would have there own "store").

User-generated stores

"Another piece of Steam is the store. The store is… I don't know about you, but I think the store is really boring. It's like this super middle-ground marketing thing. Like, oh, here's a list of features in our game.

"The stores instead should become user-generated content. Other companies can take advantage of this as well, but if a user can create his own store -- essentially add an editorial perspective and content on top of the purchase process… then we've created a mechanism where everybody, in the same way we've seen a huge upsurge of user-generated content with hats, we think that there's a lot of aggregate value that can be created by allowing people to create stores.

"A store is just another piece of content that can be created that creates overall value for all of this collectively.

"I'd buy stuff from Yahtzee. I would buy everything from Old Man Murray."

Bye bye, Greenlight?

"Right now we have inside of Steam we have a dictatorship.

"It's probably bad for the Steam community, in the long run, not to move to a different way of thinking about that. In other words, we should stop being a dictator and move towards much more participatory, peer-based methods of sanctioning player behavior.

"Greenlight is a bad example of an election process. We came to the conclusion pretty quickly that we could just do away with Greenlight completely, because it was a bottleneck rather than a way for people to communicate choice."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/186168/Gabe_Newells_vision_for_Steam_More_choice_more_democracy_less_Greenlight.php#.UTDusesa-9Z

If you pre order when do you get a development box.

Mammoth — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:55:37 +0000

I would like to start developing for this right away, I have released games for Xbox and iOS and I like to always test the game on the console itself. If I pre order today will I get a box to develop on?

Connecting Ouya to PC via HDMI-DVI cable (Win 7)

technoir — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:24:53 +0000

Hi guys,

I'm trying to connect the Ouya to my PC using a HDMI to DVI cable (no HDMI in) but it doesn't seem to display any signal. I've connected it via a HDMI on a TV to check that its working and it boots up fine. I have also checked that my display and graphics card are both HDCP compliant. I was wondering if anyone can provide any information on how to get started here?

I have connected it via Micro USB and its detected OK.

Thanks

Offensive Material

rumplestilzken — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:20:23 +0000

i recently read something about checking for offensive material in games on the Ouya.Does this mean the game wouldnt be offered on the store? or that it would be labeled as possibly offensive?

it would be a shame if a game like Conkers Bad Fur day were removed from the store because some people might get pissy about the content.