General Discussion - OUYA Developer Forums

How about an official request thread?

spinal_cord — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 07:00:17 +0000

I know that our requests get heard and a lot of them also get implemented. But it would be nice if an official OUYA team member had an official thread running for peoples requests, keeping a list in the first post and making a not of which ones are being implemented. It's a little frustrating seeing the same requests made over and over with no feedback from the OUYA team, then bam! that feature is in the latest update with no word from OUYA that it was even being worked on.

Such a thread would help cut down on the repeat requests and give us users a little peace of mind in knowing that we are being listened to.

A couple of such requests that spring to mind are -

More universal 'different' controller support. Making different controllers appear to the software as a real controller instead of each dev having to add support for many different controllers.

Some sort of comment system in the store. A lot of users will not come to the forum and complain about a game not working correctly or suggest improvements unless it is made a lot easier for them.

Forced 720p output. Personally I can't think what the problem is in doing this, if the OUYA detects if a TV is capable of 1080p before switching to 720p then just set a switch that removes this check in the settings. Even have a flag in AndroidManifest.xml to force a particular resolution.

That's just a couple that I can remember anyway.

LEADERBOARD AND ACHIEVEMENT SUPPORT?

zezba9000 — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 00:42:17 +0000

Any more news on this?

I would love to use native Leaderboards and Achievements for the Ouya other then manually coding Scoreoid.

Maybe you can strike a deal with Scoreoid or something..

Can not upload APK file to Ouya? Errors - not an apk

Yossarian — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 19:16:53 +0000

I have finished my game and I have tried to upload the game APK file but the Ouya developer portal is giving a error saying the APK file is 'Not an apk'.

I have tested this APK file on the Ouya and it is working fine and is definetly a APK file.

Does anyone please know what is causing this error?

I have tried the Chrome and Firefox web browsers and they both give the same above error.

OUYA Icons / Logo

MaToMaStEr — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 01:39:19 +0000

Hello everybody!

I'm currently developing a game for the OUYA. I'll publish a teaser and trailer soon but I have the following question:
Is there any restrictions on how can I use the OUYA logo en my website or fanpage? I mean... I want to include something like "avaiable on OUYA" or something like that in my website but I dont know if I'm allowed to. If the answer is YES, where can I find an official logo to download?

Thanks!!!
Keep up the good work everybody!

Confused why your game is only in the "sandbox" category? Read more here

bluecollarart — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:40:30 +0000

note: I am not associated with OUYA, just trying to help

Destructoid wrote this article earlier, you can just read this and skip my post if ya want: http://i.imgur.com/xnLMWKy.png?r

So, you're wondering why the games aren't properly sorted and all lumped into the sandbox category. It may seem odd, but this is actually intentional! This is because of the curation system the OUYA guys are using, and it's actually pretty cool.

All games start out equal, and they only show up in the sandbox category, where users can discover new games.

As people play them, OUYA measures how they're being played to try to see which games users are enjoying. By keeping track of how long users play the game, how often they play it, and things like that, OUYA makes what they call an "O-Rank" for the game (OUYA rank). The idea is to figure out which games people love to play, and rank them higher.

Now, to get out of the sandbox and into the other categories, games have to prove that they're good. The way they do that, of course, is to get a decent O-Rank. I'm sure some developers might be anxious about this, but don't fret. As long as you've made a good game, you've got nothing to worry about. :)

In the end, this way is best for everyone. If your game is in a store full of a bunch of shovelware games, it makes it harder for users to find it. They may even just give up on the store entirely. It's better this way.

Review websites?

swampopus — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:52:17 +0000

Does anyone know of any OUYA game review websites, aside from dayoftheouya.com. I know the system's a little young, but I'm hoping there might be a few sites in existence, and reviews are a great way to drive people to try out your game.

Thanks,
Richard

Should Bubbliminate be in the "Puzzle" genre category or "Strategy"?

voxoid — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:26:32 +0000

Hi, guys. The reason I ask is that technically the game is an "abstract strategy game" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_strategy_game). However, I'm not sure what people think of as fitting the "Strategy" category on OUYA; it seems like the game is closer to the games in Puzzle/Trivia than it is the ones in Sim/Strategy. Casually speaking it would probably be a "board game" (though it's not practical to exist as a physical board game). The game is explained here: http://bubbliminate.com . Thanks in advance for the input!

Newbie at game dezign

DiyDezign — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 09:37:03 +0000

Many people start playing games and one day they start saying to themselves hey I want to do that for a living or just to brag to your friends about your game design skills. Later you find out you actually need to study 4 years C# programming, high level Maths and hope and pray you going to get a job. In a nutshell its hard but don't give up because I am here to tell you casual gamers out there about the best way to get started in this type of career or for fun the best programmes, tutorials and script that's the most popular to learn from.

Just follow my blog
http://diydezign.blogspot.com/2013/09/best-programmes-for-game-design-rpg.html

We love XBMC and know you do too so wanted to update you on a recent change!

SurfNukumoi — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 22:49:54 +0000

We love XBMC and know you do too so wanted to update you on a recent change. OUYA just learned of some proprietary software contained within the XBMC on OUYA media player app relating to on-device decoding of certain multi-channel audio compression technologies. We need to work with the license holders to enable this functionality so while we work on that (and yes, cost is a major consideration) we have updated the app to remove the proprietary decoding licenses. We hope to have this back soon - and will continue to work on optimizing OUYA for seamless passthrough of multi-channel audio. Thanks for understanding.

Required feature for OUYA Discover.

spinal_cord — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 08:42:47 +0000

I'm hopefully not the only person who thinks this, but the Discover store should have a sister website, yes I know of https://www.ouya.tv/games/ but there should be a specific Discover website, which, when logged in with your ouya account, should give the option to download any of the games to your console.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be from a technical stand point, but I can't imagine it being too hard. Simple click a download button on the website, which would set a flag someplace, have the ouya console check against the website every now and then, if anything has been selected, then download it.

It would also help us devs, as we can point people in a specific direction to download our games, rather than telling people to just digg about in the sandbox, we could give direct links to games.

Am I alone in this?

GIVE US WHAT WE WANT!!!

rworoch — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 01:24:41 +0000

Seriously Team Ouya...Enough with the BS and runarounds. When are we getting proper USB support so that we can truly expand storage? Enough's enough...nobody cares about support for Pounds and Euros...Nobody is going to buy anything in the store if they have no more storage. We expected a very kickass little system and for the most part we got it, but this is just downright insane! If you dont have enough people there to prioritize this then perhaps you should do what may seem a slight few to you, but the true people who know Android and can help you (xda-developers, cyanogenmod) give them what they want...proper hardware recovery and we can all get on with this and they will take care of these problems for you and will more than likely be willing to share information with you for free...just so that we can all enjoy this system that much better, The capability is there, don't deny it. We should have support for USB NAS and remote servers for that matter. No joke! Please do what the people who supported you from day one asked you to do.

Please don't give us any more nonsense "official response" like "oh we're working on it its coming very soon" we heard that ages ago. Prioritize this! It will skyrocket you guys. @Piers This means you too....I know you take alot of flak but im sure you can see by now that this isnt going anywhere fast. Pardon my rant, I really love the system and I just want Ouya to live up to their expectations

Some Ideas for the next OUYA

The_Code — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:17:41 +0000

Hi! I have understood that you launch a new OUYA every year... well, i have some ideas for you.

1) The Hardware is fine but if you like a better competition, and if you like create a CONSOLE,
you should get Nvidia Tegra 4 :D
2) Credit Card Number... why?! I not have any credit card, and if you want to reach a young audience, get it out.
ask why the number of credit card? I can't buy my OUYA for this (Really!)... :P
3) The interface of my menu is very simple, you can create a good skin, your "Console" need more :D
4) The temperature is bad, if play 4 hours, for example, the beatifull machine can get beatifull temperatures xD. You can put your cooler in one side (left or right), getting air

Ok, if i have more reviews, i write here.

Do not be discouraged, they have an excellent machine in front of you and do not give importance to those who want to throw. They have great potential, few people do something how about you, but with effort may be a more tempting

Bye and congratuilations!

OUYA at Indiecade 2013

Piers — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 22:24:00 +0000

See some of you there perhaps :)

https://www.ouya.tv/ouya-indiecade-2013/

Help! How do I get them to ship me the console?

walkabout — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 17:01:52 +0000

I pre-ordered it a year ago -- still no Ouya! Just what do you have to do to get their attention?

Rumor: Boxer8 to release a second OUYA console, designed around stereoscopic 3D

Dreamwriter — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:24:13 +0000

"And Pocket-lint has learnt that the company is planning on following up the first device with another for later in the year - one that's capable of outputting stereoscopic 3D content... It now seems that this money will go partly towards developing upgraded devices. Our source told us that the company is excited about the launch of the first OUYA, but is not resting on its laurels. The 3D version will offer stereoscopic gaming on a compatible 3DTV."

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/49015/ouya-confirmed-march-uk-3d-version

Quick Paint Job

JWRHarding — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:23:34 +0000

Hi! I made a quick paint job last night. This is the final result after drying all night.
Look nice at the first look but if you see it closer
you'll see some damage right above the right
joystick.I had to leave it for half an hour outside
because of the paint's strong smell. I used an
old warhammer undercoat spray paint. And took
inside, somehow in the process condensation
did is damage. But I am still happy with it, It look
nice don't you think?! We'll see how long it last
before it wear off. Is there any special type of paint
that resist more to sweaty hands?

Walking Dead coming to Ouya?

JLAlexander86 — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 03:04:16 +0000

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/199068/Telltale_bringing_Walking_Dead_to_Ouya.php

Is Analog Audio feasible? It works in android menus

bob877 — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 19:56:17 +0000

I have an HDMI-VGA/audio adapter that, much to my surprise, works great for video. Also to my surprise, the audio works, but ONLY in the android notification sound settings. Everywhere else there's nothing.

Is there any reason for this? It seems odd that it would only work here, but maybe this is a noob question. If I use xbmc and try analog as well as HDMI audio questions neither work.

This is the adapter in question:
http://dx.com/p/hdmi-male-to-vga-male-converter-adapter-w-3-5mm-audio-jack-black-143151

It's something of a moot point now since I've ordered a bluetooth audio receiver but was wondering why audio works but only in the android menus.

USB Audio ETA?

BurritoBoy9984 — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 14:22:47 +0000

Has anyone heard anything about this? I know this is working with CM10 on the console, but I'd rather keep the Ouya software on there if possible.

Thanks!

Simple feature request - Remember current position on Play menu

StoicHamster — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:05:24 +0000

Here's my use case... I have maybe 50+ games installed on my Ouya currently. As I scroll to the right through my installed games, all that I see is the game title and main image. Often, that's not enough to remind me what a game is, so I'll click Details to see screenshots and full descriptions. Then, if I decide that's not the game I want to play right now, I back out to the Play menu.

Then, I'm back at the start of the Play menu again instead of several pages over at the game I just looked at. This can be very frustrating when I'm looking at games several pages over near the end of my Play list. It's doubly frustrating because the game images take a moment to load after I scroll, so it takes a while to find where I was at in the list. I really feel like when you back out you should be back at the same page of the Play list you were already at.

Any chance of getting this in some future update? Maybe after external storage ;)

OUYA UI / Menu Wishlist and Suggestions

swampopus — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:30:52 +0000

I know the OUYA devs have probably all heard this before, but I thought it might be a good idea to create a post where others can post "wishlists" and "suggestions" for the OUYA UI itself (not for hardware or games, etc).

I am doing this because (1) I believe in what OUYA is trying to do, but (2) I think the system is currently turning off more users than it's attracting, and part of that, I think, can be fixed by making some tweaks to the UI itself. Some disclosure: I am an experienced programmer, and have owned my OUYA for only a couple days.

So, my suggestions follow:

Show "full game" prices in the game descriptions. It's annoying to have to download a game, just to discover it's outside the price range you wanted to pay. Often you don't even see the price until you click to buy it from an in-game menu. This simple problem could be solved with an optional field for devs to enter their "full game" pricetag, if applicable.
This will help makers of cheap or free games stand out a little more from everyone else, and possibly help deliver more impulse downloads & sales.

Have a real ratings system. Out of 5 stars seems to be the industry standard, and it works well. As of the time of this writing, you can only leave a "thumbs up". You can't even make it a thumbs down. As such, that rating really doesn't tell you much.Let users SORT the lists of games by rating! Again, this would drive more sales to great games, and make more money for OUYA.

Other sorts that would be nice: Best rating, Most downloads, A-Z, Newest - Oldest, Price
Could just be hard-coded sorts tied to the buttons on the controller

Let users SEARCH for a game. This probably requires more programming, but its something which shouldn't be forgotten. If a review website says "You've got to try this awesome game on OUYA!" but then users can't just enter the name and find it, well, that's not good. The whole system feels cheap after that.There should be a "Recently Published" list of games near the top of the Discover screen, which shows the most recently 25 - 50 games, with the newest at the front of the list. Right now, users have to sift through long lists of games to find the most recent ones, which of course they won't do. It makes it an incredible disincentive for developers to bother programming games, if their game has no chance of getting noticed, even just for a week or two.

I know there are other more advanced features out there which everyone is begging for, and those are all needed too. But I feel like these issues I've raised are *basic* issues, which, since the OUYA lacks them, it really comes off as bad.

I know the OUYA team has their own business model in mind, but to my thinking, if you really want to be successful you must do 2 things: #1 - Do everything reasonably possible to drive sales to games. This currently isn't happening. And, #2 - You have to make the system attractive as a Christmas gift for 12 year olds. Of course, grown-ups like us want to play it too. But if 12 year olds aren't begging for it for Christmas, then I think it will never move out of a niche appeal, which may ultimately spell its doom.

And I don't want that to happen! I think OUYA has so much promise. But it's missing several basic features from its UI, which I think is turning off the very consumers it needs to stay afloat.

Okay-- just my 2 cents. Sorry if this came off sounding too critical. I want the OUYA to succeed (and stick around so that I can make money selling my games on it!)

Richard

Anyone have an OUYA that had sound go out and can't get sound back?

Piers — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 02:16:18 +0000

If anyone has an OUYA that has the issue with no sound (or only has notification sounds, but nothing else) and none of the usual tricks fixed it can you send me a PM? Thanks.

Discover store layout?

spinal_cord — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:38:21 +0000

Just a crazy thought here, but new software in the store is really hard to find. First of all, the 'Sandbox' list is right at the bottom, not really where you want it, it should be up near the top so that it's noticeable. Second, it seems to be ordered from oldest to newest, so for any new game to be spotted, you have to scroll through 250+ other titles just to find it. Who on earth is going to do that?!!

Are there any plans to update the store to something more appealing to developers and users? That is, rather than feature the same few games in the top few lists, feature the newest games and order the sandbox from newest to oldest, giving new games a chance at being seen.

If the OUYA really is targeted at indie devs, why not give their games a fair chance, rather than showing off the handful of apps that have already made loads of money on other platforms or come from big name companies?

-- is there a way to replace the OUYA discover menu with something more useful?

EDIT : Mercenary Games is withdrawing our boycott of the Ouya. Thank you for listening to us all.

mercenary-games — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 15:31:47 +0000

Earlier today, I decided to boycott developing on the Ouya until the FTG was fixed.

And it has been fixed!

Well that wasn't hard. Mercenary Games will continue development operations on the Ouya platform. Thank you for listening to us.

And here is the text of our boycott, which only lasted a few hours :) (preserved for clarity)

***** begin boycott text ******

So far, the Free The Games Fund has been a mess, both in terms of funding strategy, and public relations.

By no means am I starting any sort of drama; this is a business decision. My studio *wants* to create games for the Ouya and partake in the fund, but at the same time, we're gonna have to work triple the effort in promoting a Kickstarter campaign due to the negative press already received. That's extremely hard for any studio that doesn't have any PR clout.

We were expecting Ouya staff to handle GridIron Thunder and other shady operations accordingly.

(Seriously, Low Backer Count in a 150k money pool == someone is trolling the fund itself. We were hoping the Ouya staff could see through that, after all they are the ultimate decision makers with regards to the fund. Instead, they exhibited the typical silicon valley attitude of "winging it")

How can we take the fund seriously, if it is not being handled seriously?

Until we see some good results, until we see some sort of fix, until we see some sort of structured amendment, Mercenary Games is no longer participating in any Ouya development, with or without the FTGF.

To end this post; we have some suggestions to fix the fund. (we are not some outfit with blind reactionary tendencies, this whole mess can be easily fixed) If these suggestions are implemented, we will reconsider our position on the Ouya platform.

1. Add a minimum backer count of 1000, with an average of 25-50$ per backer (instead of having oddities that obviously point to the fund being gamed for short term profit, and potentially losing out on gamedevs that could benefit). This gives people incentive to *grow* the Ouya fanbase, and sustain it.

2. Disqualify Gridiron Thunder.

We hope we can do business with you all again. Someday.

But until that day,

Mercenary Games, signing off.

***** end of boycott text ******

I'm having a problem.....

maltaleo — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 06:40:50 +0000

I'm encountering an error in the ouya ui that tells me I can't install anymore games but I still have 1gb still free on my system I don't understand why I can't install more games if there is a way to fix this please let me know and also if I posted this in the wrong spot I'm sorry

OUYA.TV SSL Certificate

Skolia — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 02:06:52 +0000

OUYA,

Your www.ouya.tv SSL certificate has expired.

Low quality HDMI cable

Santa — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 19:06:24 +0000

Hello there,

I noticed that my PS3 have big problems with it if transferring FullHD (1080p 60Hz).
I don't know if it's the plug or the cables inside.

Weird thing is, I used it before with the Ouya, but it had no problems.
I need the Ouya near to the PC (for adb and/or testing with bluetooth), so I switched the cables.

Sometimes I get display errors (unknown format), after I see "snow" a few frames together with sound "failures".
Now it's working, but I don't know for how long.

I think I'll need to buy another HDMI cable to be sure that everything is right.

edit: It's even better.
My TV (LG 42LH7000) have four HDMI inputs.
Do I use input #2, I get no picture.
Do I use input #3, I get issues, sometimes no picture or it works fine.
-> Youtube (issues, port #3):
The sound issues are very quiet, you may hear some "clicks", that are they.

It looks like it's not the Ouya which doesn't like some TVs, it's the included HDMI cable.
But I think you know this already. I also think that the cable isn't shielded good enough, this could be the reason for this.

GestureStore, NoClassDefFoundError

seaders — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:27:16 +0000

Just got a dev kit and when sideloading one of the most essential apps, EStrongs File Manager, it shuts down instantly. Trying one of the alternatives, Astro File Manager, it also crashes, but at least it gives a decent stack trace, and at the very top is "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android.gesture.GestureStore". Apparently this is used by AdMob and therefore any app that has ads in it instantly closes.

This wasn't the case with my personal one, I've had nearly no crashes on that, so there must be something different set up on this one. Anybody have info / knowledge on this?

Debian on ouya

peba — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 18:32:14 +0000

Tuomas Kulve is working hard on Debian for the Ouya and makes nice progress,
who can help with the open issues ?

http://tuomas.kulve.fi/blog/2013/08/11/debian-on-ouya/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110447749554100796124/posts/FccMXZsWe9B?cfem=1
https://github.com/kulve/tegra-debian

Currently he has problem with correct ALSA config.

Best Regards,
Peter Bauer
http://bitkistl.blogspot.com

Hello, is there anyone who can help me test on Ouya?

nexrus — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 02:50:53 +0000

Hello, im trying to Develop a game for Ouya, however my Ouya wont be here for a long time, i was just wondering if someone could kindly help me test and make sure it all works before I submit?

Thanks guys!