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Should I start building my game for PC and port to Ouya later?

aerowynaerowyn Posts: 1Member
in Unity on OUYA
So, I don't have an ouya console yet since I was not one of the original backers.  I'd like to start programming a game so I can release it as soon as possible, but I have been unable to get the AVD emulator to do anything but error.  I get "The Ouya Launcher has stopped" before I can even get my test game to start.  I don't have a compatible intel processor to use the HAX emulator anyway, so any Ouya emulation will be poor regardless.

Rather than struggle with the emulator, I'm wondering if I can just start my game by programming in Unity for the PC, which I would like to port my game to eventually anyway, and port it over when I get a console.  Will this cause problems when I want to switch it to the Ouya later?  Is there something I need to do while programming for the PC to make sure it will be an easy transition?

Best Answer

  • Killa_MaakiKilla_Maaki Posts: 504Member
    Answer ✓
    There are definitely some things to keep in mind while developing on PC (that's the route I'm taking as well)

    Make sure you use Interfaces and polymorphism generously. For example, in my game I will have a Gamepad class, from my game code it looks essentially like the Unity Input class, but under the hood it has a static IInputDevice which by default is UnityInputDevice (uses the Unity Input class) but I could just as easily change it to, say, ODKInputDevice (to use the ODK input methods).

    Purchases can/should be handled this way as well. For example if I've got a paid game (buy it for $5 or so), I would probably have an interface that returns whether or not the game is purchased. The default would just return true, but the OUYA version would check receipts or locally stored files.

    You will also probably end up needing to redesign bits of your UI to work on OUYA too. You might want to figure out how to load different UIs depending on platform, so that you can slap in an OUYA version of the UI without too much trouble.

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