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OUYA: A $99 Android console meant to open up console gaming


Arcana
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Phil Fish should have researched dealing with XBLA before he jumped into making the game exclusive to it (of course, he took 5 years to make a game that has barely any challenge). That patch is his responsibility, and the fee for that is ridiculously high, but the fee is that high to make sure the games are at least stable and playable. I don't agree with the price tag, but I see SOME reasoning behind it.

This is the guy who's now clamoring to put his game to PC now after saying they're for spreadsheets (he must not have made bank like he thought he would, boo freaking-hoo). And based on what I've seen and read about the guy, he looks certifiably crazy.

I think Phil is a dick, but you're off the mark with this. If fees for updating are really high, that DISCOURAGES developers from making bug fixes and patches that would improve the stability and playability of the game. It's the exact opposite effect that you're describing.

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Well, even if you dont like Phil Fish, there are other examples. Take Valve and TF2 on consoles as another perfect example of how even the bigger devs do not do updates for console products because it is simply too expensive and too restrictive on what they can do.

Also to add to the news to the Ouya train: Shadowrun Online adding a Ouya version, the cloud saving feature allows you to play your game across multiple devices (PC (Win/Mac/Linux), mobile devices (iOS/Android), and Ouya)

Edited by Crowbar Man
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Correct, and they do so through their business model, not by arbitrarily shutting out large companies. A large company willing to release games on the OUYA is a victory on their side, not a compromise - if larger companies release more games following the OUYA business model then they've succeeded in their goal in a larger way than expected.

My mention of 'make-or-break' was in reference to the fact that one of the big issues that people have had about the system - it's lack of showing games in production for the system. There are currently two that I can see presented for it now, and one of them is from a big player in the software industry. That really helps alleviate the problem that it had. It didn't need to be Square - the fact that it is Square is icing on the cake.

Also, yeah, Neblix is right - 1GB of RAM with a processor that's 1.4-1.6 GHz is plenty, as long as it's on a dedicated platform (as opposed to a computer, which needs to simultaneously handle hundreds of background tasks that come with the operating system). That's why gaming systems can generally get away with being inferior to PC's in raw power and yet perform reasonably close.

yeah the ram thing you guys are right on i was off the mark, not really thinking about it at the time.

but the rest of it i still think is pretty much completely legitimate. the only way ouya becomes a success is if they somehow find a way to have large developers (ubisoft, square, whomever) recognize the value in putting out games with lower development costs and lower price tags. that would absolutely be a victory for the industry as a whole. but i really don't see it having enough of a splash. everyone got excited like this about onlive too, and that despite being a relatively good idea didn't get too far.

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Also, Phil Fish is a dick and an idiot and his game blows. I think the damn Rubix Cube perfected the idea of a 3D puzzle game in a more meaningful way - Fez at this point is just redundant! it doesn't help that his ego is uncontrollable and unbearable.

===

I was pleased to hear SE give the OUYA a bone, but if this isn't just a shingled-over iPad port of FF3, then I'll eat my hat. All the same, FF fanatics will probably add a few sales numbers to the console.

Also, as far as patch costs, it does suck because small, low-profit companies like G.REV (only 11 employees!) can't patch bugs and glitches in their releases (at least on Xbox; on the PS3 I hear patching is a whole lot cheaper) because they just don't make the money to actually patch a product. It is a safeguard against a crappy, broken game (good thing Bethesda has loads of cash!), but smaller devs can chafe under those constrictions.

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Also, Phil Fish is a dick and an idiot and his game blows.

There wasn't anything wrong with FEZ. It was a good game.

As for Phil being a dick, yeah, he does strike a lot of people that way and I probably can't speak much in his defense for how he acts.

But he's also the guy who said he'd commit suicide in Indie Game: The Movie if FEZ didn't work out. So I'd guess he's wrestling with his share of demons. Who knows what kind of stress he's gone through to make him so curmudgeonly.[/offtopic]

Wow, so the OUYA has made loads of money by now. I really hope they deliver.[/backontopic]

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My biggest issue with the OUYA is it being made for indie games, but most of it's launch material is from Android phones. Like, touch screen phones. With a huge gameplay mechanic being touching. Do I think it could revitalize gaming? Sure. Would I ever invest in it without trying it out.?Never have with a console, never will. It's too much of a gamble.

Except the GameCube. That was guaranteed gold.

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I find it odd some people are only interested/wanting the console if big name companies are on it. That is kinda opposite of what it is supposed to be about. You are rooting for the wrong team!

most of it's launch material is from Android phones. Like, touch screen phones. With a huge gameplay mechanic being touching.

There are some games being made on iOS/Android that would be a lot better with a controller (FPS, Platformers, etc)

The Ouya i believe has a touch pad for the games that are more suited for touch. So best of both worlds, kinda like the Wii U. Only minus a screen, and MUCH more affordable to develop / buy games for

Edited by Crowbar Man
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I find it odd some people are only interested/wanting the console if big name companies are on it. That is kinda opposite of what it is supposed to be about. You are rooting for the wrong team!

There are some games being made on iOS/Android that would be a lot better with a controller (FPS, Platformers, etc)

The Ouya i believe has a touch pad for the games that are more suited for touch. So best of both worlds, kinda like the Wii U. Only minus a screen, and MUCH more affordable to develop / buy games for

nobody said that. the only way this console will make a difference is if it can influence the entire market. otherwise this will be a niche console at best. see my previous comments as to why.

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I'm pretty sure this thing already has pretty much every indie developers interest, plus there are tons of developers (indie or not) already making Android games so it would be silly for them not to make a "port". Even beyond that, there is a tiny niche of developers making homebrew for anything and everything.

I highly doubt "developer support will never come" since its already pretty much here.

Making something they want everybody to be able to enjoy and play doesn't necessarily mean that they are expecting literally everyone to buy.

Edited by Crowbar Man
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I'm pretty sure this thing already has pretty much every indie developers interest, plus there are tons of developers (indie or not) already making Android games so it would be silly for them not to make a "port". Even beyond that, there is a tiny niche of developers making homebrew for anything and everything.

I highly doubt "developer support will never come" since its already pretty much here.

Making something they want everybody to be able to enjoy and play doesn't necessarily mean that they are expecting literally everyone to buy.

Where are your sources? You're just spouting baseless speculation at this point.

I don't think you understand what you're saying when you say "silly for them not to make a port". You don't run your code through some fancy conversion software to make a port.

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Where are your sources? You're just spouting baseless speculation at this point.

I don't think you understand what you're saying when you say "silly for them not to make a port". You don't run your code through some fancy conversion software to make a port.

this guy gets it

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If the OUYA really does run Android, and you made your game for Android, then I'm pretty sure making a port would be fairly simple. Just a matter of swapping in higher-res sprites/textures (which would most likely already exist as sources) and changing the control scheme.

This.

It's exactly what I plan to do with the Android game I'm currently making ^_^

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If the OUYA really does run Android, and you made your game for Android, then I'm pretty sure making a port would be fairly simple. Just a matter of swapping in higher-res sprites/textures (which would most likely already exist as sources) and changing the control scheme.

Changing the control scheme is not so simple if your game was made for actual touch controlling, not just images of buttons on the control scheme. You have to also take the effort to figure out how the game would work for a controller.

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It's not as hard as you're making it out to be. Any controller input, touch or otherwise, just ends up calling on a bunch of functions (move here, attack this). So, you have the program check what platform it's on (IF PC, IF OUYA, IF PHONE...) and adjust accordingly. You don't have to change the underlying functions. We had to do two totally different control schemes for Return All Robots (PC vs. Xbox) and it really wasn't hard at all to adapt it. No competent developer would take more than a day to make such a change, I would think.

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Well it depends on the game, I think. If there's a challenge in porting from touch controls to a controller input, it's making sure that both inputs are intuitive and fluid. Catching a source of input or another and calling the adequate functions is really easy, but some games that are meant to be played on a touch screen might end up awkward with a controller.

Since the OUYA's controller has a touch pad, I think there are plenty of options for developers to find creative ways to easily and quickly adapt the controls of their Android games if they want to.

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It's not as hard as you're making it out to be. Any controller input, touch or otherwise, just ends up calling on a bunch of functions (move here, attack this). So, you have the program check what platform it's on (IF PC, IF OUYA, IF PHONE...) and adjust accordingly. You don't have to change the underlying functions. We had to do two totally different control schemes for Return All Robots (PC vs. Xbox) and it really wasn't hard at all to adapt it. No competent developer would take more than a day to make such a change, I would think.

PC vs. Xbox is not a problem at all, because you simply have to change some variables. I know, I did some C# stuff.

But if you read what I said closely, it's different for games that aren't controlled by screen buttons, like wind up knight is. Angry Birds, while simple, is a good example.

You drag the bird back with your finger. It's an entirely different code block if you want to do that with a joystick or something. You have to read input differently and also process it differently, since x and y axes are different than simple screen coordinates. Of course that would be easy to redo, because it's a simple mechanic in itself, but not every game is as simple as Angry Birds.

Return All Robots is not a good example, because it's something that reads digital boolean input either console or PC.

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Yeah, but as others have pointed out, the Ouya has a touch controller. So, no matter how you slice it, it's not gonna be that hard to port over. It's not like a developer would be going from Objective C to Android, they're going from Android to Android. So it is very reasonable to assume (barring unforeseen licensing or approval costs) that many independent developers with Android games will make Ouya ports.

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Where are your sources?

The kickstarter page has quotes from many devs, and videos of current indie titles running on it. Plus, if you are an indie, especially one already making Android products, why would you NOT want your game on this, exactly?

I don't think you understand what you're saying when you say "silly for them not to make a port". You don't run your code through some fancy conversion software to make a port.

Well yes and no, actually. I'm not sure the details since their SDK isn't released yet, I don't think, but you DO need to run your software through the SDK. However, the codebase is based on Android, so you should have to make very little changes to your existing product if it already runs on Android. And I beleive they are also partnered with Unity, so if you are already using Unity, theres very little you have to do to get it to run besides select "Make Ouya Version" when Unity adds Ouya support. Unity is that nice (I'm currently exploring it)

As far as converting the control scheme, if you are using touch screen buttons: Just make them real ones. If you are using touch screen input (X/Y input), use the touch pad (X/Y input). It is not rocket science, and even if you need to do a little more, basic input isn't the hardest part to program. If you are too lazy to do that little, you'd never make a game in the first place

The HARD stuff is the actual game play, audio, visual, networking, etc, and all that should be basically the same.

Also your Angry Birds example is not too good, as they already have Angry Birds on consoles, Google TV, Roku, etc.

this guy gets it

Neither of you get it.

Edited by Crowbar Man
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