Bottom Line: Construct 2 and the Ouya

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  • As many have noticed, Gamestop has opened a preorder page for the Ouya Game Console, and has provided a release date for the system. (You can see the page for yourself here - gamestop.com/android/consoles/ouya-game-console/107853 )

    For many people, myself included, we're looking at Construct 2's (now native?) Android Export functionality, looking at the new system, and wondering... bottom line... "Will Construct 2 be an option for creating games on the Ouya?"

    In a previous thread I had posed the question on wether or not Construct 2 can hit 1080p resolutions without sacrificing much in the way of performance... well, it IS a subjective question. Obviously one based around optimization of assets as well as just how complex the behaviors and overall game design itself you plan on creating will be.

    But for now, let's assume you want to make 1080p Tetris. "What roadblocks, if any, do you see getting a game from Construct 2 to run on the Ouya?"

    I believe at this time, the only real "roadblocks" are:

    1) Construct 2 produces games in HTML 5. The implication is, to get the game running on Ouya, Ouya will have to open a web browser and THEN load the game. That's some unknown overhead that will likely bring "what worked on your PC" down to a crawl on the new system despite its capable hardware.

    2) Ouya Gamepad Support. There's a touch pad on it (not a touch screen, single point gestures allowed), there's a D-Pad, there are buttons, and it's wireless. That's all well and good, but has anyone successfully mapped their controls to the Ouya Gamepad? I've read that a few people attempted to enter a recent Ouya Game Jam Challenge but produced results that were unplayable due to no plug-in or other workaround to map out the Ouya Game Pad.

    3) I have read on the forum (could be hearsay, don't take this for scripture) that Ashley owns a Ouya. Any feedback from Ashley regarding Construct 2's performance, playability on the system?

    4) Is there any official interest at all in supporting the new console?

    Again, consider that Ouya is "brand new". This means that the market is wide open for several clone titles like Tetris... Super Mario Brothers and the like. There is immediately no demand to create the most technologically advanced titles for the system... with full 3D graphics and shader effects, although that -is- supported by the system.

    But let's keep the scope/scale of our ambitions in check here...

    "What's it going to take to get a Construct 2-built Mega Man game on the Ouya?"

    Remember... most children woke up that fateful Christmas morning in the 1980s with a free copy of Super Mario Brothers, and it changed their lives forever. Here in 2013, I'm certain the same can happen again... we're entering the new Atari-age of game development, where tools like Construct 2 are available to enable small teams of 2-3 people to create games in 2-3 months. These small garage-based teams, working on small budgets are at last given a hardware platform that they can carve their own legacy in, rubbing shoulders with big developers re-releasing their "same old s---" (Although a great game, Final Fantasy III's 3D remake/Android Release comes to mind.)

    Right now, information on Construct 2/Ouya is widely scattered throughout the forum, but now that we're about five months away from the release of this thing, there is a great opportunity -today- to get all our ducks in a row and start some community-driven efforts to supply Ouya with some great 2D-inspired launch titles.

    The floor is open for discussion.

  • Great post, lovelock; I really enjoyed the points of discussion.

    I followed the OUYA for awhile before launch and was a bit skeptical it would come to fruition. Now that it seems a reality, I'm naturally curious about being able to make games for it.

    One of my major concerns is the same concern I have when considering making games for Android, iPad, or any other mobile market: saturation. There's a concerted voice saying mobile is now and will be the majority player in gaming as we move forward.

    To me, that means every major publisher, minor publisher, and garage team is going to jump on board. Without a marketing campaign (and budget), strong design tools, and a sizable fanbase, it's going to be nigh impossible to get noticed on such a platform. I'm reluctant to invest a couple months time and energy into something to have it buried in a deluge of apps, as indie projects often are in those big mobile markets.

    The reality, IMO, is that for every indie game that succeeds there are thousands that don't; combine that with a fresh market that will attract everyone and their grandmother, and I'm right back to being a skeptic. Now one can argue that ANY market for indie games is going to be a challenge and I wouldn't disagree, but when a new market opens using a technology based on a mobile platform that is drowning in apps already, it might be tougher than impossible.

    But, hey, maybe the OUYA will be that Android-based portal that will prove the difference? All I'd say to anyone considering it is: make sure you want to do it, you're committed, and jump in with both feet. Whatever you make will have to be good; you'll have to promote like crazy; and you'll have to be 100% prepared for 0 returns on your investment.

    That's the nature of the digi-beast, right?

  • Great questions, I too am VERY interested in developing for the Ouya. Ive been developing games for 15 years on every major console, its so great to see an open console coming. Ive seen games go from 2D to 3D, and back to 2D again. I worked with original 2600 & arcade atari developers, their hearts seemed to break in 1998 when games went 3D (PS1).. I can only imagine their joy to see where we have ended up and where we are going! Enjoy your freedom!

  • Ouya is just an Android system. The best way to export from C2 to Android at the moment is CocoonJS. So it's more a question of: will CocoonJS support Ouya as a target platform? You'd have to ask Ludei.

  • I'm thinking... well, drawing conclusions that this is a topic to be ignored for now. Apart from the "monster" that is Unity 4, I know of nothing out there that natively publishes to Ouya. As an android-based platform, I'd have to also ask, "What do other people use to create their content for Android?" Even if it's ultimately the more difficult option, it'd be nice to have light shed on that mystery as well.

    Lots of people viewing, nobody talking/asking questions. Despite acquiring fresh debts of $7,000+ I'm still putting down my cash on a Ouya system. The idea that you can "plug your laptop into the Ouya and test out your games" is a real revelation. The system is -begging- for people to make games for it, and creation tools such as Construct 2 must step up to the plate to make it possible for potential game developers to spend more time executing their ideas rather than speculating on the "what if" nature of their toolset.

    Best I can tell, Construct 2 is ready for the prime time. Although I can't play any games through my Android tablet from the Scirra arcade, the non-interactive elements/mouse-click driven elements seem to run respectably in Dolphin browser, at least. I'm sure HTML 5-based games will work well, and that's why I'm sticking to learning Construct 2 for now. If nothing else, I plan to release my games to PC with a strong hope/desire that "Export to Ouya" becomes a priority on the side of Construct's dev team.

    The system will already have the benefit of being "The indie game console"... that takes so much promotional work out of the post-production phase of the indie games populating it's marketplace. Game developers do not have to defend their work, their art style, their gameplay... they just have to deliver the goods and not be obnoxiously bad.

    Oversaturation of the Ouya marketplace wouldn't be a factor if "everything's free to begin with". Few people refuse the free sample, it's what made DOOM such a success back in the day... and Commander Keen, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3d: SHAREWARE. Ouya Marketplace, I say, is the evolution of the shareware model... people will freely play all of the content available, and what they like will inevitably find its way as a "classic" of the Ouya console. The cream rises to the top.

    EDIT: As an afterthought, "If getting truly native PC, Android, Ouya Export options into Construct 2 means the Construct 2 personal license goes up to $300 a user, I'd gladly pay."

  • Corona, an amazing tool for developing for Android, has stated they are planning to release Ouya functionality. I'd rather play around with Construct events than program in Lua, but it's a good option. Ouya is basically just an Android system. If we can figure out the input stuff, we'll be golden. Trying to do that right now lol... :-/

  • Being one of the those forum goers who is trying to get an Ouya game to market here is my weigh in.

    Don't go for 1080p. yes the Ouya can, but many developers on the Ouya dev forums are focused on 720p(I make no claims for all or most). It's not a PS3/360 and doesn't have the power. Some teams are better than others in regard to squeezing and managing excellent tricks to get smooth 1080p

    With C2 keep your games simpler; and not because C2 can't do complicated games. This doesn't mean you can't have very fun and addictive games. Take the original Mega Man series, SNES games, any 2d fighter. All of these will run fine. Also be sure to figure that your game will run at 30fps. you can get more, but with phonegap just set yourself at an estimated 30fps. however rfisher has reported I think around 50fps for some tests.

    CocoonJS does nor work on the Ouya. Check with Hemel1 and rfisher. CocoonJS just crashes. Currently the options for export are PhoneGap. which has have atrocious performance. however you should be able to get by on the Ouya as it's a Tegra 3, just keep in simple and keep mobile design paramount. When CocoonJS works there will be a much larger breathing room.

    This Ouya console will not be massive. Boxer8 is only starting a new brand and environment about open developers for console gaming.However the Ouya does represent a minor gold rush an opportunity for some new up and comers.

    it's been made very clear that C2 will never have any other export model other than HTML5+. Because C2 is a pure HTML5 engine we have no access to any of the ODK. no IAP, Controller..... the best we can do is wait for CocoonJS to integrate these features. While it's on there list it is in no way seems on the list to be ready for release.

    In the mean time rfisher said he was working on a controller feature for phonegap and hopefully if he get's that done he can implement the Ouya IAP.

    If I was interested to continue programming games I would probably go with an API like Corona due to it's interest in supporting Android and IOS effectivly. I'm not and am happy with C2 game tool kit for making games and I'm fortunate that my games are simple in design.

    I'm always interest in talking Ouya for anyone who wants to :)

  • Keep in mind the Ouya is an annual console (new model every year,) so it's going to keep getting easier to develop for as it gets better hardware.

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  • Keep in mind the Ouya is an annual console (new model every year,) so it's going to keep getting easier to develop for as it gets better hardware.

    — how do you know about this?

  • Internet , my friends !

  • Any chance we could get some kind of native export to OUYA if it takes off? Kinda like how we got that awesome, ever improving webnode kit export for EXEs

    It seems unlikely based on the discussions we've been having here. On these hot topics we rarely get any positive forward-looking replies from the bosses around here, so I'm putting my money on "No." It's possible through tricks to get it up and running, but all of the "raw HTML 5 power" doesn't amount to nut if your goal is publishing games for cash it seems.

    Could be a variety of factors going into that. You can't really blame HTML 5, but you can question up and down the wisdom in going that route for anything but internet (web browser) based gaming... and even then, depends on the browser. I find Chrome to be atrocious, yet sites like the new Mega.co.nz -require- it to download files. Even on an android tablet, such as my Nexus 7, I skip Chrome in favor of Dolphin browser.

    I -do- like the fact that it appears you can make a straight PC/MAC game with the webnode kit, so there's always a chance you can find your success on the desktop platform... it's just troublesome to think that you COULD release a smash hit that's impossible to port, save for rebuilding the game ground up in another engine.

    If we're waiting for HTML 5 and Ouya 2, 3, 4, etc to "line up" so that Construct could export natively to it... we have a saying in the movie biz: "The longer it takes for something to happen, the less likely it will."

  • The Ouya Browser makes a click noise each time the button is hit. This noise to me is the biggest problem with making a real game. We need native support for the ouya controller and disable the keyboard so that these click noises aren't heard. This can be done with a Phonegap plugin that bridges the gap between javascript and java. For me this is my last step in creating a HTML5 game for the Ouya which i have not done YET.

    Performance is another big issue for the games I'm trying to make for the Ouya. I have noticed that 30 FPS is probably the best we are going to get for a arcade type game using Phonegap. I tried to adjust construct 2 javascript code to see if i can limit the max FPS with no luck. I have sinced hacked together a javascript game engine that fixes the canvas at 720p and scaling to 1080p at 30 FPS. In just a couple of days i got something that sortof works, but not really. To be honest, I'm just just testing a theory about about using a javascript game engine that runs at 30 FPS and seeing if there is a advantage to such a thing. So far I'm not sure what the result are.

  • Please keep us updated on that, rfisher... the fate of so many other games-to-be depends on your findings, boss.   <img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • Ugh...this is seriously discouraging, considering I was really aiming for the system and now there's no way of me exporting to it currently. I thought that since it could export to android, it'd be a no brainer, but this is a real mood killer :/

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