Developing for Different Platforms
So if I understand this TechCrunch article correctly; Overdose Caffeine stopped developing for the OUYA because they don’t want to implement a control system which works well with an OUYA controller (and the article reads very much like they may have received an incentive to highlight another product)
To me this article highlights one part of the value of the OUYA store; It stops users getting apps from developers who don’t understand the UX needs of a console.
As Juhani Lehtimäki highlighted in a recent post; The type of games people buy on an OUYA aren’t the same as they would buy on a touch screen device. If developers don’t understand the differences and cater for them users will, most likely, end up frustrated with their apps, that leads to poor sales, and then we would most likely see “My app isn’t selling well so no-one can be making any money” articles floating around.
I expect we’ll see more of the these “I stopped developing for OUYA and developing for [insert product name here]” as time goes on. It’s one of the pitfalls of a successful product; people think that getting developers to stop developing for it and develop for something else is news, whereas I see them more as marketing efforts by developers who didn’t understand the platform they say they’re not developing for anymore.
To me the best source of news about apps are the users. If it wasn’t for this article being brought to my attention I probably wouldn’t have read it because every developer has the right to make a choice about what platforms they develop for, and that’s something everyone should be grateful for.
If you’re wondering what’s involved in Implementing an OUYA friendly UI; Well, nothing special. You don’t need to use the ODK library, it only requires menu buttons to be focusable and selectable via the Android D-Pad, something most Android developers do anyway.