OUYA Project Update 1

So, my brother and I are developing a game for the OUYA, which is an upcoming gaming console for the television. The android-based console has nearly the same specs as the Nexus 7 tablet, a controller similar to the Xbox360/PS3, and is about the size of a large coffee cup. For the interested reader, here is rough idea of what I’m doing.

Setting up the development environment:

Yesterday, I had some free-time and was able to set up the Android SDK in Eclipse -I even got a “Hello World” app running on my Motorola Droid X phone. To get the SDK up and running, I decided to run through the tutorials listed in the developer section of the Android website. It seemed like a good idea to stick to the original source for development setup instructions, rather than to follow some tutorial written in a blog post by some schmuck!

Everything went perfectly, up until I wanted to run a Hello World on my device. Following the online tutorials, most everything is magically set up for you; however, the drivers required a little extra work. In the case that your phone doesn’t get automatically set up, you’re supposed to follow this troubleshooting tutorial (which should remedy most driver issues). Unfortunately, for my phone, the guide did not work.

After googling around for a bit,I finally found some information saying that in order for me to start dev on my Droid X and Windows 7 PC, I was going to need the Motorola ADB drivers. Typically, I can be quite hesitant to follow a dependency trail on google, as often there is no apparent route out of the thicket of information. In this case however, I (luckily) discovered the Motorola Device Manager! This was a quick/easy install (one I’m most likely to completely forget about), and totally solved all my driver problems.

In my 10+ years of working with computers, getting drivers to work properly on Windows has never been a painless experience for me. So, I hope that this blog post will help save someone out there some time.

For my Processing dev class that I took at the University of Denver, we spent the first 4-6 hrs of class time just trying to get everyone’s drivers, phones, and PCs to work. I hope that this blog post will help someone out there get dev set up on their Motorola Droid X quickly and smoothly.

Setting up the hardware:

The OUYA is scheduled to come out this March of 2013, and I couldn’t be more excited for a video-game related release. You can pre-order one from their website at a promised, fixed price of $99. I’ll probably buy myself and my brother one for Christmas. If you want to check out all the geeky tech-specs, check it here.

Alright, here’s where things get interesting. I’ve been poking around the internet to try and figure out the best way to develop a game for the OUYA before it even comes out. The question I posed in the OUYA subreddit proved to be extremely useful! The community presented me with options for game libraries, as well as a pretty genius idea for setting up some practice hardware. More specifically, since both the PlayStation 3 controller and the Nexus 7 are Bluetooth compatible, one could pair the devices and then have a mach-OUYA setup for around $250.00. Of course, this plan really only works if you’re planning on buying a tablet anyway (which I am). If you’re an Xbox person, (which I also am), I found this sweet tutorial to help interface an Xbox 360 controller with an an Android device.

End:

If you’re thinking about starting OUYA dev too, let me know what you think of where I’m at and where you’re going!

Cheers!