OUYA: Android based console

[djzombie]

all it will need is someone to do a small port to correctly map the ouya controller.

You can already do this with a smartphone and ps3 controller via bluetooth. Most emulators support bluetooth gamepads and custom mapping. I'd be surprised if the ouya controller didn't use bluetooth.

[Pikarya]

I'd be surprised if the ouya controller didn't use bluetooth.

They are. Def thinking of passing on buying one of these.

[6souls]

These statements confuse me.

Ouya won’t support online multiplayer when it launches to Kicstarter backers later this month, or when it launches to the public in June. But it will support the feature “sometime this year,” Ouya founder Julie Uhrman told The Verge at SXSW.

Leaderboards and game achievements will also arrive later this year.

Local multiplayer will still be available, though. If you’ve purchased an additional controller with your system, there’s nothing to stop you from playing multiplayer the old fashioned way.

“I think Ouya is going to bring back couch play,” said Uhrman.

For the future, Uhrman said the system shouldn’t be limited to a small silver box, and that she’d like to see Ouya on “every single television, every single tablet, from every single OEM you can think of.”

If you’re in San Francisco on March 28, an Ouya Kickstarter backer, and are looking to party, Ouya will host launch celebration from 8am to 12pm in the Bay Area. If you’re a backer, check your inbox for the invite.

http://gematsu.com/2013/03/ouya-wont...play-at-launch
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/11/40...rman-sxsw-2013

So by the time online is ready, Ouya 2 will be close to launch.

[dejet]

These statements confuse me.



http://gematsu.com/2013/03/ouya-wont...play-at-launch
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/11/40...rman-sxsw-2013

So by the time online is ready, Ouya 2 will be close to launch.

answer by the team.

Update: Ouya tells us that the console actually will support online multiplayer at launch, contrary to what we heard. "We will definitely be supporting online multiplayer — developers just need to build in the functionality," a representative said. Ouya PR clarified that online chat, friends lists, and achievements are the items that won't be available until later this year.

[6souls]

Final Fantasy III

[Pikarya]

So this is running at 1080? If so at least they chose a nice font (unlike the mobile port lol)

[Buffy]

Having never played any FF other than FFXI and FFXIV, the music from that FF3 vid is freaky.

[Aevis]

Spoiler: show

at work without any monitor with hdmi plug in reach, so can't test yet. still, the ouya looks sexy and will make a splendid xbmc player controller looks a bit fat, but fits my tiny hand quite well. the d-pad is really cheap tho, the entire thing shifts a litte into the direction you press. don't care that much, as I'll use my ps3 controller anyway.

[octopus]

will make a splendid xbmc player

Pretty much the only thing that interests me at this point. When you get a chance to try out xbmc on it please tell us how it is thanks

[Corrderio]

That is a funky looking controller.

Do they have a SDK available for developers to use or anything? Been kind of curious about that.

[Shiyo]

Final Fantasy III

Didn't the new SE CEO say the guy who decided to make an FF on the ouya is a fucking moron and he should be fired? Oh wait..he was fired, and he was a FUCKING IDIOT.

[Jaybar]

Didn't the new SE CEO say the guy who decided to make an FF on the ouya is a fucking moron and he should be fired? Oh wait..he was fired, and he was a FUCKING IDIOT.

It was cited on a "satire" site, and quickly debunked.

[Aevis]

Do they have a SDK available for developers to use or anything? Been kind of curious about that.

Yes, it's available since last autumn: https://devs.ouya.tv/developers/odk

So, had some time to play with this. As said, the gamepad is ok. It can't compete with Xbox/PS, but if you don't have any at all, it will suffice. My first impression of the d-pad sadly confirmed, it's garbage. Tested it in the Ouya OS, XBMC and FF3 and it simply felt unresponsive. If I find the time, I'll install a SNES Emu tonight and try some Street Fighter for a final verdict. Same goes for the touchscreen. Tested in XBMC and the default internet browser, it felt sluggish. Due to its small size, it's quite hard to use it precisely. I gave up trying to hit the progress bar in XBMC.

Luckily, it's easy to pair a PS3 pad. Hook it up through USB while OUYA is running, turn OUYA off, disconnect and boot again, that's it. During the entire evening, I had it go apeshit two times. It acted like I pressed 5 buttons and tries to execute the commands all at once, when I didn't press anything. That only occured in the OUYA OS, never in XBMC nor FF3. FF3 runs perfectly fine btw, didn't spent too much time with it tho.

Speaking of the OUYA OS, it feels beta-ish. Remember those reviews about stuttering menus and stuff? Yep, still like that. Although I had to run an update first, it's probably the same version the reviewers tested. Sometimes the game tiles wouldn't show the preview pic at all, sometimes they were there instantly. I hope for them that they have a better built ready for the retail OUYA. At least with the beautiful performance of XBMC, it shows to be only a software and not a hardware related problem. They also need to restructure it a bit. The default browser isn't in Apps, but in Make - Software. Downloads through the browser are in Manage - System - Advanced - Storage - Downloads.

Androids apps (.apk) can be installed like on any other android device. I got XBMC 12.2 from their homepage and it installed without any complains. That version doesn't support hardware decoding, which made everything 720p+ stutter. Instead, there is this libstagefright build, currently in alpha: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=152005 and that's the jackpot (almost). 1080p without any issues and XBMC itself runs super smooth. Tried Confluence and Aeon Nox skin. Couldn't tell any difference between running it on Ouya and on my i7 notebook.

I had one problem with the current alpha2 built, which was fast forward/skipping. It either took forever (2-3min for a 10min skip) or crashed XBMC. According to the thread, it only appears in alpha2, alpha1 hadn't any troubles. Alpha3 built should've been out last week, maybe they fixed it with that. At least their intention is to have a basic version of XBMC with hardware decoding fully running at retail release, which is June.

There's one big flaw with the OUYA right now: It can't passthrough any audio stream. AC3/DTS (didn't try DTS-HD) decodes into 2.0 stereo. That means no multichannel, no matter the source. Again, it looks to be a OUYA OS problem again as I found this one month old quote from a XBMC team member.

tl;dr: Hardware is fine (except the d-pad), Software feels beta-ish. Properly adapted, it can run very smooth like the libstagefright build of XBMC or FF3. Easy installation of Android apps. No multichannel audio atm.

[Necronus]

tl;dr: Hardware is fine (except the d-pad), Software feels beta-ish. Properly adapted, it can run very smooth like the libstagefright build of XBMC or FF3. Easy installation of Android apps. No multichannel audio atm.

I haven't received mine yet, so I can't directly comment, but as for the software feeling beta-ish ... it IS beta. All backer consoles are considered beta models, with the eventual publicly released model being considered the real deal. That's why the developers aren't liking the fact that negative reviews are being posted because its not the final product. You were aware of this I'd hope.

[Aevis]

Yeah, but I was hoping for another firmware update since the early reviews, which were 2months ago. Launch is less than a month away anyway and as long as that version will have multichannel audio, I'm good.

[6souls]

Sonic is Making his way to Ouya
(Sonic 4: Episodes I and II and Sonic CD)

In the wake of some hard times of late, it looks like Sega’s thinking a bit outside the box: according to a post on GamesIndustry, the publisher will be bringing three Sonic games to the Android-powered Ouya console, set to release on June 25. Sonic 4: Episodes I and II and Sonic CD will offer gamers the first (or first few) levels for free, and then give them the option to buy the full games at a low purchase price of $6.99.

Sega of America’s director of mobile business, David Zemke, offered up this statement about the potential of the OUYA console:

For us, there were a couple of things that were exciting about Ouya. One is obviously that it’s a great gaming platform on a new device. When you get the chance to hook it up to an HDTV and watch it on a big screen, it’s actually quite impressive. It’s disruptive technology, right? It’s fun to see what these technologies can do and be a part of it from the beginning. For those two reasons alone, we’ve looked at it as yet another reason to bring some great Sega content to a whole new audience.

The post points out that these games are also already available on other mobile devices, and at lower prices…but considering that the Ouya versions are meant to be played on the TV screen, that sort of justifies the higher price point (the iOS games run between two and three bucks, while the Android versions are between three and four dollars).

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...sonic-to-ouya/
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...uya-with-sonic

[6souls]

Chronoblade is Coming Soon

http://chronoblade.com/

Chronoblade is the first game by NWay, a new studio formed by GTA creator Dave Jones, and former RealTime Worlds boss Tony Harman. It’s heading to OUYA, iOS, Android and browsers and a beta is on the way.

Chronoblade is a 2D beat-em-up with RPG elements, and a demo will be made available on OUYA before this week is through.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/07/chro...s-smartphones/

[6souls]

It only takes a few frames to spot the eccentricities of Soul Fjord, the upcoming project from Dark Void and Quantum Conundrum developer Airtight Games. It's a chimeric blend of genres — part rhythm game, part dungeon-diver — and artistic inspirations, drawing upon Norse mythology and 1970s funk music. Perhaps the strangest thing among its near-universal strangeness, however, is its exclusivity on Ouya, the crowdfunded Android console set to launch later this summer.

A single-platform release is an odd release strategy for any developer to undertake, especially when that single platform is as relatively untested as the Ouya. Airtight creative director Kim Swift, who joined the studio in 2009 after designing Portal and working on several other Valve titles, told Polygon that the game's limited release is part of a partnership with the Ouya development team — a partnership that also helped to support the developer's equally untested IP.

"We were in the process of finding funding and a good home for Soul Fjord when we started talking to Julie Uhrman from Ouya," Swift said. "We were looking to create a funky, unique new IP and they were looking for great games to coincide in their launch window. The timing worked out perfectly for both of us and we've been really happy working with the Ouya team thus far."

Ouya's investment in Airtight — the console creator is fully funding development on the title, Swift explained — isn't its first attempt to secure exclusive games on the platform. Last July, the company partnered with Robert Bowling's studio Robotoki to produce an Ouya-exclusive prequel to its upcoming zombie apocalypse title, Human Element.

Soul Fjord is inarguably the most bizarre of Airtight's recent repertoire, even out-stranging its dimension-swapping puzzle-platformer Quantum Conundrum and upcoming spectral detective story, Murdered: Soul Suspect. Swift admits that the hodgepodge of genres and styles incorporated in Soul Fjord made the studio "worried about how it might be perceived" on traditional platforms, making its release on Ouya a less risky maneuver in terms of reception.

But the studio wasn't willing to compromise on the game's originality, Swift explained. Airtight is a studio with a lot of ideas they'd like to develop, and partnering with the Ouya team was its best bet to manifest one of those ideas into a finished game.

"Actually, if you take a look at all of the games Airtight has put out in the last few years none of them are particularly alike," Swift said. "We all play and enjoy a lot of different kinds of games here and as an extension want to make games that are from a broad variety of genres. The concept of combining a rhythm game and a roguelike came out of a brainstorming meeting with the team on what sort of game we might want to tackle next. We had a ton of other ideas in addition to Soul Fjord, so hopefully you'll be seeing those in the coming years as well."

More importantly, Swift explained, the decision was influenced by the team's desire to play Soul Fjord with a controller, making a console release ideal.

"When we originally conceived of the idea, we really wanted to have the ability to use a controller," Swift said. "By partnering with Ouya, we know that we will get that controller, as well as a platform that is indie-friendly and supports innovative and unique ideas."

A physical controller isn't the only benefit that the Ouya afforded Airtight, Soul Fjord programmer Mark Mihelich told Polygon. The uniformity of the console's hardware made developing the game easier than it would be on a more variable system, like mobile devices. The NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset is "in line" with what's on offer on other home consoles, and includes performance analysis programs and other helpful tools for Soul Fjord's dev team.

"Obviously being an Android device it is similar to developing a mobile Android title in terms of the OS, but with a fixed hardware platform we get some of the advantages of console development in that we can target specific hardware features and performance capabilities," Mihelich said.

The game's not quite finished yet, Swift said, and likely won't be until later this year, arriving after the Ouya's scheduled release date of June 25. Airtight plans to port it to other platforms following its release — Swift noted that "first things first, we just have to get the game done" — but, like many new intellectual properties, the future of Soul Fjord will depend largely on how it's first received.

"I'm not sure I have any particular expectations, however I do hope that the game will be well received and fun for folks to play-- I mean, what game developer doesn't want that," Swift said. "We plan to continue supporting the game past the initial launch and will definitely be paying attention to our player's feedback for what they'd like to see next.

"As for Ouya, I truly hope that their platform is successful as they've been really supportive and great to work with," Swift added.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/8/4403...ouya-exclusive
http://soulfjord.com/

[Gwynplaine]

[Aevis]

With the latest firmware and OS update, the menu tiles became much more responsive. You finally can enlarge the preview pics on the game pages. I also figured out how passthroug works in XBMC: Set your output to HDMI and your x.x setup. Start the movie to get the known white noise sound. Power off and on your AV receiver. The audio stream will then correctly be recognized. Tested AC and DTS up to 5.1. Still have to get some DTS-HD material. Unfortunately, if you pause your video, you have to repeat the procedure. I hope they can fix that until the final release of XBMC libstagefright build.