Game app for Samsung Internet TV

[awebapart.com]

If any regulars to this forum were wondering about my recent reduced activity on this forum! it is because I've been busy developing a game app, called Maze Racing Robots, for Samsung's fairly new app platform Internet@TV (Smart TV). My company Abstract Worlds Ltd, started off in game development, back in 1998.

Internet@TV is an internet ready downloadable app platform which Samsung have recently started adding to some of their TVs and Blu-ray players, think iPhone apps but for Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players, Home cinema units etc.

As part of the submission process to a Samsung developer challenge I have created a game video walkthrough, showing the game running on an actual device (Blu-ray player) with commentary from me included.

I thought I'd post this, for the software developers of this forum, and perhaps for any Samsung TV or blu-ray owners thinking of getting an app in the future!

The development environment for Internet@TV (2010 version) is either Javascript/HTML/CSS or Flash Lite. Our game was developed in predominantly Javascript with some HTML/CSS. The Internet@TV platform has its own Samsung specific browser environment and browser, called the Maple browser.

 

[awebapart.com]

I thought I'd post this, for the software developers of this forum, and perhaps for any Samsung TV or blu-ray owners thinking of getting an app in the future!

The development environment for Internet@TV (2010 version) is either Javascript/HTML/CSS or Flash Lite. Our game was developed in predominantly Javascript with some HTML/CSS. The Internet@TV platform has its own Samsung specific browser environment and browser, called the Maple browser.

To provide a better view of the actual game, rather than the hardware, I have uploaded another game video (available in HD too).

I should add that whilst the game was developed in Javascript/HTML/CSS, it was done with mainly HTML4 style technology, since the Samsung Maple browser does not support a Canvas feature or other HTML5 features.

So the game also shows what is possible with HTML4 and what can be done across popular browsers today. During the development, to test this, it was quite easy to get the game running in a variety of normal desktop browsers too, including even IE6!

 

[cmcp]

Nice one Paul

 

[garyk]

Must be quite painful doing game dev in HTML/JS is it Paul?

I'm currently doing an iphone game using Cocos2D and there work underway to port it to JS, link here and it looks pretty promising.

Good work btw! Interesting to see how other players are jumping on the app store/dev tools/revenue stream model.

Gary

 

[awebapart.com]

Must be quite painful doing game dev in HTML/JS is it Paul?

It is not so bad, and in some ways it is not as bad as general web HTML/JS development, since the good thing is not having to worry about cross browser issues, when just developing for one platform (to start with).

I'm currently doing an iphone game using Cocos2D and there work underway to port it to JS, link here and it looks pretty promising

Cocos2D looks interesting, and it must be nicer working in a more strongly typed language like ObjectiveC. But the javascript version of Cocos2D wouldn't have worked for the Samsung environment since the Samsung browser doesn't have the canvas and other HTML5 stuff that Cocos2D-javascript requires.

There are other options for Javascript development which turn it into a more strongly typed development tool, like using the haXe language and outputting to javascript. But I didn't have time to look into that for this game, so ended up doing it in Javascript (which was probably a good idea anyway for a first project on a new platform, I didn't want too many unknowns in the equation and the new Samsung platform was a big enough unknown in itself).

If I was thinking of porting the game as it stands to iPhone or Android, probably the easiest route for me would be to use Appcelerator Titanium.

Interesting to see how other players are jumping on the app store/dev tools/revenue stream model.

It will be interesting to see what other apps have been submitted to the Samsung developer challenge. I'll report back when Samsung publish this information.

 

[garyk]

So is your game going to be free Paul or chargeable? And is it the same as the app store model - 70% to dev/30% to samsung?

 

[awebapart.com]

So is your game going to be free Paul or chargeable?

I haven't made a final decision on that one yet, because I'm waiting for the feedback I hope I'm going to get from being in the competition, feedback from Samsung and feedback from part of the competition's user vote.

My initial thought is to put it in the "I'll buy that for a dollar" price range. If it ends up chargeable I'd like to see some way of users seeing a free version before they buy too, perhaps a limited free version. But having a demo of the game on youtube should give users a feel for the game before purchase anyway (and I'm hoping that in the future, Samsung will adopt youtube video previews in their app store, like they have done for their competition).

What I can definitely say is that there wont be any complex in-game purchasing.

And is it the same as the app store model - 70% to dev/30% to samsung?

Yes.

 

[awebapart.com]

It will be interesting to see what other apps have been submitted to the Samsung developer challenge. I'll report back when Samsung publish this information.

The apps are now out as part of the public voting process, and I have posted a new thread about this (including our mention in a "The Register" news article), and an ask for a vote please, in the general business forum.