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[Ouren]

nice d-pad. 

[nikki]

that

made me think of :



but I am happy to see the device in the real.
success to it

[chrome-fox]

I kinda think that the touchpad is somewhat unnecessary and out of place, it looked so small, not sure if it would actually be usable for navigation (the dude in the video seems to have a hard time moving his cursor)

Maybe the touchpad would work for simple tapping gameplay, but if that's all it does, then what's the point of making a touchpad in front ? Just put it behind the controller like the Vita if all they wanted to add was a tapping functionality.

IMHO, either they make it larger (with multi touch support I guess), or they go another route by coming up with a better mechanism to replace the touchpad (which can also be used for navigation), not sure what though, the ideas I got at the moment are motion sensor, six axis (that's gyroscope + accelerometer right?), and ... err, I dunno, that's about it for now.

No start or select button on the controller, maybe the power button serves more than 1 function? (bringing up the home menu when pressed/clicked and turn the console on/off if pressed/hold for several seconds)

I'd swear I read somewhere that this is exactly how it works, but I can't find it right now...

Yeah, I remember reading that as well somewhere, but I can't find the source
However, if that was the design, seems like it might not be as intuitive as the designer thought it would be (I would at least think twice before pressing the button to go back to home without an instruction, it gives more of hard reset vibe instead of a soft one)

BTW, 01:27

, there seems to be a middle OUYA button there (I missed that, seems like the dude on the video missed that as well), the comments said that it's the menu/home button that closes out apps.

[J-Snake]

I also wonder what happens when mobiles move to tegra 4+ or something so that newer games outpower the ouya. Not sure keeping the cross connection to mobile games is a good choice for that matter. I would prefer it to skip the mobile connection entirely, also regarding that proper mobile games are not really suited to be enjoyed with a joypad on the television.

[SolarLune]

@chrome-fox - A trackball would be interesting, but there's no room on the controller for it. Putting the pad on the back might have been a good idea, especially since you don't need to see what you're tapping.

@J-Snake - Not sure. Maybe the difference won't be that much. The Ouya isn't running off of a battery and has a fan. So, the Tegra-3 might be able to be / might have been over-clocked and might run more stably with a consistent power supply (?).

[J-Snake]

I found John Romero's opinion about this interesting.

[chrome-fox]

@chrome-fox - A trackball would be interesting, but there's no room on the controller for it. Putting the pad on the back might have been a good idea, especially since you don't need to see what you're tapping.

Now that you mention it, a trackball sounds interesting
Though I must say I'm not too familiar with trackball devices, are they considered dated by today's standard?
(the last device I saw using a trackball was an old blackberry released several years ago, I forgot what version)

Here's several references I find on what it would look like on a controller

[SolarLune]

@chrome-fox - I'm not sure; I would think trackballs are a bit outdated, but I know arcade games sometimes had them, so maybe it would work well.

I like motion controls, but I don't know of much you can do with them outside of the obvious (tilting a game board, steering a car, etc). It could make for some good puzzles, though. Maybe a grip sensor? Something to detect how hard you're grabbing the controller?

I really liked that the Wii's controls didn't force your hands together. It was the only console I didn't have to have my hands up to play (I could just let them sit wherever naturally, essentially).

@J-Snake - I may agree with his opinion to some extent, that it might be easier to develop for iOS than Android, but I'm not sure, since I don't personally develop for mobile devices.

I think all that can be done is speculate until someone actually tries developing for the Ouya and seeing just how easy it is to make a game and run it. Can you just push an Android game over? How does it run? A developer's review, so to speak.

[chrome-fox]

@chrome-fox - I'm not sure; I would think trackballs are a bit outdated, but I know arcade games sometimes had them, so maybe it would work well.

I guess you have a point, using a technology that is considered outdated might turn down some gamers, it might not go well with the marketing. I just thought it might be easier to navigate the screen using a trackball instead of the small touchpad OUYA used at the moment.

I like motion controls, but I don't know of much you can do with them outside of the obvious (tilting a game board, steering a car, etc). It could make for some good puzzles, though. Maybe a grip sensor? Something to detect how hard you're grabbing the controller?

That might work for some games (especially those that tests your patience like those old-school platformers that makes you want to just squeeze the life out of them), however, I'm not sure about it, a grip mechanism sounds like it would be a tiring game experience for the wrist and palm (at least as far as I'm capable to imagine)

[Ouren]

I found John Romero's opinion about this interesting.

I've always held this view on this thing.
It's a thing to play GBC games on your tv with.

[J-Snake]

I think  a trackball suffers the same problem a touchpad does, it is just tedious. You have to roll over and over in order to rotate your view. Potentially it provides more direct control than thumbsticks but overall it is completely overshadowed by its tedious use. It is a lot more comfortable just to hold a thumbstick and let the game integrate over time.

[kiddRaddical]

...
I think all that can be done is speculate until someone actually tries developing for the Ouya and seeing just how easy it is to make a game and run it. Can you just push an Android game over? How does it run? A developer's review, so to speak.

I found this guy on youtube:




From the looks of it, seems easy enough to port stuff over from Android. (skip to around 11min mark to see his game he ported)

Honestly, after looking at the SDK myself, 'porting' really just comes down to Jellybean compliance and adding controller-based input.

[Christian Knudsen]

From the looks of it, seems easy enough to port stuff over from Android. (skip to around 11min mark to see his game he ported)

He specifically states in that video that he has not ported his game yet, which is kinda obvious from the fact that it runs in a narrow vertical strip on his TV screen and needs awkward touch input. He's just installed the apk via the built-in web browser.

[kiddRaddical]

He specifically states in that video that he has not ported his game yet, which is kinda obvious from the fact that it runs in a narrow vertical strip on his TV screen and needs awkward touch input. He's just installed the apk via the built-in web browser.

Ok, so I was a little loose with my language, but I think you get my gist; my original point was that it doesn't seem to be too hard to take existing content and make it run on the console (you kinda made my point for me there ). The only extra work needed would be adjusting the aspect ratio (and making any necessary gameplay compensations for that) and responding to controller input. If you use any sort of abstraction with your input, that shouldn't be too hard either.

[Christian Knudsen]

Well, yeah, since he already made the game for Android, porting it to another Android device won't be all that big of a deal for him...

[Christian Knudsen]

Steambox Dev Kit UNBOXING!

[J-Snake]

This vid here represents the concern I have with this in regard to mobile games support.
Joypad and touch are two opposite worlds. If a game is perfectly suited for touch you cannot make it work well on joypad. You can only port those mobile games which imitate joypad-controls. I think there will be many games like that though. And I have ideas how to use touch-pad gestures for possibly quicker menu-navigation/item-selection, depending on how good you can reach the touch-pad with the right thumb without wrapping the right hand around.

[SolarLune]

Yeah, I agree. Dual stick or touch-button games would work well on the Ouya.

Using the touch-screen as gesture input sounds like an interesting idea that could be fairly easy to implement. Thinking about it now, what if they had put the four face buttons on the actual right analog stick? Like you wouldn't have to take your thumb off of a button to tilt a stick? That could be kind of a cool feature for shooters-centric games. Ionno, it might not work well.

Kind of unrelated, but it would appear the back triggers are analog, and not digital.

[s_l_m]

Yeah, I agree. Dual stick or touch-button games would work well on the Ouya.

Using the touch-screen as gesture input sounds like an interesting idea that could be fairly easy to implement. Thinking about it now, what if they had put the four face buttons on the actual right analog stick? Like you wouldn't have to take your thumb off of a button to tilt a stick? That could be kind of a cool feature for shooters-centric games. Ionno, it might not work well.

Kind of unrelated, but it would appear the back triggers are analog, and not digital.

Anyone played the ios version of jet grind radio? they use gestures for the graffiti that would be perfect for the ouya touch screen

[JimmyJ]

Steambox Dev Kit UNBOXING!

That was pretty clever, well done. ;3