developers

Survey: 8.8% of game developers are making games for Windows Phone 7

May 24, 2012 | By Surur

The Game Developer magazine has released the results of its first-ever mobile and social developer technology survey in its May 2012 issue.

The survey as expected found mobile developers overwhelmingly supported iPhone and Android, but also that Windows Phone was the 3rd platform of choice, with 8.8% of developers working on Windows Phone 7 apps, despite the OS only having a market share of around 2% worldwide.

Despite Blackberry and Symbian both having a much bigger installed base, with many tens of millions of handsets in the hands of users, developers have clearly written off those platforms, with all of them having less than 3% of the share of developer attention.

The survey also showed the Unity Engine was the most popular with developers, with more than 50% using this game engine. Hopefully with Windows Phone 8 Microsoft can look at supporting this middleware to make the porting and concurrent development of games on Windows Phone significantly easier.

See more on the survey at Gamasutra here.

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OpenXLive social gaming service for WP7 boasts more than 100,000 daily users, SDK updated

May 16, 2012 | By Surur

Microsoft does not share the bounty of Xbox Live with regular developers, leaving Windows Phone developers wanting to add leader boards, achievements and other social gaming features needing to either roll their own or look for alternate services.

One such service is OpenXLive, and they are doing pretty well, boasting of 3000 games, 430,000 installations, and more than 100,000 daily users.

They have recently updated their Windows Phone SDK to version 0.9.8, which brings the following new features:

Supports the login with SNS accounts which involves Facebook, Twitter and Sina Weibo.
OpenXLive Push Notification Hosting service added. Quite a few developers want to add the notification pushing service in their applications but they are not able to make it happen as they do not have their own server supports. OpenXLive provides the service of Push Notification Hosting and developers can push the notifications from OpenXLive Server
UI Framework in Silverlight is upgraded with more background pictures and the supports of both landscape and portrait mode
There is game creation guide added into Visual Studio 2010 and developers then can use their own start page.

The service is free to developers and users, and is clearly a great addition to any game with a leader board.

Read more about the latest announcement at Openxlive.com here.

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Microsoft Releases Face SDK For Windows Phone Developers

May 16, 2012 | By Pradeep

Microsoft Research has released three different Face manipulation apps in Windows Phone Marketplace so far. Face Mask, Face Touch and Face Swap are the apps you can now find it in marketplace. Now, Microsoft Research has released an SDK that developers can use to process Face images, etc,.

The Microsoft Face SDK provides many state-of-the-art algorithms to process face images, such as face detection, alignment, tracking, and cartooning. The SDK makes it easy for developers to create interesting, face-related Windows Phone applications.

I expect some cool apps from Windows Phone developers using this SDK. Download the SDK here.

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Microsoft’s ‘30 to launch’ contest winners announced

May 15, 2012 | By Surur

Microsoft has announced the winners of their ‘30 to launch’ developer contest, which challenged developers to go from picking a concept to publishing a Windows Phone 7 app in less than 30 days.

The 4 grand prize winning apps are Brain Cube Reloaded, Play the Hunt, Social Mints, and Surf Info.

Social Mints is an app that allows you to easily monitor the Web and Social Media for interesting and trending content in real-time. You can track & measure what people are saying about a topic that interests you, get the latest on a celebrity or event and keep tabs on your favorite sports teams.

Play the Hunt is a treasure hunt game played in the real world using your Windows Phone.

In this game, you have to figure out the next location from the given clue. When you arrive at a location, you have to play a mini game on your phone and upload a picture before you can move on to the next clue.

The Surf Info shows the current conditions at various surf spots around the U.S. All of the data backing the score is similarly presented in a concise and colorful form.

Brain Cube Reloaded is a Rubics Cube type game with great graphics.

Their developers will receive a state-of-the-art entertainment package that includes a La-Z-Boy© recliner and a Lenovo^®IdeaPad U300 Ultrabook.

Read more about the apps at 30tolaunch.com here.

Thanks Ran for the tip.

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Aviary Releases Its Windows Phone SDK, Popular Apps To Make Use Of It Soon

May 14, 2012 | By Pradeep

As Aviary announced few months ago, it released its image editing SDK to Windows Phone developers today.

It features,

Redesigned SDK from the ground-up to take advantage of the Metro design principles of Windows Phone
The same, easy integration process: add our editor to your project in as little as 15 minutes, with just a few lines of code
Customizable color theme
Controllable output size based upon developer preferences — you decide what makes the most sense for your app or service
… Not to mention that Aviary for Windows Phone has all the standard features as the rest of our mobile SDKs

Another good news is that popular Windows Phone apps like 4th & Mayor, Rowi, etc,. are already working on integrating Aviary’s image manipulation SDK into their apps which we may see it in marketplace soon.

Developer can download the SDK at aviary.com/wp7 and read more about it at Aviary blog.

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Great Windows Phone Development events in Greece

May 11, 2012 | By sofoklis

There will be great events related to Windows Phone Development events at TEI of Larissa in Greece.

The Department of Computer Science and Telecommunications, NOKIA Hellas and Microsoft Hellas are arranging a two day hackathon for students in May 24-25, 2012. At this two days event, students will have an opportunity to design, develop and demo complete applications. There will also be a beginner opportunity that will help first-time Windows Phone developers become familiar with the basics of the Windows Phone ecosystem. The Department launched the "Windows Phone Developer Challeng"e and students can participate by submitting 3 apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace and may win a free Windows Phone 7 device.

The Department also is hosting the "Windows 8 hands-on Workshop" on June 7–8, where students will have a chance to meet & interact with Windows 8 Metro app experts as they would be mentoring both on the technical and business aspects.

More information can be found at www.cs.teilar.gr/MS , a web site that has adopted the metro style and functionality.

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Microsoft slow to pay out to Windows Phone app contest winners

May 10, 2012 | By Surur

I unlock joy windows phone

All the way back in November 2011 Microsoft announced a contest meant to stimulate the Windows Phone 7 app market in India.

The bar to win a Windows Phone was pretty low:

“SUBMIT & RECEIVE” CATEGORY: A registered participant submits THREE qualified Windows Phone Application in the Marketplace and gets a chance to receive a Windows Phone. In this category, the Applications must be distinct and of non-trivial utility value for the Application User. A “Spam” or close replicas of existing Windows Phone Applications are disqualified.
“PORT 2 APPS & RECEIVE” CATEGORY: A registered participant submitting TWO qualified Windows Phone Applications in the Marketplace which are ported from existing Android or iPhone Applications get to receive a Windows Phone.
“WOMEN SPECIAL” CATEGORY: A first of its kind in the developer space, the first 100 registered Woman Developers who submit ONE (1) qualified Windows Phone Application each in the Marketplace qualify to receive a Windows Phone each. The applications can be based on Entertainment, Fashion, Leisure, Sports, Recreation or Travel themes.

The contest ended on March 30, 2012, and since then according to our tipster Microsoft has been very slow at paying out to the winners, apparently delivering a stream of excuses instead.

With apps being the life blood of the smartphone market at present (with Blackberry for example offering $10,000 to those who will write an app for their platform) the least Microsoft could do is deliver what they promised to developers who support their platform.

Have any of our readers been involved in the contest? Let us know your experience below.

Thanks Kunal for the tip.

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Windows Phone UK Starts Developer Reward Programme

May 10, 2012 | By Pradeep

Windows Phone UK has started a developer reward programme to reward and celebrate UK developers who have developd and published Windows Phone apps into the Windows Phone marketplace. You can start today by registering yourself with the programme and publish your original and unique Windows Phone app on the Windows Phone Marketplace. You will be awarded with one point after the evaluation has been done for your app in the marketplace. Finally, you will be able to redeem your points for rewards offered from Microsoft. Check out the rewards below, there are some interesting things like driving Ferraris, etc,.

Find more details about the programme here.

Thanks Stephen for the heads up.

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Nokia Releases A Musical Parody Called “Dev City” To Promote Windows Phone Development

May 10, 2012 | By Pradeep

Today Nokia Developer channel released a new musical parody of Tyga’s Rack City called “Dev City” to promote app development in Windows Phone platform.

Video Description:

Bringing cool to coding. Mobile devices are cool. Mobile apps are cool. Mobile Developers are about to get cooler. Nokia Developer is turning towns into Dev Cities with its Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge. We are hitting 13-cities looking for developers who want to build an experience not just another app. Developers who build the coolest, baddest apps for the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia devices earn devices & prizes. Sign up for a Challenge near you: http://www.nokiadeveloper.eventbrite.com/

via: Justin Angel

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Another developer conference references Apollo, mentions new screen resolutions

May 8, 2012 | By Surur

As the announcement date for the next major version of Windows Phone rapidly approaches, the Windows Phone Apollo boat is getting more and more leaky.

We mentioned a few days ago a reference to Windows Phone 8 in the agenda for a developer conference and today we have another, from the WP DevCon, that is even more explicit.

The description of the session reads as follows:

Develop for Windows Phone Apollo
Paras Wadehra

This session will guide you on how to develop for Windows Phone Apollo, the new version of Windows Phone due out by the end of this year. You will learn the new resolutions needed to support and target Windows Phone Apollo, the new hardware you will program against, the changes coming to the Windows Phone Marketplace, and much more. There will be some code shown, which will help you migrate your Windows Phone Mango apps to target Windows Phone Apollo. The session will also help you understand the marketing aspects of apps targeting Windows Phone Apollo in order to help you get your apps approved the first time. You will also learn about the new emulator as well as new reporting features available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

At the end of the session, you will be ready to write and upload apps to the new Windows Phone Marketplace. Please note: Knowledge of the Windows Phone Developer ecosystem is required. In order to appreciate the difference between Mango and Apollo, it is also preferable that you have developed at least one app currently in the Marketplace.

Level: Advanced Topic Area: WP Essentials, WP Marketing

The item of interest is of course the “new resolutions” and apps will need to be tweaked to fully support Windows Phone 8 (although we expect WP7 apps to still work fine).

Early signs have indicated windows phone 8 will support 480×800 and 768 x probably 1280 and will be using Windows 8-style XAML apps rather than pure Silverlight like Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft is expecting to unveil Windows Phone 8 in all its glory at a Developer Summit in June 21st 2012. At this rate there will not be anything left to reveal very soon

Via WPCentral.com

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Windows Phone Design Series From Arturo Toledo Coming As Free E-Book

May 8, 2012 | By Pradeep

Windows Phone developers have one happy and one sad news to digest. First, Arturo Toledo, Senior User Experience Designer at Microsoft for the Windows Phone Design Studio is leaving Microsoft. He was the person behind the 31 weeks of Metro Design for Windows Phone series of blog posts. The posts by Arturo were amazing and really helped many Windows Phone developers to streamline their app designs. And even though he is leaving Microsoft for personal reason, Arturo has announced that he will be completing the series and release all those blog posts as a free e-book as well.

You can still read his previous blog posts on Metro design and his work history at Microsoft working on various teams from Expression Studio to Silverlight, etc, on his blog here. We would like to thank Arturo for his contribution to Windows Phone developer community and wish him all the best for his future work.

Image Credit: Ready Designs

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Taptitude developer share the secret of their Marketplace success

May 3, 2012 | By Surur

With the size of the installed Windows Phone 7 base finally growing to the point that developers can extract real money from Windows Phone 7 users, it would behove every developer who are serious about getting a return from their investment to listen to the above Channel9 interview with Taptitude developer Brandon Furtwangler, one quarter of the independent company Four Bros Studio LLC.

Their game has been doing incredibly well in marketplace,and has recently crossed the $100,000 per year revenue mark, and in the above video he shares the secret to their success.

Taptitude can be found in the Windows Phone Marketplace here.

Via Channel9

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Microsoft Announces Twilio’s Voice And Messaging APIs For Azure Customers

May 2, 2012 | By Pradeep

Twilio, a cloud communications provider today announced a relationship with Microsoft to make its voice and messaging APIs easily available to Windows Azure customers. As an introductory offers, the developers will receive a starting credit of 1,000 free text messages or inbound voice minutes with sign up.

Using Twilio’s APIs, developers can develop apps which require features such as interactive voice response, mobile app distribution via SMS, call automation or two-factor authentication, etc,. Many leading apps such as Microsoft Skype’s GroupMe, eBay, etc, rely on Twilio’s APIs. You can find more information on Twilio’s free offer for Windows Azure developers can be found at ahoy.twilio.com/azure.

Source: Twilio

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