Re: [pygame] App Store

[René Dudfield <renesd@xxxxxxxxx>]

hi,

I think people are interested in getting their games distributed as much as possible :)


If you make your system work by running a command for each game... it should be easy.  Like, for example running python run_game.py

Which linux are you using?  Your own, or something like fedora+sugar/debian?

You might need to make patches so the games run nicely on your platforms... distributions like debian/ubuntu/fedora do this for people.

Most developers only have access to one or two platforms... so porting help is needed for games to get to different platforms.  Or to make packing games for each platform not require the platform.  So a windows developer can package their game for Mac OSX without needing to have access to OSX.


As for attracting commercial developers... it needs to be worth it for them to put their games on their to sell.  If you make it really easy, then they might do it.  However they'll need to know if it'll be worth it for them.  So if you can give them some idea of how many downloads they'll get that would help convince them.  Otherwise their time is likely to be spent elsewhere.



Tools, and libraries to help with distribution would be great.  Things like meta data generation - that can be transformed for the various software archives, and packaging systems.  Like generating PAD files, PKG-INFO files, and helping to submit to websites... like freshmeat and the many other software distribution places.  This would allow people to increase the distribution of their games a lot... since they'd just need to put the information in once, and then it can be spread to lots of various websites.



cheers,

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 11:00 AM, Cary Harper <cary.harper@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hey Folks,

Over the last two years the company I work for has been putting Linux on x86 based netbooks, but now MS has squashed that with offering exclusive deals to hardware companies for distributing Windows 7.  In a couple of months, some of these hardware companies will be coming out with Linux based netbooks on an ARM architecture that we hope will server to ignite more interest in ARM and Linux.

To do this, we know that we need to create excitement and a good user experience for the end user.  To that end we are polishing the UI as much as possible and we are looking to get the support of communities like Pygame to develop and publish applications for these netbook devices in an app store dedicated to ARM-based Linux devices.

The app store will support all software licenses with download links for source code where applicable as well as an ecommerce module for non-free software.  To evaluate the app store experience you can check out presto.cnr.com, eeedownload.cnr.com and www.cnr.com.

The reason I think the Pygame platform is so important is because 70% of the applications downloaded on the iPhone were games, with another 20% being entertainment type applications.

We are doing work to make sure SDL and numerics are optimized for running on this ARM platform.

What I would like to know is if this kind of opportunity is something this community would be interested in.

Additionally, I can also offer to host an app store just for Pygame software, supporting all OS types, for free.  The url would be pygame.cnr.com and I would give creative control over the branding of the site and the promotion of software on that site to the community.

Hopefully you don't think this offer too lame or spam-like.

Regards,

Cary


On May 9, 2009, at 9:59 AM, Chris McCormick wrote:

Hi,

Yes. Anything to break the current app-store hedgemony run by the big corporations.

Best,

Chris.

On Fri, May 08, 2009 at 03:56:18PM -0700, Cary Harper wrote:

Would anyone be interested in putting their software into an App Store
for ARM Linux Netbooks?

-------------------
http://mccormick.cx

Cary Harper

Senior Software Development Manager
Xandros, Corp.
858.774.0943  |  858.587.6700 Ext 153