Project Anarchy: a free mobile 3D game engine

Havok, the folks behind games such as Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops have released a free 3D mobile game engine. Called Project Anarchy, the toolset enables developers (or #HKUiSAD students) to develop and publish games on iOS and Android. The toolset can be installed from here.

Havok™ announces today that it has publicly launched Project Anarchy, Havok’s complete end-to-end mobile 3D game production engine. Games developed using Project Anarchy technology can be deployed for free on iOS, Android and Tizen mobile platforms without commercial restrictions on company size or revenue.

See the original press release here.

 

So what’s the catch?

To help Havok make Project Anarchy free for iOS, Android and Tizen we only ask for a few things in return. First and foremost we’d encourage you to become part of the Project Anarchy community and join us in making Project Anarchy a great place to make awesome games. Secondly we’d like the opportunity to do some co-marketing with you when you come to ship your game. We won’t be able to work with everyone that ships a title but when you sign up we do ask that you agree to Havok having the option, and don’t worry – we don’t bite! Thirdly, if you have created a game targeting Android (or another platform that supports x86 devices such as Tizen) that you plan to upload to an app store, the license requires that you build an equivalent x86-compatible version of the game and upload it alongside any other versions that you have built.

See here for more.

 

Below is the video with Project Anarchy in action.

 

Here is the original trailer.

Related articles

• Havok launches free 3D game engine for mobile (gamasutra.com)
• Havok’s Completely Free 3D Engine For Mobile Game Developers Is Now Available (techcrunch.com)
• Havok puts flexibility first for 3D mobile games (develop-online.net)

 

App Monetization & Growth Cross-Promotion

A new startup, Appfuel.me,  offers App developers a free and easy way to leverage the strengths of cross-promotion. The SDK enables app developers (or #HKUiSAD students) to promote their app on other apps for free via a reciprocal arrangement and also get paid to promote sponsored apps.  Appfuel also provides a dashboard with real time analytics. The Android and iOS SDKs can be found here.

Cross-promotion between apps is a big part of the ecosystem, but CEO Andrew Boos said Appfuel is unique because of its simplicity. Developers add a “suggested apps” unit to their own apps, and they can either grow their user base by getting a reciprocal recommendation in another app, or they can earn money by running sponsored suggestions — or rather, with Appfuel, they do a mix of both

See original article here.

Related articles

• Appfuel Is A Simple Way For App Developers To Balance Monetization And Growth (techcrunch.com)
• Reasons To Cross-Promote Your App (theappentrepreneur.com)

Platform Wars 3.0: Resources for making Windows Apps

A list of resources for building Apps for Windows 8

 

One of the biggest criticisms of Windows 8 has been the lack of apps for the platform. [Besides the confusion that is reigning supreme due to Microsoft launching 3 different operating systems and app stores with the same / similar names].

 

Image via Microsoft

Microsoft has been ‘priming the pump’ by releasing a series of resources for developers. The ongoing BUILD development conference in Redmond is the first in a series of steps in this direction. Microsoft is also hosting Windows Store App Labs in 30 other physical locations around the globe.

 

With 10,000 apps and counting, the Windows App Store seems set for explosive growth. Below is a list of resources from Microsoft to help you get started:

 

1. The BUILD website

 

2. Windows Store App Labs

Windows Store App Labs are physical locations in more than 30 cities where you can access Windows 8 devices, get design help, and meet with Windows experts to make your app great. All for free!

 

3. Sample code for printing from a Windows 8 App

Basic code for printing from a Windows 8 App is below:

To get your printing support started, all you need to do is to add these lines of code to your app.

// Register for print contract
var printManager = Windows.Graphics.Printing.PrintManager.getForCurrentView();
printManager.onprinttaskrequested = onPrintTaskRequested;
    function onPrintTaskRequested(printEvent) {
        printEvent.request.createPrintTask("Print Sample", function (args) {
            args.setSource(MSApp.getHtmlPrintDocumentSource(document));
        });
    }

 

4. Code samples for Windows 8 Apps

This sample pack includes all the app code examples developed for Windows 8. The sample pack provides a convenient way to download all the samples at once. The samples in this sample pack are available in C#, C++, VB.NET, and JavaScript

 

5. Documentation for the Windows 8 App Store

Includes a Getting Started article.

Begin building Windows apps quickly and easily. Our getting started guide walks you through the essentials of writing your first app.

 

6. Code samples for Windows Phone 8

 

7. SDK for Windows Phone 8

The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 enables you to develop apps for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 devices

 

8. To top it all registration for the Windows Phone 8 Developer Center has been dropped to $8 for the next 8 days (instead of the usual $100).

Windows Phone 8 is out, the tools are available, and devices are about to be released—it’s time to get coding. As an added incentive, for the next 8 days individual developers can register for a Dev Center account for just $8 (a 92 percent savings). Please note because this is a very limited time offer. You’ll be charged $99 USD or equivalent in your local currency, and we’ll refund the difference in the next 30 to 45 days. Watch for more details on Dev Center soon.

Box.net trying to create a developer ecosystem

Box.net has announced the launch of the Box Innovation Network, an platform to support and engage with developers who use the Box.net API in their apps. Following its 50 gb giveaway, Box.net now has 8+ million users and has evolved into a collaboration platform, providing integration with several enterprise applications including Salesforce and Google Apps.

Read more at Box Innovation Network: Innovation in Enterprise Software is Possible | The Box Blog.

HipGeo API for Location Based Apps

HipGeo has launched an API that allows iOS developers to the incorporate location-based features, such as geo tracking and tagging, of the HipGeo app, into their 3rd-party apps. This provides options which go beyond the check-in features that the FourSquare API offers. The toolkit also includes widgets that allow developers to incorporate location-based features in web apps and pages.

HipGeo widgets are the really easy way to add where to your when. With a little cut and paste magic, you can show where something happened with a cool popup map.

Image via iTunes

Image via iTunes

Access the API here and the HioGeo iTunes page here.

Read more at HipGeo Releases Public API to Add “Where” to Your “When”.

Siri like experience now universally possible due to Zypr

Pioneer has released a cloud-based, Siri like platform, named Zypr. Zypr’s API provides developers with a toolkit to develop voice-enabled solutions for a variety of web applications, web services and social networks. By enabling single sign-on and multi-platform profiles, Zypr API makes voice-enabled web services mashups a possibility.

Zypr bridges the disparate worlds of mobile devices, Web apps, consumer electronics and automotive infotainment by bringing normalized Web services mashups to all of these platforms, with the added functionality of unique, conversational voice-control commands.

Image via Zypr

Using Zypr, developers can create mobile Apps that can use voice commands to access and mix a multitude of services, including Facebook and Amazon.

Web services currently supported by Zypr that can be mashed up and applied in new ways using voice control include Facebook®, Twitter®, Google®, Yelp®, AccuWeather®, INRIX® real-time and predictive traffic information, Slacker® Radio, Tuner2™ Radio, Wcities™, xAd™ and VoiceBox® with other services coming soon. As a Web-based API, Zypr works on all platforms supporting HTTPS access, including HTML5, iOS®, Android™ and Java®.

Access the API here.

Read more at Pioneer Announces Availability of Zypr | Zypr.

Using Layar Vision to implement Augmented Reality

Layar Vision, which is an extension of the Layar Augmented Reality browser,  offers another means by which iOS and Android App developers can use Augmented Reality (AR) to interact with physical objects. Compared to the Qualcomm AR SDK, the Layar Vision API takes a different approach by pushing the image identification processes to the server-side and having a usage based freemium pricing mechanism.

Below are a few videos of the power and potential of this product.

 

Here is a video introducing Layar Vision.

 

More explanations of Layar Vision

 

A sample of three applications

 

Read more about the API and associated toolkit here.

Related articles

• Layar now augments reality on BlackBerry (intomobile.com)
• Qualcomm’s Augmented Reality SDK (abhishekkathuria.wordpress.com)
• Augmented Reality: Layar Creation Challenge winners (wired.com)

Qualcomm’s Augmented Reality SDK

Qualcomm‘s Augmented Reality (AR) SDK allows developers to design Android and iOS apps that can augment a live image from a camera  with superimposed virtual content (such as graphics, data, media, etc). The SDK, which is distributed free, provides several features, including virtual buttons, 3D objects, frame markers and targets.

Here is a video of the sample apps that are provided in the SDK

The below video of the winners of the Qualcomm AR Challenge (from Feb 2011) helps to fully appreciate the power of this toolkit.

Download the SDK here.

Read more at Augmented Reality | Products and Services | Qualcomm.

Related articles

• Amazon’s new augmented reality app (abhishekkathuria.wordpress.com)

Developing apps using Box.net API

Following its hugely successful 50gb giveaway, Box.net is an attractive platform with which to integrate mobile apps. The Box.net mobile API augments its base API to provide additional resources to mobile developers. However, compared to the recently released Dropbox API, this toolkit seems to be lacking in some security and usability features. Guess an update is round the corner.

Image via CrunchBase

Get sample code at Box Platform Developer Documentation / ApiExamples.

Read more at Box Platform Developer Documentation / BoxPlatformMobile.

DropBox API for Apps

Dropbox has released an API for mobile and web apps. This API will enable tighter integration of Dropbox with third-party apps due to its implementation of non-password security (no need to share your Dropbox password with third-party apps) and single folder access. The API also allows search and sharing of Dropbox documents from within other apps.

Image by darkpollo via Flickr

Read more at The Dropbox Blog » Blog Archive » The Dropbox API!.

Related articles

• Dropbox Raises $250M In Funding, Boasts 45 Million Users (techcrunch.com)