Tizen publishing support.

CodeWizard

We've recently launched Tizen publishing support. Here are some high-level instructions for how to use this new platform. We'll be preparing a more detailed writeup on Cookbook soon. Enjoy!

Preparing your game

Tizen supports multiple screen sizes. The first wave of devices will be 16:9 aspect phones, similar to iPhone 5+ and popular Android models. If your game layout and images are designed for iPhone 5, your game will also look great on Tizen without any additional changes. If the game targets a different aspect ratio, like iPad, then your game will be letterboxed for Tizen devices.

Tizen will soon support In-App Purchase features in its store. GameSalad will support IAP when the store becomes available to the public. Before then, you may prefer to publish your game with IAP elements removed.

Publishing the app binary

As with other platforms, publish your game with Creator (Mac or Windows), then configure and download the app binary from the Tizen tab of your GameSalad portfolio. Tizen apps are called “widgets” with the .wgt file extension. You will submit a .wgt file to the Tizen store but you first need to sign it. Using Tizen’s SDK tools, you will generate a new .wgt from the one you downloaded.

Preparing your computer to work with .wgt files

Install the Tizen SDK from www.tizen.org. The SDK is available for Mac and Windows. The instructions and examples below are for Mac. The default installation directory is ~/tizen-sdk, which will be assumed below.

To build and sign your apps, you need to generate an author certificate:

1. Open Tizen IDE.

2. The first time, you will be asked to create a workspace directory. This is the directory where your app projects will be saved. We’ll save it at ~/tizen-workspace.

3. Click “Workbench” to open the project editor.

4. Open the “Preferences…” window, navigate to Tizen SDK > Security Profiles

5. Under the Profiles section, click Add a profile, name it “gamesalad”

6. Under the Author Certificate section, Generate a profile. Remember: the filename and alias aren’t important. “gamesalad” is fine, for password enter anything you like, and the other fields are optional.

7. OK to exit Preferences. These settings will now be used for all your Tizen apps.

Testing on a device without signing

You can do ad-hoc testing on device before building or signing the app.

1. On the device, enable “USB debugging” found in Settings > Developer options.

2. Connect the device to computer with USB cable.

3. Open Terminal.

4. Execute the SDB install command. In this example, the .wgt was saved to the Desktop. Replace the example file path with the real save location of your .wgt binary.

~/tizen-sdk/tools/sdb install ~/Desktop/MyGreatProject.wgt

Generating a signed app binary

1. Open Tizen IDE.

2. File menu > Import…, choose Tizen > Web Projects and Widget file

3. Choose “Select widget file:” and Browse to the .wgt file you download from GameSalad. The IDE does not allow two projects with the same name. If you are importing the same file twice, you will need to delete the previous project first.

4. The Tizen IDE will open the app project and copy it to a new directory under your workspace folder.

5. In the Project Explorer, select the project you just imported.

6. Project menu > Build Project

7. The Tizen IDE will generate a new .wgt file under the new project directory. The signature certificate is automatically added as part of the build process. This is the binary file that you will submit to the Tizen Store.

Submitting to the Tizen Store

1. Sign up at seller.tizenstore.com. There are no fees to sign up or submit apps.

2. Follow the process to create a new app. Refer to Tizen’s help and documentation for the most accurate instructions.

3. Like other platforms, you’ll be prompted for icons, screenshots, description text, web links, etc.

4. When prompted to upload the binary, choose the .wgt file that was generated in the Tizen IDE workspace. Based on the examples above, this file location would be:

~/tizen-workspace/MyGreatProject/MyGreatProject.wgt

quantumsheep

Gratz!

beefy_clyro

Interesting. How would resolutions look when a game has been made for say iphone legacy but has rules in that say if its the iphone 5 resolution then adjust camera accordingly? (made for crop on publishing so you lose no screen estate)

jonmulcahy

cool, any info on where to get a testing device?

lds

I just don't know why Tizen publishing is more important and popular than Windows Phone 8. We don't even have any device to test, don't have any customer to sale, while WP8 we have all of this. i think WP8 publishing is more interesting.

Hopscotch

You can always buy the Tizen Fridge to test on )

http://www.tizenexperts.com/2013/11/samsung-tizen-smart-fridge-ces-2014/

This is no dig at you @CodeWizard, I think it is great to be an early player in an emerging market. As volatile as the market trends are nobody can predict if this is going to be a hit or a miss. Tizen definately has all the industry names backing it, so it should be taken seriously.

quantumsheep

You can always buy the Tizen Fridge to test on )

http://www.tizenexperts.com/2013/11/samsung-tizen-smart-fridge-ces-2014/

*Makes a new spin-off game called 'Food Supply'...*

Hopscotch

Way ahead of you @quantumsheep

My platform/shooter "Refriginator" is done,
so is my dating app "For Butter or Wurst"

BBEnk

You can always buy the Tizen Fridge to test on )

http://www.tizenexperts.com/2013/11/samsung-tizen-smart-fridge-ces-2014/

This is no dig at you @CodeWizard, I think it is great to be an early player in an emerging market. As volatile as the market trends are nobody can predict if this is going to be a hit or a miss. Tizen definately has all the industry names backing it, so it should be taken seriously.

Will you actually be able to download a game on your Tizen enabled fridge?

Hopscotch

@BBEnk

I would guess yes, the current T9000 runs apps

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a449398/samsung-unveils-linux-touchscreen-fridge-with-apps.html

The connected home is the whole marketing drive behind this, therefor it would be nearsighted of Samsung not to enable this. The Tizen fridge is supposed to have WiFi and be usable as a central storage medium (over than food :P )

kinzua

You can always buy the Tizen Fridge to test on )

http://www.tizenexperts.com/2013/11/samsung-tizen-smart-fridge-ces-2014/

This is no dig at you @CodeWizard, I think it is great to be an early player in an emerging market. As volatile as the market trends are nobody can predict if this is going to be a hit or a miss. Tizen definately has all the industry names backing it, so it should be taken seriously.

Will you actually be able to download a game on your Tizen enabled fridge?

Don't know about a game, but it should certainly notify you when your beer is chilled enough! ) ) ) ) ) )

Though, as promised Tizen support is here, up and running. Good work GS. Tizen seems like a promising platform and GS has opened up a possibility for GS users to be early adopters. Good work again.

jonmulcahy

I just don't know why Tizen publishing is more important and popular than Windows Phone 8. We don't even have any device to test, don't have any customer to sale, while WP8 we have all of this. i think WP8 publishing is more interesting.

a contract was signed, Tizen paid for GS to add support. money makes the world go round!

dgackey

The other thing to consider from a business standpoint is the reality that the App Store and Google Play are *very* saturated markets. Being first on a new platform is often a great way to build brand awareness and make money in a less competitive space.

Reports coming out this week that user aquisition costs for iOS are now exceeding lifetime ARPU, so you end up with a scenario where the old model of "make a great game, put it on the App store, get featured, get rich" are orders of magnitude more difficult to pull off.

So, adding another platform to your repertoire increases your chances of making money on your games, AND it's a platform that is uniquely suited for GS developers due to the hardware being designed for broad adoption and HTML5 powered content.

There are a lot of people all over the world who will never be able to buy an iPhone or Droid, but the Tizen device may be perfect for them. The developers who build a relationship with that audience now will have a huge advantage over those who follow the trends later.

kolabo

@dgackey "it's a platform that is uniquely suited for GS developers due to the hardware being designed for broad adoption and HTML5 powered content."

Everytime I hear html5 my ears start tingling.

I downloaded a Tizen sample project from their website and looked inside. So many familiar items: html, javascript, json. Do we get to see our GameSalad's Tizen builds like that?

The reason I'm asking is that some GameSalad users "sell their services to build games or apps for others", and I wonder if that is a market that GameSalad is overlooking.

We would really benefit from being able to export our games, apps, books, ads and client projects as html5. Is this something that you are looking at?

ChirpinGames

Awesome!

ChirpinGames

Does gamesalad build the app as a html5 app?

TheSkin

Interesting. How would resolutions look when a game has been made for say iphone legacy but has rules in that say if its the iphone 5 resolution then adjust camera accordingly? (made for crop on publishing so you lose no screen estate)

stretch mode is needed... stretch mode simplify porting of no 16:9 game.
When GS release fully functionally stretch mode?

TheSkin

Being Tizen based on HTML5, I expect a significant decrease in performance. Someone has already done the test?

@ CodeWizard Compared to an iPhone 5, what are the performance?

kinzua

Interesting. How would resolutions look when a game has been made for say iphone legacy but has rules in that say if its the iphone 5 resolution then adjust camera accordingly? (made for crop on publishing so you lose no screen estate)

stretch mode is needed... stretch mode simplify porting of no 16:9 game.
When GS release fully functionally stretch mode?

There is no need for a stretch mode for Tizen if your app is optimised for iPhone5. I just ran a check for device sizes. The two resolutions that Tizen will be supporting for now will 1.25x and 0.75x the iPhone 5 size. So one won't face much of an issue. You can publish your iPhone5 app with either overscan or letterbox. @CodeWizard If you could confirm for the same.

I have no Tizen device to test, so can't really comment on performance or overall operation issues. Will have to wait and see.

CodeWizard

From the original post:

Tizen supports multiple screen sizes. The first wave of devices will be 16:9 aspect phones, similar to iPhone 5+ and popular Android models. If your game layout and images are designed for iPhone 5, your game will also look great on Tizen without any additional changes. If the game targets a different aspect ratio, like iPad, then your game will be letterboxed for Tizen devices.

I think that covers things. Do you agree, @kinzua?

EOS

@CodeWizard Is any of the work you guys did fixing up HTML5 for Tizen going to cross over into web publishing (such as custom screen sizes or portrait mode).

kinzua

From the original post:

Tizen supports multiple screen sizes. The first wave of devices will be 16:9 aspect phones, similar to iPhone 5+ and popular Android models. If your game layout and images are designed for iPhone 5, your game will also look great on Tizen without any additional changes. If the game targets a different aspect ratio, like iPad, then your game will be letterboxed for Tizen devices.

I think that covers things. Do you agree, @kinzua?

@CodeWizard, agreed! >- That's all you need to know.

CodeWizard

@EOS
Yes. Same engine.

Photics

Yes. Same engine.

That's cool. Does that mean HTML5 exporting to local files is on the way?

Also, will HTML5 be editable? Like, what if we want to customize it? Is that cool too?

neoman

cool, any info on where to get a testing device?

@CodeWizard Can someone shed some light on how we can get a test device ??? I would like to test any games I release as an Ad Hoc before they are released on the AppStore for the best user experience possible ... Thanks in advance ... ;-)

ChirpinGames

I'm getting the following rejection note from the Tizen team and therefore cannot publish to Tizen:

[Function] Abnormal operation when BACK key interruption occurs
[Defect]
The application is previous page does not appear when the BACK key is pressed.
Ref: Please build your application on the latest SDK as possible.(SDK2.2)

[Procedure]
1. Run the application.
2. Start the game and play. > Press the BACK key.
3. Check that the application operates as expected.

[Expected Result]
When the BACK key is pressed, the application must the previous page must appear.

CodeWizard

Yeah. We're adding back button support to the Tizen engine (with Android hot on it's tail). More news soon.

Hymloe

I've really lost track of where Game Salad's HTML output is at. Last time I checked it was a really un-usable 480x320 Game Salad Arcade embedded thing, which was basically useless to everyone.

Will there be an update soon letting us know what our HTML / Web Game output could look like in the future?

colander

I looked at the sdk downloads on https://developer.tizen.org/downloads/tizen-sdk There are two for mac Mac OS X® (Intel) and Mac OS X® (Intel,CLI) What is CLI and how do I know which one I need for my iMac?

neoman

@colander CLI just means command line interface ... Just like a DOS window or a Unix/Mac shell terminal window ... You can use either provided you have an Intel based mac. The CLI version will just give you command line tools ... I have not investigated Tizen SDK yet. I personally would go with the CLI version even if you don't use the tools but if you need them they will be there ... That should answer your question ... ;-)

mcrtom

Regarding the back button, does that mean we can't publish for Tizen then?