Completing RIM's keynote sessions at BlackBerry DevCon Europe 2012 was Chris Smith, veep, application platform and tools.
Highlighting features of the forthcoming PlayBook 2.0 OS, plus the BlackBerry 10 platform, the majority of his talk focused on general app development.
However there was a section specifically about games and the native C/C++ SDK that's now available for PlayBook.
"PlayBook 2.0 and BB10 enables console-quality games on a mobile device," he stated, also pointing to the potential for social gaming that will be made available through the BBM and Scoreloop integration in the 2.0 upgrade thanks due in February or March.
Hopefully, we'll learn more about those particular elements in the afternoon sessions.
Bittersweet
As for current development tools, Smith invited Alex Caccia, CEO of UK middleware company Marmalade to the stage.
He highlighted some of the games that had been created using the Marmalade framework, which supports a wide range of mobile and now TV platforms.
"We were the first native SDK to support PlayBook," Caccia pointed out.
Game that were demoed included Backbreaker 2 Vengeance, which was developed by its sister outfit Ideaworks, and ZeptoLab's Cut the Rope, which uses Scoreloop for its social network.
Another Marmalade-developed title doing well on PlayBook is Artofbytes' Grave Defense HD.
"It's a good example of why developers should work on new platform as the game is very popular on App World but it got lost a little on other stores," Caccia said.
More than a browser
Something else that Smith discussed, if briefly, was HTML5.
"We are committed to leading support for HTML5," he stated.
"Everything we do supports cross-platform standards and we will have unparallel support for HTML5 on PlayBook 2.0 OS."
His vision was that developers could use HTML5 as a hybrid technology; it providing a distribution layer and basic functionality that could be enriched with Javascript, CSS, and integration with native apps and services such as BBM.
"It's about taking HTML5 beyond the browser," he said.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
News
Feb 7th, 2012
BBDevCon 2012: RIM-owned cross-platform gaming network Scoreloop now has 25 million MAUs
News
Feb 7th, 2012
BBDevCon 2012: RIM's Sean Paul Taylor on providing robust game development tools for BlackBerry
Top Stories
Feature
Apr 25th, 2024
"Gaming in MENA is just starting. Investment will bring more attention to the region and create more opportunities"
Feature
Apr 24th, 2024
48 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, CSR 3, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Events
Esports Future Summit | Middle East | Apr 27th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
The MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 | Middle East | May 2nd |
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Popular Stories
News
Apr 23rd, 2024
Supercell’s Squad Busters soft launches today with over 100,000 Google Play downloads
Feature
Apr 24th, 2024