The BlackBerry presence at GDC wasn’t just to showcase the powerful platform and tools we provide for game developers, it was also to show those developers and designers how they can be successful on BlackBerry 10.

Our booth was a reflection of our message to the game development communities. We played host to evangelists, consultants, platform developers, technical leads, marketing guys, documentation writers, and game developers. We demonstrated that we are here to support developers and entrepreneurs – this is how we relate to developers all around the world and how we want to connect with game developers as well!

At GDC we shared the news of our partnership with Unity- expanding the possibilities that developers have to create and bring titles to BlackBerry 10. We also had special guests join us on stage to share stories on how successful they were with their titles on BlackBerry 10.

We showcased some of the great game titles already available on BlackBerry 10 and gamers took advantage of the opportunity to play on the BlackBerry Z10. The busiest part of the booth was where we showed off gaming on the BlackBerry Z10 with Shadowgun using our Gamepad API and the HDMI output of the BlackBerry Z10 as a true console replacement.

People who came into our booth were mostly looking for opportunities. People that left the booth were thrilled about BlackBerry 10 and the opportunities our platform provides.

I was absolutely moved at the end of the 36 hour event when things went quiet and I saw the constant stream of “#BB10Believe” and “I Believe” in the chat window.  I just spent 36 hours with an incredible group of people from around the globe.  Together we chatted, coded, solved problems and created game apps for BlackBerry® 10.  We also had a few laughs!

The number of people that submitted more than five and 10 apps was staggering!  As per the Program Terms and Conditions, the first ten qualified participants to submit 10 approved apps will receive a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and the first one hundred qualified participants to submit between five and 10 apps will receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device.  I was so astounded by the positive response and the number of apps we received, that I went back my team and suggested we do something for the rest of the developers that submitted the required number of apps but were not one of the first 100 or 10 qualifiers for a reward in their category.

As a result, we decided to give away ten additional trips and twenty additional BlackBerry Dev Alpha test devices!  On Dec 16, we will conduct a draw to give away ten more trips to the Game Developers Conference and twenty BlackBerry Dev Alpha testing devices.  The draw for the trips will be open to all those developers who submitted 10 or more approved apps during the BlackBerry Got Game Port-A-Thon Program Period and who have not already qualified for the trip.  The draw for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices will be open to all those developers who submitted five or more but less than 10 approved apps during the BlackBerry Got Game Port-A-Thon Program Period and who have not already qualified for the BlackBerry Dev Alpha testing device.

By the end of this week, we will send all eligible developers an email outlining the delivery details of your reward.. We anticipate that qualified vendors will receive their rewards in two to four weeks once we have confirmation that all the apps have been approved.

Here are more details which really impressed me!  There were 645 developers that participated in the live event and 520 developers that are eligible for rewards.  Over 2,000 apps were created for the BlackBerry 10 OS.

Thank you once again to all that participated in the event!

To get a firsthand account of how the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook OS and the Scoreloop SDK beta will help BlackBerry game developers, I sat down with Eudaimonia CEO, Ezequiel D’Amico. Eudaimonia is a game development and publishing studio based in Buenos Aires that focuses on online and mobile games with social components, using their proprietary engine for cross-platform development (Ezequiel is also speaking at BlackBerry DevCon Americas during the DEV15 – Game Makers Dream: The BlackBerry Native SDK for BlackBerry PlayBook OS session, so be sure to check it out).

Where does BlackBerry fit in today’s mobile gaming ecosystem? What is most surprising about BlackBerry games?

BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook are great platforms to deliver cutting edge games and applications. BlackBerry has an incredible audience for games, despite what people might think. The average BlackBerry user wants great gaming applications on their mobile device.

With the global success of the BlackBerry platform and through distribution on BlackBerry App World, we have achieved incredible success in the development and publishing of MTV Entertainment applications; a global brand that is highly focused on reaching young people with their fresh and cool entertainment content.

What makes BlackBerry the top mobile gaming platform from your perspective?

We believe in making BlackBerry smartphones the top mobile gaming platform. With the availability of new hardware and the great development tools available, there is not a single reason to not believe this.

BlackBerry App World has unique advantages compared to other application stores, as it holds the biggest market share here in Latin America and the second biggest worldwide; more than 165M BlackBerry smartphones have been shipped.

We just need to start delivering high quality games, focusing on great user experiences, in order to achieve this goal. There is a huge market out there waiting for our games.

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How is the introduction of the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook significant for you and what new opportunities does it present?

Primarily, this was an enabler for us to integrate the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet into our MoWeb! engine. This greatly facilitates our ability to quickly bring great games to the device. Also, with the availability of the Scoreloop SDK beta, we are able to easily integrate social features that are now so critical to succeeding on mobile platforms. We are proud to be launching an original and extraordinary social game at BlackBerry DevCon Americas, showcasing the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet‘s gaming capabilities combined with the social features powered by Scoreloop.

These two tools were the key factors in developing our plans for 2012 – to deliver a very high quality game every single month and revolutionize the games on BlackBerry.

You mention how social integration has become critical to success on mobile platforms, why is this and from Eudamonia’s perspective, what makes a social application successful?

Everyday human activities are social; working, playing sports, even studying is a social interaction between teacher and student. Therefore, it is only natural for users to have social interactions when playing games on their mobile devices.

But social is not enough. You need it to be viral so that the app can essentially distribute and spread itself. If the app quality is high enough, the user experience is excellent and enjoyable to play, people will instinctively want to share it with their friends.

With the availability of the Scoreloop SDK beta for the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook, developers now have suite of social gaming features available to them. Can you share your integration experience?

Integrating Scoreloop features was very straightforward. They have really good documentation supporting their APIs, making it incredibly easy to integrate social features into our games. With the availability of the Scoreloop SDK beta, we can make any of our games social with very little effort, allowing us to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences and maintaining our reputation for developing high quality apps.

What has been the key to Eudaimonia’s success as a mobile entertainment developer and publisher?

MoWeb!, our proprietary engine, is the only cross-platform engine that is compatible with many of the BlackBerry OS smartphones. With our technology, we have developed award-winning games for very well known and established brands such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, MTV and Discovery Kids. With the introduction of the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook, we have been able to expand the capability of MoWeb! to that platform.

What is Eudaimonia’s plan for success in 2012?

Our plans for 2012 are quite simple: make BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook our new top gaming platforms, develop very high quality games, and deliver one rocking game every single month of the year. Creating blockbusters for these platforms will make all other game development studios turn their attention to bringing their content to BlackBerry, generating a gaming revolution.