Today was an amazing day for me at the Unite Nordic conference in Malmo, Sweden. I was able to attend the keynote session where Unity CEO David Helgason announced that they are making their mobile tools free to indie developers and small studios!

Unity is a leader in game development with just shy of two million developers using the tools. Now with this announcement, Unity is making it easy for any developer to bring their games to mobile devices – including the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones – and the upcoming BlackBerry Q5 smartphone.

At the keynote, David spoke about how, as game developers, we’re just at the inflection point of mobile and how mobile is surpassing other platforms in adoption. There have been many games that have proven that mobile is a profitable platform, but there is much room to grow.

Take a look oat David’s Video Announcement:

Our booth at the conference was bustling with activity. Game developers were intrigued by the BlackBerry 10 platform and we had many conversations on how they could use Unity to get their apps onto the platform.

We encourage you to take advantage of the Unity open beta for BlackBerry 10!

We’ll be posting videos as part of this series leading up to BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando in order to give some more background surrounding the topics that we’ll be discussing in detail during the conference.

In this video we’re joined by Dale Ducharme (against his will) to talk about the cool features available for gaming developers on BlackBerry 10.

With the upcoming release of BlackBerry Q10, there’s never been a better time to bring over your BlackBerry Z10 game and start monetizing on the new form factor. In this post, I will be talking about various porting considerations and best practices to help you get started and ensure that your game runs the best on Q10.

Let’s start off with the hardware differences:

The BlackBerry Q10 uses the same chipset and GPU as BlackBerry Z10 variant B with Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 and Adreno 225. The main differences that you need to consider are aspect ratio, screen size, orientation and physical keyboard.

Aspect Ratio

If you have designed your game around the 16:9 or 15:9 aspect ratio, you will need to evaluate how to layout your game content to adapt to the 1:1 aspect ratio. There are various approaches you can take to accomplish this. You might be tempted to take the easy approach of simply scaling your game screen to 1:1 aspect ratio by using letter boxing. This approach is not recommend as it could negatively impact user experience of your game.  Since The BlackBerry Q10 has a smaller screen compared to the BlackBerry Z10, you will significantly reduce the game interaction area and waste precious screen space that could otherwise be utilized for game content such as HUD or controls. For a landscape game, one approach you could take to solve this is to use a comprise aspect ratio such as 16:11.  For the BlackBerry Z10, display more content on the sides and for the BlackBerry Q10 display more content at the top and bottom.

Similarly for a portrait game (9:15 or 9:16), you can display more content at top and bottom on the BlackBerry Z10 and more content at the sides on the BlackBerry Q10. In the below example, Bejeweled 2 displays the time progress bar at the bottom on the BlackBerry Z10 and on the side on the BlackBerry Q10.

If you are using any aspect ratio specific static assets such as backgrounds, images and splash screen, they will need to be scaled accordingly. For the standard splash screen, the BlackBerry Native SDK allows you to manage multiple device specific splash screens in the same bar-descriptor. For the BlackBerry Q10 you can add a 720×720 splash screen by editing the bar-descriptor using the IDE or a text editor. Here’s an example:

<splashScreens>
        <image>splash_1280_768.png</image>
        <image>splash_720_720.png</image>
</splashScreens>
      <asset path="assets">assets</asset>
      <asset path="icon.png">icon.png</asset>
      <asset path="/Users/pratiksapra/assets/splash_1280_768.png">splash_1280_768.png</asset>
      <asset path="/Users/pratiksapra/assets/splash_720_720.png">splash_720_720.png</asset>

Once you do this, correct splash screen will be automatically chosen depending on the device your game is launched on.

Next, if your game uses overlay controls such as virtual joysticks, UI elements and menus, you will need to reposition them as needed. The best approach is to lay them out relative to screen width and height thus making them aspect ratio independent. Below is an example of a flexible UI layout used in Bard’s Tale that works on both aspect ratios.

Screen Size

The BlackBerry Q10 features a 3.1” screen surrounded by a gesture sensitive bezel. If your game uses on-screen controls, it’s important to place them away from the bottom edge of the screen to prevent accidental swipes. An accidental swipe-up gesture during game play will thumbnail your game and cause unnecessary interruption for the user.

Optimizing your game controls is also really important. For example, If your game uses dual virtual joystick control scheme, I would recommend reducing this to just one on-screen joystick.  Due to smaller screen size, the user might end up covering most of the screen when controlling both joysticks using two fingers. We will talk about a solution to this in the later part of this post.

Orientation

The BlackBerry Z10 supports portrait as the default orientation. If you are setting the orientation in the bar-descriptor for your game, you might be wondering whether this would work on the BlackBerry Q10 without the overhead of creating a separate binary with a different bar-descriptor. To make your life easy, we have made sure that both portrait and landscape orientation settings map to portrait orientation on the BlackBerry Q10. The below example shows how your game would be oriented on the BlackBerry Z10 and the BlackBerry Q10 based on the bar-descriptor orientation setting.

Input

The BlackBerry Q10 features a physical keyboard so your game needs to be aware of this. If your game contains any buttons to activate the virtual keyboard, you should make sure they are removed or disabled when the game is running on the BlackBerry Q10. Unlike the virtual keyboard, the physical keyboard is always there and can be utilized as an input mechanism.    You can combine keyboard input with touch screen to offer an intuitive and robust input scheme for your game. For example if you want to optimize the dual virtual joystick input mechanism for the BlackBerry Q10, you can substitute one of the joysticks with keyboard input. Or if your game only requires gamepad style input you can use the keyboard as a gamepad.

Integrating keyboard input in your game is super easy. To accomplish this, in your main event loop simply handle the SCREEN_EVENT_KEYBOARD event and check for the keydown value. Here’s a code snippet on how to do this:

if (screen_get_domain() == domain) {

        screen_event_t screen_event = screen_event_get_event(event);

        int screen_val;
        screen_get_event_property_iv(screen_event, SCREEN_PROPERTY_TYPE, &screen_val);

        switch (screen_val) {
        case SCREEN_EVENT_MTOUCH_TOUCH:
//handle touch events

        case SCREEN_EVENT_KEYBOARD:
            screen_get_event_property_iv(screen_event, SCREEN_PROPERTY_KEY_FLAGS, &screen_val);

            if (screen_val & KEY_DOWN) {
                screen_get_event_property_iv(screen_event, SCREEN_PROPERTY_KEY_SYM,&screen_val);

                fprintf(stderr, "The '%c' key was pressed\n", (char)screen_val);

                switch (screen_val) {
                case KEYCODE_W:
                    // Handle Up
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_A:
                    // Handle Left
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_Z:
                    // Handle Down
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_D:
                    // Handle Right 
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_L:
                    //Button A
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_P:
                    //Button B
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_K: 
                    //Button X
                    break;
                case KEYCODE_O:
                    // Button Y
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
                }
            }
            break;
        }

Tools & Deployment

To get started, you will need the latest BlackBerry Native SDK 10.1, which includes BlackBerry Q10 support. If you are running an older version please upgrade by visiting http://developer.blackberry.com/native.

To deploy your game on BlackBerry World, follow the regular process for creating a new release in the Vendor Portal. In the supported devices screen, make sure you select BlackBerry Q10.

Known Issues

There are two known issues with earlier versions of 10.1 device software that you need to be aware of.

• Audio – In-game audio playback results in complete loss of device audio and a reboot is required to restore audio.
• Orientation – If the orientation is set to landscape in the bar-descriptor, the app splash screen and system dialogs such as volume are incorrectly oriented.

Both of these issues have been fixed in the latest 10.1 device software posted at the below link so if you are running an older build please upgrade.

https://developer.blackberry.com/blackberry10devalpha/devalpha_update.html

I hope you found the information included in this post useful.  If you have any questions or feedback please leave a comment below or reach out to me directly on Twitter @pratiksapra.

The things I like to look for at these events are the technologies that have the potential to disrupt the apple cart. These revolutionary movements do more than simply evolve last year’s technology. They beg the question whether whole companies or industries will radically change and shift to address this new force, and whether or not new players will emerge as drivers in this movement. At GDC this year, I could see that such a shift is starting to take place and I’m excited that BlackBerry is actively engaged in this movement. What’s the shift? We’re starting to see mobile devices provide a console gaming experience, anywhere, anytime.

We’ve been playing games on phones for many years, why talk about this now? What’s changed?

Technology Advancement

As with many disruptive forces, a number of normal evolutionary changes take place first that, by themselves, are not disruptive. However, when brought together, they can change the game considerably and challenge an entire once-stable industry. The critical technologies all on mobile devices that are beginning to put pressure on the gaming console industry are the following:

• Multitasking Operating Systems
• High Performance GPUs
• High Definition Video (HDMI)
• Wireless Mobile Game Controllers
• Portable Game Software

When all these technology advancement come together in a smartphone, you have something very close to a game console in the palm of your hand. Each of these plays a vital role. Let’s explore the contribution of each.

Multitasking Operating Systems

A true multitasking operating system is critical for providing smooth performance and interactivity for today’s most demanding games. Not only must the OS manage the game itself, but it must also juggle location information, gyro, accelerometer and other sensors, concurrent voice or VOIP for trash-talking your friends during gameplay, and interact with the cloud and social networks for storing and sharing your results. Neither iOS nor Android has a great multitasking solution here. In contrast however, BlackBerry 10, powered by QNX Neutrino (a leading world class RTOS), is very well positioned to provide all the power necessary for managing the ever-increasing demand of concurrent functionality in the next generation of mobile games.

High Performance GPUs

GPUs render the images. Without them, our game visuals would be slow, blocky, and flat. There’s no question how important these processors are. Over the last couple of years, the advancements made by companies like ARM, Imagination, NVidia, and Qualcomm for smartphones have been enormous. It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between a game rendered by a GPU on a laptop vs. a game rendered by a smartphone GPU. Perhaps the most obvious difference has been the physical screen size. However, when you add a multitasking OS and a high performance GPU to HD Video (the next critical technology), things start to get really interesting.

High Definition Video (HDMI)

One of the things we did in the BlackBerry booth this year at GDC was connect a bunch of our BlackBerry Z10 smartphones (using the standard HDMI port) to large HD monitors. We also did this at our interactive pods in the Unity and Marmalade booths. I can’t tell you how many times people walked up and asked questions like, “Since when did BlackBerry start making game consoles?” When we told them they were looking at a game being rendered and played on the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone they had that mind blown look on their face.

In the picture above, a young gamer is playing “Shadow Gun” on a BlackBerry Z10. This is a great First Person Shooter game built on the Unity3D game engine. You can just see the Z10 on the table in front of him below the monitor. What you can’t see in this picture is the awesome SteelSeries Free game controller he’s using to play the game. That piece of critical technology is next on my list.

Wireless Mobile Game Controllers

To an awesome multitasking OS, killer GPU, and HDMI out, you add a wireless game controller and you’ve just about got the whole package. Using a controller accomplishes two important things: First, it gets your fingers off the valuable screen real estate freeing up more pixes for game play. The other benefit of the controller is that it adds that real, immersive game feeling you get with console controllers. The controllers we used at GDC are the SteelSeries Free Mobile Wireless Controllers (shown below). The last time I checked, the controller will set you back about $80USD and you can find one here. Other controllers, such as the Wii Remote and the Gametel, are also usable and there’s more to come.

For you game developers out there, you can get more information about how to instrument your code to work with these controllers including samples and tutorials by checking out Sean Paul Taylor’s devblog: “Adding Gamepad Support to Your BlackBerry 10 Game”. You can also read about Ramprasad Madhavan’s experience at GDC this year and the Unity BlackBerry 10 Open Beta coming soon on his devblog: “Unity and BlackBerry Gaming at GDC 2013”

Portable Game Engines & Frameworks

The final critical technology contributing to the end of the game console industry as we know it is portable game engines and frameworks. The easier it is to get your game ported from one platform to another, the harder it is for games to be locked to a single console or device. Companies like Marmalade, ShiVa3D, and Unity3D/Union all contribute here. As a developer, you want the highest quality game experience you can get with the largest distribution possible. This is exactly what these frameworks offer and each has been tuned to deliver a killer experience on BlackBerry 10.

Summary

I confess I own an Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and a PlayStation 3. However, I more often find myself connecting my Z10 to my 46” flat screen, the audio-out to my surround system, and kick back on the couch with my SteelSeries Free remote to enjoy a great game of Angry Bots or Critical Wave. There’s no question that smartphones like the BlackBerry Z10 are providing near console game experiences. This is being driven by advancements in 5 areas: real multitasking OS’s, high performance mobile GPUs, HD Video, mobile game controllers, and portable frameworks.

Consoles will need to adapt and add value to remain competitive. Where does that leave game consoles in the future then? Are they becoming extinct? Will smartphones replace game consoles outright? Will consoles evolve into something even better? Or, will they become the mobile extension of their stationary counterparts? As the great Yoda once said, “Always in motion the future is”.

There was one place, however, where 3D made business sense: gaming (well, native gaming). 3D enjoyed, and still enjoys, a happy existence on PC and Console platforms. The question I always wondered was when will 3D in the browser be of high enough performance and quality across all platforms and browsers to support a solid business case for 3D on the Web? I believe the time has finally come. The confluence of mobile gaming, mobile Web app development, and a solid javascript API called WebGL (a biding to the powerful and ubiquitous OpenGL), is fueling its arrival. I’m proud to say that BlackBerry has been very active in providing one of the first complete mobile WebGL implementations on the BlackBerry PlayBook, and has also brought this capability to BlackBerry 10.

WebGL provides developers with the ability to write immersive, high-performance, console-quality, 2D and 3D games accessible directly on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. This could be done directly though the browser, or even better, directly by a BlackBerry HTML5/WebWorks application. By building and packaging your HTML5 application into a bar file (a BlackBerry app file container), it enjoys the same rights and privileges as a native application. These apps look, feel, and behave as native apps, as they don’t run inside a browser context. They don’t need to be online to work, and they can leverage great BlackBerry services like the Payment Services SDK and the BBM APIs. BlackBerry WebWorks apps can also be certified as Built for BlackBerry affording them additional advantages.

The game shown below is called “Pearl Boy” and is a great example of what a WebGL application can do. It was developed by Goo Technologies, makers of the Goo Engine for GDC this year. It’s a 100% Web application, written using HTML5, Javascript, and of course, WebGL. The graphics and performance on the BlackBerry Z10 look great. Reflections, environment maps, pixel shaders, they’re all there. WebGL is the real deal.

If you want to learn more about programming with WebGL on BlackBerry, check out these additional WebGL resources on the BlackBerry DevBlog. I also recommend you check out the O’Reilly book, “WebGL: Up and Running” by Toni Parisi.

For those who don’t me, my name is Pratik Sapra and I work as a Gaming Consultant on the Developer Relations team at BlackBerry. In my role, I work with game developers on the technical side and help them bring awesome gaming titles to the BlackBerry platform. I am really looking forward to this weeks Game Developer Conference along with the rest of the BlackBerry gaming crew.

In that regard, I am very excited to share that we have a great set of in-booth sessions (Booth 1216) lined up at our GDC booth. We will be presenting a wide range of topics covering everything you need to know about game development on BlackBerry 10. You will be hearing directly from BlackBerry gaming experts on topics including Native Development, Cocos2dx, Unity, Scoreloop and many more. We will be kicking off each day with a general overview session followed by a set of how-to sessions focused on specific topics and technologies. Scroll down below for the full session schedule.

Wednesday, March 27^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Native Game Development on BlackBerry 10

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to set up a native game in under 10 minutes on BlackBerry 10

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to add gamepad support to BlackBerry 10 games

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to write an HTML 5/ WebGL game on BlackBerry 10

2:30 – 2:45PM                  How to write an Adobe AIR application on BlackBerry 10

3:00 – 3:15PM                  How to write a multiplatform game on Blackberry 10

Thursday, March 28^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Social Gaming on BlackBerry 10

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to bring your Unity 4 game to BlackBerry 10

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to port your iOS game to BlackBerry 10, Tips & Tricks

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to bring your Cocos2dx game to BlackBerry 10

3:00 – 3:15PM                  How to add Leaderboards and Achievements to BlackBerry 10 games using Scoreloop

Friday, March 29^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Building your Gaming Strategy for BlackBerry 10

10:30 – 10:45AM            How to add in-game advertising to BlackBerry 10 games

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to add in-app payment services to BlackBerry 10 games.

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to package, publish and distribute your BlackBerry 10 game on BlackBerry World

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to save BlackBerry 10 game state in the cloud

2:30 – 2:45PM                  How to convert, build and debug BlackBerry 10 games with Visual Studio

I’ve heard a lot of people claim that the gamepad is dead – doomed to be replaced by touch screens. I disagree with this sentiment.  There’s nothing wrong with mobile games using cool new control schemes that make good use of touch screens – but if I’m playing a game that was designed with gamepads in mind, like Shadowgun, why can’t I just use a real controller?

Well, now I can – and so can you. Check out gamepad support now being added in upcoming Unity 4 for BlackBerry 10:

After years of being frustrated by touch screen gamepads, I’m excited about bringing physical gamepad support to the Native SDK for BlackBerry 10. By making use of the new Gamepad API features developers can make their games work with physical controllers, giving their players the tactile responsiveness they’re used to from consoles and desktop PCs. When this is combined with BlackBerry 10’s built-in HDMI connectivity, you end up with a console experience in your pocket!

Here is another video showcasing gamepad pairing instructions and a racer sample on GamePlay3D that now supports not only desktop gamepad support but also BlackBerry 10:

Before you get started implementing this in your own game, I want to answer a few of the most common questions people ask me about the API.

1. What gamepads are supported right now?
   1. The SteelSeries Free.
   2. The Gametel.
   3. The Wii Remote.  Note that currently only the core buttons on the remote itself are supported – that means no attachments and no motion controls, just the D-Pad and other buttons.
2. If new gamepads come out, do I have to update my game to support them?
   1. No, you don’t!  When new controllers become available, we’ll update the mappings in a system update and your game will start receiving gamepad inputs from the new hardware.  Because the Gamepad API is an abstraction above HID, and because we map each gamepad’s unique HID report format to the Gamepad API, you don’t need to write any code that’s specific to a single controller.
3. Do users need to install anything to set up or configure their gamepads?
   1. No.  The Gamepad API is integrated into the Screen library, the same library you are already using to handle touch, keyboard, and other input events.  All users have to do is pair their device through the Bluetooth settings screen for it to start sending inputs to your game.

We realize there are other gamepads out there and continue to work towards supporting as many devices as possible. If you know of a Bluetooth, HID-compatible game controller that’s not supported yet, please let us know in the comments. Meanwhile, the fact that you won’t have to change your code when we add more devices to the list means you only help yourself (and your users) by starting to use this new feature right away.

Here’s a tutorial that should get you up and running. It includes plenty of code snippets and is based on this open-source sample project, which started as a little app I whipped up to test the new API. It eventually turned into a demo of two-player connectivity and a configuration screen.  I hope you find it useful.

Please, for the sake of everyone who’s ever been frustrated by touch controls, try this new feature and leave your feedback – I’m eager to do what I can to help if you have any trouble.  Most of all, I’m looking forward to playing your games with a real gamepad!

Links:

• Tutorial
• Sample code
• SteelSeries Free
• Gametel

We’re very excited to announce that BlackBerry and Unity are working together to create a Unity deployment add-on product for BlackBerry 10 smartphones, empowering Unity’s over 1.5 million strong developer community to publish their games on these powerful platforms.

The deployment tools will also be available for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets for the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS update.

BlackBerry 10 will now be one of the premiere mobile platforms supported by the market-leading Unity Engine. The deployment tool is currently in development by Unity Technologies and BlackBerry, and will be released as an add-on option for Unity.

A beta version of the Unity add-on along will be made available to a limited number of qualified developers in the spring. Unity is expecting the final release to be available in the summer of 2013.

Additionally, Unity and BlackBerry will hold developer meet up events in Europe and North America and will give qualified developer attendees Unity Pro and BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Details are coming soon, so stay tuned to BlackBerry Developers Blog.

Winner – Best App
Awarded to: Team C&N

Although computer science undergraduates Alexandre Cisneiros de Albuquerque Filho and Joselito Francisco do Nascimento Júnior share a background in web development, neither member of Team C&N had ever developed and released a mobile application. The team’s first try, ‘Teach Better’, allows teachers to integrate and automate their busy schedules, including grading, classes and appointments. Their app was awarded “Best App” at the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon in Recife, Brazil!

On developing with HTML5/BlackBerry WebWorks SDK…

“We’ve both been web developers since childhood and had used the same technologies, frameworks and techniques to develop applications. We immediately chose HTML5/BlackBerry WebWorks SDK because we thought it would make our learning curve developing a mobile app much shorter. Designing the user interface, interactions and the functionality of the app was a straightforward experience. This allowed us to focus on our ideas for the app, and not on coding patterns. The BlackBerry WebWorks SDK was also crucial in building a framework that would create an integrated user experience.”

On working with the Research In Motion (RIM) team and receiving feedback…

“The RIM developer team was more than helpful – they were essential. Although there is great documentation available on the web, nothing can substitute for having experts right by your side, coaching you along the way. We were able to ask questions, test ideas and solutions on the spot, and receive timely feedback. The entire development experience was totally worth it! We really appreciated the compliments received from the RIM team, and also the ideas for changes that helped put us on the right track to continue developing our ideas.”

On sending a lasting message to other app developers…

“The BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon was a turning point in our lives. We left the event motivated to bring our ideas to life. It was an amazing experience and speaks to the bond RIM has with its developer community. Developing for the BlackBerry 10 platform is a rewarding experience, which allows you to work with technologies that you are comfortable with. When you combine these elements, it keeps everyone very motivated to continue developing!”

Winner – Best E-Commerce App
Awarded to: Team Steam

As a team with prior experience developing on the Android platform but only limited exposure to BlackBerry smartphone development, Team Steam wanted to take part in the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon in Recife, Brazil to learn about how to port their Android applications. After a few hours, Team Steam – made up of two developers and one designer – walked away with the prize for Best E-Commerce App!

On the ‘Search My Car’ application…

“The application leverages GPS functionality to locate your car and then trace a route to you. It also allows you to locate nearby gas stations.”

On deciding to participate at the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon…

“We didn’t have a deep level of experience developing for the BlackBerry platform, since most of our background was in Android development. When we found out the Hackathon event was coming to Recife, we saw it as an excellent opportunity to develop our app idea on the BlackBerry platform. It was an amazing experience for all of us. We want to develop for the BlackBerry 10 platform because we see it as a new market opportunity, and because it’s a unique chance to be a pioneer in the development of applications for an exciting new platform.”

On using the BlackBerryRuntime for Android tool to port their application…

“With our collective backgrounds in web development, the BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps was a good way to overcome our lack of experience with the BlackBerry platform and take advantage of the opportunity to develop an application on it. We were able to leverage the Google Maps API in the application.”

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Winner – Best App
Awarded to: BB Rocks

University students: Felipe Bonezi, Vinícius Araújo, Marcos Vinícius Silva and Vinícius Dias decided to combine their wide range of mobile app development experience and participate in the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’s a good thing they did – the team’s submission, Beegoo, was named “Best App!”

On their winning app, Beegoo…

“Many people want the convenience of a car but don’t own one. As a way to help minimize the impact of the greenhouse effect, we developed Beegoo. Beegoo is a carpooling social network where people can either offer or solicit rides with others. The main goal of the app is to minimize the need for all members of the social network to own a car. The Beegoo app has the potential to do both social and environmental good.”

On developing with Cascades++…

The BB Rocks team has a lot of experience developing for other platforms and the Beegoo app was the team’s first time working with Research In Motion. “We studied Cascades++ a couple weeks before participating in the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon and it was really easy to learn. We were able to leverage our past experience with C++ and Qt. Cascades™++ really does a lot of the work for you. The interface builder is really easy to understand and we developed our user interface using C++ and the Qt Modeling Language.

On participating in the Hackathon and working with Research In Motion…

“The BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon was a great venue to learn new solutions to meet our development needs, make friends and do some great networking. We learned a new programming language and won the challenge, so there isn’t anything better than that! RIM is a company devoted to developers. We feel that the future is very promising for the BlackBerry 10 platform.”

Winner – Best Red Bull App
Awarded to: Team Red Bull A-Z

Team Red Bull A-Z features talented students and developers with experience primarily focused on web development. Their Red Bull A-Z app is actually the first mobile application anyone on the team has ever developed!

On their winning app, “Red Bull A-Z”…

“The application is essentially a message aggregator that users can launch to follow a live event. For example, if the user is watching a mixed martial arts fight, they can follow all of the real-time messages that are coming in from a variety of social networks.”

On deciding to participate in the BlackBerry Jam Session Hackathon…

“Events like this are always great for developers. The Hackathon was particularly important for us because we had never developed a mobile application, and didn’t know very much about the BlackBerry 10 platform. If we had any questions, the Research In Motion team was more than happy to help. Their feedback was also very helpful.”

On choosing to develop with the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR…

“One of our team members had extensive experience in web development, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Adobe ActionScript 3, so he set the environment one day before the event. It was a real benefit to be able to choose between a broad range of work flows, editors, SDK versions and different ways to compile and deploy the project. We used FDT and the Flex SDK to edit and compile the project. Once we did all the configurations, it was very easy to configure the other computers in the same way. We loved being able to work with Adobe AIR, especially since one of our team members had so much experience with Adobe ActionScript 3. Research In Motion clearly did its homework!”