RIM at it again - Free PlayBook & Marmalade License

RIM are at it again with the PlayBook giveaways. This time they’ve teamed up with Marmalade to offer a free PlayBook and one year Marmalade license.

The deal is you get a 6 month license for the BlackBerry part of Marmalade and a PlayBook on loan. Get your app into the app store (see the T&Cs for full details) and you get to keep the PlayBook and have your license upgraded to one year for all platforms (indie license).

Here’s the link:

http://www.madewithmarmalade.com/blackberry?destination=blackberry

Hi falo,
is it required to use Marmalade to access to this offer?
Do I need to rewrite my game using Marmalade?

Good question. I had to have a think about that as didn’t remember it being specified, but I think this part of the T&Cs does suggest that to be the case.

Qualifying Vendors and Qualifying Indie Vendors that
i) create an app using the Marmalade SDK
ii) submit it to Blackberry® App World™ during the offer period
iii) the app is approved for sale on Blackberry® App World™ as per the Blackberry® App World™ Vendor Guidelines.

I think for new game it make sense but for an existing game it’s a waste of time.
Anyway I’m not sure I like Marmalade.
They offer C++ (rubbish) and HTML5 (rubbish^2).
I’ll stick with Java and libgdx. :slight_smile:
It was nice the previous offer to give PlayBook just porting an existing game but now it’s a big job.
Anyway it looks like they want your game first on BlackBerry® App World™. In fact the license is only for BlackBerry® App World™ and if you want to publish on other platforms you need or to buy a license or to wait that you game get approved and have the complete license from them.

What’s wrong with C++??? :stuck_out_tongue:

I think it’s reasonable they’re asking for BB first given RIM are paying for the devices, but for anyone with a new idea to develop and some C++ knowse it might be a good way to get cross platform quickly.

hi falo,
everything is wrong with c++ :slight_smile:

Only if you don’t know it. I recommend reading Stroustrup books then. I don’t think it’s best suited for developing small apps though. I would go for it gladly for larger projects and things that require full control and performance.
Fun comparison: when I was writing my master thesis I tried using C# .NET but then moved the class without many changes to C++ because C# was a little slow. The difference in speed was… 200x (the app was mostly multiplying doubles in tree structure - neural networks). It was .NET 1.0 though or sth like that, long time ago, the reason was probably that it was boxing every field and there was no workaround then. :slight_smile:

Magnesus,
I think only in very specific case make sense to use c++ : drivers, OS and CPU intensive processes.
In most of the case is going to be a waste of time and very confusing. I had some experience with c++ but I never like it! :slight_smile:
I don’t see the point for Android because most of the time you can use external library done in c++ but usable in Java : for instance libgdx.

There are more use cases where I would go for C++ (I don’t like C or ObjC though!), but mostly I agree - for Android there is not much sense in using it as a main language. Also you have to know C++ very, very well to feel comfortable in it (I think after the years I would have problems today using it again for sth more complicated without relearning a lot of stuff).

C++ is not per defintion the faster approach - indeed nowadays you can develop without performance loss with C# … problem is: you have to know how you do it. even games are no problem at all - it’s a bit like java (where java will never have the speed of a c++ implementation)

Greatest Benefit of C# is, that you need less time to develop and the language is (in my opinion) very comfortable (the best available actually) - in the end, that was the goal of .net and many AAA Games nowadays are (partly) made in .Net

Personally I prefer C# over Java whereever I can … C++ is for real-time applications but I also use it when developing linux-programms … but to be honest, if you once used C# it is a real pain when using C++ again …

but again: many things to watch for in .Net, especially when it comes to performance

I agree with you about C# to be the best language at the moment. I actually use it every day and it’s much better than Java. I like from Java the fact that can be adapted in alot of context. To be honest Java without Android is dead for me. I think Oracle is going in the wrong direction to go against Android. Java can’t compete with .NET on Web and Windows :application.

Oracle is going against android? Really? How dumb is that … ?

Personally I am looking forward for Win8 and how MS will make use of .Net possibilities on their mobile devices …

Got to agree with the C# love. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I really enjoyed using it for a few projects back when I still spent my days coding for a living.

stares wistfully into the air

I liked C# in the first versions. Later they added too much complications making it almost as complicated as C++ (of course you don’t need to use them - but when working in group you are forced by others :slight_smile: ). I don’t think I have a favourite language right now, I don’t much care what language I write in.

Hi guys,
I was reading better Terms and Conditions of this offer and I get something that worry me a bit:
“Qualifying Vendors are responsible for all federal, state or local taxes, tariffs, import duty fees, and any other costs or expenses that may be associated with receipt of the Device.”

I’m from Italy and if I decide to partecipate to it should I need to pay custom or other taxes?

What Do you think?

I was also afraid of that but they paid all that costs last time.I’m from Poland. The Playbook was free but it is gathering dust - I pity those who paid for it, really disappointing device.

OK,
Thank you.
It’s seem a waste of time. :slight_smile:

Magnesus - I agree on that front. Nice bit of hardware (at the time) but the software is absolutely awful. Have since given away my last device to my brother-in-law. The only reason I see it worth doing this again is a) I’ve not touched any development for a few months and now fancy a return and b) it might be worth gambling on BB10 not being terrible.