Thursday, 1 September 2011

[Success Story] bada Developer Challenge 2010 Grand Prize winners : Mooncoder


bada Developer Challenge 2010 Grand Prize winners :
Mooncoder (Szymon Ulatowski & Maciej Komosinski)
Application Name: Little Sailor

Developer Profile



The first prize of the Samsung Electronics’ bada Developer Challenge 2010 was awarded to ‘Mooncoder’, a Polish developer team that submitted the Little Sailor application. A total of 2077 teams from 54 countries fiercely competed in this bada Developer Challenge which was held from May 2010 to December 2010. Mooncoder (Szymon Ulatowski and Maciej Komosinski) was awarded the first prize of US $30,000. Szymon Ulatowski is an independent developer developing and supplying games through www.toyspring.com and he was in charge of the graphics coding, 3D models and GUI designs for Little Sailor. Maciej Komosinski, an associate professor of Institute of Computing Science at the Poznan University of technology, played a leading role in the creation of the application and was in charge of game play, sailing physics, water simulation and artificial intelligence.




Developer Interview Q&A

Q: Introduce the application and main characteristics entered in the bada Developer Challenge.

Little Sailor is both a simulation game and an educational application. While the art of sailing is not easy, Little Sailor allows players to learn the basics of sailing in a visually attractive way. Being a full 3D simulator, it does not compromise the complexity and beauty of sailing, yet the game is designed specifically for a mobile device.


 

Q: What was the motive behind the development of this bada application? / Are there any special reasons why you chose the Samsung bada platform?

A: “Little Sailor” has a long history. One summer, long time ago we went sailing. This was our first contact with a sailboat and the art of sailing. We liked it a lot! We enjoyed the speed, the power of the wind and even capsizing. Inspired by this event, one of us (Maciej) started developing a sailing game for the PalmOS platform (which was pretty popular at that time). The game was fun to play, especially for people who had sailed in a real boat before, but its 2D visualization was extremely simple because of the technical limitations. It required a lot of imagination to feel like sailing. Then, Maciej learned about the Samsung bada Developer Challenge and realized that Samsung Wave would be a wonderful platform for this game. Samsung Wave offered much greater potential than the old devices, so the game could look more beautiful, like a real sailboat racing in a photorealistic environment. A powerful Wave processor would be capable of performing the complex simulation of water waves in real time.

Moreover, the meaning of “bada” and a lot of bada artwork refers to water, boats and sailing (“Make waves with bada!”). This just calls for a game like “Little Sailor,” doesn't it? We do make waves with bada! :-)

Q: Through what means did you learn about and participate in the bada Developer Challenge?

A: Both Maciej and one of his outstanding students, Marcin Nowak, were interested in mobile programming. Marcin was very keen on graphics and game development, and after graduating from Poznan University of Technology, he started developing for Samsung bada devices, which he liked a lot. When we learned about the competition, we decided that it would be a great opportunity to become one of the first developers in the new market, and have a chance for the award. And then it started!

Q: Are the bada platform’s graphics-related functions adequate for developing games that use 3D graphics?       

A: bada support of the current OpenGL ES is adequate for our application. Combined with the superb AMOLED screen, the final result is beautiful.




Q: What do you think is the greatest point of distinction between bada and other platforms?

A: bada has a nice, well-designed API that is maturing quickly, and C++ is a good choice for native apps. bada is young but powerful, and easy to start for newbies. It has great potential of becoming popular among users, and liked by developers.


For more info about bada check developer.bada.com

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