I read in the user guide docs
http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/distribution/buildSettings/index.html
f your Android app is targeting Ouya, then you must add the following app icon to your project folder
Does this mean that other than this releasing an app to Nook, Samsung and Ouya will be identical to uploading it to Google Play? I dont need to make any changes?
Can even the package name be identical?
Well, it’s not quite that simple. First, I’ve not deployed an app to the Ouya store yet only directly to the device. You should be able to use the same package name. Most of your code should be fine too, but consider these issues:
The Ouya is not a touch device. You have to integrate controller support. And while the actual code to integrate the controller isn’t difficult, many touch oriented games/apps are not suitable for controllers. You may have to re-think things.
The Ouya is a landscape only device. Vertical games are not going to play well on it. The game I wanted to port was a vertical app and I never got the game play working well in the flipped world.
The Ouya isn’t Google Play. If you are using things like ads from AdMob, Google’s in app purchases, GP Game Services, Licensing and expansion packs, you’re going to have to code around them. Ouya has their on IAP you should use. I don’t know of any Ad services targeting them.
To get the app to show up on the Ouya’s main menu you have to add this little block of code into your build.settings “android” table:
android =
{
mainIntentFilter =
{
categories = { “tv.ouya.intent.category.GAME” }
}
},
Rob
Thanks for responding.
But for Nook, Samsung and Amazone its that easy right?
It works perfect in the simulator but I dont have the devices to test it (not easy to get a hold of either)
For Nook, Samsung and Amazon, your app will work mostly unchanged. Ads and In App Purchases and Google Play Game Services will have to be accounted for still.
For IAP: Amazon has their own plugin for Corona SDK. Nook uses the Fortumo plugin and of course for Google, you would use the Google Play. Samsung has allowed using Google Play services, but they have recently announced that apps on their store must use Samsung SDK’s for things like IAP.
For Ads, Nook doesn’t allow them. Amazon does not like ads that promote apps for Google Play, so whatever ad service you use needs to recognize the platform you’re on and deliver Amazon compatible ads. There is an Amazon Ad plugin from the 3rd party plugin service that you probably should consider using that plugin.
For “Game Center” type activities, Nook uses Google Play Game Services, so that should be fine. Amazon should also allow use of GPGS but they have their own GameCircle that they would prefer you to use. Someone is building a plugin for it, but its not ready yet. If you want to use it now you can use Enterprise now.
Now for Samsung, they notified their developers that starting July 1, 2014, they will begin rejecting apps that do not use their SDKs. They offer SDKs for Ads, Game networking, and IAP. What is unclear and we are still researching, is if you just need to use one of these or all of them (if you use these features), what level of Google Play they will continue to support. As of today, Enterprise subscribers should be able to use the Samsung SDK’s to add support for your app.
Rob
Rob
Thanks a lot for clarifying
I see with the latest daily build that support for targeting the Samsung App store has been removed. Is this a temporary measure to avoid disappointing developers with rejected builds or a more permanent decision to not support the SDK change requirements imposed by Samsung? We were working on some apps specifically being targeted to Samsung device users so this would be good to understand.
tschussler - This is driven by the fact that we don’t exactly understand Samsung’s SDK requirements, and we haven’t been able to get a solid answer. To the degree that Samsung will still accept standard APKs, then Corona apps will work fine in their store.
But if they are now requiring Samsung-specific SDKs to be built in, then for now we do not support those (of course, you can always build them in with Corona Enterprise). It’s not clear to us if this is the case. Depending on how you interpret their messaging, they may just be saying that they want their own non-Google alternatives to be used when possible, or that they actually require certain Samsung SDKs even if they are not being used.
At this point in time we do not have any Samsung-specific SDKs available in Corona SDK, so we have to remove the “explicit support”.
For Samsung App Store, how big of a market share do they have compared to Google Play Store, Nook etc. I would love to publish to the Samsung Store but will it be worth the extra effort and hassle to publish to a store with a small market share? Apple Store, Google Play, Amazon, and Nook are absolutely must haves for me.
An observation from Adobe’s site: “For what it’s worth, we have submitted three apps to Samsung, and the combined total of the three for the last month is about half of the downloads for just the worst of the three in iTunes. So, no great loss to not submit to Samsung.”
I get more downloads and ad impressions from my apps on the Samsung App Store than I do on Google Play, and Amazon app store is the lowest of them all. Just my own experience… I would hate to see Corona drop support for it. I guess we’ll see what happens.
It’s not really Corona dropping support for Samsung. It’s Samsung that have changed their submission rules and now require their SDK’s to be used. I’m not 100% sure what Samsung mean by this either.
Ironically I can’t submit to Samsung even though I live in Korea as their system can’t handle a non-Korean developer with a Green Card, and with a Korean address.
If corona doesn’t change app builds to meet their new terms then it is dropping support as submitting corona apps to the samsung app store will no longer be possible.
Wow, I finally got google play added as a platform where I can submit my android app, and then I get samsung taken away. Oh dear 
Also, being european, nook is still an issue, since they don’t allow for me to register for their developer programme.
Yes I had the same issue with Nook as they dont support Norwegian developers yet. But I guess its not a big loss (but would be amazing to be on all platforms).
My app has been approved on Amazon and is scheduled for the developer select program (1/2 mill ad impressions for free) so this is great news.
My app was also approved for Samsung yesterday and is available in the Samsung store. Im not sure why people have issues with Samsung but my app was approved.
Btw what did you mean by this? Did you publish your app in Google Play Store?
A tips would be to create different package name for each store.
Also I had to use expansion package for Google Play while Samsung and Amazon allowed larger apk sizes (so extension file was not needed). Otherwise the apps itself is 100% identical. Only difference is package name.
The main issue I had, was that I did not restrict the devices list on samsung, and my app just did not even open on really old looking 1st generation touch devices.
I did actually just fill out a nook registration form. 6 months ago I wasn’t able to do this, so maybe you can check it out? It does not mean I’ll get approved, but I’m curious to see if they will allow me to register. So maybe it’s possible after all now?
Did you try it recently? https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com
I have not published it on google play, since I’ve been working on my next title, and I released my first game before Luxembourg had google play support. It’s only been available for about 6-8 weeks now, so I’m first trying google play, then I’ll see if I will do amazon or not. I don’t know if you really need a different package name? I mean, you’ll want to buy it once from an android store and not go buy it again from a different one really so I wouldn’t create separate bundles but a corona staff member might tell me otherwise. I definitely used the same bundle on both samsung and amazon when I published it. ( I only created one RSA key )
Yes I tried with Nook 1 week ago and filled out the form. They told me it was rejected cos my country was not supported. yet. This is the reply I got.
We regret that we can only accept accounts from the USA, Canada, UK,
Ireland, Germany, and Australia. If you have a location in one of these,
please update and submit again. We hope to add other countries soon.
I also applied all devices and still got approved. You can download my app Sleep Bug Kids Lite on Android and see if its similar.
The first time I submitted to Amazon I got approved for certification but I was not approved for developer select program. It just said my app failed for most of the devices. I sent a support mail and asked them what the problem was. The issue was actually really simple. I had an about feature displaying a settings icon instead of an about icon. So I changed this and got approved for developer select.
But if your app does not even open on old devices probably your case is different. Do you have a lot of graphics? Do you use @2half images for graphics (for memory consumtions)?
Did you follow this?
http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/distribution/buildSettings/index.html
I would send them a email asking if they could tell exactly what is wrong.
I would seriously consider using different package names. Maybe someone else can enlight us but I have read several places (before I released the app) that this was important.
Also the only thing you need to do is build your app for each store and change the package name. Takes 1 minute.
Dont see any argument for not publishing it on all Stores. After all its really fast.
Yea I also use the same RSA key on all my apps across all stores.
Also for Amazon you should try to get approved for developer select. My app is scheduled for the 1st of August. Not sure if it will help but its worth a try.
I’m assuming by package name you’re referring to com.company.appname. Why would you need to have different package names for different stores?
I’d say it’s important to keep the package name exactly the same across all stores. However when you make the package name you should strictly adhere to the com.company.appname structure and *not* include the store name in the package (like com.company.google.appname or com.company.nook.appname).
If you want to differentiate paid/free versions you can add an extra tuple, something like com.company.appname.free or com.company.appname.paid.
Yes I might be wrong. I just read some posts to keep the Samsung package name different from the Google Play package name. But I agree having the same package name would be easier.
But can I ask what benefits I am missing out in having different package name? Except having to make modifications in code
e.g.
local options = { androidAppPackageName = "\_com.googlepckname\_", supportedAndroidStores = { "google" }, } native.showPopup("appStore", options)