Palm have released their Plug-in Development Kit Beta for developers and is hopeful that a veritable torrent of top notch 3D games and other native Linux apps for webOS will follow in its wake.
Now available for your downloading pleasure at the Developer Centre, Palm is giving this one a mighty push, keen to promote their webOS as a gamers’ platform, and releasing it at the Game Developer’s Conference.
“Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks,” insisted Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc.
“We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it.”
Core technologies
Palm say that their PDK is based on “GCC for compiling C/C++ code to ARM native code and SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer), a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low-level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL ES, and a 2D video frame buffer,” with the webOS Plug-in Development Kit having the following objectives:
* Easy porting of C/C++ applications to webOS, including those that use OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0
* Easy integration of C/C++ components to enhance the capabilities of webOS applications
Here’s Palm’s full press release for your perusal:
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 09, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Game Developers Conference (GDC) – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today announced that a public beta version of the Palm(R) webOS(TM) Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016).
The PDK complements the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK), letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app. The PDK enables new functionality, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform. Developers can download the beta PDK and start developing today, but distribution of games built with the beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update.
“Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it.”
At CES in January, Palm introduced 12 games built by four leading developers with early access to the PDK:
“Asphalt 5” (Gameloft)
“Brain Challenge(R)” (Gameloft)
“Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
“Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
“MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile(TM))
“Need for Speed(TM) Undercover” (EA Mobile)
“SCRABBLE” (EA Mobile)
“Sudoku” (EA Mobile)
“Tetris(R)” (EA Mobile)
“The Oregon Trail” (Gameloft)
“The Sims(TM) 3” (EA Mobile)
“X-Plane” (Laminar Research)Since then, more than 20 exciting webOS titles have been launched by these early-access developers:
“Apollo” (Laminar Research)
“Assassin’s Creed(TM) – Altair’s Chronicles” (Gameloft)
“Brothers In Arms(R): Hour of Heroes” (Gameloft)
“Castle of Magic” (Gameloft)
“Deer Hunter 3D” (Glu Mobile)
“Dungeon Hunter” (Gameloft)
“Earthworm Jim” (Gameloft)
“Gangstar: West Coast Hustle” (Gameloft)
“Giant Fighting Robots” (Laminar Research)
“Guitar Hero 5 Mobile” (Glu Mobile)
“Hero of Sparta” (Gameloft)
“Real Soccer 2010” (Gameloft)
“Real Tennis” (Gameloft)
“World Series of Poker: Hold’em Legend” (Glu Mobile)
“X-Plane Airliner” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Carrier” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Extreme” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Glider” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Helicopter” (Laminar Research)
X-Plane Racing” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Space Shuttle” (Laminar Research)“The Palm webOS PDK is extremely powerful and far-reaching, as evidenced by the number of titles we’ve been able to bring to the webOS platform in a very short time,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “It’s quite difficult to make a great phone that’s also an outstanding gaming platform; Palm has been successful delivering both.”
More information about the beta PDK is available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). More information about games for Palm webOS is available at www.palm.com/applications.
