Air Hockey maker Acceleroto details their experience developing for webOS
Air Hockey was the very first paid application in the App Catalog, and development house Acceleroto recently posted to its blog about their experience developing for webOS and working with Palm. The post details the development process for Air Hockey, discusses challenges that face game developers, and answers some questions people have been asking, like "Why $1.99?" and "How does developing for webOS differ from developing for the iPhone?"
We caught our first glimpse of Air Hockey for webOS back when the Pixi was originally announced. Acceleroto was first solicited shortly after being accepted into the beta program (and after some interesting back-and-forth with Palm) to provide Air Hockey as a tech demo for the new handset. They were then able to get the application polished up for sale in the App Catalog in relatively short time frame:
The demo version was very specific. It was a technology demonstration to be used as part of the Pixi announcement. The paid version needed more polish, more options, more features, etc. The first 90% was done, but there was still 90% to go. Through help straight from Palm and lots of sleepless nights, Air Hockey for webOS was ready the day Palm’s back end developer portal was ready to accept apps.
They detail their decision to charge $1.99 for Air Hockey for webOS, versus $0.99 for the iPhone version. Economies of scale, folks:
Economics 101. It’s no secret that the iPhone version of Air Hockey has been $0.99 since it launched in July 2008. When it launched, there were approximately 10 million iPhones & iPod touches that could run it. At the launch of Air Hockey for webOS, there are something on the order of 1 million Pres that can run it (another guesstimate). There’s more though. There were about 3000 apps available when Air Hockey launched a couple weeks after the App Store opened. At the time of writing, there are 125 apps available in Palm’s App Catalog.
As far as developing for webOS verses iPhone OS? It's "Different." They also highlight some challenges developers face as they develop fast-motion games for webOS.
It seems that Acceleroto's experience with Palm and developing for webOS has been mostly positive - positive enough, in fact, that it looks as if they might have another webOS project in the works. Check out the full blog post for more of the steamy details; it's certainly worth the read.
