Recommendation: Device For Software Development

[KermEd]

Howdy all,

I mostly do software development for BlackBerry and Android (no hissing! jk), but lately I've been thinking of moving some of my apps and games over to Windows Phone 8+ as well.

I'm a little worried, I put through my first Windows Phone game into the storefront and although it tested well in the simulator, I kind of would like to see how it performs on a real device.

Keeping in mind, I will only use the device for testing (not my daily driver) and would like to keep my costs low on any Windows Phone devices (I like to keep device costs low until I have brought in a healthy enough profit on a platform) --- what would you recommend for a BNIB device for under 100?

I see the Lumia 521 is quite affordable. But as some of my games are physics and 3D driven. Would this be a good landing point for software testing?

Thanks in advance. I'm not worried on the tablet front as I build for (love and use) a Surface Pro 128 as my daily tablet (backup to my awesome laptop).

 

[KermEd]

nvm, saw this was kind of a duplicate of http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/271279-help-choosing-budget-lumia-over-android.html

 

[psgenious]

really ! , which game are you bringing in to wp. tell the name..

 

[KermEd]

really ! , which game are you bringing in to wp. tell the name..

I can't tell you "yet" about the ones you will care about - they are quite unique and still in development. They have long build times because of complexity. I have three upcoming titles, one is ... very different from the norm.

However, I've moved over a single 'test' game (same idea as Flappy) that I did that sold well on other platforms and that I like to use as an app to test the water. It is mostly to see how well it sells for the next while on Windows. I've given it no advertising and made it a paid application to see what the natural market movement is like. (I know, its already a saturated market for this game type, but its already coded so it is easy for me to push it to the platform).

The next 3 apps will be unique, and help me assess the environment better. I'm putting the one below, plus the 3 new ones, onto 5 different platforms for testing. The only issue with Windows Mobile and PC so far using the SDK's from Microsoft, is it don't provide native MD5 in some platforms like Unity. This may not sound important, but it makes it much more difficult for me to allow users to "share stats" between the Windows release, and the other 4.

Right now, for example, someone with a score on iOS is ranked and competing against someone with a score on Android or BlackBerry - this makes it a bit more fun for a user to compete against users on a different platform. For Windows, it can't share out, because without MD5, it can't authenticate to my web server. There are solutions, but I run around a lot, build the apps and games as a hobby and I just haven't had time to build out a Windows 'solution'.

It will be needed later anyway though, the next three games need MD5 for cross-platform competition and sharing. One relies on it extensively.

Tablets / PCs
Flippy Bird 3d app for Windows in the Windows Store

Phone
Flippy Bird 3d | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)