Puzzle Master arrived in BlackBerry World in early April, you can read a overview of it here. The Qt developer Timur Kristóf has taken the time to do an email interview which I thought would be nice to share here with BlackBerry Empire. We cover the Qt framework, BlackBerry 10 support of said framework, and some of what enticed this developer to the platform. You can read the full interview after the break
Question 1 – Is your Puzzle Master game for BlackBerry 10 your first entry into BlackBerry World and the BB Ecosystem/Platform?
Yes, it is my first attempt at developing for BlackBerry. It’s been a pleasant experience compared to other platforms.
Question 2/a – Where did development first begin for this app?
Puzzle Master goes back as far as 2010 when it began as a homework for a course called “Mobile Linux applications”. At the time it was pretty simple, but I had been learning a lot from it. It stayed untouched for about a year. Then in 2011 I participated in Nokia’s developer program (I’m one of the guys who have an N950) and that was when I added multitouch support and a bunch of other nice stuff. For almost another whole year I set it aside again and only stated working on it again this year. I reworked the user interface and refined some rough edges.
Question 2/b – What piqued your interest in BlackBerry 10 as a target platform?
The fact that it can run Qt applications and that they were offering PlayBooks to developers convinced me to start looking into BlackBerry, and I haven’t regretted doing so. 🙂
BlackBerry also helped my efforts with a PlayBook tablet, for which I owe my thanks to Ash Nazir and Luca Sale. Of course, there aren’t many differences between BB10 and the PlayBook so from then on, it was easy to target both of them.
BlackBerry also helped my efforts with a PlayBook tablet, for which I owe my thanks to Ash Nazir and Luca Sale. Of course, there aren’t many differences between BB10 and the PlayBook so from then on, it was easy to target both of them.
Question 3 – Does the success of Puzzle Master within BlackBerry World determine whether to bring other projects as well?
Yes and no. If Puzzle Master is successful that might persuade me to bring other projects sooner to the platform, but if it’s not that doesn’t mean I won‘t.
Question 4 – Where are you from Timur? And in your region how is the BlackBerry brand presently perceived?
I’m from a small European country called Hungary, and I currently live in Budapest. I think BlackBerry’s been quite underrepresented here, although I see BlackBerry devices in the hands of people on the streets more often than before. (Not BB10 devices, the older ones.)
Question 5 – How was the developer experience with respect to BlackBerry verse your experience on other platforms like MeeGo?
MeeGo has had an extremely pleasant developer experience, and BlackBerry is almost as good. Both of them are vastly superior to Android and Windows Phone development. I haven’t worked with Android that much, but WP can be definitely frustrating.
Question 6 – On a scale of one to ten how would you rate BlackBerry’s support of Qt, given your background and experience?
I guess I‘d give them 8 out of 10. The only things I miss are updates to the Qt framework in the device firmware (which is at the moment not very frequent) and official support for Qt5 (the newest version) on the devices.
Question 7 – Have you thought about moving to Cascades which is based on a Qt/QML to better leverage the BlackBerry platform. For instance, BBM integration, Scoreloop all of these can really ingrain your application into the ecosystem. Can you currently leverage these outlets in Qt at BBs present support level of the Qt framework on BB10?
I have thought about all those, yes, but I couldn‘t think of a good way they would add any value to the game. It‘s easily possible to leverage them from Qt apps, so I might use them in future projects. 🙂 For Puzzle Master, the first and foremost goal was fast time-to-market, releasing it as soon as possible. That doesn’t mean that the development ends here and now, though. If people like it, I will continue to improve it and maybe I’ll even integrate some services into it.
Thats it from Timur, you can find him on Twitter @Venemo and you can find his app Puzzle Master free in BlackBerry World.
Guest post by James from BerryFlow.