Samsung Newsroom

In recent times more and more users have been required to watch sports events and movies from their homes, instead of going out to watch them. Along with this shift, the home has become increasingly prominent as an entertainment space. In light of this, Samsung Electronics has introduced The Terrace, a TV that is designed for use in outdoor living spaces. To talk about how The Terrace was brought from the planning stage to the development stage, and then on to being rolled out, Samsung Newsroom met with the product experts who were responsible for bringing The Terrace to fruition. Below, Samsung Newsroom talks to Giuk Ted Lee (Marketing), BeomEun Kim (Product Planning), Dongoh Kim (Mechanics R&D), Juyong Kim and, Seunghun Lee (Enterprise R&D), to hear exactly what went in to realizing premier outdoor viewing with The Terrace. Taking the Viewing Environment Outdoors Research conducted by Samsung Electronics has shown that around 50 percent of American households have an outdoor living space such as a terrace or yard. What’s more, across a range of territories, the habit of watching sports and movies outdoors has been becoming more popular. Speaking to this trend, BeomEun Kim, who was in charge of product planning for The Terrace, said, “Outdoor living spaces in which people can relax and entertain have been gradually growing more prominent. It was this trend that inspired us to come up with The Terrace, which offers the most optimal QLED viewing experiences in a range of outdoor conditions.” BeomEun Kim (Product Planning) And the outdoor TV market has been developing as well. As reported by market research publisher QY Research, global figures for outdoor TV sales – which stood at around 170,000 units in 2018 – are expected to hit 440,000 units by 2024. Giuk Ted Lee from The Terrace marketing team explained that, “When compared to the indoor TV market, the outdoor TV market previously sold more models that were smaller than 40 inches. However, from this year, the uptake of mid-to-large-sized TVs that are 55 inches or larger is expected to grow rapidly.” Optimal Outdoor Picture Quality Through Synergy With Global No.1 Digital Signage Technology Juyong Kim (Enterprise R&D) When it comes to the outdoor viewing experience, few factors are more important than picture quality. According to Juyong Kim, who was responsible for picture quality development, when viewing a TV outdoors it is difficult to make out what is on the screen with a brightness level lower than 1,000 nits. He emphasized that The Terrace delivers a maximum of 4,000 nits and an average brightness of 2,000 nits, which is three times brighter than the brightness levels offered by indoor TVs. This allows users to enjoy vivid images with original picture quality, even when the TV is viewed in broad daylight. Thanks to Samsung’s leadership in digital signage market, in which it maintained the number one position globally for 11 straight years – The Terrace team was able to deliver an optimal outdoor viewing experience. Seunghun Lee, who was in charge of overall product development, related that, “Digital signage, by its nature, must be equipped to maintain its performance while being subjected to a range of different environmental factors. Our experience in developing digital signage has proved extremely helpful in identifying and applying the optimal brightness levels for outdoor TVs.” Seunghun Lee (Enterprise R&D) The Terrace additionally includes the ‘Adaptive Picture’ feature, which allows users to enjoy optimized picture quality that adapts to the surrounding environment. With Adaptive Picture, artificial intelligence analyzes illumination levels in real-time and automatically adjusts screen settings, increasing brightness during the daytime and reducing glare at night and on cloudy days. The Terrace is also equipped with anti-reflection technology. When watching TV on sunny days, sunlight reflected by the display panel and other surfaces can cause discomfort for viewers, and glare can distort color and picture quality. Thus, The Terrace was designed to minimize discomfort caused by glare even in environments where light is coming from multiple directions. Seunghun Lee explained that this improvement in visibility was achieved by equipping the screen with surface-treated film to reduce glare. Durability That Withstands the Elements – Water, Dust and Heat Protection When developing an outdoor television, the issue of exposure to the elements is a key concern. Hence, The Terrace had to undergo rigorous testing during its development phase. Giuk Ted Lee reiterated that, “The Terrace was initially launched in North America, and will be released in a host of other markets soon. Because the outdoor TV will be expected to withstand a broad range of environmental factors, our simulations tested it in the harshest conditions and a range of climates.” Particular attention was given to water and dust protection, which are essential features for an outdoor TV, as small particles and liquids can enter the device through even the tiniest gaps if it is not properly sealed. Certified with IP 55 water and dust protection, The Terrace maintains its performance even in rainy or dusty conditions. Dongoh Kim (Mechanics R&D) Dongoh Kim from the R&D team said, “All areas where individual parts connect were protected with special materials. We have also sealed all of the gaps in the enclosure with waterproof tape and rubber seals. To facilitate the open cell structure, a thin layer of special adhesive was applied between the front of the enclosure and the cell that composes the TV screen.” Heat resistance is equally crucial for outdoor TVs, given that they are exposed to direct sunlight. Thus, the development team enacted numerous ways to ensure that The Terrace remains heat resistant, even under infrared and ultraviolet light. Although one of the most common means of protecting a TV from heat is through the use of a vent, the team had to explore different solutions, given that the inclusion of vents could have impacted the TV’s water and dust resistance. The team considered multiple heat resistance solutions for the outdoor television. This led to the development of The Terrace’s sealed enclosure technology, which distributes internal heat over the entire product without the need for a heat sink. The result? An outdoor TV that maintains the highest standard of performance up to an external temperature of 50°C. Smart Features to Deliver Unique Viewing Experiences So how was the user feedback following The Terrace’s launch? Giuk Ted Lee commented that, “The Terrace has been garnering great feedback from consumers in the North American market. Sales levels are good, and the reviews from users are positive as well.” While this feedback is encouraging, many markets still exist in which consumers are unfamiliar with outdoor televisions. We asked for tips on how to leverage The Terrace to empower users in every market to use the product to its full potential. BeomEun Kim noted that, “One of the advantages of The Terrace is that it can be easily connected to a smartphone. For instance, users can connect their phones via Bluetooth while listening to music, and the ‘Music Wall’ feature will display a series of patterns on the TV that complement the music. The ‘Multi-View’ feature also allows consumers to continue using their phones while also using them to watch content on their televisions, delivering a whole new experience.” She added that the ‘Tap View’ feature allows mobile content to be mirrored on the TV screen with a single tap of the bezel. Despite being pioneers when it comes to the new outdoor television segment, the team responsible for bringing The Terrace to fruition is already up for a new challenge. “The level of interest in outdoor TVs has been steadily growing. Our next goal is to introduce an outdoor TV that is portable, and can be brought along for activities such as camping trips,” the team related. We look forward to seeing what is next for Samsung Electronics as they look to continue expanding the definition of what a TV can be. View the full article

One advantage of using Xamarin.Forms when creating an application is the accessibility of an experienced open source community. You can learn a lot and get many ideas for developing an application from the community. The best part is that there are tons of Xamarin.Forms extension libraries that can help you develop an application very efficiently and beautifully. Tizen support is frequently added to many third-party Xamarin.Forms UI libraries. Today, I would like to introduce some popular libraries that recently started to support Tizen. See how these libraries can boost your application. Sharpnado.Shadows Sharpnado.Shadows allows you to add as many custom shadows as you like (such as Color, Offset, Blur, Neumorphism) to any Xamarin.Forms View. SkiaSharp is used to implement Shadows for Tizen. Visit Sharpnado.Shadows to learn how to initialize and use Shadows in an application. Below shows a Shadows sample application running on Tizen. PancakeView PancakeView is an extended ContentView for Xamarin.Forms that includes rounded corners, borders, gradients, shadows, and more. It is essential to use gradient colors and rounded corners in a View to beautify an application. SkiaSharp is used to implement PancakeView, and Tizen support for PancakeView is included starting from version 2.1.0.714 of Xamarin.Forms.PancakeView. Visit PancakeView to learn more about PancakeView and what features are provided. Below shows a PancakeView sample application running on Tizen. CardsView CardsView provides many styles of Views (such as CardsView, CarouselView, CoverFlowView, and CubeView) which include fancy animation and effects. Visit CardsView to learn how to set up and use CardsView in your application. Below shows a CardsView sample application running on Tizen. Rg.Plugins.Popup Rg.Plugins.Popup is a cross-platform plugin for Xamarin.Forms which allows you to open Xamarin.Forms pages as a pop-up. Visit Rg.Plugins.Popup to learn more. Below shows an Rg.Plugins.Popup sample application running on Tizen. Thanks to all those wonderful community members who add Tizen support to their libraries. Now, not only can you experience a better development environment, but you can easily port existing Xamarin.Forms applications which use these libraries to Tizen. View the full blog at its source

Did you miss out on the latest Samsung Developers newsletter? Catch up now. If you don't currently receive the newsletter, you can subscribe here. View the full blog at its source

Did you miss out on the latest Samsung Developers newsletter? Catch up now. If you don't currently receive the newsletter, you can subscribe here. View the full blog at its source

Samsung Electronics is further expanding its HDR10+ streaming content offering with the addition of Google Play Movies to the services that support its next-generation picture-quality technology. Google Play Movies, the video streaming service operated by Google, started to support HDR10+ content in July this year. The HDR10+ service is now available on Samsung Smart TV in 117 countries including North America, Europe and Korea. Users can now enjoy high-resolution HDR10+ 4K HDR content on the Google Play Movies, with numerous HDR10+ titles available such as Joker, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Crazy Rich Asians. Google Play Movies plans to support HDR10+ technology on other additional platforms in the future as well. HDR10+, which is the HDR industry standard led by Samsung Electronics, brings consumers perfect picture quality experience by optimizing brightness and contrast scene by scene for enhanced three-dimensional videos and accurate color expression. Samsung Electronics formed HDR10+ LLC (HDR10+ technology joint venture) in 2017 and started to engage in certification programs in 2018. Google Play Movies’s support for HDR10+ is expected to accelerate the expansion of the HDR10+ standard alliance, which already has 108 partners worldwide. “We are pleased to expand partnerships with the top global streaming providers,” said Younghun Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D team, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to strengthen the leadership of our HDR standard and lead the innovation in TV technology in the global market.” View the full article

In this Samsung Developer Program online talk, learn how to integrate the Samsung In-App Purchase (IAP) SDK in your Unity games. You can get more info about the IAP SDK here https://developer.samsung.com/iap The Galaxy Store is a premium store that makes Galaxy mobile devices shine in their own, unique way. Discover how to use Samsung’s payment service to sell a variety of items in applications for the Galaxy Store. In this video, you will learn how to modify your Unity games and have a new way to monetize them, whether it is with one-off payments or subscriptions. Additionally, you will learn about the Samsung IAP Unity plugin’s methods and functionalities, making it easier to rapidly integrate with your existing games. You can connect with Diego, a Sr. Developer Evangelist, on Twitter Have questions? Post them in our forums. View the full blog at its source

In this Samsung Developer Program online talk, learn how to integrate the Samsung In-App Purchase (IAP) SDK in your Unity games. You can get more info about the IAP SDK here https://developer.samsung.com/iap The Galaxy Store is a premium store that makes Galaxy mobile devices shine in their own, unique way. Discover how to use Samsung’s payment service to sell a variety of items in applications for the Galaxy Store. In this video, you will learn how to modify your Unity games and have a new way to monetize them, whether it is with one-off payments or subscriptions. Additionally, you will learn about the Samsung IAP Unity plugin’s methods and functionalities, making it easier to rapidly integrate with your existing games. You can connect with Diego, a Sr. Developer Evangelist, on Twitter Have questions? Post them in our forums. View the full blog at its source

As people around the world increasingly demand convenient and efficient collaboration technology, the time has come for major industry players to combine their expertise and create solutions that allow users to get the best experience, no matter where they are. The video conferencing market is set to reach a revenue of $50 billion (USD) by 2026, from having only reached $14 billion in 2019.1 This dramatic acceleration in the market is due to the current global climate, which has shifted the way businesses behave and operate. As such, video conferencing has quickly become an important platform for communicating and ensuring business continuity. In fact, global weekly downloads of business apps surged from 33.7 million in early October 2019 to 80 million in mid-April 2020.2 Video conferencing app downloads have also increased from five million a week to 50 million in the same period. As a leader in visual display, Samsung understands the demands of the new video landscape. To provide businesses and employees with the tools they need to work effectively from any location, it has partnered with Logitech, a market leader in video and personal collaboration solutions. This partnership brings together the industry’s most comprehensive display lineup including digital signages and desktop monitors, with Logitech’s wide variety of video conferencing solutions for both meeting rooms and personal desks. Samsung’s displays can turn any space – in-office or at home – into a productive workstation. Samsung monitors are available in a wide range of sizes, resolutions and screen types, from ultra-wide curve to traditional flat screens, to offer users the perfect fit. When paired with Logitech’s USB-compatible conference cams such as MeetUp and Rally, and webcams such as Brio, C930e and C925e, any location can be transformed into an integrated workspace, saving users’ valuable time while still providing powerful functionality. “Globally, there is a growing need for enhanced collaboration solutions that can enable businesses to maintain continuity in the current landscape,” said Paul Kim, Vice President of Visual Display Business, Samsung Electronics. “We believe our partnership with Logitech, bringing together its dynamic video conferencing portfolio with Samsung’s unmatched visual display technology, can play a major role in shaping the future of work and we’re excited for what is to come.” To learn more, please visit the microsite here. 1 Video Conferencing Market by Global Market Insights: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/video-conferencing-market 2 Video Conferencing Apps Surge from Coronavirus Impact by App Annie: https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/video-conferencing-apps-surge-coronavirus/ View the full article

Today, we're talking with Ed Mills, Co-Founder of Hitcents, and Alfred Nguyen, Creative Director and Producer of Forgotton Anne for Throughline Games. Hitcents is a full-service video game publisher and developer, focused on bringing to market high-quality, indie-developed titles. Founded in 1999 as a software company, Hitcents’ passion for games slowly took over and pivoted the company. By 2012, the company was full steam ahead in the gaming industry as a developer and publisher. To date, it has worked with notable and well-recognized brands and celebrities, such as The Godfather, NBA, Tom Hanks, Adam Levine, One Direction, and Floyd Mayweather. One of its most celebrated franchises is Draw a Stickman, which has been played more than one hundred million times and has global success on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Steam, and mobile. Tell us about Hitcents. Ed: Hitcents is a full-service video game publisher and developer, but that is not where we started. Our journey is part of what makes us such a unique company. Hitcents was basically started as a software company on the carpet floors of our home in Kentucky when my twins Clinton and Chris Mills were 16-years-old. Over the last 20 years our focus has changed, but the core of everything we do is still software. Bootstrapped, with no outside investments for 20+ years, gaming has been a key driver of our success for more than a decade. We’ve had success across the gaming spectrum, from PC to console games to mobile apps. Our most successful titles are: Draw a Stickman - The franchise has been played more than 100M+ times. Draw A Stickman: Epic 2 - Has seen 18 million purchases and installs across multiple platforms. The Godfather: Family Dynasty - We were the first company to bring Don Corleone to mobile. Currently, we work with a wide range of indie games and developers, and are always open to good gaming content. We publish games created by one-person developer shops, like Get to the Orange Door, a retro futuristic rogue-lite FPS releasing in 2020, to games created in other countries that have more of an edge and statement, like the cinematic platformer Ministry of Broadcast, which also launched in early 2020 and deals with concepts such as big brother, fake tv and a satirical look at politics, plus many more. Can you share how you started as a game developer and ultimately became a game publisher? Ed: It’s kind of crazy how we got started in games. Hitcents was more of a complex ecommerce web agency and our creative director had an idea to draw a stickman and bring it to life on a browser. The weekend we launched Draw a Stickman we had millions of visitors, which ended up crashing our servers for all our clients. Needless to say, it seemed tragic at the time, but the brand Draw a Stickman emerged as a successful, long-standing IP for Hitcents. The brand has won 5 Webby awards and made both Hollywood and the game industry take note of us. As a result, A-list clients started to come on board with new content and connections, bringing us early success in games. This led to our partnering with CAA for IP-related games. Hitcents has many popular titles. We want to focus on Forgotton Anne. Can you tell us about this game, available now on Galaxy Store? Ed: Forgotton Anne is a seamless cinematic adventure with meaningful storytelling and a light puzzle platform. You play Anne, the enforcer, who keeps order in the Forgotten Lands as she sets out to squash a rebellion that might prevent her master, Bonku, and herself from returning to the human world. In the game, you step into a hand-animated realm of wonder in which everyday objects take on a life of their own. Imagine a place where all that is lost and forgotten goes -- old toys, letters, socks. Forgotten Lands is this magical world inhabited by Forgotlings; living mislaid objects longing to be remembered. In my opinion, and I’m sure the readers will think I’m biased, but the opening sequence in Forgotton Anne is so much fun to watch. I now know where all my lost socks go. Forgotton Anne has a stunning visual style and interactive game experience. What systems do you use to create game concepts and story characters? Alfred: To create Anne and Forgotten Lands, our artists use Adobe products, as well as Clip Studio Paint and TV Paint to design, paint, and animate most of the sprites you see in the game, as well as the detailed environmental assets. With the protagonist Anne alone more than 5000 frames were drawn! For story overview and testing, we used a lot of documents, spreadsheets, and a free software called Twine that is great to test branching dialogues. How important is user experience when designing your games? Alfred: The user experience is very important when designing a game. It is always a delicate balance between taking the player into consideration and staying true to a specific intention. Knowing that sometimes a player might not immediately like a specific design, even though it adds a dimension that contributes positively to the game experience as a whole. This was the case when it came to prioritizing fluid animation over some degree of the controls’ responsiveness, or when we decided not to include Game Over, as it would negatively affect the pacing of the game. Forgotton Anne features light puzzles and platforming sections. However, it is very much a story about Anne and letting the player make choices in her stead, to see how the consequences play out. How will the player use Anne’s authority and deal with conflicts? Alfred: When designing we let storytelling and emotions come first. Then we discuss how we can make things the most intuitive for the largest target audience. However, as developers we have to accept that different players like different things. In the end, we are just happy that as many people as possible love the game! What are some of the challenges you face while developing your games? Alfred: One challenge was to create a seamless cinematic experience where the player doesn’t feel a traditional cut between storytelling cutscenes and gameplay. The way we managed this was to ensure that there were no loading screens while playing and that all cutscenes were rendered in-game so the player was not presented with a different aesthetic when a longer story scene played out. The whole game is voice-acted and we created a ‘talk animation system’ to make it feel like the words were acted out. This really adds to the immersion. Artwise we aimed for an incredibly rich and detailed painted environment. This presented its own challenge, as we had to make sure the player could discern how to navigate the 2.5D world, allowing for some travel in the z-depth axis at certain intersections. Which objects would the player be able to interact with or bump into and which were decorative elements? Something that sounds very trivial, like walking up and down stairs, was actually also a challenge as we wanted Anne to feel real with her animations, unlike many other 2D games. If you pay attention, you will notice her feet place themselves correctly on the steps, as do her hands when she is climbing ladders. The tone of the game was also a challenge we wanted to get right. The premise of the game is very outlandish and quirky, with echoes of fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, but at the same time we wanted to create a very realistic world. We were trying to strike a tone that could easily go from emotional and serious when dealing with themes of consumerism and authoritarianism to funny and endearing using the diverse cast of Forgotling characters. Are there common errors made by developers while programming games? Alfred: Scoping a game is always really hard. In early development you tend to be overambitious, and rightly so, as you need to explore the best version possible of the game you are making. However, it is important to constantly update plans and make the necessary cuts when necessary, as most developers don’t have the luxury of working without deadlines. These cuts tend to be a good thing, as it sharpens the concept and forces the developer to prioritize what is really important to the game and player’s experience, instead of falling into the typical pitfall of feature-creeping, i.e. adding features to the game due to the worry that it is not fun enough for players. Forgotton Anne boasts a number of awards. What is the basic structure for developing a successful game? Ed: We don’t think there is a secret formula to creating hit games, or the market would be flooded with them. But, there are some universal truths one can rely on for added probability. One of them is knowing your intentions and having a capable team that has the necessary competences to execute. Communication is key, as it does not matter how skilled each individual is on the team if there is a lack of understanding between the people. I also strongly believe in an organic approach to development, where you need to accept changing circumstances and adapt quickly to them. We rarely set out knowing exactly every little detail of the finished game. If we did, it would prove to be detrimental to the creative process, as half the fun is coming up with solutions and discovering great ideas over the course of realizing the initial vision. While iterating on gameplay mechanics, we might discover a great opportunity to emphasize a storytelling aspect, or perhaps a piece of composed music could inspire how a sequence could play out. There is still so much to explore with the medium of games and its storytelling potential. That is really our aim and we hope that it translates to some originality that resonates with players. How do you stay up to date with the latest game and software trends? Ed: There are a couple of ways. Every major platform on mobile and console has a developer conference and these shows offer the best avenue to listen and learn. Another popular option is to go with an established publisher that often has early access to beta programs and has boots on the ground looking for the latest changes and opportunities to use tools that make a better product and potentially make work quicker. As a publisher, we are always playing and researching as many games as we can; reading up on trends in the industry -- who’s hot, what’s not; and researching new technologies and marketing techniques. What advice do you have for indie developers attempting to develop a successful game business? Ed: Start with a team, even if it's just 2 people. To make a game it requires many skill sets. I like to see experts, or someone that desires to be an expert, at each position or task. For example, you can have one team member specializing in art design plus knowledge of UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience), who can complement a programmer. The more well-rounded each team member is the more fun the project and the less time wasted searching for answers to complex development problems. Create a GDD (Game Design Document) that maps out the major aspects of the game. This will save countless hours of unneeded art and programming. It's ok to iterate upon your GDD, but do start with a solid foundation. Choose the best language/engine to make your game. Though Unity is great for 3D games and can port over to Android with relative ease, sometimes it can lose the true feel of doing the code in its native environment if you are producing a 2D game or an app. The best advice I can give is to find a team member with the skill set that complements your game or app idea. If you are a programmer, stay with what you know and get better at it. Decide what your time commitment is to making your game, i.e. months? years? Paid games are easier to go to market than free-to-try, but free-to-try will get you more downloads over time. This question can be a blog all on its own, so again having a good publisher can help more than almost anything. With all of your current success, what is next for Hitcents? Ed: The Godfather:Family Dynasty game has become over the past 3 years one of, if not the most, successful mobile Paramount game. Hitcents is planning the next big game with a known brand on par to the success and magnitude of the Godfather. The biggest thing for our future is knowing the words cross platform means playing across your mobile device, PC, and console, not just across mobile platforms. Our future is about consumer choice, bringing all the options to our players and letting them choose what they want to play, where they want to play it, and what device they want to play it on. Ideally, your Samsung Galaxy phone can play and progress while you are on the go, and then you can pick up on your console at home where you left off. It's an exciting time for gamers! What motivated Hitcents to bring your games to Galaxy Store? Ed: Galaxy Store provides Hitcents with the opportunity to diversify our sales, by opening a new revenue stream. It allows us to widen our customer base and gain access to Samsung device owners globally. What Samsung Developer Program services did you take advantage of when publishing Forgotton Anne to Galaxy Store? Ed: We integrated Samsung In-App Purchase payment service, which is used to make a one-off payment for goods or to pay for a regular subscription. It allows Hitcents to sell premium content and virtual goods, including in-game items available for purchase during game play. Did you use any marketing services to support driving both awareness and downloads for your game on Galaxy Store? Ed: Marketing and monetization is another key component of every developer’s journey. We found the Galaxy Store badge can be used as a resource on our website and media to support marketing our game on Galaxy Store. Adding Galaxy Store badge has put users one click away from downloading our game on Galaxy Store. The guides and downloadable content provided easy-to-follow instructions. Thanks to Ed Mills and Alfred Nguyen for sharing how they create and distribute successful game titles. Follow us on Twitter @samsung_dev for more developer interviews and tips for building games, apps, and more for the Galaxy Store. View the full blog at its source

Today, we're talking with Ed Mills, Co-Founder of Hitcents, and Alfred Nguyen, Creative Director and Producer of Forgotton Anne for Throughline Games. Hitcents is a full-service video game publisher and developer, focused on bringing to market high-quality, indie-developed titles. Founded in 1999 as a software company, Hitcents’ passion for games slowly took over and pivoted the company. By 2012, the company was full steam ahead in the gaming industry as a developer and publisher. To date, it has worked with notable and well-recognized brands and celebrities, such as The Godfather, NBA, Tom Hanks, Adam Levine, One Direction, and Floyd Mayweather. One of its most celebrated franchises is Draw a Stickman, which has been played more than one hundred million times and has global success on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Steam, and mobile. Tell us about Hitcents. Ed: Hitcents is a full-service video game publisher and developer, but that is not where we started. Our journey is part of what makes us such a unique company. Hitcents was basically started as a software company on the carpet floors of our home in Kentucky when my twins Clinton and Chris Mills were 16-years-old. Over the last 20 years our focus has changed, but the core of everything we do is still software. Bootstrapped, with no outside investments for 20+ years, gaming has been a key driver of our success for more than a decade. We’ve had success across the gaming spectrum, from PC to console games to mobile apps. Our most successful titles are: Draw a Stickman - The franchise has been played more than 100M+ times. Draw A Stickman: Epic 2 - Has seen 18 million purchases and installs across multiple platforms. The Godfather: Family Dynasty - We were the first company to bring Don Corleone to mobile. Currently, we work with a wide range of indie games and developers, and are always open to good gaming content. We publish games created by one-person developer shops, like Get to the Orange Door, a retro futuristic rogue-lite FPS releasing in 2020, to games created in other countries that have more of an edge and statement, like the cinematic platformer Ministry of Broadcast, which also launched in early 2020 and deals with concepts such as big brother, fake tv and a satirical look at politics, plus many more. Can you share how you started as a game developer and ultimately became a game publisher? Ed: It’s kind of crazy how we got started in games. Hitcents was more of a complex ecommerce web agency and our creative director had an idea to draw a stickman and bring it to life on a browser. The weekend we launched Draw a Stickman we had millions of visitors, which ended up crashing our servers for all our clients. Needless to say, it seemed tragic at the time, but the brand Draw a Stickman emerged as a successful, long-standing IP for Hitcents. The brand has won 5 Webby awards and made both Hollywood and the game industry take note of us. As a result, A-list clients started to come on board with new content and connections, bringing us early success in games. This led to our partnering with CAA for IP-related games. Hitcents has many popular titles. We want to focus on Forgotton Anne. Can you tell us about this game, available now on Galaxy Store? Ed: Forgotton Anne is a seamless cinematic adventure with meaningful storytelling and a light puzzle platform. You play Anne, the enforcer, who keeps order in the Forgotten Lands as she sets out to squash a rebellion that might prevent her master, Bonku, and herself from returning to the human world. In the game, you step into a hand-animated realm of wonder in which everyday objects take on a life of their own. Imagine a place where all that is lost and forgotten goes -- old toys, letters, socks. Forgotten Lands is this magical world inhabited by Forgotlings; living mislaid objects longing to be remembered. In my opinion, and I’m sure the readers will think I’m biased, but the opening sequence in Forgotton Anne is so much fun to watch. I now know where all my lost socks go. Forgotton Anne has a stunning visual style and interactive game experience. What systems do you use to create game concepts and story characters? Alfred: To create Anne and Forgotten Lands, our artists use Adobe products, as well as Clip Studio Paint and TV Paint to design, paint, and animate most of the sprites you see in the game, as well as the detailed environmental assets. With the protagonist Anne alone more than 5000 frames were drawn! For story overview and testing, we used a lot of documents, spreadsheets, and a free software called Twine that is great to test branching dialogues. How important is user experience when designing your games? Alfred: The user experience is very important when designing a game. It is always a delicate balance between taking the player into consideration and staying true to a specific intention. Knowing that sometimes a player might not immediately like a specific design, even though it adds a dimension that contributes positively to the game experience as a whole. This was the case when it came to prioritizing fluid animation over some degree of the controls’ responsiveness, or when we decided not to include Game Over, as it would negatively affect the pacing of the game. Forgotton Anne features light puzzles and platforming sections. However, it is very much a story about Anne and letting the player make choices in her stead, to see how the consequences play out. How will the player use Anne’s authority and deal with conflicts? Alfred: When designing we let storytelling and emotions come first. Then we discuss how we can make things the most intuitive for the largest target audience. However, as developers we have to accept that different players like different things. In the end, we are just happy that as many people as possible love the game! What are some of the challenges you face while developing your games? Alfred: One challenge was to create a seamless cinematic experience where the player doesn’t feel a traditional cut between storytelling cutscenes and gameplay. The way we managed this was to ensure that there were no loading screens while playing and that all cutscenes were rendered in-game so the player was not presented with a different aesthetic when a longer story scene played out. The whole game is voice-acted and we created a ‘talk animation system’ to make it feel like the words were acted out. This really adds to the immersion. Artwise we aimed for an incredibly rich and detailed painted environment. This presented its own challenge, as we had to make sure the player could discern how to navigate the 2.5D world, allowing for some travel in the z-depth axis at certain intersections. Which objects would the player be able to interact with or bump into and which were decorative elements? Something that sounds very trivial, like walking up and down stairs, was actually also a challenge as we wanted Anne to feel real with her animations, unlike many other 2D games. If you pay attention, you will notice her feet place themselves correctly on the steps, as do her hands when she is climbing ladders. The tone of the game was also a challenge we wanted to get right. The premise of the game is very outlandish and quirky, with echoes of fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, but at the same time we wanted to create a very realistic world. We were trying to strike a tone that could easily go from emotional and serious when dealing with themes of consumerism and authoritarianism to funny and endearing using the diverse cast of Forgotling characters. Are there common errors made by developers while programming games? Alfred: Scoping a game is always really hard. In early development you tend to be overambitious, and rightly so, as you need to explore the best version possible of the game you are making. However, it is important to constantly update plans and make the necessary cuts when necessary, as most developers don’t have the luxury of working without deadlines. These cuts tend to be a good thing, as it sharpens the concept and forces the developer to prioritize what is really important to the game and player’s experience, instead of falling into the typical pitfall of feature-creeping, i.e. adding features to the game due to the worry that it is not fun enough for players. Forgotton Anne boasts a number of awards. What is the basic structure for developing a successful game? Ed: We don’t think there is a secret formula to creating hit games, or the market would be flooded with them. But, there are some universal truths one can rely on for added probability. One of them is knowing your intentions and having a capable team that has the necessary competences to execute. Communication is key, as it does not matter how skilled each individual is on the team if there is a lack of understanding between the people. I also strongly believe in an organic approach to development, where you need to accept changing circumstances and adapt quickly to them. We rarely set out knowing exactly every little detail of the finished game. If we did, it would prove to be detrimental to the creative process, as half the fun is coming up with solutions and discovering great ideas over the course of realizing the initial vision. While iterating on gameplay mechanics, we might discover a great opportunity to emphasize a storytelling aspect, or perhaps a piece of composed music could inspire how a sequence could play out. There is still so much to explore with the medium of games and its storytelling potential. That is really our aim and we hope that it translates to some originality that resonates with players. How do you stay up to date with the latest game and software trends? Ed: There are a couple of ways. Every major platform on mobile and console has a developer conference and these shows offer the best avenue to listen and learn. Another popular option is to go with an established publisher that often has early access to beta programs and has boots on the ground looking for the latest changes and opportunities to use tools that make a better product and potentially make work quicker. As a publisher, we are always playing and researching as many games as we can; reading up on trends in the industry -- who’s hot, what’s not; and researching new technologies and marketing techniques. What advice do you have for indie developers attempting to develop a successful game business? Ed: Start with a team, even if it's just 2 people. To make a game it requires many skill sets. I like to see experts, or someone that desires to be an expert, at each position or task. For example, you can have one team member specializing in art design plus knowledge of UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience), who can complement a programmer. The more well-rounded each team member is the more fun the project and the less time wasted searching for answers to complex development problems. Create a GDD (Game Design Document) that maps out the major aspects of the game. This will save countless hours of unneeded art and programming. It's ok to iterate upon your GDD, but do start with a solid foundation. Choose the best language/engine to make your game. Though Unity is great for 3D games and can port over to Android with relative ease, sometimes it can lose the true feel of doing the code in its native environment if you are producing a 2D game or an app. The best advice I can give is to find a team member with the skill set that complements your game or app idea. If you are a programmer, stay with what you know and get better at it. Decide what your time commitment is to making your game, i.e. months? years? Paid games are easier to go to market than free-to-try, but free-to-try will get you more downloads over time. This question can be a blog all on its own, so again having a good publisher can help more than almost anything. With all of your current success, what is next for Hitcents? Ed: The Godfather:Family Dynasty game has become over the past 3 years one of, if not the most, successful mobile Paramount game. Hitcents is planning the next big game with a known brand on par to the success and magnitude of the Godfather. The biggest thing for our future is knowing the words cross platform means playing across your mobile device, PC, and console, not just across mobile platforms. Our future is about consumer choice, bringing all the options to our players and letting them choose what they want to play, where they want to play it, and what device they want to play it on. Ideally, your Samsung Galaxy phone can play and progress while you are on the go, and then you can pick up on your console at home where you left off. It's an exciting time for gamers! What motivated Hitcents to bring your games to Galaxy Store? Ed: Galaxy Store provides Hitcents with the opportunity to diversify our sales, by opening a new revenue stream. It allows us to widen our customer base and gain access to Samsung device owners globally. What Samsung Developer Program services did you take advantage of when publishing Forgotton Anne to Galaxy Store? Ed: We integrated Samsung In-App Purchase payment service, which is used to make a one-off payment for goods or to pay for a regular subscription. It allows Hitcents to sell premium content and virtual goods, including in-game items available for purchase during game play. Did you use any marketing services to support driving both awareness and downloads for your game on Galaxy Store? Ed: Marketing and monetization is another key component of every developer’s journey. We found the Galaxy Store badge can be used as a resource on our website and media to support marketing our game on Galaxy Store. Adding Galaxy Store badge has put users one click away from downloading our game on Galaxy Store. The guides and downloadable content provided easy-to-follow instructions. Thanks to Ed Mills and Alfred Nguyen for sharing how they create and distribute successful game titles. Follow us on Twitter @samsung_dev for more developer interviews and tips for building games, apps, and more for the Galaxy Store. View the full blog at its source

The concept of an outdoor TV may seem like an unfamiliar one, but demand for such solutions has increased a lot recently as more and more users look to expand their premium viewing experiences to outdoor environments. Particularly in North America, where a large portion of the population lives in stand-alone houses with areas for outdoor recreation, it is not uncommon to see outdoor TVs installed in spaces such as barbecue areas and terraces. Starting with the release of The Serif in 2016, Samsung Electronics has been delivering televisions that closely reflect the lifestyles of its users. In May of 2020, Samsung’s first outdoor TV, The Terrace, was launched in the North American market (alongside The Terrace Soundbar) as part of the company’s expanding lifestyle TV portfolio. According to market research publisher QY Research, the global numbers for outdoor TV sales – which stood at around 170,000 units in 2018 – are expected to hit 440,000 units by 2024. But exactly how different is an outdoor TV from a regular television? Read on for Newsroom’s deep dive into the features and benefits of Samsung’s new The Terrace and The Terrace Soundbar offerings. Clean, Sharp Picture Quality in a Range of Conditions Walking the streets, it is not uncommon to see people shading their phones from the sunlight and struggling to make out what is on their screens. This happens when the brightness of the phone’s display is not high enough to counter the glare caused by the external light source, and is also an issue that affects outdoor TVs. However, with The Terrace delivering an average brightness level of 2,000 nits (and a peak brightness level of 4,000 nits), users can comfortably view content even in broad daylight. With its QLED display, anti-reflection technology that eases glare and Adaptive Picture feature that automatically optimizes the display’s brightness according to the surrounding lighting conditions, both visibility and top-tier picture quality are ensured. The Terrace is powered by Tizen, an open-source platform that allows content from Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ to be streamed with vivid picture quality, regardless of which operating system is being used. This service additionally supports the Apple TV app1 and AirPlay 2.2 With built-in Wi-Fi and LAN, The Terrace can be used simply and conveniently without the need for additional purchases or connections. There are a host of ways for users to enjoy mobile content on a large screen with The Terrace as well. For instance, Tap View feature allows what is displayed on the user’s Galaxy smartphone to be mirrored on their TV screen with a single tap. What’s more, Multi View feature allows the TV screen to play media from multiple sources, allowing users to watch TV on part of the screen while mirroring their phone screen on another part. When it comes to a TV that is intended for use outdoors, resistance to rain, wind and dust is of high importance. The Terrace carries an IP55 certification from the International Electrotechnical Commission, meaning that it delivers reliable water and dust resistance, and ensures peace of mind for users whose televisions are subjected to adverse conditions. The IP Code rates the level of protection a product carries against the ingress of dust, water or contaminants, with IP55 meaning that the product is highly protected against dust and will work without fault in the rain. Experience Deep, Rich Sound With The Terrace Soundbar A TV designed for use outdoors must, by necessity, deliver sound differently from those that are used indoors. The Terrace Soundbar was built to accompany The Terrace television and provide rich sound to complete the premium viewing experience. Distortion Cancelling was applied to The Terrace Soundbar to enable it to deliver deep, powerful low-register output without the need for an accompanying subwoofer. A total of four woofers in The Terrace Soundbar create 210 watts of sound to enhance the sense of immersion for the viewer. To add convenience to the viewing experience, both The Terrace and The Terrace Soundbar can be controlled by a single remote, which also features support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth®. What’s more, the Tap Sound feature allows users to enjoy music or sounds from their Galaxy smartphone on The Terrace soundbar with a single tap too. The Terrace Soundbar likewise carries IP55 dust and water protection to allow users to enjoy premium television audio in a broad range of conditions, worry-free. According to its vision of ‘Screens Everywhere’, Samsung Electronics has been expanding into areas such as ultra-high definition, new form factors and new viewing spaces, and in the process charting new waters as far as the television viewing experience. We expect to see The Terrace make a mark as it stretches the home entertainment experience into the outdoor environment. 1 Apple’s new video content streaming service, launched in the first half of 2019, which provides access to a range of content including movies and TV series 2 A feature that allows music, videos, and images stored on an Apple device to be streamed or viewed on external devices View the full article

Galaxy Store sellers running user acquisition campaigns can see detailed user attribution reports within Galaxy Store Statistics. Our newest documentation details how these statistics are organized to allow you to see which campaigns are most effective. If you are using a third-party mobile management partner such as Appsflyer, Adjust, Branch, Kochava, or Singular, these tools are now integrated with Galaxy Store. Take control of your app's success and understand where users find your content. View the full blog at its source

Galaxy Store sellers running user acquisition campaigns can see detailed user attribution reports within Galaxy Store Statistics. Our newest documentation details how these statistics are organized to allow you to see which campaigns are most effective. If you are using a third-party mobile management partner such as Appsflyer, Adjust, Branch, Kochava, or Singular, these tools are now integrated with Galaxy Store. Take control of your app's success and understand where users find your content. View the full blog at its source

Looking to show off your design chops? You can now submit your portfolio to Samsung and apply to become a Galaxy Watch face or Galaxy Themes seller. The submission window is open August 12 - August 25. Galaxy Watch Check out our latest how-to blog and read up on the new process for watch face design reviews. Then head over to the submission page and complete your application. Galaxy Themes Watch the video below for an overview of the process and what you need to prepare. Then download the Themes Submission Starter Kit and let the creative juices flow. Once you've assembled everything, complete your application here. The application process is very selective, and only the best of the best are selected. Think you have what it takes? We can't wait to find out. Like the designs featured in the banner? You can check out Joe and Dog and many other designs on the Infinity Watchfaces website. View the full blog at its source

Looking to show off your design chops? You can now submit your portfolio to Samsung and apply to become a Galaxy Watch face or Galaxy Themes seller. The submission window is open August 12 - August 25. Galaxy Watch Check out our latest how-to blog and read up on the new process for watch face design reviews. Then head over to the submission page and complete your application. Galaxy Themes Watch the video below for an overview of the process and what you need to prepare. Then download the Themes Submission Starter Kit and let the creative juices flow. Once you've assembled everything, complete your application here. The application process is very selective, and only the best of the best are selected. Think you have what it takes? We can't wait to find out. Like the designs featured in the banner? You can check out Joe and Dog and many other designs on the Infinity Watchfaces website. View the full blog at its source

Start Date Aug 11, 2020 Location Online Continuing our webinar series for game developers, join this Samsung Developer Program online talk and learn how to integrate the Samsung In-App Purchase (IAP) SDK in your Unity games. The Galaxy Store is a premium store to make Galaxy phones come alive in their own, unique way. Discover how to use Samsung’s payment service that makes it possible to sell a variety of items in applications for the Galaxy Store. At the end of this talk you will have the knowledge to modify your Unity games and have a new way to monetize them, whether it is with one-off payments or subscriptions. Additionally, we will check the Samsung IAP Unity plugin’s methods and functionalities, facilitating a rapid integration with your existing games. View the full blog at its source

Start Date Aug 11, 2020 Location Online Continuing our gaming webinar series, join this Samsung Developer Program talk and learn how take integrate the Samsung IAP SDK in your Unity games. The Galaxy Store is a premium store to make Galaxy phones come alive in their own, unique way. Discover how to use Samsung’s payment service that makes it possible to sell a variety of items in applications for Samsung Galaxy Store. At the end of this talk you will have the knowledge to modify your Unity games and have a new way to monetize them, whether it is with one-off payments or subscriptions. Additionally, we will check the Samsung IAP Unity plugin’s methods and functionalities, facilitating a rapid integration with your existing games. View the full blog at its source

In order to offer the best experience for consumers in Galaxy Store, watch face sellers must first be approved to publish. This approval is done by submitting an initial watch face design that demonstrates your ability to create exceptional, unique, high-quality watch faces and abide by copyright laws. This process is called a Watch Face Design Review Request. Approval of new designers by the Galaxy Watch Review Team is very limited and only exceptional designers will be granted access to publishing their watch faces in Galaxy Store. When can new designers apply? Applications are only accepted during certain times of the year, this is called the “Open Window”. Visit the Watch Face Design Review page to check the status of the current application window and future open window dates. Open Window Status What are the application requirements? Applications must be submitted as a single (multi-page) PDF and include the following information: Personal Information A cover letter (in English) that contains a brief paragraph saying who you are, why you want to sell watch faces, and how your designs will enhance a Galaxy Watch owner’s experience If you are a business, a copy of DBA or articles of association or organization Experiences that qualify you to design and sell watch faces such as certificates or diplomas from design schools or universities, design awards, or other design experiences Links to your design portfolio (website, Instagram, Facebook page, or other social media sites) List of unique features or design elements that set your designs apart from others Understanding of Intellectual Property rights, specifically section 3.2 of the App Distribution Guide, regarding Intellectual Property. State in a few sentences what Intellectual Property rights are and who is responsible. Watch Face Designs Include up to five watch face designs for review. One image of the main screen of your watch face design at a minimum dimension of 360 x 360 pixels. One image of your watch face applied to a watch. See below for details on generating images, tools you can use, and information about how to capture your watch face design. Optionally, provide any additional images that demonstrate the features of your watch face that are not shown in the main screen image (animations, tap reveal buttons, etc.). All watch face designs should be added as separate pages to your application PDF. Do NOT include binary files such as the .tpk or .gwd files. Submitting copyright protected content If you are submitting copyrighted content, you must include the license or official documentation showing permission to use the content with your application. Copyright protected content may include, but is not limited to brand identifiers, public institutions, sports clubs/teams, media, products, landmarks, images of people, and original or artistic renderings of copyright protected content. If a license or official documentation showing permission is not included, your application will be rejected. How to apply for review When the window for applying is open, Go to Watch Face Design Review Request. Log in using your Samsung account. If you do not have an account, sign up here. Provide the required information explained in the Application Requirements section above. Once the application window closes the Galaxy Watch Review Team may take several weeks to review all applications. At the completion of the review, applicants will be notified by email whether or not they have been selected to become watch face publishers. After a designer has been approved, all future watch face designs are only tested for functionality before being published in Galaxy Store. The Seller Portal Review Team analyzes the user interface, confirming that there are no issues before each watch face can be published. This review process is not related to the Watch Face Design Review that permits you to become a watch face publisher. Resources for generating watch face images Below are links to tools for assisting with generating the required images when submitting your application. Use of these resources are optional. If you used Galaxy Watch Studio, from the Run window you can view and capture images of your watch face and your watch face applied to a Galaxy Watch (images are 512 x 512 pixels). View this tutorial video on capturing images using Galaxy Watch Studio. If you tested your design on a watch, you can capture a screenshot of your design using the watch. (images are 360 x 360 pixels). Once you have an image of your watch face, use the Galaxy Store Asset Creator or Lifestyle Photo Assets to help create additional images (requires Adobe Photoshop). Submit your finest The Galaxy Watch Review Team wants to see your best! Simple watch face designs may be attractive for some, but they do not showcase your design skills. Submit designs that show your ability to create unique watch faces with a comprehensive user interface. Simple Watch Face Design The watch face designs you submit should only contain your original artwork and not the components provided with Galaxy Watch Studio. Your design should include custom imported watch hands and custom component graphics. Default Galaxy Watch Studio Components Be unique! There are thousands of designs available for download from Galaxy Store. How will you make your design stand out from the rest? For example, if you want to design a watch face that shows battery usage and health content, using the default components provided by Galaxy Watch Studio is not enough. Create your own icons and develop your own sophisticated style. The following watch faces are examples of rejected designs that show battery usage and health content. These designs are not sophisticated enough to show a designer’s capabilities. Content appearance and arrangement Are you providing enough information? Are you providing too much information? Are your components easy to read and understand in a glance? For example, the color or opacity of a background image or component may make the watch face difficult to read. Make sure your content is organized and easy to understand even basic information. The following watch faces are examples that were rejected because the information provided in the design was not easy to read. Image quality Another common issue with rejected applications is that the designs are low resolution or low quality. All images should be well-defined and sharp. Images generated from a Galaxy Watch screen capture or Galaxy Watch Studio (provided that embedded images used in the design are also high quality) are acceptable. The native resolution of a screen capture from a Galaxy Watch is 360 x 360 pixels. The native resolution of a screen capture from Galaxy Watch Studio is 512 x 512 pixels. Note that if you generate your image differently, just because an image matches one of these resolutions, it does not guarantee the image is high quality. A blurry image in high resolution is still a blurry image. Overall designs or embedded images that are pixelated or blurry will be rejected. If your design purposely contains pixelated or blurry images, please provide an explanation in the comments section of the review request. The examples below show a pixelated, a blurry, and sharp a watch face image. Submitted images A minimum of two images of your design must be submitted with your design review request. One of the images can be just a screenshot of the watch face, but the other must show how the design is displayed on a watch. For example, if the following image is submitted, the Galaxy Watch Review Team would not know what the design would look like on an actual watch. Would the watch face be centered inside the image, would the entire image fill the watch face, or would the image need to be cropped? Example of an image that does not meet submission criteria Examples of well-designed watch faces The following are examples of high-quality watch faces that meet or exceed the expectations of the Galaxy Watch Review Team. AWF New Digital Matveyan - Round Rainbow USA Florencia WAW - FlashY amoledwatchfaces MatveyAn USA Design WAW Watch Faces Application rejection The following are common reasons why your application may be rejected: Design includes copyright protected content without license or official documentation showing permission to use. Watch face design is too simple, not unique, not creative. Poor appearance or design execution of watch face. Watch face images are low quality. Required watch face images are not included. If your application is rejected, we encourage you to apply again during the next open window. Get ready to submit! The Galaxy Watch Review Team is always looking for talented and unique watch face designers to sell their apps in Galaxy Store. Do your research on watch faces and take your time to design the strongest, most unique watch faces you can. Once you have an extremely strong portfolio and have completed all of the application requirements, submit your application during the next open window. We’d love to see you in Galaxy Store! View the full blog at its source

In order to offer the best experience for consumers in Galaxy Store, watch face sellers must first be approved to publish. This approval is done by submitting an initial watch face design that demonstrates your ability to create exceptional, unique, high-quality watch faces and abide by copyright laws. This process is called a Watch Face Design Review Request. Approval of new designers by the Galaxy Watch Review Team is very limited and only exceptional designers will be granted access to publishing their watch faces in Galaxy Store. When can new designers apply? Applications are only accepted during certain times of the year, this is called the “Open Window”. Visit the Watch Face Design Review page to check the status of the current application window and future open window dates. Open Window Status What are the application requirements? Applications must be submitted as a single (multi-page) PDF and include the following information: Personal Information A cover letter (in English) that contains a brief paragraph saying who you are, why you want to sell watch faces, and how your designs will enhance a Galaxy Watch owner’s experience If you are a business, a copy of DBA or articles of association or organization Experiences that qualify you to design and sell watch faces such as certificates or diplomas from design schools or universities, design awards, or other design experiences Links to your design portfolio (website, Instagram, Facebook page, or other social media sites) List of unique features or design elements that set your designs apart from others Understanding of Intellectual Property rights, specifically section 3.2 of the App Distribution Guide, regarding Intellectual Property. State in a few sentences what Intellectual Property rights are and who is responsible. Watch Face Designs Include up to five watch face designs for review. One image of the main screen of your watch face design at a minimum dimension of 360 x 360 pixels. One image of your watch face applied to a watch. See below for details on generating images, tools you can use, and information about how to capture your watch face design. Optionally, provide any additional images that demonstrate the features of your watch face that are not shown in the main screen image (animations, tap reveal buttons, etc.). All watch face designs should be added as separate pages to your application PDF. Do NOT include binary files such as the .tpk or .gwd files. Submitting copyright protected content If you are submitting copyrighted content, you must include the license or official documentation showing permission to use the content with your application. Copyright protected content may include, but is not limited to brand identifiers, public institutions, sports clubs/teams, media, products, landmarks, images of people, and original or artistic renderings of copyright protected content. If a license or official documentation showing permission is not included, your application will be rejected. How to apply for review When the window for applying is open, Go to Watch Face Design Review Request. Log in using your Samsung account. If you do not have an account, sign up here. Provide the required information explained in the Application Requirements section above. Once the application window closes the Galaxy Watch Review Team may take several weeks to review all applications. At the completion of the review, applicants will be notified by email whether or not they have been selected to become watch face publishers. After a designer has been approved, all future watch face designs are only tested for functionality before being published in Galaxy Store. The Seller Portal Review Team analyzes the user interface, confirming that there are no issues before each watch face can be published. This review process is not related to the Watch Face Design Review that permits you to become a watch face publisher. Resources for generating watch face images Below are links to tools for assisting with generating the required images when submitting your application. Use of these resources are optional. If you used Galaxy Watch Studio, from the Run window you can view and capture images of your watch face and your watch face applied to a Galaxy Watch (images are 512 x 512 pixels). View this tutorial video on capturing images using Galaxy Watch Studio. If you tested your design on a watch, you can capture a screenshot of your design using the watch. (images are 360 x 360 pixels). Once you have an image of your watch face, use the Galaxy Store Asset Creator or Lifestyle Photo Asset Packs to help create additional images (requires Adobe Photoshop). Submit your finest The Galaxy Watch Review Team wants to see your best! Simple watch face designs may be attractive for some, but they do not showcase your design skills. Submit designs that show your ability to create unique watch faces with a comprehensive user interface. Simple Watch Face Design The watch face designs you submit should only contain your original artwork and not the components provided with Galaxy Watch Studio. Your design should include custom imported watch hands and custom component graphics. Default Galaxy Watch Studio Components Be unique! There are thousands of designs available for download from Galaxy Store. How will you make your design stand out from the rest? For example, if you want to design a watch face that shows battery usage and health content, using the default components provided by Galaxy Watch Studio is not enough. Create your own icons and develop your own sophisticated style. The following watch faces are examples of rejected designs that show battery usage and health content. These designs are not sophisticated enough to show a designer’s capabilities. Content appearance and arrangement Are you providing enough information? Are you providing too much information? Are your components easy to read and understand in a glance? For example, the color or opacity of a background image or component may make the watch face difficult to read. Make sure your content is organized and easy to understand even basic information. The following watch faces are examples that were rejected because the information provided in the design was not easy to read. Image quality Another common issue with rejected applications is that the designs are low resolution or low quality. All images should be well-defined and sharp. Images generated from a Galaxy Watch screen capture or Galaxy Watch Studio (provided that embedded images used in the design are also high quality) are acceptable. The native resolution of a screen capture from a Galaxy Watch is 360 x 360 pixels. The native resolution of a screen capture from Galaxy Watch Studio is 512 x 512 pixels. Note that if you generate your image differently, just because an image matches one of these resolutions, it does not guarantee the image is high quality. A blurry image in high resolution is still a blurry image. Overall designs or embedded images that are pixelated or blurry will be rejected. If your design purposely contains pixelated or blurry images, please provide an explanation in the comments section of the review request. The examples below show a pixelated, a blurry, and sharp a watch face image. Submitted images A minimum of two images of your design must be submitted with your design review request. One of the images can be just a screenshot of the watch face, but the other must show how the design is displayed on a watch. For example, if the following image is submitted, the Galaxy Watch Review Team would not know what the design would look like on an actual watch. Would the watch face be centered inside the image, would the entire image fill the watch face, or would the image need to be cropped? Example of an image that does not meet submission criteria Examples of well-designed watch faces The following are examples of high-quality watch faces that meet or exceed the expectations of the Galaxy Watch Review Team. AWF New Digital by amoledwatchfaces Matveyan - Round Rainbow by MatveyAn USA Florencia by USA Design WAW | FlashY by WAW Watch Faces Application rejection The following are common reasons why your application may be rejected: Design includes copyright protected content without license or official documentation showing permission to use. Watch face design is too simple, not unique, not creative. Poor appearance or design execution of watch face. Watch face images are low quality. Required watch face images are not included. If your application is rejected, we encourage you to apply again during the next open window. Get ready to submit! The Galaxy Watch Review Team is always looking for talented and unique watch face designers to sell their apps in Galaxy Store. Do your research on watch faces and take your time to design the strongest, most unique watch faces you can. Once you have an extremely strong portfolio and have completed all of the application requirements, submit your application during the next open window. We’d love to see you in Galaxy Store! View the full blog at its source

In order to offer the best experience for consumers in Galaxy Store, watch face sellers must first be approved to publish. This approval is done by submitting an initial watch face design that demonstrates your ability to create exceptional, unique, high-quality watch faces and abide by copyright laws. This process is called a Watch Face Design Review Request. Approval of new designers by the Galaxy Watch Review Team is very limited and only exceptional designers will be granted access to publishing their watch faces in Galaxy Store. When can new designers apply? Applications are only accepted during certain times of the year, this is called the “Open Window”. Visit the Watch Face Design Review page to check the status of the current application window and future open window dates. Open Window Status What are the application requirements? Applications must be submitted as a single (multi-page) PDF and include the following information: Personal Information A cover letter (in English) that contains a brief paragraph saying who you are, why you want to sell watch faces, and how your designs will enhance a Galaxy Watch owner’s experience If you are a business, a copy of DBA or articles of association or organization Experiences that qualify you to design and sell watch faces such as certificates or diplomas from design schools or universities, design awards, or other design experiences Links to your design portfolio (website, Instagram, Facebook page, or other social media sites) List of unique features or design elements that set your designs apart from others Understanding of Intellectual Property rights, specifically section 3.2 of the App Distribution Guide, regarding Intellectual Property. State in a few sentences what Intellectual Property rights are and who is responsible. Watch Face Designs Include up to five watch face designs for review. One image of the main screen of your watch face design at a minimum dimension of 360 x 360 pixels. One image of your watch face applied to a watch. See below for details on generating images, tools you can use, and information about how to capture your watch face design. Optionally, provide any additional images that demonstrate the features of your watch face that are not shown in the main screen image (animations, tap reveal buttons, etc.). All watch face designs should be added as separate pages to your application PDF. Do NOT include binary files such as the .tpk or .gwd files. Submitting copyright protected content If you are submitting copyrighted content, you must include the license or official documentation showing permission to use the content with your application. Copyright protected content may include, but is not limited to brand identifiers, public institutions, sports clubs/teams, media, products, landmarks, images of people, and original or artistic renderings of copyright protected content. If a license or official documentation showing permission is not included, your application will be rejected. How to apply for review When the window for applying is open, Go to Watch Face Design Review Request. Log in using your Samsung account. If you do not have an account, sign up here. Provide the required information explained in the Application Requirements section above. Once the application window closes the Galaxy Watch Review Team may take several weeks to review all applications. At the completion of the review, applicants will be notified by email whether or not they have been selected to become watch face publishers. After a designer has been approved, all future watch face designs are only tested for functionality before being published in Galaxy Store. The Seller Portal Review Team analyzes the user interface, confirming that there are no issues before each watch face can be published. This review process is not related to the Watch Face Design Review that permits you to become a watch face publisher. Resources for generating watch face images Below are links to tools for assisting with generating the required images when submitting your application. Use of these resources are optional. If you used Galaxy Watch Studio, from the Run window you can view and capture images of your watch face and your watch face applied to a Galaxy Watch (images are 512 x 512 pixels). View this tutorial video on capturing images using Galaxy Watch Studio. If you tested your design on a watch, you can capture a screenshot of your design using the watch. (images are 360 x 360 pixels). Once you have an image of your watch face, use the Galaxy Store Asset Creator or Lifestyle Photo Asset Packs to help create additional images (requires Adobe Photoshop). Submit your finest The Galaxy Watch Review Team wants to see your best! Simple watch face designs may be attractive for some, but they do not showcase your design skills. Submit designs that show your ability to create unique watch faces with a comprehensive user interface. Simple Watch Face Design The watch face designs you submit should only contain your original artwork and not the components provided with Galaxy Watch Studio. Your design should include custom imported watch hands and custom component graphics. Default Galaxy Watch Studio Components Be unique! There are thousands of designs available for download from Galaxy Store. How will you make your design stand out from the rest? For example, if you want to design a watch face that shows battery usage and health content, using the default components provided by Galaxy Watch Studio is not enough. Create your own icons and develop your own sophisticated style. The following watch faces are examples of rejected designs that show battery usage and health content. These designs are not sophisticated enough to show a designer’s capabilities. Content appearance and arrangement Are you providing enough information? Are you providing too much information? Are your components easy to read and understand in a glance? For example, the color or opacity of a background image or component may make the watch face difficult to read. Make sure your content is organized and easy to understand even basic information. The following watch faces are examples that were rejected because the information provided in the design was not easy to read. Image quality Another common issue with rejected applications is that the designs are low resolution or low quality. All images should be well-defined and sharp. Images generated from a Galaxy Watch screen capture or Galaxy Watch Studio (provided that embedded images used in the design are also high quality) are acceptable. The native resolution of a screen capture from a Galaxy Watch is 360 x 360 pixels. The native resolution of a screen capture from Galaxy Watch Studio is 512 x 512 pixels. Note that if you generate your image differently, just because an image matches one of these resolutions, it does not guarantee the image is high quality. A blurry image in high resolution is still a blurry image. Overall designs or embedded images that are pixelated or blurry will be rejected. If your design purposely contains pixelated or blurry images, please provide an explanation in the comments section of the review request. The examples below show a pixelated, a blurry, and sharp a watch face image. Submitted images A minimum of two images of your design must be submitted with your design review request. One of the images can be just a screenshot of the watch face, but the other must show how the design is displayed on a watch. For example, if the following image is submitted, the Galaxy Watch Review Team would not know what the design would look like on an actual watch. Would the watch face be centered inside the image, would the entire image fill the watch face, or would the image need to be cropped? Example of an image that does not meet submission criteria Examples of well-designed watch faces The following are examples of high-quality watch faces that meet or exceed the expectations of the Galaxy Watch Review Team. AWF New Digital by amoledwatchfaces Matveyan - Round Rainbow by MatveyAn USA Florencia by USA Design WAW | FlashY by WAW Watch Faces Application rejection The following are common reasons why your application may be rejected: Design includes copyright protected content without license or official documentation showing permission to use. Watch face design is too simple, not unique, not creative. Poor appearance or design execution of watch face. Watch face images are low quality. Required watch face images are not included. If your application is rejected, we encourage you to apply again during the next open window. Get ready to submit! The Galaxy Watch Review Team is always looking for talented and unique watch face designers to sell their apps in Galaxy Store. Do your research on watch faces and take your time to design the strongest, most unique watch faces you can. Once you have an extremely strong portfolio and have completed all of the application requirements, submit your application during the next open window. We’d love to see you in Galaxy Store! View the full blog at its source

In this episode of POW, we interview Chris Shomo from Infinity Watchfaces. Chris was one of the first designers to start selling watch faces on Galaxy Store and has become a very successful app designer. Along the way he has inspired many other designers to start creating for Samsung with his willingness to share his knowledge and expertise. If you're on a Galaxy device, check out Chris' watch faces and themes on Galaxy Store. Check out his favorite, Fred, the Butterfly Topics Covered: Galaxy Watch Studio Galaxy Themes Studio Galaxy Store Galaxy Store Badges Social Promotion & Hashtags Jibber Jab Reviews Jibber Jab Reviews Live Chat IoT Gadgets Galaxy Watch Facebook Group Tap Reveal Tutorial Galaxy Watch3 Asset Creator Lifestyle Photos Chris Shomo SDC17 Video Presentation View the full blog at its source

In this episode of POW, we interview Chris Shomo from Infinity Watchfaces. Chris was one of the first designers to start selling watch faces on Galaxy Store and has become a very successful app designer. Along the way he has inspired many other designers to start creating for Samsung with his willingness to share his knowledge and expertise. If you're on a Galaxy device, check out Chris' watch faces and themes on Galaxy Store. Check out his favorite, Fred, the Butterfly Topics Covered: Galaxy Watch Studio Galaxy Themes Studio Galaxy Store Galaxy Store Badges Social Promotion & Hashtags Jibber Jab Reviews Jibber Jab Reviews Live Chat Tap Reveal Galaxy Watch3 Asset Creator Lifestyle Photos Chris Shomo SDC17 Video Presentation View the full blog at its source

In this new video tutorial, you will learn how to reach a new gaming audience by publishing in Galaxy Store. Galaxy Store is a premium store, designed to make Galaxy mobile devices come alive in their own, unique way. Discover how to prepare and submit your Unity3D games to Galaxy Store. At the end of this talk, you will have the knowledge to create the right binary files and assets that are required to submit and distribute your first Unity game and ultimately reach the global Samsung audience. If you have knowledge of game development, or are interested in learning how to distribute your upcoming releases, we encourage you to watch. This talk will show participants how to: • Create a Galaxy Store Seller Portal account • Export your game in Unity • Complete the different submission steps in the Galaxy Store Seller Portal • Resolve common errors in your game submission You can also connect with Diego, a Sr. Developer Evangelist, on Twitter Have questions? Post them in our forums. View the full blog at its source

In this new video tutorial, you will learn how to reach a new gaming audience by publishing in Galaxy Store. Galaxy Store is a premium store, designed to make Galaxy mobile devices come alive in their own, unique way. Discover how to prepare and submit your Unity3D games to Galaxy Store. At the end of this talk, you will have the knowledge to create the right binary files and assets that are required to submit and distribute your first Unity game and ultimately reach the global Samsung audience. If you have knowledge of game development, or are interested in learning how to distribute your upcoming releases, we encourage you to watch. This talk will show participants how to: • Create a Galaxy Store Seller Portal account • Export your game in Unity • Complete the different submission steps in the Galaxy Store Seller Portal • Resolve common errors in your game submission You can also connect with Diego, a Sr. Developer Evangelist, on Twitter Have questions? Post them in our forums. View the full blog at its source

The latest edition of Galaxy Unpacked was held on Wednesday, August 5th, and for the first time it was virtual. We unveiled five new devices that empower work and play. Galaxy Unpacked featured lots of exciting updates for our designer and developer community, and what was mystery became mystic (bronze). You can watch the full livestream on YouTube, or fast forward to these time codes for key moments 8:50 Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra 53:45 Galaxy Watch3 1:08:01 Galaxy Z Fold2 Be sure to check out our Galaxy Watch3 artboards, now available on the Galaxy Watch Asset Creator. And now, here are the key takeaways on each of the new devices unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked. Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra The Galaxy Note20 Series is a productivity powerhouse that works like a computer and lets users game like a pro. The series comes in two versions: Galaxy Note20 Ultra, designed for Note fans who demand the ultimate in power and productivity, and Galaxy Note20, for those Note users looking to maximize their time for work and play. The Galaxy Note20 series includes the ever-popular S Pen. Developers, you can leverage the S Pen Remote SDK, S Pen Framework, and Air Actions to enhance the experience of your apps and games. As part of our continued partnership with Microsoft, Xbox Game Pass is coming to Galaxy Store. With an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, users will be able to play their favorite Xbox games in the cloud (beta) right from their Galaxy device. Galaxy users are always looking for new games to play, so be sure to submit your own game to Galaxy Store. If your game has in-app items for sale, be sure to check out the Samsung In-App Purchase SDK which lets users transact with any of the payment methods associated with their Samsung Account, including Samsung Pay and Samsung Rewards. We also have numerous technical resources and best practices on optimizing your game and getting the most out of the device GPU in Galaxy GameDev. We also unveiled the new wireless version of Samsung DeX. As Samsung DeX becomes even easier to use, you'll want to ensure your apps are optimized for Samsung DeX. Our resources detail how to add multi-window support, handle runtime configuration changes, and support different input modes. Galaxy Watch3 The Galaxy Watch3 is a next-generation companion for managing routines, smashing fitness goals, and taking ownership over health. Built with premium materials and a slimmed-down version of the popular rotating bezel, Galaxy Watch3 features the craftsmanship of a luxury timepiece, while still being comfortable enough to wear all day and all night. Developers can build Tizen-based apps while designers can build watch faces with Galaxy Watch Studio to enhance and customize the user's experience. We will begin reviewing new watch face designs starting next week, but you can get a head start on the requirements now. As we mentioned, a new version of the Galaxy Watch Asset Creator, which includes the Galaxy Watch3, is now available. New Lifestyle Photo Asset Packs will be coming soon as well. The new Galaxy Watch3 runs Tizen 5.5. Developers can check out this video tutorial to learn what is new in Tizen 5.5. Galaxy Z Fold2 Last, but certainly not least, was the Galaxy Z Fold2. This device builds on the experience of both the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip to deliver unique foldable experiences. More details about the Galaxy Z Fold2 will be released on September 1st. In the meantime, check out our resources on designing and optimizing for foldable devices. Wrap Up We also showcased the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+, devices where your apps and games will be featured in Galaxy Store. The Galaxy Buds Live introduced a new shape for wireless earbuds, an ergonomic design that’s being described as the perfect fit. Can't get your hands on a physical device? Stay tuned to our news feed - we'll announce when the new devices are available in our Remote Test Lab. We can't wait to see what you create for these new devices. Make sure to join us on the developer forums to share what you're working on and get your questions answered. Catch up on all of yesterday's announcements on the Samsung Newsroom or watch the replay on YouTube. View the full blog at its source