Why aren't many good games in OUYA?

Hello.

As this is my first post here, I'll start by introducing myself.

I'm Pablo Navarro, so-called "director & programmer" of PiX Juegos. PiX Juegos is an open source game development "group of friends" which create games for free in their spare time, and we make no money at all from them.

Some of them are just clones from great classics, like PiX Pang, or mash-ups of even more great classics (PiX Bros mixes the gameplays from Snow Bros, Tumble Pop and Bubble Bobble).

To the point. 

OUYA logo

What is OUYA? Is it good?

Almost nobody has it, why should I pay attention to it?

For me, OUYA is a DREAM.

It is a dream because anyone can publish his games in a game console with gamepads without doing any investments. Focused in the true indies, and not hidden like in Xbox Live Indie Games.

It is also a dream because its future is completely unknown. They just were the first, but Amazon is making his own microconsole and Google will probably end doing it too.
I would love it to be a real revolution, but clients are always right, and they still don't seem to like OUYA. Most of them think that a game with lower graphics than Call of Duty, is not a good game. Those players won't be able to appreciate any 16 bit game, or anything not HD. 

They would not find enjoyable the puzzles in Braid if it still had its original art.

Braid before artwork remake.

What is failing on OUYA? Why aren't many good games there?

Well, this is how I see this matter:
- The big companies: (The ones who create games thinking in gamepads for mainstream platforms)
They still have no interest yet in doing anything with OUYA as the platform has just born and its future is still unknown.

- The little companies: (The ones who create games thinking in touch devices for the mobile markets)
They mostly quick&dirty port some of their touch games to OUYA with almost no success at all.

- The DREAMERS: (The ones who create games thinking in gamepads but they can't get to publish it on any mainstream platforms and end publishing it on Desura or the mobile market with an unplayable on-screen virtual gamepad)
Bombsquad, Towerfall, Knightmare Tower, Ittle Dew, Sine Mora, Gaurodan, etc...
All of them are awesome, fun and passionated games. They won't probably get rich by selling them here, but they really create the games they want.

And what about our experience publishing on OUYA?

First: PiX Juegos is not a company. We don't care about benefits or stuff like that :)
We need love. We just want our players to say "UR AWSOME!" through Twitter or Facebook, so we will feel motivated and improve our already published games or even create some new.

For us, OUYA is a great place to learn, get feedback and exposure. We're absolutely no one in this industry, so being in the front of the "Discover" section in OUYA is a big hit for us. Even if only 100,000 people see it.

All of our freeware games are arcade-style. They are already in the OUYA store since june, and we're getting a lot of support from the players.

We wanted to create games meant to be played with gamepads and we did it.
PiX Pang had to wait 6 years to be in a game console, but its finally there. And we love it! :)


To conclude: OUYA needs more dreamers. Needs a better catalog to attract more players, have a bigger market and then the companies will come.


PS: My final tips on the OUYA market:
Create a competitive coach-multiplayer game, with good mechanics, 16-bits graphic style, add some random fun, and you will be on the top in the O-Rank :)