2008 Wrap up & what's in store for '09
by Leba Lualdi · 12/23/2008 (1:21 pm) · 6 comments
Hey there Green-Ear fans,
Happiest of Holidays and Merriest of New Years.
2008 was a big year for us here at Green-Ear and first off I want to send a big thank you shout out to everyone who has supported us and helped successfully launch Green-Ear this year.
First a recap. This year was the year a group of super smart people got together and tried to decide the best use of our vast amount of technology and features for VoIP other than the business communications products we were selling at the time. A collective gasp, a burst of thought, some storming of brains and the answer was Green-Ear- it was the answer we wanted all along but didn't dare to dream that we would get to live out our hobbies and passion for games at WORK, too? This was the best news! So, in a very short time following the tech was reconfigured and repackaged for gaming.
GarageGames was a natural first partner for us because our companies share the same vision and desire to provide affordable solutions for not just the big guy and not even just the small guy- All the guys (*I'm a girl and can say that with no sexism implied;). We all want to make game development accessible to anyone with talent and passion and drive. Easy to implement, affordable. And GarageGames definitely helps us make that happen. With a Green-Ear SDK that is Torque integrated it is simple and fast to add complex voice features in your game.
With prices starting at just $49.95!!!
(Had to break up my rambling with an infomercial.)
Back to ramble: Anyway, everyone at GG has been amazing- from just "getting" what we were trying to do to sharing their space with us at Austin GDC, we couldn't have done it without them and we owe them a debt of gratitude. (and sales. buy! buy! buy!)
Since then we have added additional SDK's and features to the Green-Ear offerings. For a quick run down of all the fabulous features to date (including voice morphing, text to speech and much much more): www.green-ear.com/features.aspx
Also this year, we found our demo to be less than stellar so we instead asked you, our brilliant development community to compete for our demo love. The contest ends December 31 and the prizes are fierce. 1st prize: $1000 and a showcase at our GDC booth in March. 2nd and 3rd prized are $500 and $250, respectively. For more information on this amazing opportunity: www.green-ear.com/contest.aspx
Hurry, time is running out. There is nothing to lose!
More cool stuff is going on over at the Green-Ear developer area of our site (http://www.green-ear.com/developer_newuser.aspx) Now, in addition to being able to add titles, manage your users, power up your voice slots and track usage...you can also download the SDK's for which you are licensed and any of the documentation you seek!
So with all that, its on to 2009 and all sorts of excitement!
Our next release is expected any time now-and will include (drumroll.....) Voice Commands, Speech Recognition and Input Record & Playback.
Did you catch that?
Voice Commands?
Sweet, I know!
And they couldn't be easier to execute. Just login to the developer area on Green-Ear.com, create your own lists of prefixes and words to recognize. Submit and you have specific speech rec. event files that you can insert in to your game so that your "FIRE FIRE FIRE" really fire, fire, fires.
You can expect the 2.1 release very soon.
Also in 2009, look for announcements of at least two additional partnerships that will make Green-Ear available for a couple of super hot (but top secret) platforms in the first part of the year.
Whew. That was a big year, no wonder I'm tired. Well, I'm off to Florida to recoup and come at you in a big way in '09. I hope each and every one of you get everything you want for whatever gift receiving holiday you celebrate. I wish for you a breath and a break, for health and happiness and lots of fun stuff. See you in the new year. It's gonna be a doozy. ;)
Best,
Leba
Happiest of Holidays and Merriest of New Years.
2008 was a big year for us here at Green-Ear and first off I want to send a big thank you shout out to everyone who has supported us and helped successfully launch Green-Ear this year.
First a recap. This year was the year a group of super smart people got together and tried to decide the best use of our vast amount of technology and features for VoIP other than the business communications products we were selling at the time. A collective gasp, a burst of thought, some storming of brains and the answer was Green-Ear- it was the answer we wanted all along but didn't dare to dream that we would get to live out our hobbies and passion for games at WORK, too? This was the best news! So, in a very short time following the tech was reconfigured and repackaged for gaming.
GarageGames was a natural first partner for us because our companies share the same vision and desire to provide affordable solutions for not just the big guy and not even just the small guy- All the guys (*I'm a girl and can say that with no sexism implied;). We all want to make game development accessible to anyone with talent and passion and drive. Easy to implement, affordable. And GarageGames definitely helps us make that happen. With a Green-Ear SDK that is Torque integrated it is simple and fast to add complex voice features in your game.
With prices starting at just $49.95!!!
(Had to break up my rambling with an infomercial.)
Back to ramble: Anyway, everyone at GG has been amazing- from just "getting" what we were trying to do to sharing their space with us at Austin GDC, we couldn't have done it without them and we owe them a debt of gratitude. (and sales. buy! buy! buy!)
Since then we have added additional SDK's and features to the Green-Ear offerings. For a quick run down of all the fabulous features to date (including voice morphing, text to speech and much much more): www.green-ear.com/features.aspx
Also this year, we found our demo to be less than stellar so we instead asked you, our brilliant development community to compete for our demo love. The contest ends December 31 and the prizes are fierce. 1st prize: $1000 and a showcase at our GDC booth in March. 2nd and 3rd prized are $500 and $250, respectively. For more information on this amazing opportunity: www.green-ear.com/contest.aspx
Hurry, time is running out. There is nothing to lose!
More cool stuff is going on over at the Green-Ear developer area of our site (http://www.green-ear.com/developer_newuser.aspx) Now, in addition to being able to add titles, manage your users, power up your voice slots and track usage...you can also download the SDK's for which you are licensed and any of the documentation you seek!
So with all that, its on to 2009 and all sorts of excitement!
Our next release is expected any time now-and will include (drumroll.....) Voice Commands, Speech Recognition and Input Record & Playback.
Did you catch that?
Voice Commands?
Sweet, I know!
And they couldn't be easier to execute. Just login to the developer area on Green-Ear.com, create your own lists of prefixes and words to recognize. Submit and you have specific speech rec. event files that you can insert in to your game so that your "FIRE FIRE FIRE" really fire, fire, fires.
You can expect the 2.1 release very soon.
Also in 2009, look for announcements of at least two additional partnerships that will make Green-Ear available for a couple of super hot (but top secret) platforms in the first part of the year.
Whew. That was a big year, no wonder I'm tired. Well, I'm off to Florida to recoup and come at you in a big way in '09. I hope each and every one of you get everything you want for whatever gift receiving holiday you celebrate. I wish for you a breath and a break, for health and happiness and lots of fun stuff. See you in the new year. It's gonna be a doozy. ;)
Best,
Leba
About the author
#2
BTW: Out of interest, would the speech recognition work outside of the comms api? its just that the demo I'm giving is likely to be offline and I could use the speech recognition api if it works offline.
Hope you had a nice christmas Leba.
12/23/2008 (2:43 pm)
I hope the speech recognition is simpler than the microsoft speech SDK :) I'm having to play with that right now but would be happy to incorporate Green-Ear.BTW: Out of interest, would the speech recognition work outside of the comms api? its just that the demo I'm giving is likely to be offline and I could use the speech recognition api if it works offline.
Hope you had a nice christmas Leba.
#4
Best of Luck to Green Ear in the new year and all the team submitting demos.
12/23/2008 (3:00 pm)
We're working on a demo for the Green Ear contest here at Max Gaming and I have to say from what I have experianced with the Green Ear tech in our game its freaking awesome! You would be foolish as an indie not to think about integrating this technology into your Torque game.Best of Luck to Green Ear in the new year and all the team submitting demos.
#5
12/24/2008 (10:37 am)
I wonder if this is the technology that will finally allow my swarm of evil robots to obey my voice commands. 
Employee Michael Perry
ZombieShortbus
2008 was a great year, but I predict Earth shattering meet ups and updates for 2009. It'll make '08 look like '98, which was a much duller "8" (stupid 90s).