Developing games for BlackBerry - what API to choose

Hi
I am trying to get around blackberry development. Right now I am making simple plugins in BB Native API(SDK) in Momentics. But there are many fuctionalities out there, (like Facebook Open Graph) that are not compatible with this API(SDK). So Can we develop in any other API for Unity?

If we browse a bit deeper on the http://developer.blackberry.com/ we can stumble upon developement ways like:

Native SDK
- Cascades( this is a library with UI components). Not possible to use in unity.
- Core (QML, C++ or C) Working with unity.

HTML5
- Standard HTML5
- WebWorks 2.2 API

Adobe AIR - This is dead, so I dont know why blackberry supports this? Am I wrong?

BlackBerry Runtime For android - repackage android apps for blackberry.

PlayBook - this is a bit confusing, because in here we have references to : Native, HTML5, Adobe AIR, and Android. I don't know what that means in relation to other platforms/apis.

BlackBerry OS - sooo, all of them?
- HTML5
- Java
- Theme studio

So, which of those can I use to port my games to blackberry? Right now I am using Native SDK in Momentics IDE with latest SDK, using C/C++. But this is the only way? Can I use other umm... API/SDK/IDE/whatever to develop my Leaderboards, Ads, Facebook plugins and payment systems?

 

Opinion based response:

I was using Java, then they killed it - and the entire OS. Their new OS at the time only supported AIR and was built on AIR, they pushed hard... but in the next major OS version they created Cascades and eventually killed AIR. Now BlackBerry has told game developers to instead build for Amazon, and so eventually Unity has to start pulling support.

Cascades own docs state it isn't smooth with animations in large use and that it isn't a good fit for games. Additionally they have stopped QT5 support (killing some of the future of Cascades in the process) and reduced their HTML5 team. So for games I would avoid their native tools.

Currently the right way going forward is to build for Android and convert or sell via Amazon (that is the official BlackBerry 10 answer) which means no BFB support (the end model has only enterprise apps being eligible for BFB) You could give Marmalade a spin (warning : it isn't pleasant) until they pull support as well.

Right now the only native apps BlackBerry wants are enterprise apps - they are a little oblivious to the understanding of the consumer / enterprise relationship, so they are in the mistaken impression that anything consumer focused is a waste of effort. The downside is, unless you are more persuasive than me, you will always face an uphill battle working on games on BlackBerry specifically.

 

I am now trying to make a game for BFB. It awaits approval. From my tests the only way is to build with native plugins without cascades based libraries.
Also, everything feels wrong with blackberry. Their decisions are weird.

 

You have to use Native SDK, it's the only way.

 

Yeah, there is marmalade. But I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy A person could build for Android and port over - but they won't be able to get BFB and FPS will drop to about 1/3. For some simple games that might not be bad though, but you'd probably want to switch to a lighter engine in that case.

On all three that do reviews (BlackBerry / Apple and Windows) I've found the only solution sometimes is to utilize connections. Its unfortunate, but on all three platforms, I've had to break rank at some point and escalate something to get it done. BFB is especially bad now, but it was much worse at one point.