If only there was other bridge hardware that could communicate in a more open manner. Unfortunately, Hue is one of the only companies that even OFFERS an SDK—most other systems are completely closed down.
Then I discovered the lightsd package, which is a service daemon that runs on anything with python. It exposes a json api on the network that any client can easily send programming commands to your lights. You can tag each bulb, so you can target any subset you can come up with. I made my own ruby client in a single night, and I barely code. Lightsd turned the LIFX bulbs from an obvious store return into something I am willing to keep. Barely.