[APP] [LWP] Smoke Play beta - Android Apps and Games

Hi all,
My second app is up on the marketplace:
https://market.android.com/details?id=ph.android.smokeLWP
It's a fluid solver driven live wallpaper and stand-alone app.
The effect is a simple but satisfying dynamic smoke.
Youtube video to follow tomorrow.
I would really appreciate your feedback and feature requests!
Cheers,
-=JK=-

My sgs2 is smoking!
Impressions are good, although with a blank initial screen, thought something was wrong until I touched it...(Duh I know).
A wee bit pixilated but understand the universal performance issue, which would slow most devices dramatically If at a higher resolution.
It reminds me of a app called Fleya, which is on the market, if you are not familiar with it, check it out.
But this is a great start, and being a fan of fluid / smoke dynamic simulations, this is a keeper
Will be following this.
Well done and thanks.
Regards

With reference to the "Fleya" app for reference.
www.appbrain.com/app/fleya/fixedpointcode.fleya
Cheers

Thanks buzzboy.
Yeah, I am also a fan of fleya!
I've got quite a lot to add to Smoke Play to get it to where I want it. I've been messing around with some settings and superficial stuff for about a week so I thought it just needs to get out there.
My ideas for features are:
a settings activity where you can up the detail and iterations on the fluid solver for more powerful phones
expose all the smoke (or fluid) properties to be customisable
define some cool pre-sets
coloured smoke that mixes (have this working on my laptop)
continuous auto-sources of smoke
objects (draw shapes) in the path of the smoke
calculated objects field from the homescreen icons (smoke collides with your icons)
an auto-config activity which scales the detail up or down to optimise quality on all phones
maybe put an ad in the settings activity
I'm not sure what order I'll do things in. I think some sort of settings screen will be up next.
I'm keen to hear other ideas too!
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Just made an update, check it out!
Added features:
- smoothed the input
- added multitouch
- added a settings screen to make the level of detail user configurable
The "medium" level of detail is about right for my SGS ... so you can judge the right setting for your phone.
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Another update:
- tweaked the settings for the different levels of detail smoke
- fixed a memory usage bug (will keep an eye on this, difficult to reproduce)
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Nice, runs at very high on my DHD, nice work.
Sent from HydrOG3N MOD DHD.
Technology Evolves, Android Evolves.
HydrOG3N is THE Revolution.

Real smooth on my echo, nice work

This is very entertaining. I am looking forward to the features you want to implement.
How about accelerometer detection so the smoke rises accordingly, depending on how the phone is being held.

I wallpaper works in the preview mode but will not apply to homescreen. One suggestion I can think of is being able to change the background image. It would be awesome to be able to have a weed background with dynamic smoke
Sent from my Hero CDMA using XDA App

This wallpaper is amazing. The only thing it really needs is a certain amount of smoke as a sort of baseline so that I don't have a blank phone every time I wake it up. It is pretty nifty that the screen comes alive the first time you touch it though..

Nice!
Working great on my SGS running on High detail. Very nice work!
Hope to see implementation of accelerometer and colors.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, great to hear!
I wanted to make more updates, but I've been a bit tight for time recently. Some of the feedback I've had is that it looks pixelated so I've been unsuccessfully trying to work on a simple shader to smooth the rendering. I may not be able to make this work, but I'd like to. For those interested, the fluid sim uses C code via the NDK so this may be complicating things for me ... also shaders will not work below Android 2.2 which adds complication.
Colour is definitely coming, I have this working with a simple RGB colours in my test code. I want a nice way to choose colours in the settings screen. Any suggestions around this would be cool.
Accelerometer detection will come, but this will be slightly more tricky than colour and may take me a little time.
A constant source of some smoke (so there is something always on the screen) will be a later addition.
I haven't looked at transparency over a background image yet.
Cheers,
-=JK=-

i love this man its very nice. the updates you want to do are sounding great too! one thing i do want to add is an idea for it. maybe when you get the constant smoke source try having so your touches dont always produce smoke but can just twirl it and influence it. like have a setting where you can turn on constant smoke and then play with it. But its great so far keep up the work!

Hi Guys,
Got an update out! (finally)
This one includes:
- a bug fix of a known issue in OpenGL which was causing a crash when switching between the app and the wallpaper every now and then
- a smoothing renderer. This takes the edges off the pixelated look which was the main feedback I was getting.
I went down and back several paths to try and smooth the rendering. I'm fairly happy with it. The levels of detail for the fluid simulation are the same as before, but it divides each cell into 4 and does a sort of subtle bloom effect prior to the gl rendering calls.
Hope this improves the look and feel for people.
I looked at porting to OpenGL ES 2.0 (from 1.0), but it was just too difficult for what I was doing. If anyone knows a good tutorial to do this I may look into it in the future. I think the shader effects available in 2.0 would further improve / customise the visuals.
Cheers,
-=JK=-
PS - next up: accelerometer (then coloured smoke / constant sources)

New version out today!
Accelerometer detection for the smoke rising added.
Also slightly improved the rendering performance.
Finally got around to filming it too, here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xdLceg474k
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Version 1.8 up on the market.
Added continuous source mode: smoke is continuously added to the middle of the screen, swipe to push it around with forces.
Added simple colour: cycles through RGB when you touch the screen.
Next up: background image, colour picker.
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Thanks for sharing.
As an FYI, the smoke is pixelated on my Archos 70 :
I'm using the latest market version with "smooth rendering" enabled.

Hi jknut,
I'm sorry it's pixelated on your device.
You can try upping the smoke level of detail in the options.
Unfortunately, this will increase the number of calculations per frame and may slow it down to a crawl.
There's not a lot I can do about this ... the algorithm is implemented in C via the NDK so it's not going to get much faster. I have implemented a fixed point version which gave a slight speed increase but unacceptable precision for the effect.
Even on my Core i5 laptop I can easily make it grind to a halt on a detail setting not much more than the "are you feeling lucky" one.
Cheers,
-=JK=-
PS - more features to follow, just swamped with work right now

Version 1.9!
Hi all,
New version just released.
Features added:
- colour picker, so you can choose your own colours
- background images you can pick
Check out the new youtube video demonstrating here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip5wahetEEA&feature=youtu.be
Android Market link:
https://market.android.com/details?id=ph.android.smokeLWP
Facebook link for the app:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smoke-Play/181185655317341
As ever, comments welcome.
I have a next feature in mind, but not sure it is possible yet
Cheers,
-=JK=-

Related

[UPDATED] An opengl ES 2.0 livewallpaper - Space Chase

Hello world,
here's a demo i wrote to test the opengl es 2.0 ndk code.
i plan to make it a real wallpaper with options, but if you want to test it, here's the apk
--EDIT
apk updated to the beta version.
i'm gonna sell this on the market, but i give a free beta to xda members
just a quick view of the features :
-adjust star speed, size, density, rotation
-double tap to engage hyperspace
-single tap to fire
-auto fire mode
-change craft after each hyperspace
- 8 crafts so far (x-wing,y-wing,tie-fighter,tie-advanced,tie-bomber,tie-vader,millenium falcon,tyridium shuttle)
-auto hyperspace after 25 laser shots
-customizable laser color
and maybe a few more, it's late and i don't remember everything.
Oh i forgot to mention, it's almost all native code, using glsl shaders, so it should be verry cool with the cpu (but not the gpu )
unixseb said:
Hello world,
here's a demo i wrote to test the opengl es 2.0 ndk code.
i plan to make it a real wallpaper with options, but if you want to test it, here's the apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Well done man. Looking great, can't wait to see the end result. Keep on keeping on.
That's pretty awesome. Looks like Star Wars hyperspace. Just missing a tilting Millennium Falcon in the foreground.
Just missing a tilting Millennium Falcon in the foreground.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was planning a X-wing
Will we get to see a random transition in and out of hyperspace?
Works pretty well, there are some stutters when switching orientation
Seriously good job. My stomach started to turn after a few seconds, but that kind of stuff always gets me a bit sick to my stomach and really means you did some fantastic work.
Impressive. Swiping is still very fluid. It needs slowing down and probably other options but I expect you have those in mind. Can't wait to see a 'finished' version
This is gonna be great im going to keep an eye on this!
Nice. So glad I went for Droid instead of the TP2 I wanted.
Sweet i can't wait
Oh my god!! It`s incredible... Keep on going man.
I want to see this in my homescreen all the time under my icons and widgets!
It`s amazing...
I forgot to mention that the apk contains an activity and à live wallpaper, you can already have it behind your icons
Thankyou guy. Simply I have not search in the live wallpapers picker. It`s
awesome to see this in the desktop without slowing down so much. Keep the
good work.
Thank`s for all.
Nice one. The ability to set the speed would be nice.
Shows 0% cpu usage with SeePU, vmstat shows an average 22% user-cpu usage, 0% in sleep mode.
well, i worked a bit on this one and it became something
i've updated the attached apk to the first post.
i will sell this on the market but i give xda members a free beta.
the craft tilting is a bit too nervous so far, and it lacks a few setting, but it is close from it final version.
just let me know if you like it
remove spaceship
hey, i think u did a great job with that wallpaper, i just have a little suggestion, is it possible to add the option to remove the spaceship? keep it up!
yes, it is already in the full version
uff..got FC...and loop at reboot.
Maybe because of my test2&mods...
Nevermind,nandroid..
Edit: sorry, it wasn´t your livewallpaper that caused the trouble, but I put Wysie´s mod and TA Pro new patch together, this caused the loop!
Edit: Awesome Livewallpaper!!!
Wow, this actually works and looks great on the Droid. Very smooth.

[GAME] Color Confusion

Hi all,
I just developed my first game, Color Confusion http://bit.ly/kSX8go, and hope folks here get a chance to check it out. Any feedback is welcome.
Being my first game, there are probably things that could be done better, but my tesing group (wife and kids =) seem to really enjoy playing it.
We have an Asus Transformer, so optimizing for tablets/honeycomb was important to us.
UPDATE:
Color Confusion Game Trailer: http://bit.ly/jU7HXE
Description
See if you have what it takes to solve each level, by mixing a wide array of colors into cans of paint. Don’t be fooled as gameplay starts off easy, with a small number of colors. As you progress, it becomes pure Color Confusion!
* USER REVIEWS *
- “Very fun! Makes you actually think!”
- “Good for passing time. Fun! Very nice.!”
- “This game is a ton of fun! It seems so simple but it very challenging.”
FEATURES:
** Optimized Honeycomb 3.0 support
** HD Tablet resolution graphics included
** Supports lower resolution devices as well
** Never the same game twice
** Great game for teaching kids how to mix colors
** High score tracking for each level
** Seemingly easy at first glance, but becomes additively difficult
** In-app help included
** Atmospheric background music
** Free version includes first four levels
** Free version includes ads
awesome, ill have to check it out. good work.
luciferii, thanks for the kind words.
I submitted this app to Amazon, and it has been approved. Anyone know how long it takes to "go-live" on Amazon? It has been a couple of days in approved status...but no way I can tell to make it go live. Does Amazon do automatically?
Hi Funny idea for a game.
I've noticed that I went too many times for the obvious choice, like for green I was mixing a darker green with a lighter color instead of mixing blue and yellow.
I've got two minor recommendation:
If you go to play, help or scores and press the back button, it exits the game. I should expect that it would go back to the main menu.
When pressing the remix button it directly remixes the colors. On a tablet touching this by accident isn't really the case, but when playing it on for instance the bus on your phone it can happen. A are you sure dialog can avoid this.
It's rather good Could you make the sample of the colour we have to match bigger? It is a tad small when playing on a phone.
Hi,
Tricky Design, thanks for the great feedback! For the help/score exiting the game, I was able to replicate that as well. I fixed that bug in an update (see below version history). That was a good catch! The re-mix is also a good idea, I will put that in my next update!
Isadora, Thanks for the great feedback as well! I will for sure make the swatch colors bigger on the next build.
Really appreciate you all checking it out, feel free to spread the word if you like it...being my first game...it is hard getting it "off the ground"
For reference, here are the updates I have done so far...most are based on user feedback...I am really trying to address user feedback
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.2
1. Based on user feedback, added option to mute background music (new icon on main menu)
2. Minor changes to Ad sizing for some devices
3. More performance improvements
Version 1.1
1. Based on user feedback, adjusted difficulty levels
2. Performance improvements
3. New "free" icon, to distinguish paid from free if both installed
4. Increased Color Palette size and buttons, to make play easier on phones
5. Fixed bug with game exiting when hitting menu button on scores and help.
Version 1.0
1. Initial Release
Color Confusion was featured on Blamza.com http://bit.ly/jfnGxB !
"Simple but addictive...excellent game...try it out" -Blamza.com
It seems that the paid (ad-free) version still has the ad code involved somewhere, because it still wants internet and unique identifier permissions. That's something of a turn-off.
Hi ResonanceZero,
Thanks for the feedback.
The paid version has the Ad stuff removed...however, this was built with Corona SDK, and that permission is added during their "build" process. I will do some research as to why that is the case, and see what can be done about it.
Thanks again for taking time to look at it and provide feedback.
Since it is my first game, I am still learning a lot...and having fun
I don't know if I am doing something wrong or, but whenever I download the game and run it, it says that the application has been corrupted
Sent from my disease ridden .... I mean CommRom Fascinate.
Color Confusion 1.3 just released! Now you can see the answers, if you fail a level!
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/kSX8go
Color Confusion, never the same game twice!
Color Confusion Game Trailer!
http://bit.ly/jU7HXE
Not much of a gaming person, but it does look nice and well made!
And i love the music in the trailer well done
barty22, thanks for the nice feedback on the trailer. It was my first attempt at something like this...and I thought it turned out pretty well. Glad you liked it!
Color Confusion gets great hands on video review from TalkAndroid.com!
TalkAndroid.com
Hope you can check it out!
Thanks
Gibibyte Games
Just updated the website with the "Gibibyte Team"
http://www.gibibytegames.com/#!__about
Hopefully you all have as much fun playing Color Confusion as we did making it!
Color Confusion 1.5 released, with updated graphics. Gameplay looks much better now. Enjoy!
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.gibibytegames.colorconfusionfree
Thanks for listening,
http://www.gibibytegames.com/
It's a great little game I really like that all the levels are different every time but I'm just annoyed that I haven't managed to master level 10 yet (there *always* seems to be 2 colours that I can't mix right!)
Isadora,
I am so glad to hear you think it is a great game
We did work hard to make the gameplay have lasting value...by making the levels different every time.
You are right...level 10 is very challenging...I have managed to solve it a few times...at least now you can see the answers if you fail. That was a feature folks were asking for.
One of the hardest things is "getting the word out" on these games. Really appreciate you taking time to play!
Paul
http://www.gibibytegames.com/

[APP] [Live Wallpaper] Motion Timer Live Wallpaper

Hi everyone,
I've put my first app up on the market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.anddev.wallpaper.motion.timer
Here is the youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfADhuBjdnA
I would really appreciate everyone's feedback and impressions!
Cheers,
-=JK=-
I can´t watch the Video, because EMI has block this ?
Darn ... didn't realise how restricted that would be with a soundtrack on it.
Here's a video with no sound track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JewxFD-zp3E
-=JK=-
Installed it and then set as wallpaper but no balls are displayed. Also there are no settings on the wallpaper. Am i missing something here?
Very cool looking...what happens if you shake it? =)
- Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G -
Xee,
You should see some balls appear when you tap the screen.
When you get 32 balls on the screen subsequent taps cause mini-explosions.
It's a very simple wallpaper, so no settings yet. I might find something to set when I update it.
Obartuckc,
At the moment, nothing happens when you shake it
It responds to the accelerometer by changing the direction of gravity on all the balls.
I could look into triggering something on a shake ... what would you like it to do?
Cheers,
-=JK=-
I like what you've done with it thus far, whatever you do can only make it more awesome! I really like how if you add a new ball on top of others they sort of fling out...perhaps shaking it could make them pop or sort of explode? That'd be neat. Whatever you decide, keep up the good work!
- Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G -
this totally reminds me of those liquid motion desk toys...
that's a live wallpaper i would like
That's great to hear PatcheZ!
That's exactly the feel I was going for.
I'm hoping to figure out a way to extend to something like these: http://www.officeplayground.com/Liquid-Motion-C23.aspx
It'll be a solid body physics sim until something as great as http://www.box2d.org/ comes along for fluids.
Cheers,
-=JK=-
Man, you got balls.
nice job with this
Thanks for the comments.
-=JK=-
I would've loved to see the video, but apparently you've used some music from EMI and they've blocked the video because of it. Could you reupload it without the (alleged) copyright infringing music track?
TheCreat,
Sorry about that. There is a link in the video description to this version which has no music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JewxFD-zp3E
Hope you enjoy.
Cheers,
-=JK=-
This is a really cool wallpaper, thanks.
Very Nice, but once all of the balls have reached the top or bottom of the screen there is nothing going on.
Could the ball toggle their state after they have been at the top or bottom a certain amount of time?
For example: after a blue dropper is at the bottom for x seconds, it becomes a green floater and floats upwards and vice versa.
Thanks for the feedback guys, great to hear.
Spauldio,
When you change homescreens the gravity should switch ... which will make all the balls start to fall and float again!
Cheers,
-=JK=-
PS - I'm using the onOffsetsChanged method to accmplish this behaviour - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/service/wallpaper/WallpaperService.Engine.html#onOffsetsChanged(float, float, float, float, int, int)
- but it seems a little inconsistent in when it's called ... sometimes called on "half" changes to the homescreen. Haven't been able to figure out how to make it robust ... I just switch the gravity flag when it's called.
Version 1.1 !!!
Updated to version 1.1
I've kind of combined suggestions from Obartuckc and Spauldio. I've added a shake control, so that when you shake it gravity is switched and the balls all start flowing up and down again.
Hope this goes down well
Cheers,
-=JK=-
Hey, just installed this, it's great! But how's battery life?
Thanks NickHu!
I haven't noticed any difference in battery usage to previous live wallpapers I have used.
Is there some benchmark I can use to gauge battery usage of my app?
-=JK=-

[APP][1.6+] Orbitals Live Wallpaper (with windows 8 style loading bubbles!)

It's been a rollercoaster of a ride but it's here: The Orbitals Live Wallpaper.
Orbitals LWP is the second spin-off from my original Target Live Wallpaper app.
Orbitals introduces a windows 8 style loading bubbles along with standard and knotted orbits (inspired by the Trefoil knot).
The color schemes are mostly tech/oss inspired and include Ubuntu, XDA, Slashdot and more.
The color scheme, trail length and speed of the orbitals will vary randomly and changed after every touch with a cool spin-in-and-out transition.
Let me know what you thought out even better let every one know by rating in the Google Play Store or donating.
So get cracking and check out the video, the source code and the app itself in the market (or have a look at my other work).
Thanks all.
I haven't forgotten
Hey all,
Just touching base to say I haven't forgotten you... but i have been very distracted
I got a bit distracted by the Ubuntu App Showdown, but I'm back onto Android now.
I've made some progress here with a spin out animation added. This week hopefully I'll get around to a "stop at 12" animation where the circles complete the circuit they are on and then bunch up at the top, I also need to restrict which animations are used for which orbits as some don't work with all animations now and finally the guys at FDroid also had a couple of suggestions I want to add code side.
Cheers,
Ben.
Looks really cool, personally im not a fan of things following my finger unless its doing it in a subtle way but that's just me. other then that it's a really cool design and im sure others will love it
Uploading version 2 now
Hi all,
Just uploaded v2 of Orbitals LWP.
So it should go live on the Play Store any moment now.
I've only added one new transition but I've also cleaned up how they work and combine so the next one should not be as difficult to add ... but I'll be working on ADBassist for a while, so it may be some time before I add another..
Until then enjoy v2 with zoom in and zoom out (and various other minor fixes).

[GAME][4.0+] Shape Rotate

Hi guys
I am a software engineering student, eager xda reader and in my (little) free time i like to mess around with my android phone. So i developed a little game over the last half year. It's called Shape Rotate.
I wanted to do a simple but new game, not another flappy bird clone. So finally i put the first version online in the playstore yesterday, here is a short description:
In my game you always see two equal shapes, in random rotations. Your task is to rotate the outer shape so that it is equally aligned to the inner one - once they are aligned equally tap the screen anywhere to get the next one. That sounds easy, but since time is not on your side (you gain some extra time every time you get the two shapes aligned identically) it gets really tricky once the shapes are not that obvious any more. The goal is to survive as long as you can.
It would be really great if you check it out, i would really appreciate feedback (or, even better: positive reviews )
Here is the playstore link: Shape Rotate in google play
It is of course free (no in-app purchases or what-so-ever), and i plan to add a lot more different shapes in the future! I attached some screenshots of the app, and i also added a demo video in the playstore description.
Great game. Has great potential to be a time waster. There does seem to be some lag between the shape changes that can prematurely end your game. Get that timing down and you've hit a home run.
As for some suggestions to add. Maybe have levels to unlock similar to an angry birds setup. In level one hand similar shapes with minimal colors, next thing to unlock, add another shape or two with an additional color. Thus making each level progressively harder.
ph37rd said:
Great game. Has great potential to be a time waster. There does seem to be some lag between the shape changes that can prematurely end your game. Get that timing down and you've hit a home run.
As for some suggestions to add. Maybe have levels to unlock similar to an angry birds setup. In level one hand similar shapes with minimal colors, next thing to unlock, add another shape or two with an additional color. Thus making each level progressively harder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for your feedback! Regarding the lags, may i ask which device you are using?
I tested it on several devices from an I9000 to my Nexus 4. The only lag i found was that on older devices it takes some time to start the game, but once it displays the first shape i haven't found any lag :s
Yes i already thought about such a thing - creating different "shape packages" and unlocking them time after time. That is definitely a good suggestion for the future and i will soon start working on this. This now is just a first version where i wanted to check out how the game mechanics work and how people react to it.
Varjo said:
Thx for your feedback! Regarding the lags, may i ask which device you are using?
I tested it on several devices from an I9000 to my Nexus 4. The only lag i found was that on older devices it takes some time to start the game, but once it displays the first shape i haven't found any lag :s
Yes i already thought about such a thing - creating different "shape packages" and unlocking them time after time. That is definitely a good suggestion for the future and i will soon start working on this. This now is just a first version where i wanted to check out how the game mechanics work and how people react to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running on an N4 with KK 4.4.4 and hellscore b47, most kernel settings default.
To be sure I'm understood, I solve one shape and before the transition to the next set of shapes, there is a noticeable pause.
This is a good concept. There’s a lag also when rotating the outer shapes. Though this might be because of my slow samsung galaxy tab.
Overall, this is a good gameplay.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B48cqoutz8n3dDFnbTJvRm1XOVU/edit?usp=docslist_api
There should be an mp4 video to illustrate the lag.
Seems there may be an issue with the timer as well.
ph37rd said:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B48cqoutz8n3dDFnbTJvRm1XOVU/edit?usp=docslist_api
There should be an mp4 video to illustrate the lag.
Seems there may be an issue with the timer as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hm, well it could be that what you think is a lag is actually my poor description and/or implementation?
The playing mechanics should be: you rotate the outer shape so that it is correctly aligned. IF it is so, then you tap anywhere on the screen to "submit" it. if it is correct you get the next shapes.
(The reason why it cannot "auto submit" the moment it is correctly aligned is because then it would be trivial, you would just rotate it until it snaps in - thats why you need that extra "next shape please"-tap)
The possible rotation is actually split into 12 different angles, so there are 11 different angles with which shapes can appear.
The best way to control it is to drag with a finger on the border of the screen (or use two fingers as in normal rotation gestures). you have to drag the finger a bit until the shape snaps in to the next one.
so could it be that it's because i didn't explain the intended controls enough? If so, do you have any suggestions to improve that, or how to better explain the way to play it?
really really appreciating your feedback btw :good:
Varjo said:
hm, well it could be that what you think is a lag is actually my poor description and/or implementation?
The playing mechanics should be: you rotate the outer shape so that it is correctly aligned. IF it is so, then you tap anywhere on the screen to "submit" it. if it is correct you get the next shapes.
(The reason why it cannot "auto submit" the moment it is correctly aligned is because then it would be trivial, you would just rotate it until it snaps in - thats why you need that extra "next shape please"-tap)
The possible rotation is actually split into 12 different angles, so there are 11 different angles with which shapes can appear.
The best way to control it is to drag with a finger on the border of the screen (or use two fingers as in normal rotation gestures). you have to drag the finger a bit until the shape snaps in to the next one.
so could it be that it's because i didn't explain the intended controls enough? If so, do you have any suggestions to improve that, or how to better explain the way to play it?
really really appreciating your feedback btw :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may not have read it if you wrote it. When initially testing something like this I go for intuitive. The extra tap isn't.
What about doing the the auto next based on a touch release. You know when the shape is being rotated, the screen is being touched. Can you detect when a finger is removed? There would be no more rotation and wouldn't allow just spinning randomly to get it to snap as you describe.
EDIT:
Looking it up it's called a touch event using MotionEvent class with ACTION_DOWN and ACTION_UP
ph37rd said:
What about doing the the auto next based on a touch release. You know when the shape is being rotated, the screen is being touched.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is actually a quite interesting suggestion! I tried it out, and it feels kind of nice. it also makes the game easier, maybe i have to reconsider the additional time gain... I created a debug build, would be nice if you would download and try it and tell me what you think ( you have to deinstall the appstore version first, since this one is signed with my local debug key)
It now checks the correct alignment each time you lift your finger from the screen.
Edit: i think that is a gamebreaker because it makes the game way to easy. you just have to swipe very quickly on the border, and due to the "auto" check you always get the alignment correct very quickly.
another version would be this one. here it is also checked on touchUp but if the alignment is wrong it jumps back in the initial state. that makes it even a bit harder, but also requires more focus and looking.
what do you think?
OK, going to leave this one up to you. I didn't catch a difference between the two in how they play. The first one appears to be snappier and jerky, as opposed to the second one being smoother and slower.
Either way, you nailed what I was saying. What do you think? I think this is far more intuitive. Now you just need to figure out the levels of difficulty.
The ultimate would be to have the shapes and colors auto generated with random attributes. You would not have to map anything out, the app would automagically create them.
Ok i found some issues that caused the touch input to be way to sensitive or way to unresponsive - that fixed i got some feedback that the overall control is way better now (especially on high res devices).
ph37rd said:
Either way, you nailed what I was saying. What do you think?
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I still like the idea, but it brings some new issues that i need to figure out. Once you got the current control mechanism people don't think to much about it - so i'm not quite sure if it is really that much benefit. I will test that out over the next iterations and try gathering more feedback (about the current control and about how much people think it's good/bad).
ph37rd said:
The ultimate would be to have the shapes and colors auto generated with random attributes. You would not have to map anything out, the app would automagically create them.
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That is the second big point on my todo list. but i don't really know how to start.
The best way that comes to my mind is to define different "base shapes" that are then just colored randomly. but that again would require alot of different base shapes to keep up a good variety?
at the moment i add hand drawn shapes with each update (around 170 now and using .gif its not that of a size problem anymore)

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