Forge Android App: 11-13-2016 Alpha 1.5.58.002
Posted: 27 May 2014, 18:04
Ever wanted to be able to play Magic on a smartphone? It's true that Wizards has recently started offering Duels of the Planeswalkers on tablets, yet nobody has attempted to make a phone app that supports playing a full game of MTG. Until now...
I'm excited to announce that the Android port for Forge is finally ready for its first Alpha release!!!
If you didn't see this coming, I encourage you to check out this thread for the history of this project.
Installation Instructions
Download and install http://cardforge.link/releases/forge/forge-gui-android/1.5.58.002/forge-android-1.5.58.002-signed-aligned.apk.
NOTE: If you haven't already turned on the "Unknown sources" setting on your device under Security, you'll be prompted to turn it on if you want to continue with the install. This is not something you need to worry about, as it's only necessary because you're not installing from Google Play. You can always turn it back off after the install finishes, though you'll need to turn it on again whenever you want to install updates.
NOTE 2: If you've previously installed Forge and you're just installing an update, you can just install as normal. You shouldn't have to uninstall first, though if it fails, an uninstall and reinstall would be the first thing to try. Either way, rest assured that your card images, decks, preferences, and quest data will not be lost.
When running the app after installing an update or for the first time, resource files that are needed for the app to run will automatically be downloaded. This shouldn't take more than a minute or two and the splash screen will report progress while they're downloaded and unzipped.
By default, Forge does not come packaged with card images. There are two ways to pull in card images:
Automatic
Open the Setting screen and click the Files tab. Choose either of the first two options for downloading LQ pics, based on whether you want to conserve disk space and download only one picture per card as opposed to one picture for every set each card appears in. A dialog will appear and after pressing Start, the pictures will be downloaded. This process may take awhile, so please be patient.
Manual
Open the SD card on your device. If possible it's easier to do this with your device connected to a desktop computer, but otherwise you can use a file explorer app and navigate to "/storage/emulated/0", which should just be My Files > All Files on the standard Android explorer. Navigate to Forge/data
Note that you can similarly copy over decks, quest data, and preferences from a desktop version of Forge. The following mappings apply (based on a Windows user with default AppData locations)
- C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Forge\Cache\ > Forge\cache\
- C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Forge\ > Forge\data\
If you either don't have access to your computer or want other decks to play (particularly until deck editing support is added), you can also download and unzip decks from the Forge Decks forum into Forge\data\decks\constructed\.
Running the App
If everything worked properly, you should see a splash screen while resource files, cards, decks, and fonts are loaded, then be taken to the home screen shown in the first screenshot above.
From here, you can tap Settings to adjust your preferences if desired, such as picking a theme (all Forge themes are supported). If you transferred your preferences from a desktop install of Forge, you can probably skip this step. Note that, in addition to the home screen button, you can access the Settings screen from anywhere by pressing the Menu button on your device.
Tap New Game. You'll be taken to a familiar screen where you can configure a name, avatar, deck, and human/ai for each player. Then you can just press Start to play a match. Alternatively, from this screen you can click the drop down menu in the upper right to access other game modes like Draft, Sealed, Quest Mode, Gauntlet, or the new Planar Conquest mode.
Missing Features
Obviously as a first Alpha release, there are some missing features at this time. It was important to focus on building a strong foundation for the app first, so the Match screen was the most heavily focused on area, along with other screens needed to start a simple 1v1 Constructed match using random, preconstructed or imported decks.
You can expect these features to start getting implemented in the coming months, and please feel free to share which ones you feel are higher priority. Also feel free to share any ones I missed or ideas for enhancements you may have. This doesn't have to be just a complete clone of desktop Forge, so if you have a creative idea that would work better on a phone or tablet, please share it.
Bug Reports
Please post bug reports and questions to this thread only if they apply to the UI in some way. Cards not working correctly or the AI not behaving properly are issues that would be shared by both the desktop and mobile versions of the game and should thus be posted in the appropriate thread (likely the Forge Beta thread).
Known Issues
Release Process
You'll notice the version of this first release is 1.5.19.001. Since this app is sharing a lot of code as well as resource files with the desktop application, I will be using the current version of that application as the version for this app, with a 3 digit build number at the end. It is still an Alpha, so keep that in mind.
Also note that I won't be doing snapshot builds and official Beta releases the same way as the desktop application. Rather, I will publish new builds as needed to fix bugs and roll out features without any set timetable. Eventually I plan to build an update check into the Splash screen logic, but for now just check this thread. I'll update the date and build number in the topic subject and links whenever I release an update.
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or issues with installation. In addition to the update check, hopefully I'll get download support working from within the app soon to simplify installation.
Credits
In closing, I want to quickly thank some people without which this app could never have been made:
Thanks.
-Dan
I'm excited to announce that the Android port for Forge is finally ready for its first Alpha release!!!
If you didn't see this coming, I encourage you to check out this thread for the history of this project.
Installation Instructions
Download and install http://cardforge.link/releases/forge/forge-gui-android/1.5.58.002/forge-android-1.5.58.002-signed-aligned.apk.
NOTE: If you haven't already turned on the "Unknown sources" setting on your device under Security, you'll be prompted to turn it on if you want to continue with the install. This is not something you need to worry about, as it's only necessary because you're not installing from Google Play. You can always turn it back off after the install finishes, though you'll need to turn it on again whenever you want to install updates.
NOTE 2: If you've previously installed Forge and you're just installing an update, you can just install as normal. You shouldn't have to uninstall first, though if it fails, an uninstall and reinstall would be the first thing to try. Either way, rest assured that your card images, decks, preferences, and quest data will not be lost.
When running the app after installing an update or for the first time, resource files that are needed for the app to run will automatically be downloaded. This shouldn't take more than a minute or two and the splash screen will report progress while they're downloaded and unzipped.
By default, Forge does not come packaged with card images. There are two ways to pull in card images:
Automatic
Open the Setting screen and click the Files tab. Choose either of the first two options for downloading LQ pics, based on whether you want to conserve disk space and download only one picture per card as opposed to one picture for every set each card appears in. A dialog will appear and after pressing Start, the pictures will be downloaded. This process may take awhile, so please be patient.
Manual
Open the SD card on your device. If possible it's easier to do this with your device connected to a desktop computer, but otherwise you can use a file explorer app and navigate to "/storage/emulated/0", which should just be My Files > All Files on the standard Android explorer. Navigate to Forge/data
Note that you can similarly copy over decks, quest data, and preferences from a desktop version of Forge. The following mappings apply (based on a Windows user with default AppData locations)
- C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Forge\Cache\ > Forge\cache\
- C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Forge\ > Forge\data\
If you either don't have access to your computer or want other decks to play (particularly until deck editing support is added), you can also download and unzip decks from the Forge Decks forum into Forge\data\decks\constructed\.
Running the App
If everything worked properly, you should see a splash screen while resource files, cards, decks, and fonts are loaded, then be taken to the home screen shown in the first screenshot above.
From here, you can tap Settings to adjust your preferences if desired, such as picking a theme (all Forge themes are supported). If you transferred your preferences from a desktop install of Forge, you can probably skip this step. Note that, in addition to the home screen button, you can access the Settings screen from anywhere by pressing the Menu button on your device.
Tap New Game. You'll be taken to a familiar screen where you can configure a name, avatar, deck, and human/ai for each player. Then you can just press Start to play a match. Alternatively, from this screen you can click the drop down menu in the upper right to access other game modes like Draft, Sealed, Quest Mode, Gauntlet, or the new Planar Conquest mode.
Missing Features
Obviously as a first Alpha release, there are some missing features at this time. It was important to focus on building a strong foundation for the app first, so the Match screen was the most heavily focused on area, along with other screens needed to start a simple 1v1 Constructed match using random, preconstructed or imported decks.
- Quest Tournaments
- Multiplayer (3+ players)
- Card animations when changing zones
- Combat animations
- Spell resolve animations
- Scroll indicators for scrollable panes
- Syncing data with desktop Forge
- Mana symbol buttons appearing above touch keyboard when editing search field
You can expect these features to start getting implemented in the coming months, and please feel free to share which ones you feel are higher priority. Also feel free to share any ones I missed or ideas for enhancements you may have. This doesn't have to be just a complete clone of desktop Forge, so if you have a creative idea that would work better on a phone or tablet, please share it.
Bug Reports
Please post bug reports and questions to this thread only if they apply to the UI in some way. Cards not working correctly or the AI not behaving properly are issues that would be shared by both the desktop and mobile versions of the game and should thus be posted in the appropriate thread (likely the Forge Beta thread).
Known Issues
- It's been reported that some tablets must be set to run in portrait mode, otherwise the app opens with a black screen.
- If Forge is freezing after clicking the Constructed screen, apparently switching to the Default theme or manually copying over files from Forge\res\skins\default to the other skins folder that aren't already there, like the image with the avatar tiles, will fix it.
Release Process
You'll notice the version of this first release is 1.5.19.001. Since this app is sharing a lot of code as well as resource files with the desktop application, I will be using the current version of that application as the version for this app, with a 3 digit build number at the end. It is still an Alpha, so keep that in mind.
Also note that I won't be doing snapshot builds and official Beta releases the same way as the desktop application. Rather, I will publish new builds as needed to fix bugs and roll out features without any set timetable. Eventually I plan to build an update check into the Splash screen logic, but for now just check this thread. I'll update the date and build number in the topic subject and links whenever I release an update.
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or issues with installation. In addition to the update check, hopefully I'll get download support working from within the app soon to simplify installation.
Credits
In closing, I want to quickly thank some people without which this app could never have been made:
- Max Mtg and everyone who helped out with the large project to breakup the Forge project into modules
- KrazyTheFox for helping set up a Maven build process for the Android app
- moomarc and others who have created all the amazing skins used by both this app and the desktop application
- All the developers and other contributors who have scripted cards or developed card rules, game, and AI logic
- Everyone who has followed this project in the last 4 months and offered feedback or ideas.
Thanks.
-Dan