Forge Android App

[Traldar]

Ohh, I´d sooo much like to help test that Android version! I have a Galaxy Note 2 and I think it will look gorgeous on my screen.
Can we download that apk somewhere? Even if I have to build it myself, I´d do it.

Cheers,
traldar

[KrazyTheFox]

Ohh, I´d sooo much like to help test that Android version! I have a Galaxy Note 2 and I think it will look gorgeous on my screen.
Can we download that apk somewhere? Even if I have to build it myself, I´d do it.

Cheers,
traldar

We're currently having difficulties building the .apk, but once we get that resolved, I can't imagine it'd be too long after that before there's one ready to go.

[drdev]

I'm very happy to announce that I've resolved the .apk build issue. Now I just need to set things up so assets can be downloaded and installed, and then the app should be about ready for it's first Alpha release.

[Traldar]

Yay! Awaiting anxiously!

[drdev]

Victory!!! I just got it to run on my phone for the first time, graphics and everything. Now I just need to fix up some issues with display on the higher resolution screen, implement a couple screens for importing data and download images, and then after that once I get upload permissions I should be able to post a .apk for the first Alpha. Hopefully by next weekend at the latest, though I'll keep everyone up to date.

Thanks for everyone's support. I'm as excited as many of you to get the first Alpha out.
-Dan

[otherright]

Awesome, drdev! I can't wait to try it on my tablet. Please keep us updated as we wait. I'm holding my breath in anticipation.

[drdev]

So I'm currently working on tweaking some issues with the display at higher resolutions. Once that's done, it's technically ready for an Alpha release, however it would require people do some manual copy/pasting of all their AppData files (decks, card images, etc.), as I haven't had a chance yet to add support for importing files. It's also worth mentioning that variants, multiplayer, quest support, deck editing, drafts, and sealed are not yet ready.

Any objection to releasing the first Alpha in this state? The most important stuff is done, aka. the ability to play and complete a 1v1 game using random, pre-constructed, or manually imported decks. The other features can be added progressively after that while I start gathering valuable feedback about the implemented features.

Thanks.
-Dan

[Buckminsterfullerene]

No objections here. I'd be more than happy to do a little copy/paste work if I could Forge on my phone.

[Agetian]

No objections at all! I believe it's very important to test this core feature set well before advancing to the next stages and implementing other game modes, too. I would be happy to test, I have a lot of Android devices here. Congrats on (almost) getting to the first major milestone!

- Agetian

[squee1968]

Can the AppData files be put on an SD card? Are Hi-Res pictures supported?

[drdev]

All user data, pics, and res files will be on an SD card, so HQ pics will be supported if you have the disk space.

It sounds like everyone's on board with the first Alpha being sooner than later. In that case I just need login access to upload the .apk. Can somebody help me with that? I had pm'd Chris but I haven't heard back from him.

[drdev]

Ok, so after doing some playtesting on my phone, I'm not liking the usability of selecting cards and abilities and zooming as it works now. The swipe up to select abilities and swipe down to zoom or view details didn't play as nice as I thought it would. I also want to add two finger zoom support for the entire field, which would require support for scrolling up or down.

With that in mind, I'm going to go back to the drawing board a bit and redesign things so a single tap can select and activate cards, while still providing support for zooming and viewing details. Then scrolling up and down will be an option. This will delay the first Alpha a bit, but I don't want to release it as it stands only to redesign something this major afterward. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress.

Thanks.
-Dan

[Chris H.]

All user data, pics, and res files will be on an SD card, so HQ pics will be supported if you have the disk space.

It sounds like everyone's on board with the first Alpha being sooner than later. In that case I just need login access to upload the .apk. Can somebody help me with that? I had pm'd Chris but I haven't heard back from him.

 
The FiOS tech showed up today and I now have internet/phone/TV service in my new home.

[drdev]

All user data, pics, and res files will be on an SD card, so HQ pics will be supported if you have the disk space.

It sounds like everyone's on board with the first Alpha being sooner than later. In that case I just need login access to upload the .apk. Can somebody help me with that? I had pm'd Chris but I haven't heard back from him.

 
The FiOS tech showed up today and I now have internet/phone/TV service in my new home.

No worries. I was already granted access by Rob.

[drdev]

So I'm making some progress towards improving the usability. I've now got it so single tapping cards selects and activates them depending on the current input. This means single tap to tap lands and cast spells. If a card has more than 1 available option, such as multiple activated abilities, a dialog will appear to select the ability.

To show the zoom/details view for a card, you now simply need to press and hold on a card for a half second, at which point it will open up. Also, if a card has no options for the current input, such as a creature while paying a mana cost, or a land while choosing attackers, just single tapping the card will open up the zoom/details view.

For stacks of cards, particularly lands, I'm planning to make it so you can just keep tapping on the topmost card, and if it has already been activated, it will fall back to the card behind it. This means than if you have a stack of 5 Forests and need to tap 4 of them for mana, you can just tap the topmost Forest 4 times.

I'm also making progress towards supporting two finger zooming of the entire field and player panels, which will allow you to zoom into any area of the field or a player's other zones to make the cards bigger. When zoomed in, rows still scroll horizontally independently, but you can scroll up and down to view other rows. You can then zoom out as far as the default view which shows all open zones and 2 rows for each player's field. Note that when running on desktop (forge-gui-mobile-dev), Ctrl+MouseWheel will simulate a zoom (just as Shift+MouseWheel will simulate a horizontal pan and regular MouseWheel will simulate a vertical pan).

The other thing I want to do before releasing the alpha is work on card overlays, like P/T, mana cost, summoning sickness, attacking symbols, counters, and targeting. Combined with the zoom support, you hopefully won't even need to open the zoom/details view that often.

Also wanted to mention that AI vs. AI works already, and is pretty fun to watch on your phone. I've also added some basic vibration support for when you take damage or lose life (with the vibration lasting between 100 milliseconds and 2 seconds based on how much life you lost), and a really short vibration when doing a long press to open the zoom/details for a card, inline with how long press typically works on Android devices. I've also hooked the Back button on Android devices to close overlays and dialogs, jump back to the previous screen, or undo (ex. land tapping) based on the current state. The Menu button will simply open/close the Settings screen for now from any screen, though that may change later if I come up with a better idea.

Stay tuned for more information and an update on the first Alpha release date as soon as I have a better idea. Thanks to everyone for their patience as I make sure the first version I deliver lives up to everyone's expectations, including my own.

-Dan