Forge Android App

[moomarc]

The application of this idea for desktop Forge was only for handling generating pics for custom cards and for generating a pic for cards that you haven't download pics for. I never meant for us to stop using full card pics for desktop Forge.

I do still really like this idea for missing images and was already impressed with what someone had started working on a while ago (sorry, can't remember if it was you or spr).

For frames, it could just be a simple matter of photoshopping some card pics to remove all text and icons, then storing them in a few files such that they can be indexed by card color and set. That way you could have cards use the frame that best corresponds to the frame they were printed on, or theoritically have all cards use the same frame type (such as post 8th edition frames). We could even support creating custom frames someday.

There's actually a lot to consider when building frames. Future sight cards have a different frame, colourless cards post 8th edition needs full art and alpha based frame, planeswalkers have different frames etc. Check out one of the card building programs that use crops to check it out.

It also just occurred to me that we'd need a file containing all the set icons for each rarity. Does that exist somewhere?

Check the Vector Set Symbols and Watermarks thread in the Pictures forum

[Max mtg]

take these frames from MODO, why to re-invent the wheel?

D:\Games\Magic Online\Graphics\Cards\Frame

[drdev]

take these frames from MODO, why to re-invent the wheel?

D:\Games\Magic Online\Graphics\Cards\Frame

I'm not sure it's a good idea to take resources straight from MTGO. That's a clear violation of their end user agreement, and could make them more likely to attempt to shut this project down.

[Max mtg]

take these frames from MODO, why to re-invent the wheel?

D:\Games\Magic Online\Graphics\Cards\Frame

I'm not sure it's a good idea to take resources straight from MTGO. That's a clear violation of their end user agreement, and could make them more likely to attempt to shut this project down.

Their EULA? Oh, have you ever agreed on those conditions? What if you have not?
Even if you have, they'll terminate an account... what a pity! (well, unless you have a valuable collection there)

[drdev]

So I just figured out how to avoid the powers of 2 restriction, so I won't need to mess with any image sizes. I also got symbolic links working, at least for running from source. I think it should publish fine though since it's set up to copy the asset files during build.

[drdev]

So after much refactoring and working on a foundational framework for layout and rendering, I'm happy to finally have some screenshots to share of the current Home screen for the mobile game. Given that the mobile game uses the same skin files as the desktop application, you may find that these look familiar.

Note that these screenshots are taken while running on desktop, but it should look pretty similar on a phone or tablet (minus the Windows frame).

Let me know what you think. Once I hook events to the buttons and can start adding additional screens, I'll post more screenshots. Hopefully things will start moving faster now that I've worked out a lot of the kinks with layout and rendering.

Thanks.
-Dan

[Agetian]

I like the main menu, Dan! Compact and functional-looking! By the way, how is it possible to test the application on the desktop in case someone would like to check it out in action? (haven't looked into it yet but will actually monitor it more closely on its later stages, I'm curious! )

- Agetian

[drdev]

I like the main menu, Dan! Compact and functional-looking! By the way, how is it possible to test the application on the desktop in case someone would like to check it out in action? (haven't looked into it yet but will actually monitor it more closely on its later stages, I'm curious! )

- Agetian

You simply need to add forge-m-base and forge-m-desktop to your workspace and run Main.java in forge-m-desktop as a Java Application.

I'm glad you like it so far. I'm excited to start working on input handling and other screens.

[Agetian]

Oh, gotcha, thank you for the clarification!
Good luck with the project, it looks exciting!

- Agetian

[drdev]

So I've hooked touch events now and have started fleshing out other components (like FLabel) in addition to building the template upon which most screens will be built.

Here's a look at what the basic template looks like on the Constructed screen that opens when you click the Constructed button on the home screen.

The button in the top left goes back to the previous screen, and the button in the top right will eventually open a screen-specific menu (similar to Forge button in desktop app).

The Start button goes without saying, and obviously I have yet to add any options for picking a deck.

I'm curious to hear thoughts on this template in case I need to tweak anything. Note that the Match screen (which I haven't created yet) will not display the Back button or header caption to increase space.

Also not that the Back icon I made doesn't look particularly great, so if anyone with more graphic design experience would be interested in creating a better looking one (that scales well), that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
-Dan

[Agetian]

I like the current progress very much, drdev! I'm not that much of a designer so sadly I can't give a professional opinion here, but as a potential player I can say that the design looks nice so far - reminiscent of the desktop version and yet optimized for smaller mobile device screens. Keep it up!

- Agetian

[drdev]

I've spent some time getting a structure in place to configure settings. I'm happy to share that you can now change the Theme and have it be remembered between sessions.

In these screenshots, tapping the "Theme" row on the first screen will pull up the second screen, and clicking on any row on that screen will apply the selected theme. Checkbox rows like the Developer Mode row shown will simply toggle on/off when tapped. Also note that I made the group headers tappable such that groups can be collapsed and re-expanded to reduce scrolling.

Stay tuned for a first look at what the Match screen will look like.

Thanks.
-Dan

[drdev]

I decided to get rid of the ugly back icon and clean up the screen header to take up less vertical space and look more like other programs I've seen on Android. The result looks like this:

Let me know what you think.

Thanks.
-Dan

[moomarc]

Looks great, Dan. The clean back icon you're using now is definitely an improvement.

[drdev]

Alright, the moment of truth has arrived. I'm finally ready to unveil the layout of the Match screen.

Please keep in mind that the game logic isn't hooked up yet, so this screenshot is merely meant to show the basic layout. I chose simple cards for this, and note that I haven't implemented the logic to stack multiples of the same card on the field yet.

As you can see, I chose a portrait layout rather than landscape to maximize the number of rows of cards I could get. I put the prompt on the bottom with big OK and Cancel (Yes and No) buttons to make it easy to press either using common techniques for holding a phone. I then placed the avatar, phase labels, and player detail labels in a horizontal panel to allow the Hand and Field areas to span the entire width of the screen. Scrolling will be horizontal only and there will always be only two rows on the field and one on the hand area.

Notice also that I converted certain player detail labels like Hand into tabs that can be used to show/hide the corresponding zone. In the case of this screenshot, the Hand tab is selected, so the Hand area is visible. If you were to click on the Graveyard tab, the graveyard would show in place of the hand. This will be nicer than having to open a popup. I'm also planning on having cards that reveal the top card of your library be visible by clicking on the Library tab, where the first card will be face up and the rest face down. I'm also going to make it so if you click on the tab that's already selected, the hand area will go away, allowing the field and cards within it to grow.

Now you may notice some things are missing. The mana pool will be added as another tab which display the total mana count inline and the individual color mana counts in the panel where the hand is. The stack will be a floating panel that appears when needed. I'm thinking the game log and other panels like Combat and Players will available to open via the menu button, or perhaps using a button that pulls a screen in from the left side with tabs. Perhaps that button will go in place of the back button (which isn't really desired since you should only be able to concede via the menu).

The other thing that may concern you is the resolution of the cards, but worry not. For one thing, I'm developing this on a 320x480 simulated screen, so if your running on a quality smart phone or a tablet with a higher resolution, they should be much clearer. For another, I'm planning on adding card overlays to make important information more visible (like P/T). Also, I'm planning to add a very slick zoomed view which can be activated by simply clicking a card stack.

I'm very curious to hear people's thoughts on this layout, so please don't hold back.

Thanks.
-Dan