Forge Android App

[drdev]

So before I went much further, I wanted to make sure the mobile game was set up to trap unhandled exceptions and prompt the user. The result is the following dialog:

I renamed the buttons a bit so there would be room for all 4 of them, and updated the button names on the desktop applications dialog to match. If anyone has any concern about this change, let me know. Personally I think "Report" and "Continue" are clearer names for those buttons anyway.

Thanks.
-Dan

[drdev]

ListChooser dialogs are implemented:

I still need to figure something out to support searching the list. My current plan is to add a search icon at the right side of the titlebar that, when pressed, brings up the device keypad to enter a search term, updating the selection as you type. How does that sound?

[ozks]

damn, it looks pretty good. keep it up!
it really seems as the desktop ver

[drdev]

So after spending a lot of time playtesting the card zoom, I didn't like it. Having to be taken away from the match screen every time a card was tapped proved quite annoying and detracted from gameplay. The position of the ability options being constant as opposed to be positioned relative to the card's position on the screen also proved annoying, and the use of the prompt at the bottom for hiding the zoom or showing more options didn't play well. I also couldn't show the card image as big as I wanted due to needing room for the prompt, an ability, and the details at the top, plus the details would not have been able to be as big as I wanted either.

As a result, I decided to completely change how activating cards and zooming work. I've now made it so when you press on a card, it's selected with a green outline, and its options appear above it partially transparent so you can see cards behind them. You can then drag your finger up and release it over an option (or above the first option) to select that option. This makes it so playing a card from your hand, for example, is as simple as putting your finger on it and flicking your finger upward. You can also still double-tap to auto-select the first option, and you can also tap the card then the option. Whenever you finger is down over an option (or above the first option), that option will become highlighted so you can read it easier before releasing your finger. Tapping on the selected card a second time will hide the options, as will tapping anywhere not covered by the options, though note that tapping on a different card will select it and show its options.

In addition, two options will appear side-by-side faded out below the selected card: "Zoom" and "Details". Dragging your finger over or below either of these options will cause the corresponding view to display immediately (no need to lift your finger). You can keep your finger down and drag left or right to switch between Zoom and Details, and then move your finger back up to the row where the card was to hide the zoom/details view. This way you can view the zoom or details for a card and activate an option for it all with one motion of your finger.

While the Zoom or Details view is shown, the Zoom and Details options will shift to the bottom of the screen to make room for the view. If you lift you're finger while the Zoom or Details view is shown, it will remain until you tap anywhere on it. You can also tap the Zoom/Details options in this state to toggle between the two if you like.

Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea what this looks like:

I'm very interested to hear feedback on this change, since this behavior being user friendly is extremely important to the success of this app. Hopefully my description of the behavior above will make it possible to visualize how it would play without actually trying it out yourself, though they'll be plenty of time for that once I can get an Alpha version released.

Thanks.
-Dan

[otherright]

Incredible. Keep it up. I've been waiting to play on my android.

[drdev]

I just finished working on the Card Details view. As part of this, I updated all the border colors and rarity colors for the details pane of the desktop game to match the mobile game and look closer to the colors on real cards. However, for the mobile game, I took the opportunity to create a details frame that looks more like an actual card. Check it out:

As you can see from the top-right screenshot, I also updated 2-color cards to use a gradient background color as a way of representing both colors. 3+ color cards will use a gold background. I also updated land cards to use a light brown color background and a dark brown for face-down cards, to differentiate them from silver for artifact cards.

Let me know what you think of the new colors and this look. I can easily tweak the colors if needed.

Thanks.
-Dan

[KrazyTheFox]

Those look awesome. Much easier to differentiate and read cards at a glance.

[ozks]

yep! nice frames. it remember me something like manalink

[friarsol]

Can you post a screenshot of a card with s long name? Right now I have a weird wrapping that causes the detail panel on three cards to look funny

[drdev]

Can you post a screenshot of a card with s long name? Right now I have a weird wrapping that causes the detail panel on three cards to look funny

For the mobile game? The name should never wrap on the mobile game, rather the font should decrease in size if needed. Same with the type line. What cards are you seeing this issue with?

Here's an example of the font shrinking for the name and type lines:

Note that I still need to get mana symbols in card text to display right, which is one of the next things I plan to work on.

[drdev]

I've spent some time today hooking up text fields to accept keyboard input (including opening the touch-screen keyboard on actual mobile devices). As part of this, I went ahead and enhanced the ListChooser dialogs to show a search field at the top if there are more than 25 items, since otherwise there'd be no way to bring up the touchscreen keyboard easily. The nice thing about this is it allows filtering out all items that don't contain the given string, rather than just jumping you to the first item that starts with what you're typing.

Here's an idea of what this looks like for the Add to Hand picker from the Dev menu, which lists all 13000+ cards in Forge and would be difficult to scroll through without searching capabilities:

Note that I picked 25 as the threshold for showing the search field since it's a nice number that's around 3 times the maximum numbers of rows that can be shown at a time. Any less than that and the field seems somewhat pointless. That said, I'm certainly able to tweak this number if anyone feels I should.

Thanks.
-Dan

[squee1968]

IMHO, I'd like to be able to see more card names on that list. I'd suggest making the panel full screen or nearly full screen with the prompt panel still visible, removing all the empty space between the card names, maybe even reducing the font size. Maybe a sliding scale based on screen size or resolution? Will the box be movable so that you can see the cards on the battlefield behind it?

[moomarc]

I think its all looking great, Dan. I'd love to see a version of this card info panel in the desktop version too, but taking into account that it will be scaled differently by everyone. I'd still move the P/T and card ID to the bottom as as you did, but I'd consider moving the Set/rarity identifier there too. It would buy more space for the type line, and then its 3 elements together that are generally small. That's gone off topic a bit, so I'll leave it at 'looking great'.

[drdev]

IMHO, I'd like to be able to see more card names on that list. I'd suggest making the panel full screen or nearly full screen with the prompt panel still visible, removing all the empty space between the card names, maybe even reducing the font size. Maybe a sliding scale based on screen size or resolution? Will the box be movable so that you can see the cards on the battlefield behind it?

Yes, the dialog can be dragged anywhere from the title bar, including off screen. When you release your finger it will always come back onscreen enough to move it again.

The reason for the extra padding is to make the items easier to tap with your finger, but I can probably reduce it a bit, especially since a mistap is easily corrected here. I'll also increase the max height of the dialog a bit.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. It's good to know I'm moving in the right direction. I can't wait to get an Alpha out.

[drdev]

@squee1968 - is this better?