Game Design - working title XssentialXdrop

The basic design for the XssentialXdrop game is done. I need to work on the graphics, scoring, enemies and quite a lot of other stuff.

Now, the interesting part. I am looking at taking on the big boys, or should I say big birds... Angry Birds to be exact.

In my game, the pigs will have their revenge. They have been treated most unfairly by the birds. It will be time for revenge.

A few themes are planned for this game. It starts off with our hero pig escaping from the prisons of the birds high on the trees. This is a design of a game that never ends. It is a platform drop game, where the platforms continuously scroll up, while the hero needs to avoid getting out of screen area.

Points are scored the longer you stay on a platform, the more you collect the bird eggs, the more power ups you use to attack the birds that are out to haunt you.

The level progressively goes faster, with more enemies on screen.

Here is the current state of it. Please ignore the programmer art you see here.

Note, the box you see above will the the pig. Game controls will have 2 options, either clicking on screen or using the phone's tilt sensor.

Lets see how this one goes about.

Will keep you updated!

The gap in posting - some entertainment for you folks

There has been a gap in my updating this blog.

Seriously, I blame Basic4Android. You see, the first version was just released, and I am super hooked.

More libraries are now available too.

I've been diving in to create a game, XssentialXdrop. This has kept me away from XssentialXtask for a while :D

Stay tuned while I further update the programs.

Tools of Trade

Development for Android usually involves Eclipse. I've tried Eclipse, but seriously, it is no fun. No graphical interface editor, the tools are not easy to set up, and besides, I am just so used to some kind of .Net tech or another.

Now, the development of my Android applications will use Basic4Android (http://www.basic4ppc.com/ , still awaiting the Android site to be up).

The IDE is really easy to use. I managed to get my first application up and running within minutes. It integrates well with the emulator and has quite a number of libraries to help in producing the desired functionalities.

These guys brought about Basic4PPC previously, and that was a rather kick-ass development tool. Imagine, you could even develop windows mobile applications in your mobile on the go.

The one superb feature of Basic4Android is the ability to create / use user created libraries. Referring back to Basic4PPC, there were a tonne of libraries available to help in development. And I believe this will be the case for the Android version too.

I am also using Evolus' Pencil (http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx) for my design and flow layout drawing. I just love the stencil look and feel in designing the layout and flow of my apps. It gives a more human feel to the overall application design process.

Well, that's that then...

PS - Also GIMP for image editing, and Inkscape for vector based drawing!

Minimalistic 1 - Updated on the emulator

And here is the minimalistic design on the emulator. This is really getting to what I have visioned for this software to look like.

Now, to work on the functionalities of the other aspects of the program, while fine tuning the output.

PS - Need to improve my blogging skills too...

Minimalistic 1

Ahh, I believe I might just have come up with the right layout for the app. This design kept in mind as much as uncluttering as I could. Even though I was heading for a 1 action per screen look, I just could not help having a quick entry in the same screen as the main list.

Below is the rough sketch for the design:

Title will be the program tittle appearing on all screens. I might add a subtitle under it to guide the user to where he/she is at.

Action bar with alert. This is the main navigation area for the application. It is planned to have buttons such as add (create new entry), cats (manage categories), favs (manage favourites) and sets (to access the settings screen).

Quick entry is to add entry to current list minus extras such as due date, reminder and other settings for the task.

Main list shows the list of tasks.

I just realised the design has missing category name and options for filtering the output. Filter could be added in settings, while the screen title layout will probably be readjusted to have a sub title in which could show the list category.

Further iterations and an android layout will be up soon.

Stay tuned!

Redesign - Simplification

I realised when I moved this design out to and Android's layout, it cluttered the screen. I could work on a nicer touch for the output, but this got me thinking.

I stumbled across 2 books on Steve Jobs:

• The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success
• The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

One thing you've got to respect is the innovation that Apple and Steve Jobs has brought about. And it wont hurt to make him a role model for myself.

I have decided to re-look at the design of Xtask. It will be simplified down. It will be redesigned to fit the mobile device, and ease of use. Simplification is the key word.

I am trying to work on a few ideas, with keeping each screen as minimal as I can. Lets see what I can pull off for this idea now.

Cheers!

       

The growth of Xtask

It looks like the idea pool for Xtask has grown tremendously. The pro version will sooner or later have a tonne of features, hopefully making it a very comprehensive list application. That will be for the pro version which will be available at a much later on time.

I have been toying around with some ideas on how I'd go about laying out the screen, the buttons location, functionality, ease of accessibility. The good thing about the lite version is that I have much lesser features to work out for. The big headache will come for pro i guess, but thats for another post.

I have come up with the following layout idea, based on some other applications from the appmarket for the iphone.

The layout has 3 areas:

• control panel
• action panel
• master panel

Control panel is like the main menu, with sub actions shown in there like viewing all items, favourites, urgent, sms/email option, and settings.

The action panel will have most common actions for each section. For example, when viewing all items, action zone will have a text field and a button for quick data entry.

The master panel will show the main items for each sub. All items will show the items in a list. Settings sub will show all settings.

The control panel will also change to reflect the current sub selected. For example, when all items are being listed out, the control panel will have buttons for new item (with all extra fields for entry), a button to sync (not in plan yet though, maybe for pro version only), a button to mark all as done, and a button for filter.

The workability of such a layout in real life is yet to be tested and worked out. It will surely evolve over time for the development.

Next, I will probably work out the db design for the main task of creating entries, and have a working screen for the main screen up and running.

Cheers!