How Puzzling

How Puzzling is both a puzzle game and a bit of an experiment for me.

The puzzle aspect is fairly straightforward: Each level of the game presents you with a set of coloured shapes and a series of clues that explains how those shapes fit on the game board.

I've always liked these particular kinds of puzzles, but I wasn't aware of any apps out there that featured them exclusively. They show up in Professor Layton games and things like that, but they usually only have one or two per game; I wanted a lot. So, I had to make the game myself. Unfortunately, that means that I know the solutions to all the puzzles, but we can't get everything we want.

The experiment portion is a little different for me. Rather making the game paid, using ads, or selling paid upgrades, I've decided to let my users pay whatever they want. After completing the final puzzles, they'll be presented with a screen congratulating them on finishing the game and asking them to kick in a few bucks if they'd me to make more levels. If the response is good, I'll make more, if not, then I won't.

That's all there is to it. How Puzzling, available now for Android!

Scramble Master

The best anagram game out there! Unscramble the letters as fast as you can! Earn stars! Win medals! Have fun!

Unlike some other anagram games, Scramble Master only uses words you might have heard of. No periblem, no ekpueles, and no murrhine. It's not about adding esoteric words to your vocabulary, it's about having fun!

With thousands of words to choose from, word lengths from three to eight letters, and four difficulty levels, you'll probably never see everything it has to offer.

Available for Android devices and on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Alternate Means of Distribution

With Completionist now available on Google Play, I decided to try to boost awareness by releasing it on a few other app stores as well.

Right now, it's available on GetJar, and I've submitted it to SlideMe, but it hasn't been approved yet.

Meanwhile, I have to say that it's a bit of a pain to get your app up on either of those stores. At least it was for me.

GetJar has a funny requirement for multiple icon sizes. Strangely, it limits the maximum file size as well, so I had to spend a few minutes trying to optimize a 120x120 icon down under 10kb. Ultimately, it just wasn't possible, so I wound up having to upload something that was considerably less than ideal, all for want of 5000 bytes. With today's bandwidth and storage costs being so low, I can't imagine why they need to limit things so harshly.

The SlideMe site became unresponsive when I tried to complete the app upload process, so I wound up having to repeat it three times before it finally took. Additionally, the upload site has a bug where the tiny thumbnail it produces after you upload a screenshot will occasionally be for a different app entirely. The file still uploads properly, but it's a bit disconcerting.

That being said, there's at least one thing I like about SlideMe: The ability to respond to user comments. I can't do that on BlackBerry App World and it's been an unending source of frustration. Too many users leave questions in the comments, and there's just no way to reply.

Unfortunately, after two and a half weeks my app has yet to be approved on SlideMe, and GetJar has led to a mere 12 downloads. As it stands, I can't recommend either one.

Completionist

I have finally made an app specifically for Android devices. If it does well enough, I might port it over to other platforms.

Why not give it a try? It's free!



Can you finish every song lyric?

Do you know the name of every movie?

Then prove it.

Completionist is the pop culture word game that challenges you to prove you know everything.

With hundreds of questions across more than a dozen categories, you might never finish it all.

Are you a completionist?

Categories include:
-cartoons of the 1980s
-hit songs of the 1970s
-reality shows
-box office hits
-and, of course... T

As you can see, I didn't fare so well when I was making the screenshots. I think you can probably do better.

Slow to Upgrade

For my latest app, I decided to try out Android. Unfortunately, the Android OS install base is fragmented quite severely. As such, I stuck with version 2.1 so I could reach the maximum number of users. A few days ago, I gave up on it. The market share for 2.1 has shrunk below 5%, and there was a feature in 2.2 that I needed to help handle the audio. I could've spent hours trying to figure out a decent workaround, but instead I decided that reaching 95% of the audience is good enough. Eventually those 2.1ers will upgrade to new phones. My sanity may not eventually return if I have to spend all day banging my head on the keyboard.

Android Versions

Google divides its various Android releases based on what they call API Levels. An API Level may contain multiple versions of the OS that implement minor bug fixes, or it may just be a single version. When you design an Android app, you choose an API Level to target, and every device running that level and above should be able to run your app. API Level 16 made its debut recently, so I thought I'd make a relevant post.

At the moment, there are about ten API Levels with a statistically significant share of the overall Android device market. Now, despite the fact that level 11 debuted about 16 months ago, devices running at that level and above currently only comprise a total of 13% of the Android market. Versions in the 2.x range, occupying API Levels 7-10 now hold a whopping 86% of the market. Which means, if you want to target the greatest number of people possible, your best bet is to go for API Level 7 or 8. Which sucks because version 3.0 introduced some really useful features. For instance, being able to use Property Animation would've saved me a load of time today. It's going to get better in the future, but right now, the version lag is really kind of a bummer.

Completionist Landing Page

Completionist is my first Android app, so it's bound to have a few bugs and hiccups. Leave a comment letting me know what you'd like to see improved, or let me know if there are any categories you'd like me to add. And, take a look around the rest of the blog to see if there's anything that interests you. Maybe bookmark this page and come back to it later.

Or, you could donate. I don't expect you to, but a buck or two would be most appreciated.