If you’re into this old stuff give it a listen. Cool..

tfdj

I wonder why everybody seems to think that Google should create the Android Market. Google isn’t Apple. Android isn’t iOS. For me it looks like Google just provides a Android Market and silently waits for alternative markets to appear and fill more specific requirements.

Doesn’t that make sense?

Look at the AppsLib store for example. Focusing on applications tested specifically for the Archos tablets. There are other, more generic, market alternatives like SlideMe and Pdassi. Both with different payment methods.

Now look at the carriers and big game publishers if you will: Why shouldn’t they come up with their own app stores, too? Isn’t that exactly the freedom they want? Vodafone branded Android phones come with the Vodafone app store preinstalled. Simple payment using the phone bill would be possible. EA could provide the EA Android Store. With special download packs that may not even be apks..

With something like Apple’s closed iOS app store this looks like a good alternative. Doesn’t it?

Well, at least we are free to provide alternative markets.. That’s a good thing, right?

tfdj

the reason i chose the android platform is that you may still have some kind of first mover advantage. well, second mover. or third mover by now. but you get the point, right? :-)

now.. i still don’t get it why people are flocking like crazy to this weird apple world.. where apple sure makes some big bucks.. but apart from them, only a handful of developers are getting lucky..

of course there’s the coolness factor. it’s not all about money. but it’s very subjective. and for me google wins over apple.. evil both they are, of course.. but who isn’t?

anyway, just my two cents..

amen,
tfdj

I’ve created a small application with the most famous works of Benita Winckler of Eeanee fame. Can be considered the “official and authorized” Eeanee Artwork Collection for Android.. :-)

Hit the Android Market and search for Eeanee or Benita. We (her and I) decided to add a €5.00 price tag. The images are available freely on her website, but the application gives you a nice way of browsing them on your phone and choosing your wallpaper.

Cheers,

tfdj

So for now head on over to GETJAR or SlideME to download DroidShock. If you’re the lucky owner of an Archos tablet, find DroidShock in the AppsLib store. Or grab the apk from here: DroidShock.apk

Weird people.. Not sure what their intentions are..

tfdj

And so, finally, porn arrives on the iPhone.. :)

tfdj

No, it’s not the tyranny of Apple over the developers. No, it’s not the fanboyism of the Apple users. No, it’s not the high price tag that says “I don’t care how much it is. I’m a superior being. I have to use Apple products.” No, it’s not the horrible look of the Cococa UI. No, it’s not Apple’s defense of its intellectual property rights against other phone manufactures. (Because Apple really build the first phone on this planet! And sure does it make sense to stifle innovation by suing other companies over multi-touch patents and the like.) And of course, for me as a developer, it’s not related to Apple’s latest 3.3.1 developer agreement changes. (There simply isn’t anything better than Cococa and Objective-C in this world. I enjoy having Apple dictate what I do.. :-)

No, it’s none of that..

Honestly, I didn’t know the answer up until now: “Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone”

Now I know..

tfdj

A project page is located on IntensiCode.

There’s still a long way to go before a commercial release makes sense. Don’t even get me started talking about ‘device fragmentation’. And let’s not talk about the crappy quality of some of the popular devices’ touch screens. Please.

Amen!

tfdj

Keywords: End-to-end tests (“system level tests”), integration tests, unit tests.

If you struggle with test being too complicated or too brittle, or not being sure how to test something like a persistence layer, this book is for you.

Other books I recommend in this context: Clean Code, Test Driven Development. By Example, Working Effectively with Legacy Code, The Pragmatic Programmer, .. And, more in general, I guess most of those found here.

The last few days/weeks I worked on bringing touch and trackball controls to IntensiGame. Especially trying to make DroidShock/JamJam playable with these new control concepts.

So far I failed.

I have a somewhat usable trackball control implementation to make Galaxina and DroidShock playable. But when the going gets tough, nothing beats the DPAD of my Galaxy. Even the more precise touch screen of the Nexus One will simply not deliver the gaming experience the DPAD gives you. And so won’t the somewhat improved trackball of the Nexus. Compared to the G1/Dream there is some more control here. But it’s not enough.

Baseline: You can have a very responsive trackball or touch control, or you can have one that translates longer ‘motions’ into ‘multi events’. But combining these two approaches seems very hard.

And so far, it looks as if I am not the only one who failed. I haven’t found one shooter or Tetris-like game with touch controls that I would consider really usable. Everything using touch mostly sucks. Android and iPhone are not different here.

So, no good touch controls?

My point is: No good touch controls for these type of games! There are different games that benefit from touch controls. Of course. And you can bend you game a little and make it workable with touch controls. But for now I am not willing to make this compromise too easily. One example of ‘bending’: Touch controls with Tetris games will almost always result in showing where the tile will drop. Otherwise your finger will be in the way. Simple problem. Simple solution. Well.. Got the point?

I consider marking games via the AndroidManifest.xml to not work on devices without a DPAD or trackball, etc. Because: What is the alternative? People complaining about bad usability? Non-responsive touch controls? Too responsive touch controls?

I’ll keep on tweaking my implementation and I’ll add various control settings to the engine to let users tweak the touch and trackball behavior. But I doubt this will ever come close to proper game-pad-like controls. (Of course! Doh..)

Amen,
tfdj