[OPEN-BETA] LetterWars

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Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
Hey everyone,

thanks again to all the closed beta testers!

It's finally there: the open beta is in the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.goddchen.android.letterwars

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Keep testing, playing and post feedback here :)

I'm looking forward to play with you! :)

Goddchen
 

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Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.9 Changelog:
  • directly open game when clicked on notification
  • play move submitted sound when game field is open and opponent submitted
  • generate higher resolution thumbnails
  • fix updating games in local database
  • fix a typo
  • make sure that google services are available before enabling GCM
  • show game field thumbnail in game adapter
  • add option to hide zero point players on leaderboard
  • new notification icon
  • properly update game stats on finished/dead games
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.10 Changelog:
  • don't allow to select the same color for both players
  • disable negative points
  • add color chooser preferences
  • fix FC when trying to submit an empty move
  • correctly refresh view when denying a challenge
  • fixed typo
  • use player nicknames in notification texts
  • refactor player cache
  • fix possible NPE in profile screen
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.11
  • add possibility to directly challenge someone from the leaderboard
  • add AppBrain AppLift SDK
  • add a notification if you haven't player for a long time
  • update help
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.12:
  • check for player infos before sending challenge
  • fixed possible NPE
  • send a challenge from the game screen
  • add hint to report dialog input
  • update db structure
  • add player reporting feature
  • add AppLift banner support
  • reduce launch notification interval
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.14:
  • remove zero point checkbox
  • drastically optimize performance of online games updating
  • fix main activity loaders (signup)
  • properly update leaderboard profile header onResume()
  • refactor profile screen
  • improve leaderboard loaders and orientation change handling
  • enable fast scroll on leaderboard listview
  • properly initialize loaders in MainActivity
  • fixes for fragments
  • don't log unknown words directly since we added the dialog
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.15:
  • add add-friend feature to leaderboard
  • bind and restore your account with/from your Google account
  • optimized friend list UI
  • added invite screen
  • friend list screen
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.16:
  • integrate HelpShift support
  • do not open a game directly from notification since it's still buggy :(
  • fix NPE in submit move loader
  • update player cache more frequently
  • optimize player cache
  • new stat: games created today
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
v0.17:
  • fix remove ads dialog display
  • fix possible FC when sending feedback email
  • fix possible NPE
  • add an IAP for removing the ads
  • add helpshift notification
  • show crash dialog when app crashed last time
  • add chat feature
  • optimized drag n drop rearrangement logic
  • rearrange current word with drag n drop
  • fix max move icon size calculation
  • apply color to move fields + auto resize when move row is full
  • hide field while dragging
  • add drag n drop
  • new heyzap sdk
 

SevenD2

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2011
252
52
Loving this game

However I have seen some problems, where the person who starts will usually have the advantage as they start first, 8/10 times if I start I will win.

A possible fix would maybe add rounds. Where the winner will be the one with the most points at the end of the round.

Another problem is the lacking ability to delete opened games, some people never play the game so it just adds up.

And thirdly the game seems to stop responding when the screen switches off so the game needs to be restarted to see the updates.


A suggestion maybe to have cross compatibility with iOS (I don't know if it does).

Another suggestion would to maybe implement a difficulty setting where you have easy/normal/hard.
 

xFilthyxJesusx

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2009
81
13
Love the new idea for a game. Its like wordsearch with friends lol. I like the name.

If the ability to shuffle or randomize the letters with a button press or shake or some way would be terrific! Also the game does seem to have trouble/lag updating games and so far my 'past opponents' page never loads

Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
great :)

However I have seen some problems, where the person who starts will usually have the advantage as they start first, 8/10 times if I start I will win.
That's something that I have not observed myself, but that I have thought about in the past, too. Maybe it would be a good idea to randomize which player has the first move. What do you think?

A possible fix would maybe add rounds. Where the winner will be the one with the most points at the end of the round.
I don't understand that round concept. Could you explain again please? Is one round equal to one move from each player?

Another problem is the lacking ability to delete opened games, some people never play the game so it just adds up.
I hear that from many players. That's why I had first put the answer in the help dialog. But not many people seem to read it ;) So I have also put a seperate item for this in the FAQs. But obviously you didn't come over this, too ;)
I have a script running once every week. It will end all open games that are older then 1 week. Points will be awarded as if the game would have ended normally, so you won't loose any of your progress in that game. So this "adding up" shouldn't be happening. The open games that are older then 1 week should be ended from time to time. Could you please check that?

And thirdly the game seems to stop responding when the screen switches off so the game needs to be restarted to see the updates.
Can you hint me to how to reproduce this? Do you refer to the main screen or the game screen?


A suggestion maybe to have cross compatibility with iOS (I don't know if it does).
I don't have an iOS version.

Another suggestion would to maybe implement a difficulty setting where you have easy/normal/hard.
Difficulty would be set by using harder/easier letter combinations?

Thanks for your constructive feedback! :)

Goddchen
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
If the ability to shuffle or randomize the letters with a button press or shake or some way would be terrific!
When do you want to randomize the letters? Before the first move is made?

Also the game does seem to have trouble/lag updating games and so far my 'past opponents' page never loads
That is very strange. Could you possibly capture a logcat of when you open the friend list / past opponents screen?

Goddchen
 

SevenD2

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2011
252
52
That's something that I have not observed myself, but that I have thought about in the past, too. Maybe it would be a good idea to randomize which player has the first move. What do you think?

With the ''Rounds concept'' I think it won't matter.

I don't understand that round concept. Could you explain again please? Is one round equal to one move from each player?
Yes. I think that way the game will be more balanced.

I hear that from many players. That's why I had first put the answer in the help dialog. But not many people seem to read it ;) So I have also put a seperate item for this in the FAQs. But obviously you didn't come over this, too ;)
I have a script running once every week. It will end all open games that are older then 1 week. Points will be awarded as if the game would have ended normally, so you won't loose any of your progress in that game. So this "adding up" shouldn't be happening. The open games that are older then 1 week should be ended from time to time. Could you please check that?
I've only been playing for a few days but I'll reply if the games do get deleted after some time.

Can you hint me to how to reproduce this? Do you refer to the main screen or the game screen?
When the phone screen sleeps due to inactivity with the game still running, the game will not refresh even though I've been notified of a new move. I will usually just restart the app and it'll refresh properly


Difficulty would be set by using harder/easier letter combinations?
Yes

Thanks for your constructive feedback! :)

Goddchen
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
Nice game, very fun to play.

Did you make it from scratch ? or did you use an existing framwork / API ?

Thanks :)

I did it completely from scratch since I didn't find any framework / API that did all of the things that I needed. So it was out of question to do it from scratch.

Normally I do server-stuff with AppEngine, but for a game like this with so many write requests, the costs would be immense. So I chose to go with my own root server and using a MySQL + PHP solution... Works great so far :)

Btw: I could need some help with approving the submitted unknown words, if anyone wants to help, simply reply here or send me a PM :)

Goddchen
 

xFilthyxJesusx

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2009
81
13
When do you want to randomize the letters? Before the first move is made?

Well at any time. So when you are looking at the game board and you have been staring at the same arrangment of letters you can shake the phone and it will scramble and rearrange the letters. Would it have to scramble for both players since we are both using the same game board it seems?

That is very strange. Could you possibly capture a logcat of when you open the friend list / past opponents screen?

Goddchen

Interestingly it is no longer occuring. Past opponent s now shows up without a hitch.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app


I observe that the chat does not notify in at all. And with a couple of friends they recieve my messages but I do not recieve theirs (confirmed via texting)
 

Goddchen

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 4, 2010
402
211
Konstanz
I observe that the chat does not notify in at all. And with a couple of friends they recieve my messages but I do not recieve theirs (confirmed via texting)

That's odd. I have already implemented some approvements to the chat feature (like an icon that indicates unread chat messages). Do the other push notifications work for you? I'm just asking because chat messages are also pushed via Google Cloud Messaging and are only stored locally, not on the server. So, if GCM doesn't work for you, nor will the chat feature (sending will work though, just receiving won't).
 

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