The team had a lot of fun creating this Palm version of Triples. With this being an election year in the US we thought it would be appropriate to create a tongue and cheek political game. Jim created some new art and Carl added it to our current version. The game board is enhanced with stars and stripes pieces and includes the political option to play either as a Democratic or Republican. See who wins more often! You can find more information here http://www.smartboxdesign.com/triples.html
I have a couple new screenshots to show you tonight. If anyone bothered to do the math with some of the pictures below, you would have discovered that there wasn’t enough room to hold ten high scores in the square resolution high score screen. So, rather than cheating those users, our talented artist, Jim, adjusted the Best Words and High Scores dialogs for the square resolutions so as to make them fit. The dialog buttons got a little smaller, but all the information is there!
Nicely done, Jim. And on with the bugs we go…
Let me first apologize for the lack of screenshots this time around. None of my recent work shows in a static image, so there wasn’t much point. However, that is not to say that things were not done!
Much of the polish and shining has been accomplished in the last couple of days. WordPop will successfully find a previous installation of the game and import all of the settings and game information. So, your best words, high scores, volume settings, and even your game in progress will be imported so you can continue with the new application right where you left off with the old.
I also added the popping animation to the start screen. How many of you know that you can tap on that animation to play it again? That cute feature made the transition as well.
Next, I added something you can’t see at all, but you’ll know if it is missing: sound effects. All of the same sound effects used in the current WordPop are back again and they sound great.
To top it off, I also packaged the first beta release build into a CAB. That process has forced me to set up the mini-infrastructure necessary to build CABs and installers. Not a difficult task, but it does involve the wrangling of .ini files, batch files, and a variety of folders with specific names. It also involves two computers, but there’s an odd historical reason for that. All that to say that the production of a single CAB actually involved many moving parts that, I’m glad to say, seem to be working well.
So, Todd has his first review build and we’ll be continuing the polishing as he gets to examine the new beast. I’ll be back to tell you more as it gets added, but it’s sure getting close now!
P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!
So, I’ve finished one little thing and one kinda big thing since we last talked. The little thing is that WordPop will remember the last name you used for a high score and present it again the next time you make the big board. Just a nice touch, nothing too difficult.
And, actually, the big thing wasn’t too hard, either. That’s because most of the work was in creating new artwork and Jim did a great job doing that! So, here are some screenshots of the new resolution we’ve added to WordPop, suitable for your Treo 700 and other 240 x 240 devices.
You’ll notice that the buttons have been rearranged on game board and that the dialogs needed to squeeze the font down to fit. Let us know what you think of the look at this resolution.
All that’s left now is some final polishing and bug fixing. Then, I’m on to the most mundane part of software development: installers. Bleh.
Hey there, back again with a quick update. I’ve just finished another new mini-feature for WordPop. Previously, when placing bonus tiles, the only method was to click the bonus tile and then click a location on the board for it to be dropped. Now, for an ever-so-slightly more interactive method, you may click and drag a bonus tile to wherever you want to place it. If you drop it somewhere illegal (over another tile, or off the board), then it’ll simply snap back. It’s not very exciting, but here’s a picture of a drag in progress:
I’m off to touch up a few other things and then I’ll be adding the 240 x 240 resolution art. That’ll produce some fun screenshots. Talk to you again, soon!