Thursday, July 21, 2016

Productive Game Alpha Test Released on Google Play

I've been working on the Productive Game Prototype, but have neglected to post here.



My app is now going through Open Alpha testing on the Google Play store!  If you would like to sign up to be a tester, you can find that here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ProductiveGaming.PGP_Roguelike


After you have signed up to be a tester, you can get the app by going here:
Get it on Google Play

Here are the changelogs from my Android releases:


-1.0 Fixed newly instantiated tasks.  They weren't sizing properly.

- 1.0.1 Changed Canvas Scaling to Screen Size instead of Physical size in an attempt to make UI look right on Mobile.

-1.0.2 Bug Fixes:
Fixed Blurry Game Panel
Fixed Reset Game Button

Next up:
GUI elements are still too small on some devices.

-1.0.3 Bug Fixes:
Modified GUI elements so they should be the same size across all devices.  I also increased their size and spacing to, hopefully, make them easier to tap.

Let me know if I need to improve the sizing some more, on buttons, checkboxes, text, etc.

Notice:  Apparently Unity 5 no longer supports Tegra 2 devices.  This includes, but is not limited to, some Galaxy s2 devices, the first Galaxy Tab 10.2", and the atrix 4g.  In order to fix this, I would need to switch to Unity 4.6.  blegh.

- 1.0.4 Changelog:
Fixed the Pause Button
Attempts to improve clarity:
Renamed "Unused Todos" to "Build Points"
Renamed "Speed" to "Multiplier", and increased max from 4 to 9, and changed default from 1 to 3.
Scaled up Instructions so they are easier to read, and implemented scrolling for them.
Rewrote instructions somewhat.

More Details about the change log


- 1.0
 I decided to get the mobile app ready for a proper mobile release.  I switched the Canvas Scaling from Constant Pixel Size to Scale with Screen Size, and also tried Constant Physical Size, but with both of them the instantiated objects would not scale correctly.  I tried everything for weeks to try to find a solution, but to no avail.  Then I just happened to stumble on the solution here  Apparently,  I needed to set WorldPositionStays to false when instantiating my object.

so:
newTodo.transform.SetParent(todoPanel);
changed to:
newTodo.transform.SetParent(todoPanel, false);
And that seemed to fix it.  Since that was finally fixed, I decided to release my app for Android on the Google Play Store, because it has the lowest barrier to entry(lowest one time fee to be a developer, easiest to build for, simplest approval).  By doing that, I could get feedback from testers.

-1.0.1  This one's pretty self explanatory, but it still didn't exactly work right.  See release 1.0.3

-1.0.2  For some reason I had to turn mipmaps off for the Sprites in order to make them look clear, instead of blurry.  Previous builds weren't blurry so I'm not sure why it suddenly became necessary.

I created a duplicate of my scene when I started working on Android, so I wouldn't break anything.  The code that resets the game calls on the scene, so I just had the change the scene name in the code to fix the reset game button.

I manually resized many UI elements in order for them to be easier to use on Mobile.

-1.0.3  None of Unity's Canvas Scaling methods created a constant physical size across all devices, there was always some sort of variation, so I turned off the Canvas Scaler and switched to a script made by Tess Snider so that I could use Constant DP Size, or "Device-independent Pixels".  You can find that script here.  I then had to change Reference Pixels Per Unit to 60 in order for all of the UI elements to look correct around the edges.

-1.0.4  For some reason, the Pause Button was disabled.  I have no idea why.  The rest of this is pretty self explanatory in the changelog


What's Next

I'm continually improving it every day.  I haven't had any issues with stability at all, so I could push to Beta test status, but I want to add some more features.  

I plan on adding another page or more to the User Interface to accommodate better managing of todos, such as editing, deleting, and  completed todos;  to accommodate a score page;  and to accommodate settings and configuration.

I would also like to add some sort of "Story Events" to the game.








Thursday, July 7, 2016

Why I'm doing this.

What am I trying to do?


I'm trying to create a Productive Game Industry


Why am I trying to do this?


People motivated by greed and self interest have no lack of self motivation.  I believe this is one reason the world is in the state that it is today.  The good people of the world who care about others and society, see the state of the world and become disillusioned or bitter or escape into the virtual world of music, books, video, or video games because it's a much more comfortable place to live.

So, I'm trying to take the best aspects of video game technology mixed with productivity applications to create a video game that empowers and motivates the good people of the world to do more with their lives, and to be more.  When the good people of the world have the tools they need in order to rise up an make the world a better place, the world will become a better place.

Productive Game Technology has a tremendous potential that has only just barely been tapped.  There's some more information about what can be done in the about section of this website, and I have notebooks filled with other possibilities that I would like to one day compile into a cohesive narrative or design document and publish.

So far, I mostly work alone and take shortcuts where I can, but there's only so much that one person can do.  I'm trying to create a product that shows the potential of Productive Games in such a way that other people will compelled to join me, or build upon my work.  This is what I mean when I say that I'm trying to build an Industry(that currently does not exist), and not just a product.


What's next?


I'm working on getting the Productive Game Prototype ready to publish on the major app and game stores(Steam, Apple store, Android Store, Windows Store).

I don't know yet whether I will use a simple todo list structure or combine the Productive Game Prototype with my work making a Habitica Client(the Habit Engine).  This first product I will release for free to garner interest, and then I will set to work on the next Productive Game.  I already have a lot of the game aspects planned out and details will be forthcoming.