Solitaire 3D

A more serious development in 3D OpenGL then Snap! Klondike Solitaire is one of the most popular games in the Android Market, and yet none of them really appealed to me visually.

Latest features included High Definition graphics, an online leaderboard high score chart, user definable images of both card backings and backdrop.  The images below of the app are older than the current version, but I like to leave them here to remind me of how far the application has progressed!

I wanted a clean looking interface, that didn’t require popup columns. Basically you should be able to play it as you see it without the need for tricky interfaces. I wanted to show off some of OpenGL animation, especially with the shuffle and deal, and specifically the winning sequence.

I’m going to keep this application updated as suggestions come in. I’ve already applied the 1 suggestion I’ve had so far! I made a pay-for version as well, and will prioritise any requests from my customers.

market://details?id=com.jawfin.sol3d

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sol3d/com.jawfin.s
ol3d

market://details?id=com.jawfin.sol3dpro

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sol3dpro/com.jawfin.sol3dpro

Snap

My delve into the 3D OpenGL aspect of Android programming. I wanted a simple game that was fun, and well to say, brainless – completely changing the pace of my previous developments.

I like this game and wanted a clean screen of bright graphics and pleasing animations, with simple sounds.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/snap/com.jawfin.snap

SwipeOut

This game was to push the limits of the 2D canvas.  I wanted to play with animations, alpha blending and combining an action aspect. I despise games that are only get more difficult because they go faster until the player can no longer react in time. This game just gets harder so that you are required to think quick.

It was to be a combination of a gem shooter, tower defense (although that aspect was lessened as development progressed) and tetris.

Unfortunately, the intelligent aspect required to play the game seemed to be beyond the grasp of most, leading to such comments as “Don’t really get it so don’t really like it that much”! It was at this point I drew the conclusion that it was for the most part only the phones that were smart… That’s why the next game I did was completely mindless to play.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/swipeout/com.jawfin.swipeout

Sim

My second Android application.

Now using the canvas 2D graphics to further my knowledge of Android development. I chose Sim (explained here) for several reasons.  Firstly because a dear friend of mine is Portuguese and we use the word “sim” often (being yes). Also, I wanted a game complex enough to not be boring but simple enough where I could map the whole game tree with brute force thus the artificial intelligence was no more than looking up a hash table. I had to develop an application to search all the moves and optimize the search tree. There are 2250 reachable nodes in my game-tree, and that is complete.

Make no mistake though, the game is complex despite its huge amount of symmetry within the game-play. Like Dots and Dashes its difficulty level is simply defined by the number of random moves it does before it looks up the best play.

To date this is the most popular of my games (although I do expect Solitaire 3D to overtake it quite soon).

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sim/com.jawfin.sim

Dots and Dashes

My first public Android application, a game an old school friend of mine taught me (well, his dad did – who incidently was the headmaster of the school – which isn’t so great when you set his son on fire, but that’s another story) that you play on paper.

I had already made this game for the Nokia T310 on the Mophun platform many years ago, and decided to start there.

I wanted to start with a game that didn’t involve 2D or 3D graphics; it is completely component driven. That way I could learn a lot about custom components. With my strong Delphi background this interested me and I knew it was something I have to be very familiar with before I tackle the fun stuff.

So here is the Android version: -

http://www.appbrain.com/app/dots-and-dashes/com.jawfin.dots

I also released a Pro version.
I wanted to see how the market works as well as I wanted to share the deep analysis of the game, which you good folk can pay for
It has extra features: hint, swap sides, undo – as well the full analysis of the game.  Note that Dots and Dashes is a variation of a nim game.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/dots-and-dashes-pro/com.jawfin.dotspro