Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dweller for Android released!

I'm happy to announce my first release of Dweller for Google Android! The version is a bit of a beta version, but is perfectly playable. I want to improve the UI and graphics much more before I can say that I have a proper version for Android.

Dweller for Android can be downloaded for free from the Android marketplace (do a search for Dweller and you should be able to find it), via this direct URL: market://search?q=pname:org.roguelikedevelopment.dweller.android or using the QR-code on this page.

New versions for J2ME and J2SE have also been released, but not much has changed since the last release. Changes and additions:

NEW All text now has a small drop shadow

CHANGE Locked the navigation keys completely from being redefined as it risks screwing things up if redefined the wrong way

CHANGE Added left/right commands as valid ways of navigating back and forth in menues (this used to work in old versions and is now back on player request)

Download from: http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Dweller

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Dweller on Android coming soon

I got my HTC Legend a couple of days ago, and I immediately started coding on the adaptation of Dweller for Android handsets. The process is a fairly simple two step process:

1) Create a main app and implement an interface for providing the core game code with a means to load files, get default keys etc.

2) Create a view/gui class and implement an interface for providing the generic UI code with a way to draw tiles, text and primitives

The above is already done and Dweller is running on my Legend, BUT the much bigger resolution paired with the less-accurate-than-mouse touch screen (or do I have huge hands?) makes it hard to interact with the game in a good enough way. The graphics I use is simply too small, even at 16x16 it is hard to tap on the exact item/Monster/dungeon feature on the map you want to interact with. I am currently working on a context sensitive action bar that will show available game actions such as a Pick Up icon when standing on an item, an Open/Close icon when standing next to a door (problem is how to solve the case where you're standing next to more than one door), a Menu and an Inventory icon to open the main menu and inventory respectively and so on. I am also looking into changing the graphics and possibly ripping graphics from somewhere until I find someone who can help me do some larger graphics of my own. Any takers? :-)