Another Android game

Hello, dear habrovchane! In this small article you can find information about creating a game for the Android platform, some details of its development, as well as follow the path of development of the game idea.

Instead of the preface

First you need to get a general idea of ​​what the game is. To do this, answer one simple question: do you know such television shows as the Russian 100: 1 or the American Family Feud ? Well, then, depending on the answer, continue reading this article or refresh the memory on the pages of the world wide web.

Start

The choice of platform can probably be called obvious: Android is a rapidly developing and promising “axis”, to start developing for which it is enough to have only a computer from any OS (and to register as a developer, pay $ 25, which is less than similar contributions from competitors).
The idea to create a game arose quite spontaneously. But the idea of ​​this particular game was born under the influence of several factors, the most important of which was the delight of colleagues and acquaintances from conducting an interactive, based precisely on a similar concept - guessing words, rooted in public polls. And in his free time from work and pressing affairs, the beginning of work on the game was laid.
')

Prototype

The first versions of the game were, in fact, a naked "mechanics". From the ancestors in the modern version there are only the gameplay itself and some elements of the user interface. As the project progressed, the game became overgrown with new functions: the progenitors of statistics and the help screen appeared, tight integration with Twitter. Something new was constantly being tested, something was appearing, inevitably replacing the old.

Evolutionary foundation

6 words to guess. The “correct answers” are taken from user surveys - people of different ages and professions. Simply? Yes. But the question arises: will the audience be satisfied with such simplicity? Therefore, it was necessary to add flexibility to the simplicity of the gameplay. For example, that is why from the very first demo versions in the game there is a horizontal mode: the landscape view of the interface, specially created for the convenience of the game (after all, on the virtual keyboard of the smartphone it is more convenient to type in landscape, rather than portrait mode). There are always a lot of similar trivialities that come up against the “usability” question, and you need to pay close attention to them, no matter what you create.

Revival

Due to some circumstances, the work on the project had to be stopped indefinitely. It was not known whether the game would see the light, but everyone who had already managed to play it (from a narrow circle of “testers”) would be happy to see the game in the Market and follow its development.
When it was possible to start developing the game again, the task was immediately set: to rewrite the project from scratch. From this followed two directions: changing the code responsible for the mechanics of the game, and reworking the user interface. In the first we will not go deep - this is the topic of a separate article; suffice it to say that the mentioned code was radically different from its first versions, although for the user it was not noticeable. As for the interface, this is all that you can see in the game. The logo in the menu became clearer and got rid of unnecessary and distracting elements, the menu itself was now made in the form of a Dashboard .



To implement this in your work, you can simply search the web and stumble upon many examples, such as here , here or here . It is worth noting that the Dashboard layout looks great in both portrait and landscape modes. In the beta version of the game, a new game screen was added with convenient and fast navigation to the necessary sections, also made in the form of a Dashboard layout , but using different color gamut of icons and signatures for easier visual memorization and better orientation in the game.
In the statistics menu, progress bars were created, clearly showing the user's progress. Since the standard yellow color did not suit, I had to tinker with creating my own interface components. You can find vivid examples in Russian on Habré , as well as in Darya Ryazhskikh’s blog.


As you test beta versions, a settings screen appears where you can find and change some of the game’s features. This, for example, full-screen mode, an alternative arrangement of points and answers during gameplay, etc. Thus, everyone can adjust the game "for themselves."
Another important element of the game is the ability to add a task to the list of "Favorites" , and then, if necessary, easily removed from this list.
In one of the latest versions, the choice of a random task was added: the gameplay was so animated a bit, and now the user doesn’t have to rummage through the task lists if he just wants to pass the time for some question.
And the last interface element that I would like to mention is the “smart” button for continuing the game. If you have guessed all the words and you have nothing more to do in this task, but you decided to leave the game, then when you return to the game screen, the “Continue” button will not appear. If a question relevant to the solution was interrupted, you will be asked to go directly to it, without having to look for it in the task list.

In general, when developing any project, it is important to recognize and understand what the user likes and does not, what is annoying, and what, on the contrary, detains attention. And this understanding is achieved, perhaps, only by repeated testing. In the game in question, just paid attention to the convenience and comfort of the user when using it.

Monetization and application store

The game features a user-friendly monetization model. There is one version of the game that is free, but includes unobtrusive advertising. It can be easily and quickly disabled from the settings menu by paying a symbolic amount. (About adding an in-app purchase on Android, many articles were written both on Habré and on other resources.) So the user does not need to think about buying a separate application, and after disabling advertising he (the user) continues the game from where he left off.
The publication of the game in the Android Market was quiet and silent. A few days after the release, an update was released, which, among other things, brought users integration with the OpenFeint network: online tables of points and guessed words (Leaderboards) and achievements (Achievements) appeared .

Epilogue

In conclusion, I would like to mention the possibility of feedback from the developers and the chance to participate in the creation of future updates of the game.
Perhaps this is all. Thanks for attention.

PS Probably, you need to provide a link to the application itself: here it is .