yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Oh, sorry, I didn't replyy to icons question.

Basically I have no idea. I hate icons and graphics, for this kind of reason. What looks great on wxh looks awful on w2xh2. And with tiny .png's they freak me out how they can look so great in one resolution and oh so poor in another. I honestly don't know anything about graphics. I've been testing in both the emulator (eclipser plugin) and direct on my x10 mini and good grief, the result is spectacular. One moment it looks great on the emulator but awful on the x10 mini, then it looks great on the x10 mini but mind-bogglingly terrifying on the emulator.

Ha, what I'm saying is I need an Android (hell, let's make that "phone") developer to help out!
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
I should be getting an HTC Desire sometime in the next couple weeks. That should be a good phone to test on.

Does THIS reference help you any?
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
I spent some time drawing up a mock-up of what the board could look like with a little better polished hexes and tokens. I haven't gotten to the robber, roads, buildings, etc, yet.

I created it in actual size 480x320 so it gets distorted if you zoom.

I also attached a screenshot of it in my graphics editor.

Let me know what you think.
[Android Apps and Games] DJGibbon:
Hi stoneskin

Not sure if this will be any help or not, but I bookmarked this site a while ago when I was looking at doing some Android development - http://www.anddev.org - Seems to be a fairly active site with people posting tutorials and getting advice on dev issues. Might be worth posting any issues you're having there? Alternatively the software development board here might have people more ready to help with tech issues?

As I say, might not be any help, but worth mentioning :)

Cheers

Phil
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Wow its good to see so many ideas coming together! As for the name, we may not be able to incorporate android so much, but maybe Droid in some aspect.

Candor, great sketches! Nice and simple! Id say something sort of like that with some textures on the hex types and we are good to go.

I like the idea of perhaps using different types of units instead of the standard cities and settlements. Reactors, sure. Or perhaps outposts, maybe even a space theme :-) That may be a project for later!
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Candor love the graphics.

Won't be too hard to get it looking like that when everything else is in place.

DJGibbon, yeah I've already posted a question on that site. thanks for the tip.

I've come to the conclusion that while a Build tab is necessary to display building costs and number of units left etc, it makes everything much more useable if when you select a side/vertex/hex an appropriate icon/button appears for quick-building - providing of course you have the necessary resources. For now they'll be my shoddy default buttons, but once we have some gorgeous little pngs it'll look great.
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
A couple small details I would like to see incorporated in the final hexes:

Slightly rounded points

Use Times New Roman on the token numbers. Generally I try to stay away from using Times New Roman in anything, but I think it looks the best for the token number font.

That makes sense about the build tab and on-map action points. Glad to hear its coming together. Any progress on the ports and cards?
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
Actually I think this is more what we should be thinking through. Once we figure out a theme we can get a good solid name.

Another possible title idea is Castles and Conquerors although we would probably end up using some of the same resources as SoC if we choose a theme/title in the mid-evil time period.

If we go with something more creative like outposts or nuclear reactors, it would be easier to get away from using the same resources.
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Good idea, but on top of that I feel that we should consider doing something similar to Aso in that the more common the number the larger (or different color?) it is.
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
In the version of SoC I have the most common numbers are in red instead of black. I agree there needs to be something to signify this.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Not much progress I'm afraid, been testing on my phone and then tidying up - such as putting in the context-appearing buttons - as they make testing a whole lot easier. Ports are almost done, but not started on trading.

I was thinking that if you have built with port access, touching the port will select it and give you quick-trade options based on the resources you have.

I agree that deciding on name/theme the sooner the better, along with the equivalent colours/resources etc. Once the game is themed then we can a) sort out getting some reasonable graphcis on the way and b) it is closer to being beta-test-ready.
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
I played with the mockup a little more.

Made number font bold

Added bullets to signify rolling odds

Made best odds numbers red

Added generic icons to left (hehe webdings)

Moved hex map to the left to make more room (for dice, possibly an avatar of the player in turn, etc

)

What all should be on the left and right you guys? Have we thought that through yet?
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
Sounds like an interesting idea about the ports. There are a lot more moving parts to this game than I thought of.

I was thinking when you wipe the left icon menu vertically and it hides, maybe the map should automatically move to the left edge of the screen, allowing more information to be displayed on the right side.

We definitely need some good dice graphics too. Maybe I'll work on some dice sometime in the near future. A question about the map you currently have -- is each hex it's own object? -- or is the entire map one object?

Also, are you interested in adding sounds yet? Or would you like to wait on that? I have some decent sound equipment -- I can record rolling dice and possibly create some other sound effects.

Another thing that I think is a must -- when you tap and hold on something it needs to activate the haptic feedback (that tiny little vibration).

EDIT: Come to think of it, do we really need dice graphics? Can't we just have it generate and display a random number? (Maybe using some type of animated GIF).
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Personally I think some form of dice graphic is worthwhile.

Not interested in sounds yet!

The map that you see is just a visual rep of the board, which consists of hexes identified by their 6 points. Not sure if that answers your question sufficiently?

I haven't thought too much about what should be on left and right. Well I've thought about it, but can't figure it out.

We definitely need icons that appear when you have, say, vertices or sides selected - building icons, as pulling a builtding tab out all the time would be a pain.

I think we need some indication all the time of what resource cards you hold - again, it would be a pain if you had to quick checking the "hand" tab each go just to remember what you've got.

We need some sort of indication of whose turn it is, and what the scores are, which I've done in my awful little text overlay, but we need to think of a nice way of showing that.

But other than the basics (launchers for 'hand', 'dev cards', 'trade') I'm thinking to keep the screen as free from clutter as possible. I wonder if we could simply sweep through a selection of other screens by using left-right/right-left (what if there were two little icons at each side of the screen). These could give you settings, stats, dice stats, more detailed game overview, whatever we wanted.
[Android Apps and Games] Che123:
I would really like to see theese icons on the hexes. Like them.

In addition, there would be no problems with colorblind players :D
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Awesome ideas stone! And candor those graphics look awesome!

I completely agree with the inclusion of dice graphics. This game is firstly a tabletop classic and justly deserves one or two kickbacks to none random number generator days. Stone, can you post a screen of your hud as it is now? That will give us an idea of the screen real estate.

I also agree about always showing resource cards. Perhaps we can have a swipe upward command to bring up and/or hide a panel along the bottom displaying all resource cards. This panel could be transparent or at least semi transparent. That way players may always have their hand visable or hid it for those longer turns.

And lastly, we could do the swipe through screens. The best example I can think of is like the palm pre webos menus. We could do that but it may overwhelm the player.

Awesome ideas! And stone, great work!
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Latentk, screen layout hasn't really changed at all since my last posted shots. The only change is that massive context-buttons appear above the zoom controls, e.g. you select a vertex and providing you can build a settlement, the Settlement button appears.

Can't upload screenshots of this till later, but not really worthwhile as those context-buttons can be popped up anywhere.

Candor, I think I understand your hex question now.

Basically, I generate up a board for each new game, which consists of 19 hexes, identified by their 6 points, and obviously each hex has a resource type (inc. desert) allocated.

The map you see is just me quickly drawing those hexes with simple paths. So if you were to provide me with graphics, then you would need to give me the individual resource-driven hexes. I.e. brick, lumber, wool, grain, ore, desert.

But before you spend too much time doing that (assuming your'e up for it), worth agreeing on theme so you don't waste too much time.

Also, we'l need to talk maths in that ideally the images would have exact proportions as my current calculated ones, and also bear in mind that the size of the map various depending on the size of the device's screen, and also when you zoom. So the images would need to be scalable.

I'd suggest that the hex images (except for desert) include the weighting circle, then I'd just overlay the weighting number when the map is drawn.

Shall we aim to agree on a theme today, or at least get closer to doing so?

Candor/Latenkt, with your 'reactor' idea, what would the colours, resources, components be? If we went down an 'industrial' sort of route, then the graphcis could be really slick metalic style.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Candor, having said all that.

If we get a theme agreed, and you could just mock up the map, then if the graphics are simple enough I may be able to render them close enough myself. If so then

1) I could render the basic hexes

2) But overlay them with icons, which would be actual images perhaps mocked up by yourself

That way it would be a lot more performant and there is less image scaling.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Ports

Ports are done. As always, shoddy cheap graphics, but (as always) it would be very easy to glitz up the graphics.

They can be selected in the same way hexes and vertices can. My thinking is that if you can trade - i.e. settlement touches the port, then the appropriate trade options will pop up (context driven, i.e. appropriate to the selected port).

Dev cards are done in the sense that they can be bought, but can't yet be played yet. Shouldn't take me long though.

Hate the player overlay top right, currently showing the 'mode' (e.g. roll round, placement round, move robber, whatever) and scores. Maybe for the sake of screen real-estate we just display the mode and whos turn it is.

Also thinking that would be good to include a sort of 'game log'. I.e. this contains 'Bob rolled a 3', 'Billy recieved 2 lumber', 'Bobby played the Monopoly Card' and so on. This could be dragged into view whenever requried.
[Android Apps and Games] davidlightle:
I just wanted to chime in since things have gotten so busy in this thread. I believe I'm the dev stoneskin is referring to, but if not, I'm interested in the development side as well (we've talked by PM a little bit so far).

I'm very interested in helping out but things seem all over the place that I don't know how I can best help out (if I can even yet).

I've been off working on supporting the Wired Tether app for the past week or two, so I've actually learned a ton about Android (applications and system) in the short time since stoneskin and I talked.

I have some ideas, too, but there are so many out there, I'm not sure what is nailed down, what ideas exist, or how hardware-inclusive to be (touchscreen only versus touch + trackball for example). I think documenting centrally would be good. :)

I'm definitely deeply interested in helping, so I'll try to follow the thread even more closely, but PM and email is my best way of contact (push notified on the phone, so pretty instant).
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Great Ideas

"But if you mean we need action options to display when you select an item on the map (whether it be a roadway or a port) then I'm right there with you."

Yep, that's what I mean.

Love the four corner icons idea. Score/Player info, Hand, Trade all sound great.

Here's what I'm thinking.

I'll slap those three icons in the corners, but keep the zoom control bottom left for now. (we can change that later perhaps). The 'build' icon isn't so necessary because I'm bringing up action options when you select items on the map.

Then I can remove the dubious right-hand buttons and instead put the framework in for scrollable pages. I'd say initially this could include building costs, detailed score information (longest road, largest army, all that kind of thing), dice stats, dev cards played, game log, and we can add what ever we want here.

I like the Avatar idea, only problem right now is that there is no setup screens and no Avatars. However I might use a few default ones initially just to give us a feel.

I'm hesitent to include the game log as part of a feed on the screen purely because on a screen as small as my X10 mini's there's so little space. However I suppose I could have it displaying, I dunno, 3 actions but when you tap it it vertically fills the screen. Tell you what, I'll find a bit of space to float it and see what it looks like.

Regarding the play of dev cards before rolling - I don't believe that is possible in the basic game - as far as I remember anyway!

"You'll have to let me know the dimensions of the hexes, and what format you prefer for scalability. What type of files do you want? Does the phone automatically scale the images based on the phone's resolution? What graphics editor do you use?"

I can't help much on that right now. I'm sure that we need images that support transparency, so probably pngs, but I don't know anything about scalability in Android and so on. Presumably vector graphics would be best but need to research that. Let's put that on hold for now and I'll get back to you.

"I think you're saying you want to just have generic solid-colored hexes and then overlay a signifying icon for each"

Not necessarily. But I'm saying that if the hex graphics are basically a nice, slightly bevelled graphic, with an icon on top, then I might be able to recreate that look with some simple gradients.

But I'd like eye candy too eventually.

Tell you what. I'll whip up a hex graphic and have a play, just to see how it scales, what dimensions are best and so on, and once we've got that figured out we can proceed with getting some decent ones done.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Graphics

Is there anyone out there who is a wizzkid at Android graphics. I.e. loves nothing more than fiddling with imagebuttons, layout issues and image-scaling? Give me a shout!
[Android Apps and Games] GinoAMelone:
RL has me swamped lately, but I'm trying to keep-up on reading this thread, at least.

Since we seem to be throwing out ideas. Several of the implementations include a roll heuristic. A little chart showing how often each roll comes up. You can see an example in the AsoBrain screencaps earlier. It's in the lower right, near the edge of the map.

As to themes, I'd prefer sticking with something very close to the original game. However, that's no reason that once we have a working game, that spin-offs couldn't be created on the same code-base. Maybe something to keep in the back of your mind while coding.
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
I like the idea of a roll heuristic -- possibly on another page with additional stats?

The thought process with the nuclear theme (or any others) was to get as far away from any copyright issues as possible. Another idea is to make the game completely themeable -- so the community could create a theme based on anything they want, with icons, resource titles, etc, apply the theme in an easy way. Do you think that would suffice? Is that what you had in mind?
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Agree that roll stats would be great, though not necessarily on main view to lack of space.

Regarding theming, my plan is to make it as skinable as a rabbit...

By which I mean the graphics, labels, text, will be entirely external to the code.

This would mean it is simple enough to switch themes, providing someone has created the graphics.

I agree with C though, safest to go with different theme, name, terms.

We need to push on with some decent graphics asap so if people have any good theme ideas-including resource names and so on them please put them forward asap!
[Android Apps and Games] gthing:
It would be cool to do a clone that uses graphics inspired from retro gaming like this game: http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/

Then have it be something modern or futuristic, so instead of wheat and brick and crap you're collecting minerals from planets or some futuristic landscape.

That way when you play it it looks like you're "hax0ringz teh mainfr4mz!" instead of playing some game.

Just a thought...
[Android Apps and Games] invertedskull:
I just wanted to jump in and say AWESOME! I love the board game, so I'm very keen to see this on the Android.

I have searched for Carcassonne too, but not on this forum... Hopefully one in in the works! I know it's on the iPhone as well as many other platforms.
[Android Apps and Games] zxbcnv:
Stone you are doing an amazing job! I was looking for this app on the Market before this thread was started and I was truly disappointed to find it not there. I have been following you guys from the beginning and I would have offered to help but im still learning Java and Visual Basic and I don't think that helps much. Although I do have a question about the graphics area. What program do you guys use to make the board and tabs? Also I own a HTC Droid Incredible in case you want a newer phone to test on. Thank you for making this game.
[Android Apps and Games] Andrwmorph:
Awesome work! I love playing this board game!
[Android Apps and Games] sheepforwheat:
I am thankful that someone is making this!
[Android Apps and Games] tommybear:
Also thumbs up for developing this game from the netherlands.

I'm going to start reading into java.

I've got a Samsung galaxy s I9000 8gb.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Blimey, just had a thought, this would be pretty cool if it became available on Android tablets huh?!
[Android Apps and Games] Maverick777:
Bump for another interested Android user. :D
[Android Apps and Games] tamaster92:
Another interest ed user, just wish I could help...
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Thanks for the interest guys, i'll post a proper update soon
[Android Apps and Games] adrianoftyriel:
I would also like to voice my support for this project, and if you need any help with testing/bug finding, county me in!
[Android Apps and Games] gijsja:
Also a BIG fan of catan. Great to see someone is developing. If theres anything i can do let me know. Good luck !
[Android Apps and Games] zxbcnv:
Hey I was wondering if you have thought about beta testing yet?? If you are I am sure as heck ready for this game to be on my Incredible!
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
Just seen this thread and after I dig through it I must say that you're guy amazing, you're making something really awesome.

Regards,

Felven
[Android Apps and Games] rakess:
Droid X user ready to be beta tester

I love it! sign me up to be a tester
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
Project dead?

Any news about it? What was made so far?

Regards,

Felven
[Android Apps and Games] piratrik:
Just want to give my support!

Seriously amazing work everyone!

BTW: my lagfixed overclockd galaxy s is in your hands if you need something powerful to test it on ;)

(if you want some prerendered stuff such as dice rolling, pm me)

Patrik
[Android Apps and Games] methius:
Not to thread hijack or anything, but have you guys seen my thread on a game I'm creating?

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=787404

Will offer scoreloop & push notification for multiplayer through cloud service :-)
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Project is far from dead. Candor and I are working on some graphics but we're both pretty busy in RL! Hope to post decent update soon.

Methius it looks fantastic.
[Android Apps and Games] DevinXtreme:
Love SoC, would love to help beta test. Have a little programming background and beta testing experience. I'd really love to help this cause out :)
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Thanks Devin, I hope to post some decent updates soon. Basic game is there (four human players, one phone) with the exception of trading, which I'm working on now. Main focus right now is getting the graphics sorted along with the various necessary views (your hand, game log, trading, stats page and so on), but it is not far off the beta-testing stage.
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
You want to have your own graphics? Maybe you should try just to copy those from the original game? ; >
[Android Apps and Games] methius:
Small Teaser:

[YOUTUBE]FFFqFFEOxKQ[/YOUTUBE]
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
@up frankly speaking I would like to see settlers-of-catan-like game in typical 2D. But it will be even more fun to have choice between two games. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that games ; )
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Methius, it looks awesome, I'm impressed.

Felven, agree with you there - it will be great to have both SoC-like games on Android.
[Android Apps and Games] DevinXtreme:
Excellent. Will it be hard to add online multiplayer in the future? Ha, this sounds super awesome :)

:O

Looking great!!
[Android Apps and Games] methius:
Hey,

You can switch between "full" 3D models, and models which are essentially just flat hexagonal pieces, giving the 2D look.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Devin, in terms of supporting online (or any other form of network) multiplayer the real work will be the networking aspect - i.e. I'm coding this in such a way that it will not particularly affect the game model and so on.

But we'll see!
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
Woah! That's great! I love that! Just can't wait to see that game!
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
You should probably get your own thread at this point. I know you're not trying to thread-jack, but it's starting to go that direction.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Just a quick update, because I don't want to give the impression that not much is happening.

Candor has been creating some graphics, and I've been plugging them in, which is a fairly lengthy process as we want the graphics to scale well.

I've also been putting some work into the various pages/displays, such as statistics, 'hand', development cards, game log and so on.

I'm hoping to post some screenshots and updates soon.
[Android Apps and Games] Felven:
Yeeea! Let's upload some screens, I'm sure that lot of us want to see the project : D
[Android Apps and Games] belyle:
I'm in for one when it's ready. Is there any AI in this or AI planned? Or will I be playing by myself against myself?