yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Haha, you know that is a basic layout but gets the job done! What you could do is have the game map be at least twice as large as say the resolution of a N1 screen. Enable finger scrolling and/or pinch to zoom (comlpex perhaps but a thought) and let people move around the game map as needed. That'd allow for better graphics, larger maps, and a larger feel to the game. The HUD could possibly go up either side of the game map. In fact I'd say make landscape mode MANDATORY so you have the extra real estate.

Check this out: http://games.asobrain.com/

That is what I envision this game like. That game is everything this game COULD be and he even found ways around copyright. Check that game out, play a round or two and it will give you plenty to think about/use as inspiration. Obviously no need to copy, but you can use it for ideas.

Lastly, the previous statement someone made about notifications is pure gold. Allow people to play their turns then pass to the next with a notification appearing. Great ideas.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
I've been there before, but a while ago and he's closed all unactive accounts and stopped registration unfortunately.

If you are a member maybe you could upload a couple of screenshots or explain to me how the GUI works in more detail.

I love the idea of finger scrolling/pinch/zoom etc. I'm gonna give some of that a go tomorrow. But like I say, what I'm initially trying to achieve is

GUI

Model

in a clean separation. So any visual representation would be possible. I'll try and knock out some basic zoom/finger scroll effects just to convince myself that my rudimentary framework will hold together.

Thanks for the quick feedback mate.
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
This shows the basic layout, how it all works, the HUD and such. Again this would have to be adjusted for the handheld, but in general it looks and works great!

In the top left is a pane for the players in the game. It shows Player Name, Player Color, a count of the cards in the players hand, any held and/or played D cards. This pane can be hidden if the player wishes.

The pane on the bottom left shows all things the plyer can buy and what it takes for the player to buy them. (in the android version I imagine this being a tab you can bring up to buy/see what you need and have.

Below that pane is Played Cards, and Table cards which speak for themselves.

Of course along the bottom you see your hand.

On the bottom right you have 3 buttons, claim victory, trade, and end turn.

And of course you see the dice.

Top right is the chat box.

All of this again is simply for inspiration and not for copying. This gives you a great idea of a fleshed out game and how it could look on a handset.

This is a trade window.

Two things of note here. First notice the top left. WHen a player gets cards on a roll, they show up face up for a brief moment. GREAT idea if possible to implement something similar.

Secondly, bottom right is what appears to be a chart. That shows how many times a number has been rolled. This is more advanced than what we'd need, but an interesting idea and prob easy to implement.

Now on this one a couple things to point out. Look at how they do cities and roads. Similar to what you've suggested. I was thinking maybe circles with symbols on the top (kind of like tokens or markers). Of course maybe more intricate and detailed models could be added later.

Also, that speech bubble that popped up shows where the person played their road or city or settlement. This is ESSENTIAL in some form or another on this game. Plan to include SOMETHING like it.

And lastly, this picture shows what it looks like when a person trades succesfully. Again not necessary but certainly handy.

I must repeat again that I DO NOT CONDONE OUTRIGHT PLAGIARISM with anything Asobrain has done. This is purely for inspiration and research. This should give you PLENTY of ideas!

I've got tons!
[Android Apps and Games] GinoAMelone:
This is a beautiful start. Couple thoughts.

- The desert color isn't clearly distinct from wheat.

- The name will have to be something other than "Settlers of Catan". I'd avoid the current name for two reasons. One, a lot of us will take some degree of exception to the Satan reference. Two, it's not really different enough to dodge trademark concerns.

- I despise needing to scroll around in a game to see everything. This is my main complaint with "Pirates & Traders".

- On such a small screen, keep the UI as simple as possible. AsoBrain is wonderful. But, it is designed for a largish screen. (BTW, I hate that he killed old accounts when closing registration. I was away for just about the exact period to get locked-out).

- As we proceed, I'd like to plan for a multi-device/network play. This game would be awesome in a peer-to-peer, networked model.

Thanks for getting this started.

P.S. I *REALLY* like how you did the board. The buttons: meh. The board: Wow!
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
1. Agreed, the desert should be a tan, and wheat clearly a gold.

2. Also agree. It cannot even closely resemble Settlers. We can worry about the name when we have a game worth naming :P (I was thinking something like Travista, or something resembling travelers).

3. That is why it'd also be prudent to include a pinch to zoom or zoom controls. Let the player get in close if they wish, or let them sit way back and view it all from a distance.

4. Agreed. Simple yet elegant/complex in its design is what I'd like to see. Again give the player the option of getting as complicated as they wish. This can be easily accomplished with tabs that the player can pull out as needed. The only thing that should remain on the screen is the players hand, and a few essential buttons. Look at a game called PocketEmpires, use that idea for assembling tabs. I do feel that certain tabs should be entirely devoted to one type of action (like a building tab).

5. Once you have a basic game framework laid, you can work on making it work across the board and with all devices. The dev should focus on getting it to work native first, then move onward. As for a p2p network GREAT IDEA! If there is a way we can link this either by device or via a server that'd be the best way. Allow players to run through an entire game, or let players take their turns and move on to another player (IE pass it back and forth via notifications, similar to how Scrabble works on the iPhone).

I only wish I knew any code/dev tools to help with. All these ideas and nothing to do about it!
[Android Apps and Games] GinoAMelone:
The best route for communication is probably the new cloud framework that chrome2phone uses. I've only read a little about it, but it seems very promising.

I've got the skills, I just don't have the time. I've been a professional developer for almost 20 years. Java for 10. I'd love to be involved in the p2p aspect. It's closer to where my skills lie anyway. Maybe my time will free up by the time the app is ready for that part.

Stoneskin, just curious. Are you planning to go open source, paid, ads,...?
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
So you'd know better than I would, has Google given developers the proper API's/access to the cloud framework? And as far as I can tell stone wants to go open source, at least initially, to allow many users to contribute. I'd say it may be possible to have an ad supported game lobby or something of the sort to give a little bit of thanks to the devs. That or donations. I know many who'd gladly contribute.
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Stone, any update or thoughts specifically concerning Asobrain or other Settler derivitives?
[Android Apps and Games] GinoAMelone:
I did some reading on the Cloud service stuff. It would require a running server to work.

It's pretty simple. You have a server that registers with Google's server and receives a cert/key. When you want to send a msg, it posts to a Google URL and the message gets passed to the phone.

The app has to register for the cloud msgs at installation time on the phone.

Would work fairly well. Probably a lot simpler than doing direct p2p communication. Although, I was thinking that could be done via SMS fairly simply.
[Android Apps and Games] ironlood:
Any idea on art yet

Cover

Title

Menu layout

Sent from my SGH-T959
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
UPDATES

Guys, thanks again for all your feedback. Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner, for some reason I wasn't getting all the email updates.

- I'm not bothered about ads (hate 'em) and I like the idea of it being open source so that game programmers more competent than I can quickly improve it.

- Love the idea of peer-to-peer etc. Would love the game to be one player against aI on one phone, multiple player on one phone, or cross-phone, which I have no experience of but looks like you have some ideas.

- Made a bit of progress. Screenshots show a three player game in progress on one phone. Attached as a zip because it kept complaining about bmp size. Sorry.

Note :

1) Scoring is scewey, but only because of a bug in upgrading settlements to cities which I've fixed.

2) No trading, ports, robber, development cards, longest road, largest army yet.

3) Switched to landscape as makes the layout a bit friendlier.

4) Buttons are crowded, perhaps too small and maybe a context menu would be better. But for testing in the emulator they're fine for now. Any thoughts on menus/tabs etc are welcome.

5) As I said before, not focussing to much on the GUI, but it uses xml layouts and configuration so easy to tweak and improve

6) Zoom is mandatory because of small phone screens like my own x10 mini. Will have a play with that today.
[Android Apps and Games] GinoAMelone:
Schweeeeet!!!!
[Android Apps and Games] Che123:
N1 - cant wait to see this on my phone :D
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
So here was the idea I had.

Using your current layout, have the tabs on the right side (that way if they're right hand dominant they can use their thumbs). Have all the tabs closed unless the player taps them. I'd also HIGHLY recommend making them translucent to some degree (both the tab and the menu).

The tabs themselves should consist of a couple things.

Firstly, a building tab. For that, essentially what Asobrain did is perfect. Layout all of what the player can build, and what it costs to do so, as well as how many the player has left.

Secondly, perhaps a D card tab so the player can see what has been played and/or what they themselves can play.

Thirdly a system tab, and here you want to put quit, settings, sound, friends, etc.

Just a few ideas you may wish to test :D.

Here is a simple and rudimentary sketch of what I'd had in mind, with the black box being the tab closed on the side, and the red box being the menu opened.

You could even make it so the player has to hold down on the tab to open a context menu, that then allows them to drag their finger from the tab to the option in the now open menu. Sorta sliding their finger to do the task they wish.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Love the tab idea, I'll work with that.

I've implemented zoom and basic scrolling - touch & drag - and it works nicely. There's no way I'm going to think about pinch/zoom, someone else can add that later if they like!
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Bump bump. Any dev updates?
[Android Apps and Games] DJGibbon:
Sweet! I'm most impressed. I'm also genuinely interested in the running commentary too - I'm a developer who as yet hasn't had any time to play with android, so it's good to hear about your experiences.

I can't even say I know Catan well enough to give you advice on what should be on the tabs etc, but I'm ready for beginner beta testing whenever you get to that stage. Enjoy the beverages, richly deserved :)
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Oh I am.

Thanks for the feedback, keep monitoring the thread beause beta-I mean-zeta-testing will be an absolute necessary!
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
I can help with the tabbing (as in content not coding) when I get off work. Just going to be a bit :P.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
OK, well enjoy your dinner first at least, I won't pick up any updates until tomorrow (unless you're REALLY fast).

What I'm after is the "must have" uber-simple content and function. I can make it up as I go along, but the more feedback the easier it will be for me to knock up the commonly-desired stuff.

If you do know of someone, anyone, who can simply and definitively state the "how tos" of Android layout then please let me know.
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
I will ehm get to that tab issue today. Yesterday got a little crazy :P
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Great.

What I'm really after is rough sketches or ideas for them, especially the Dev cards and Trading!
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Alright, here are the tabs as I envision and are as far as I can tell the bare minimum:

BUILD-----Roads (x number of roads)

|-----Boats (x number of boats)

|-----Settlement (x number of boats)

|-----City (x number of cities)

|-----D card

TRADE-----Player 1

|-----Player 2

|-----Player 3

|-----Player 4

|-----All

HAND------Resources (opens players resource hand)

|------D cards (opens players D card hand)

|------Point Cards (as in Longest road, largest army)

SYSTEM----Sounds (on/off)

|----About (dev credit :P)

|----Friends (if the p2p system is ever added?)

|----Settings (misc settings)

END-------(ends players current turn)

Just off the top of my head, people can feel welcome to copy, paste, and modify as they see fit. The system tab could probably use more or less options, but as I said people should feel free to add!

Hope this helps!
[Android Apps and Games] ironlood:
What about being able to skin the game

Just to appease other users

For example the key elements of the game (land hexxes, icons, tabs, etc... ) were able to be replaced by users in order to make the game more comfortable for the ones that think the colors should be different

Sent from my SGH-T959
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Thanks Latentk.

That's roughly what I was thinking, with the exception of 'boats', as I'm only thinking of the orig. The tricky thing for me is how to portray trading, whether with a local human, local AI or remote human, in a manner that works on a small screen with minimal popups/input/interaction in general.

(if anyone wants to design the perfect trade screen for me then feel free...otherwise I'll wing it for now)

Ironlood, I'm with you on the customisation element.

So far I've kept the presentation separate from the game, in the sense that the "game model" contains everything that the presentation layer needs to paint, however it is not as yet parameterised or customisable, but only because I'm trying to spend minimal time on the presentation at the moment.

But you're spot on, I love that idea. If you're experienced with graphics on Android then feel free to comment here or messag me ideas. To be honest, I'm such an Android noob that I've not much idea how to customise the graphics at a usable level. Drawing a hex map is simple with if you're just painting a polygon, and tweaking button size or general layout is fine - the layout is all XML driven at the moment - but I've no idea how to overlay the hex-grid with custom images or textures.

Would love to hear your thoughts on user-customisation.

P.S. All, (that is the 19 of you that have viewed the latest screenshots), the sooner you forward on input on graphics, tab-layout, "must haves" and "nice to haves", the better. I'm going to plough on with this project regardless, but the more developers who indicate interest and the more who register interest and ideas the better - I'd like this Android version of SoC to reflect as much as what "the masses" would use and enjoy as possible!
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Perhaps leave the idea of themes for later, as in much later lol. Firstly focus on the basics and as such the graphics can be basic as well.

We do need to find ourselves a decent graphics designer or borrow some free art to get the design a little fleshed out. If anyone is really or even partially talented throw a few sketches up and see what the community thinks.

As for the trading, see how aso did it. Id imagine a pop up that fills the entire screen regardless of the device giving all the options. Its OK if it covers other items merely include a x to close the trade window when done. Check the screenshot of the trade above. My vote is for a Google hosted p2p network but that may not be feasible.
[Android Apps and Games] cyberkamote:
Im not sure if it would be the same as The Settlers by Gameloft?:
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Nope, completely different actually.

What we're thinking of is a table top game called Settlers of Catan. It is essentially an RTS but entirely tabletop. It really is a lot of fun.
[Android Apps and Games] Latentk:
Wow! So many great ideas! A Google docs makes sense. What also makes sense is finding stone another dev to lend him a hand. We have so many great ideas but only one dev! If anyone has experience with android and/or game developing let us know!

Also, stone when you are comfortable offer the source code for people to see and assist with. I am going to post a more detailed follow up to the above ideas soon. Great thinking!
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
I like the tab - drag 'n' pull - idea, and also the use of icons like the home screen. Perhaps if we can find someone to create the icons then I can make the switch.

Spacing of hexes is straightforward to improve.

Highlighting the current player's pieces on the board is another great idea, would be helpful if someone could suggest a neat way to do that - graphically I mean, while preserving the current player's colour.

Am I correct in understanding that not all phones/android versions support pinch/zoom/multi-touch? If so then that would have to be an option.

Great idea on naming of the game. How about we all try to agree on a name as quickly as possible? All suggestions welcome.

Latentk/Candor,

Much as love the graphics ideas - great stuff - I'm still thinking that getting the basic game roughly complete (one-phone-version) is sensible first.

Aim to complete the dev. card functionality and robber within the next few days. Then I'm onto ports, trading, and longest road/largest army.

Implementing trading via ports or the bank is straightforward, but getting a design and implementation that works with all players - AI, local human, remote human, is possibly the most complex part of the game so far.

I already have one developer who is interested in helping, but neither of us are experienced in Android. Would be great to have an Android developer with some game experience on board too.

As far as releasing the code is concerned, I'd like to do this in a controlled manner, but am not too far away from that point. One point of note is this, I'm just a developer with no game or Android experience totally winging it at this point. The code is clean, don't get me wrong, but having someone with experience to discuss the implementation and constructively make it better would be fabulous.
[Android Apps and Games] Josefsson:
Settlers! I'm a bit late to this party so apologies if this has been addressed and I just missed it... but is there a public source repository or .apks available for download?

I have a X10 mini too stoneskin so if you like me to beta, alpha, zeta-test this I'd love to help out

I had settlers on my old phone (J2ME) that worked well with bluetooth multiplayer and had OK-ish AI and was bummed not to find an Android implementation

(Google "catan first island review" since I'm not allowed to post links)
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
My first title idea was Norse Invaders but it looks like there's already a game with that title. How about: Land of Shem

Also, I'd love to have the robber be either a ninja or a vampire instead -- that would be great :D

What size should the icons be? And what format do you prefer? Would .PNG work? It would be cool if you can wipe the whole row of icons vertically to hide them while you don't need them -- so as to declutter the map even more.

I also thought instead of having a "Hand" tab, it might be better to have another screen for it -- so you can swipe horizontally in a specified area of the map screen and it would bring you to your "Hand" screen. Another screen could be made as a "Status" screen where you can view info like: score, who's turn it is, who's holding the big cards, action log, etc.

When I thought of that I was thinking of the hover state of Windows Vista buttons on the top right of a window (I know - the example is kind of grainy):

I believe that is correct. You are right -- it should probably be an option. Possibly have it activate the correct option at installation based on the phone model (CON: might be a lot to keep track of -- and would have to roll out updates frequently to support new models)?

What do you think about Land of Shem?

I completely understand and agree about putting the game engine first and making it look good later. Let us know what more you need input on.

I think we should rename whatever we can in the game -- to stay far away from Settlers copyrights. So we should rename the Longest Road/Largest Army cards.

Sweet -- maybe that will take some pressure off you.

Wish I knew some Android devs man -- sorry.

Haven't had a chance to start sketching something up yet. Still planning on this week.
[Android Apps and Games] stoneskin:
Josefsson,

Nice to have an X10-mini-buddy...

I'm justing testing on mine now. Actually, it's quicker to test on the phone than the emulator anyway.

No public rep. or package yet. I don't think I'm far off that, if you've followed the last few posts you'll see that in terms of pure functionality (and this is just currently multi-player, one phone, no AI), then I've got Dev cards, ports, trading to do (robber is now done.)

My intentions are to get those complete, then get a couple of developers on board to clean things up, make things smoother and hopefully get someone who isn't just an Android noob winging it (me) to help with their experience.

But we're not far off, hang in there mate. Because I will need testers soon!

Candor, once again thanks for your splendid feedback.

Like the Vista-style glow. Would be nice if some bored Android code monkey could knock me up a simple 2d static (not animated) bit of code to do that while I stumble around in the miry pits of trading.

Basically, the graphics are really lame right now, I'm testing on my X10 mini and tweaking them a bit, not out of a "must be perfect" mood but simply because they needed it just to be playable. Hopefully some dev will cruise by here and offer his own "glow script". To be fair, it might be kinda fun to do that myself, but not right now!

Land of Shem, not sure. It has a nice ring to it, but it's not quite appealing enough to me - purely as a name I mean. Still, I'm open to it, and would be interested to see what others suggest. What about a name that somehow incorporates "Androids"?

Agree with you on the naming of concepts throughout the game, have no idea about copyright and so on, but seems like a good plan.

Regarding your earlier post about not needing a build tab I almost agree. In the sense that I agree entirely if I was playing. Would be nice to touch, hold to select a vertex, say, and then click an appearing icon or select a context menu item to build. But on the other hand for less familiar or IT-orientated souls it might be helpful.

I do love the drag/swipe pages and I'd love for some dev to swing by who has done this kind of thing before.

But hey, I'll get the basic game up and running and who knows what will happen with it!
[Android Apps and Games] ii Candor ii:
How about Hexdroid? The theme could be about building nuclear reactors and connecting them together like a power grid. Haven't thought it out much more than that.