Is there anywhere to go to make suggestions for iphone/android apps?

Puteq

I am just wondering this cos every now and again i think 'wouldn't it be great if someone made an app for that' (I am not a programmer myself so i wouldn't be able to before someone suggests i get off my ar$e and make it myself!!!). At the same time i would imagine people who make apps are always on the lookout for an idea for an app that would be successful and popular in a very crowded market. If there was some central website where people could make a suggestion for an app they would like to see, it would be handy for both developers and consumers alike. Does anyone know does this exist already?

In case anyone is wondering, I am currently thinking that it would be handy to have a Settlers of catan dice app (useful in case you ever lost your Settlers dice). One of the expansions contains a special dice that doesnt have numbers on it, only pictures that mean something in the context of the game. Would be seriously handy on a phone.

Kenny Logins

Android has its own app inventor software now so maybe somebody on here could give it a go. Android forum ^^.

Davy

Moved to mobile applications

TPD

Puteq wrote: »

In case anyone is wondering, I am currently thinking that it would be handy to have a Settlers of catan dice app (useful in case you ever lost your Settlers dice). One of the expansions contains a special dice that doesnt have numbers on it, only pictures that mean something in the context of the game. Would be seriously handy on a phone.

I'm downloading the development tools at the minute and playing around with it tonight. If you want to upload the different symbols needed, I'm sure a dice program (no frills :P) could be whipped up pretty quickly.

Puteq

TPD wrote: »

I'm downloading the development tools at the minute and playing around with it tonight. If you want to upload the different symbols needed, I'm sure a dice program (no frills :P) could be whipped up pretty quickly.

Wow dude that would be class! Funny enough, since i wanted to reply today and i wont be home till later, i googled a picture of the settlers dice, but couldnt find any, but i came across this site which is a computerised version of settlers dice rolling anyway!

www.settlersdice.com

It is a bit much to ask you create a dice rolling app for settlers if you are not familiar with the game, cos it gets kinda complicated. Let me explain - the basic settlers game is straight forward - 2 6-sided dice (one yellow, one red, this is irrelevant right now but will be relevant in a moment), nothing more. but one of the expansions complicates things in 2 ways. firstly, it places a certain relevance to the red die, so now it becomes important for any program to differentiate between the original yellow and red dice. secondly, it ads a third die - one without numbers on it, rather coloured pictures. without going into too much detail - 3 sides have a picture of a black ship on them (the 3 sides are identical), and the other 3 sides have a picture of a building on them, one green, one blue, and one yellow.

so if you were going to create an app for this, it would require a basic settlers mode, and a cities and knights mode (since not everyone would be playing the expansion). Also, something i didnt think of until i saw the settlersdice website i linked above - if the app kept track of how many times the black ship came up, that would be super handy, every 7 times (i think its 7 anyway) this comes up, it is relevant in the game.

wow, i dont expect you to go at this now that its a bit more complicated than just a dice app, but at the same time, i have looked for settlers apps in the android market, and there are a few for how to set up the board (which isn't that useful really) so i really think this would be an app that many people would use. And by the way, on a totally unrelated note - i would totally advise you to play settlers, i hadn't played board games for years until a friend of mine introduced me to this game, it is really good fun and unlike any other board game i had played in the past!

well, sorry for the really long answer - and i hope you get on well with creating the app if you do decide to go for it ...

TPD

So, one clickable random number generator between 1 and 6 on a red background, one on a yellow background, one without a background but 1,2 and 3 are black ships, 4,5 and 6 are buildings, one blue, one green, one yellow. It won't be pretty, but the basic functionality shouldn't be too hard. If I'm staying in my sickbed tonight rather than heading out boozing, I'll get cracking.

Oh, counting the black ships up to 7 shouldn't be much bother either.

Puteq

TPD wrote: »

So, one clickable random number generator between 1 and 6 on a red background, one on a yellow background, one without a background but 1,2 and 3 are black ships, 4,5 and 6 are buildings, one blue, one green, one yellow. It won't be pretty, but the basic functionality shouldn't be too hard. If I'm staying in my sickbed tonight rather than heading out boozing, I'll get cracking.

Oh, counting the black ships up to 7 shouldn't be much bother either.

You got it in one dude! I guess as well if i was being really picky, I would suggest 2 modes - one mode (normal settlers mode) where there are only the yellow and red dice, and the second mode could be called 'cities and knights' mode, with the third die, and the black ship counter. I really think if you created this app, it would be downloaded a lot from the market!

way to go man, regardless of how this turns out, fare play to you for your effort anyway, thanks :-)

TPD

At the minute I've a red button, a yellow button and a grey button, and a line of text. I've got the buttons doing *something* when they're clicked, but changing the number (given by the random number generator) into a bit of text (for the button) seems harder than it should be.

I'll keep working on it though, handy having a wee project to learn from.

TPD

Got version 1 finished :P

Must figure out how to 'publish' an app now..

I've got it to the stage of an 'unsigned apk', whatever that is. I don't have an android phone, so I can't really test it myself, and I'm not sure how to get it onto the phone. Heres the link anyway, have fun :P

http://www.mediafire.com/?0c6bezjwvi0yboi

Atomic Pineapple

09-22 09:49:43.671: ERROR/PackageParser(74): Package com.ex.settlersdie has no certificates at entry res/drawable/blue.png; ignoring!

TPD

Having a phone myself to test on would be handy :P
If I upload the source could somebody get it going on a phone?

Atomic Pineapple

TPD wrote: »

Having a phone myself to test on would be handy :P
If I upload the source could somebody get it going on a phone?

I'll have a go if I get time.

Couple of quick checks first though, what version of Android are you building against? Whats your minSDK level set to? What set up on the emulator are you using to test it?

I tried it on a G1 running 1.6

TPD

Ah, it was 2.2 I was building on, not sure about the minSDK level. There's nothing fancy in it, couldnt imagine any trouble cut'n'pasting it into a 1.6 project. I'll try that when I get home and reupload.

Atomic Pineapple

TPD wrote: »

Ah, it was 2.2 I was building on, not sure about the minSDK level. There's nothing fancy in it, couldnt imagine any trouble cut'n'pasting it into a 1.6 project. I'll try that when I get home and reupload.

A bit of Googling seems to suggest the error is actually just a build error, just clean down your project and rebuild it and it should be fine.

It should still run on 1.6 if you dont use any specific API's not available to it.

Puteq

I just got around to trying to install this now - same problem for me too, a message "Application not installed". I am on Android 2.1, Samsung Galaxy S. I like the icon though :-)

TPD

Here's a cleaned version with the workspace files in a rar archive:

http://www.mediafire.com/?phyds2z9h7mccce

Atomic Pineapple

Got it working in the emulator but it still wouldn't work on the device.

ronkmonster

Wouldn't install on Galaxy S

Are you still targetting 2.2?
If so you can target a lower level and it will (should) still work on 2.2

Atomic Pineapple

ronkmonster wrote: »

Wouldn't install on Galaxy S

Are you still targetting 2.2?
If so you can target a lower level and it will (should) still work on 2.2

I took the source and built it against 1.6, still no luck

ronkmonster

draffodx wrote: »

I took the source and built it against 1.6, still no luck

What phone did you try?

Atomic Pineapple

ronkmonster wrote: »

What phone did you try?

HTC G1(Dev Phone 1)

TPD

I think I'm going to step back from this program until I get a phone to test on. Cheers for trying guys.

ronkmonster

draffodx wrote: »

HTC G1(Dev Phone 1)

Care to share your apk. I'll try on mine

If it doesn't work, I'll take a look at code after work

EDIT: Try this apk -targeting 2.1 working on galaxy s
http://www.mediafire.com/?3wuh310ca7pg6jh

Atomic Pineapple

Yay, got it working!



APK here - http://www.mediafire.com/file/pdi6efi8epai636/SettlersDie.apk

Hope you dont mind me putting up the APK TPD?

TPD

Woo! Cheers for that, was worried I'd a poisoned touch with regards to android programs :P

As you can now see, the program is very fancy :pac:

ronkmonster

TPD wrote: »

Woo! Cheers for that, was worried I'd a poisoned touch with regards to android programs :P

As you can now see, the program is very fancy :pac:

I made the buttons wider here but didnt upload that version
Also, The app is less than half of size of screen in original version, unlike draffodxs phone. Different screen resolutions.

What are you using to learn Android? Book? Website?
Only got phone this month and looking to get into bit of development

Atomic Pineapple

ronkmonster wrote: »

I made the buttons wider here but didnt upload that version
Also, The app is less than half of size of screen in original version, unlike draffodxs phone. Different screen resolutions.

What are you using to learn Android? Book? Website?
Only got phone this month and looking to get into bit of development

The following is an excellent book for starting out:

http://commonsware.com/Android/

ronkmonster

draffodx wrote: »

The following is an excellent book for starting out:

http://commonsware.com/Android/

Might take a look at the excerpt later on.

have you done much with Android?

Atomic Pineapple

ronkmonster wrote: »

Might take a look at the excerpt later on.

have you done much with Android?

Been learning/using/working on Android for 18 months now.

TPD

ronkmonster wrote: »

What are you using to learn Android? Book? Website?
Only got phone this month and looking to get into bit of development

The 'hello views' tutorials from google are pretty much all I've used so far. Did some java and j2me in college so its more 'adjusting' than 'learning'.

I've ordered this book too, can't vouch for it yet though.

ronkmonster

TPD wrote: »

The 'hello views' tutorials from google are pretty much all I've used so far. Did some java and j2me in college so its more 'adjusting' than 'learning'.

I've ordered this book too, can't vouch for it yet though.

Same, except I haven't done the xml layout version yet.
Did java in college but use C# myself these days.

Looking to try some web tutorials and some basic apps before getting any books. I do have a 'copy' of the book though. Will take a look and see if it's worth buying.

There is also an android forum that application requests can be suggested in.