Andor's Trail Project Meeting #15

[sdevaney]

Andor’s Trail Project Meeting #15
2012-10-21
Present: Oskar Wiksten(oskar.wiksten), Scott Devaney(sdevaney), Stephen Stalnaker(ctnbeh13), Matthew White(nyktos), Brent May(Pyrizzle)

1. Follow-up from last meeting:

Don’t forget to stop by the IRC channel and say hi:
http://webchat.freenode.net/
(channel #andorstrail)
Scott: I use andchat on my devices when away from a computer but there are other apps too.

2. Completed since the last meeting:

New project mgmt software has been evaluated and in use. -"TaskFreak"

Screenshots of ColorMatrixFilter transformations, will be used to make dungeons darker or to change the hue of maps.

v0.6.12b1 released:
- Signs added to all graves and all pieces of paper on the ground.
- Confirmation dialog is always shown when saving over an existing slot.
- Small maps are centered on screen, instead of being in the top left corner.
- Display bug fixed. *phew*

Setting to disable confirmation dialog box when overwriting savegame slots
TODO: Oskar: Also add text in the confirmation box about which slot you are overwriting.

Item names can now contain $playername.

Added redirect to andors subdomain now goes to at.com

Brazilian Portugese translation added. (thanks to Mauro Carvalho Chehab)

3. Things that are being worked on:

TODO: Stephen: Add a task in “TaskFreak” about ways that we can expand on the worldmap in the future (for example: follow into dungeons by clicking hyperlinks).

TODO: Stephen: Check if you can delete the cached worldmap images from the gallery view.

New tiles?- http://opengameart.org/content/dungeon- ... 2x32-tiles
It has a lot of nice layers for NPCs and playable characters.

4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts that people have found interesting, or want clarification on, or maybe a question answered:

Matthew: more great ideas this time around
* Evasion Tweaks [slide-bar]
* Actor Condition: Wanted / Criminal

New open music offer - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 537#p24523
TODO: Create a task in TaskFreak about adding music.

We talked a bit about install size. Andor’s Trail is about 7MB in size, compared to other similar apps that might be around 20MB. There aren’t many technical reasons left for us trying to keep the install size small. We might increase the install size in the future. There’s also the possibility of having different APKs available, for example, one that includes “everything” (bigger), and one that does not include as much (smaller).

Resistance to the new save style. - Will be addressed by new setting.

Show last attack after death.
TODO: Add info to task about how the UI for it should work (something in the hero info box or a new button in the new toolbox)

5. What should we have ready for the next meeting?

Initiate some discussion as to the possibilities and benefits of image creation/alteration for/of map tiles. More customization for the game itself seems a worthy effort to pursue. ~ SCS

TODO: Matthew: Look into the possibility of creating cobweb tiles for Ian. (there’s already a task in TaskFreak for it).

Matthew: i was thinking of adding something to the Help Section in the Title Screen.
i think we should have a picture of the box / crate that’s in the hero’s home...
and make mention of it’s functionality. [when you walk over it - it acts differently than a loot bag]
i can type up the actual wording, if Scott could capture an image of it - just like before. =)

and - on a similar note, The Backpack idea Oskar mentioned...
i responded to a few “ideas” on the forum mentioning it.
Just wanted to bring it back up again,
because it always gets positive reactions there. =)

Release of v0.6.12 to market next week hopefully.

Start pooling content for v0.7.0.

Brainstorm:

Worth reading - http://www.codesimplicity.com/post/open ... implified/
Excellent article.

OpenID worth doing for the forums - Will check into.

We should update the screenshots on Google Play, and maybe also create a gameplay video showing actual gameplay. Check OSALT.com for links to software for this.

[Samuel]

I asked about a merge here:

Can you update the repository, so we can update translations before the release? (for example: "enable animations")

I cannot see a reason why there is no current source code published with a new beta, alpha or even a new feature added. (when it is added finally)

I really dislike the current closed source approach.
How to contribute to a closed source project? Am I the only one that cares?

[sdevaney]

I asked about a merge here:

Can you update the repository, so we can update translations before the release? (for example: "enable animations")

I cannot see a reason why there is no current source code published with a new beta, alpha or even a new feature added. (when it is added finally)

I really dislike the current closed source approach.
How to contribute to a closed source project? Am I the only one that cares?

Posted just a couple hours later...
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... =20#p24739

[ctnbeh13]

Andor’s Trail Project Meeting #15
2012-10-21
Present: Oskar Wiksten(oskar.wiksten), Scott Devaney(sdevaney), Stephen Stalnaker(ctnbeh13), Matthew White(nyktos), Brent May(Pyrizzle)

TODO: Stephen: Check if you can delete the cached worldmap images from the gallery view.

What I would recommend to anyone who downloaded and installed a recent alpha version (v0.6.12a1) that may have experienced the images from in-game now appearing in their device's Gallery from the "worldmap" folder, that they wish to remove, this be done so from within the Gallery itself by deleting them. The worst of any impact this may cause would be the removal of the png files from the "worldmap" folder itself.

Any other approach seems likely to cause more undesirable results. I have tried a good number of them working with the file system, but the Android OS itself seems to be a bit buggy on refreshing and/or rebuilding it's Gallery images from its caching method, primarily through the maintenance and display of thumbnails for the images, whether the images themselves are actually present or not. I have read several bug reports submitted to Google on this very topic, covering many devices and more than one Android OS version. You may be surprised if you were to see some of the remaining thumbnail images from photos and videos you've already deleted. Hopefully the Android Development Team will fix this for all OS versions someday.

The recommendation of direct file deletion from within the Gallery seems to be the best suggestion. Even if you were to directly delete the png files from the "worldmap" folder (by navigating through your device's file system), the images will be recreated upon revisiting that section of the world, but not in the Gallery.

All of the "Current downloads" found at:
http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/d ... nloadCount as well as the soon to be released version to the Google Play Store, are free of the cause of this initial and limited issue. So, if you continue to see images from the game in your device's Gallery, this is a known bug already submitted to Google. The workaround for that is the related file deletion from within the Gallery, as these images should not be visible, if and when, the Gallery properly updates/refreshes it's image cache.

While additional questions are welcomed, please do not submit any bug reports regarding Andor's Trail on this issue, as it has already been fixed.