Hellevators - on Android! - RELEASED !

Java on Mobile Devices Android
#1

hey guys,
I am almost finishing the Android version of Hellevators.
However I am feeling very insecure about it since is my first Android game.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/609/hellevators.png

I have tested only on my HTC Hero™, and I would really appreciate if you guys test it on your devices and give me some feedback.
There are some things left to do like some “production” and the instructions page .

The default controls are using the acelerometer and the DPAD click to jump.
The acelerometer can be disabled in the menu.
It is also possible to use the hard keyboard (in case you have one), using the keys O K and ,(comma) to right, jump and left. I really dont know if it will be confortable to play with the hard keyboard, I will be glad if the G1 owners try it out.

Released on market !
under Action/Arcade

Well here is the download link :

http://sites.google.com/site/tacticspompsteronline/Home/Hellevators.apk

http://sites.google.com/site/tacticspompsteronline/Home/Hellevators2a.apk

If you have any comments, suggestion, etc, it will be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance !

#2

Plays fantastically well here on my Hero, very fun too :slight_smile:

Great stuff!

Kev

#3

Goes well on the G1 too. Good work!

2 small things.

  • Needs a wake lock.
  • Would be nice if you allowed the screen to rotate when entering your score (as I used the G1’s keyboard).
#4

Just had quick 1 min go on HTC magic (at work will try again later).
Seems to work well (similar movement to Abduction!)… More comments later!

#5

Couple of things, when you start the game the keyboard is always displayed. Any reason for this?
Wasnt quite sure what you have to do, just collect the diamonds and avoid the little black monsters?
I did get 1 force close. If nobody else is getting these will debug later and send u the stack trace…

#6

I never thought about wake locks, since I always play with the dpad click for jumping, and it never sleeps … but I’ll implement this as soon as I get home (I just arrived work :frowning: )

for the second one, I’ll see what I can do … I don’t know how my arbitrary layout will behave in orientation changes !

This keyboard always showing is new to me ! probably because my editText is Actually always there, but hidden ( My dirty programming techinques makes me use only one view and activity for everything :-X) I’ll see if I can be sure the focus is not with the hidden EditText when starting
It would be super if you send me the stack trace of this force close.

Thank you guys for testing !!

#7

Woops, didn’t realise you could jump!

#8

Lol… Yeah… You can jump… It took me a while to figure out how to move left and right tho… doh!

As I said, have a HTC Magic… Get this quite often, usually after a few seconds…

W/dalvikvm( 9181): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001da28)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at hellevators.Fisica.kickEnemy(Fisica.java:191)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at hellevators.HellTela.keyReleased(HellTela.java:430)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at com.teletubo.hellevators.HellView.setOrientValues(HellView.java:422)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at com.teletubo.hellevators.Hellevators.onSensorChanged(Hellevators.java:257)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at android.hardware.SensorManager$ListenerDelegate$1.handleMessage(SensorManager.java:415)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4203)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(NativeMethod)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:791)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:549)
E/AndroidRuntime( 9181): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

#9

ooh thanks … I think I already found the null pointer …

Hopefully when I implement the instructions jumping wont be a big secret !

Ranger, could you tell me if the hard keyboard controls are actually usable in the G1 ? I’m not sure if I should just disable hard keyboard controls or leave them as it is …

thanks again guys !

#10

The keys O and K work fine. I can’t use ‘,’ as it is a ALT character.

Also, because the game runs in portrait layout, you probably wouldn’t ever use the keyboard (as the keyboard pops out to the side of the screen).

#11

Hello guys,

I’ve made some updates, I think I’m almost finished. Probably I will only change the background image (if I dont find any other annoying bug).

I have included an Instruction screen, and local high scores.

I have also tried to avoid the keyboard from showing up, but I can tell if it worked, caus I cant reproduce it.

steveyO, i would really appreciate if you try this out . I have tried this solution, for it seems the exact same problem you’re having.
And please check if you get force closes .

Well if everything goes right tomorrow evening I’ll put in the Market …

here’s the new link:

http://sites.google.com/site/tacticspompsteronline/Home/Hellevators2a.apk

thank you !

#12

Okay guys just released it on the market !

It’s under Action/Arcade.

Well I hope everything goes fine, and thanks everybody for testing .

#13

Congratulations on the release teletubo… Hope it does well! Made it to 2nd place for time being :slight_smile:

A few minor things… Most importanly didnt get any force closes this time (HTC Magic)… 2nd is the keyboard still came up automatically the first time I played it. Strangely enough this has stopped happening so maybe not a major problem. I also noticed that the Back buttons in the Credits/Instructions screen dont work (have to use the Phone Back button instead). They worked once or twice then stopped working alltogether. Also the Sound Off doesnt seem to work either (still get sounds when select this option)… And very minor thing is the buttons in the main page are not centered. All minor things you may consider for the next update! Keep it up!!

#14

Congrats on the release! :slight_smile: Just tried it on my Hero, worked fine. Quite fun, although I suck at playing the game… :stuck_out_tongue: Nicely animated little sprites, good work.

#15

Thanks for the feedback !
I have found the problem with the buttons. After one ad was shown, it was consuming the onPress events on that region even after set to invisible again . so when set to invisible, I also set setClickable(false). That did the trick .

About the sound on/off, it was just a plain logic problem (the same happens with accelerometer). My bad .

I would just update this right now, but a friend of mine reported repeated force closes in his G1, but he does not know how to catch the stack traces :-\ … So I’ll investigate this a little more and when I find the solution I’ll post a new update .

anyway thank you all guys !

#16

Fun game! works well on Hero 1.5. Appears well polished and I just love the humor, cool detail with the shaking of the little ones!

#17

Played it on my brand new Droid… fun little game! I was terrible, but only played for a few minutes. I’ll give it more of a go later today and see what kind of score I can get.

#18

Played a little more, and now I’m hooked! I’m currently 1st place in the weekly boards but can’t seem to crack “All Time” yet.

Two things:

  1. At the bottom of the screen I see some noise, perhaps a region that simply never gets cleared/repainted. Could be due to the Droid’s larger resolution?
  2. The speed when you first start out is pretty fast! I’m surprised it doesn’t start out a little slower. I find myself in trouble if I don’t find a blue clock pretty quickly (but maybe that’s just because I’m not so good :P).
#19

Hey BoBear, thanks for the feedback .

  1. that’s surely due to Droids resolution . I must confess I never thought about different resolutions . I’ll take a look at it - but I must say that’s not a priority for now.
    2.Well I think the speed is quite ok , maybe you just need a little training :stuck_out_tongue: . When you die, the speed decreases a bit, but not to the initial speed … .I’ll probably release an update in the next days with some small changes, (a couple of different items, and maybe a new enemy), and I’ll see if I change the speed when you lose a life .

Anyway thanks for testing, and I’m glad you enjoyed the game !

cheers

#20

A couple more things:

  1. Because of the Droid’s design, sometimes when I play, the bottom part of my hand will accidentally rub against the “back” button, causing me to go back to the title screen. This is pretty upsetting when you’ve been playing for awhile! Could you possibly add a “Are you sure you want to quit?” dialog if the user presses Back while playing? Usually I hate those dialogs, but in this case it might be nice.

  2. Sometimes the app will hang when trying to get the High Scores list, causing a force close. Sometimes if I wait long enough, the scores will finally appear, other times nothing appears even after waiting 5+ minutes. And occasionally the game will lock up while typing my name to submit a high score (though in that case, the lock up is temporary, but still lasting 30 seconds or so). I would chalk it up to server issues, but I saw these problems even back in November.

Still one of my favorite games on my phone though!