More invisible work

Rewritten the game code to reduce (a lot) object creation during play.

In debug sessions these changes lead to quite no call to garbage collector improving animation smoothness.

As a side effect Jatris is now a little faster :-)

Lot of (quite) invisible work

In the last two weeks some non-visible work was done on Jatris.

- Added preliminary code to support non squared grids
- Added code to support holes (non swappable positions) in grids
- Done some code cleanup
- Done some graphics for a (possible) HD/Tablet version (1280x800)

Also finally completed bgm code (now it seems to work right).

Maybe all this work may lead to a new version (or a brand new game)

Jatris - Working on bgm code

In these last days I have been working on Jatris audio subsystem.
The bgm code was not working so it had to be recoded, now it seems to
work (remain only some funny behavior).


No bgm will be included in Jatris for the moment, but the game will search for
a bgm.mp3 file under the folder jatris on the sdcard and play it if found (and
music is enabled on the options page), so you can the music you prefer as Jatris
bachgroud.


Also found (and solved) a graphic glitch in hint subsystem for non native resolutions.


Hope to release a new update soon.

Jatris Free 1.2 Released

Time for another update.

Finally added the "Trial" game mode.


In this new game mode every removed gem is replaced by a black pearl instead of a random created new gem. Black pearls does not match with any other gem (not entirely true...there is a secret trick here :-) ) reducing the number of valid matches. This game mode is very difficult, I rarely pass level 7.

Here a screenshot of the new game mode.



Also modified grid creation again to improve game difficulty curve for levels 13-32

Jatris 1.15 released

Released a new update for Jatris Free

The main new feature is the hint system.
Simply tap on the game status widget (the one with the multicolor arc :-))  to get a hint on the next move. A hint costs points or time (in timed game mode).

Added a second howto page with special jewels (white and black pearl) and hint howto.

Tap on game area when game is not started now switches between splash,highscore and howto pages.

Done some code cleanup and (little) memory save.

One month on the market

Jatris was released on Android Market one month ago.

It was installed 115 times, not a big number but I'm surprised someone can find a game like Jatris without any advertising.

Thanks to everyone for installing and playing Jatris, feel free to send feedback and suggestions.


I'm currently working on hint system, logic is completed but I have some problem with graphics; I started working with the idea of using a blink to point focus to the hinted jewel but it is hard to see on little screens, so probably I will try to shake the jewel to see if it's more visible :-).

Jatris - Thinking to new features

Working on trial mode for Jatris.

Also thinking about features to add, maybe an hint system is a good idea.