Version 1.42 released

Released version 1.42 for both Jatris Free and Jatris.

This version fixes the random crash mentioned in previous posts.

Also some graphics errors in 2nd skin were fixed for full version.

NullPointerException Bug reported again

A new report for a NullPointerException at startup was signaled by an user.

It's the same bug found in 1.32 in drawString.
Some code modification was done in 1.4 to workaround the problem, apparently without success.

Thanks to the report, the root cause was isolated (a missing initialization) and
(hopefully) fixed.

The fix will be included in the upcoming 1.42 release for both free and paid versions.
 

One year of Jatris Free

One year ago Jatris Free was published on Google play for the first time.

Time for some numbers :

1560 downloads
220   active users

Not so big numbers but increasing :-)

I'm now working to extend the graphic library to include OpenGL 2d rendering (now Jatris uses Canvas only) in order to switch between this two modes when creating a more power requiring game.

To achieve graphic backend independence I'm rewriting the code in order to completely separate the rendering code from the logic one.

During code rewrite some bug was found and fixed.

Support for more screen size...at a cost

A little digression on JaTris support for devices with 600x1024 or bigger resolution.
As you can see from the images below JaTris full (designed as JaTris free for 480x800 pixel), supports 600x1024, 720x1280 and 800x1280 modes better than the free counterpart.






















However this support has a cost, JaTris is 3Mb while JaTris free is 1.2Mb long.

Some of this space is due to skin system graphics and a little end of game animation but 1.5Mb is due to the replication of sprites for higher resolution screen support.

The problem is the mix of DPI and pixel resolution used by Android system to render graphics.

It works well for smartphones (little screen dimension, with a bunch of pixel resolutions); you ake the graphics for the biggest resolution and let the automatic rescaling do the job for you (it works like a charm).

Unfortunately tablets are different, bigger screens mostly with mid dpi and a bunch of pixel resolutions; the graphics done for smartphones is far too small when rendered on tablets.

The only solution seems to duplicate graphics in high dpi for smartphone in mid dpi for large screen and then the rendering is good on tablets too; unfortunately this doubles the game size.

I tried to avoid this using the resource alias feature, but it does not work well when the alias and the original resource have a different dpi (this is related only to drawables).

With little games like JaTris this is a viable solution but for bigger ones the only solution is to make different apk for different classes of devices.

This problem will get worse with the arrival of full hd devices :-(

JaTris Full released

Released a full (paid) version of JaTris.

Version is aligned to the latest free release (1.41)

Google Play link       JaTris        full version



Differences from the free version :

- Better support for 600x1024, 720x1280, 800x1280 screen resolutions
- Skin system (4 skins)
- Game difficulty : Choose between EASY,NORMAL and HARD game
- Starting level : For advanced players you can skip the first levels and start from 4th, 7th or 10th level
- Endless game mode (play all 63 levels without worring about strategy).








Below some images showing the skin system graphics :

JatrisFree 1.41 released

This is a new bugfix release.

Fixed a problem with high score not saved correctly.

Fixed a problem in background music location mainly for Android 4.x device.
Now bgm can reside either on internal or external sdcard and it will be located and played correctly.

Found bug on high score save

Problem found in high score system.

When a high score is done in more than one game mode (such as timed and trial, or timed and standard) during the same play session, only the last will be saved.

Probably some overwrite problem.

Working on it.