8 replies to this topic

[bobhoil]

GameMakerNews Android App
I have been working hard to get a new android application out to help everyone get their fill of android news on your mobile phones. I have recently gotten into android application development and this is my fourth application and probably my best so far. It is simple and easy to use and will get you the latest news quickly. The application is completely free so you can download it now!

Special Thanks
HUGE thanks goes to Philip Gamble of GameMakerBlog for allowing me to use his rss from the blog to display the latest and greatest GameMaker news.

Quick Bits Of Info
First this is the first release so it may be a bit buggy.
I will continually be adding new features to the application over time.
It would be great if you could let me know of some improvements.

Get The App
Download It At The Android Market -- PLEASE RATE IT BASED ON WHAT YOU THINK

*Recent update completely changed how the application looks and also added a new community feature to the app. Please let me know what you think and changes you would like to see. I have been working hard on completing this newest version.

Edited by bobhoil, 25 January 2012 - 05:03 AM.

[YellowAfterlife]

First off, you may want to get a better app id than "com.gamemaker.bob". Like, really.
Second, app does not work here (HTC Wildfire S) - all I get is a blank screen with green banner on top. No news, not even so-promised-by-screenshots ad's.
As well you might consider to improve interface (as seen on screenshots) and not include ad's in those.

[bobhoil]

First off, you may want to get a better app id than "com.gamemaker.bob". Like, really.
Second, app does not work here (HTC Wildfire S) - all I get is a blank screen with green banner on top. No news, not even so-promised-by-screenshots ad's.
As well you might consider to improve interface (as seen on screenshots) and not include ad's in those.

Thanks for checking it out. My first question is do you have a connection to the internet active when launching the app? If so is it a slower connection as it may take a few minutes for it to show up. I test it in the emulator using the same specs as HTC Wildfire and it seemed to work perfectly fine. I am checking it out some more though. The name is perfectly unique and I don't think anyone else will be using it.

[YellowAfterlife]

Thanks for checking it out. My first question is do you have a connection to the internet active when launching the app? If so is it a slower connection as it may take a few minutes for it to show up. I test it in the emulator using the same specs as HTC Wildfire and it seemed to work perfectly fine. I am checking it out some more though. The name is perfectly unique and I don't think anyone else will be using it.

com.gamemakerblog.news would be much more fitting.

Yes, internet connection was active at moment of launch - it worked fine for other apps, and was used to download yours exactly 5 seconds before launching.
If you have mentioned that it uses an RSS feed, why would it require few minutes to show up?
Probably a loading bar would help for that.

Edited by YellowAfterlife, 17 November 2011 - 09:50 PM.

[bobhoil]

Well on every device I have tested it on (even my acer iconia tab) it was worked and content shows almost instantly. My guess is that it has something to do specifically with the wildfire. I am looking into it now to see if I can get it straightened out.

I will be releasing an update in a few days that will fix a couple problems I have found and also update some UI elements.

I have updated the application. It has a few bugs fixes and font color has been updated to make it a little easier to read the headlines.

Also I have big changes planned for v1.5 so stay tuned for that. It will include some more community based features.

I have released an update to the application with a lot of changes.

Edited by ugriffin, 20 November 2011 - 03:08 PM.
Merged posts.

[ugriffin]

Don't triple post, it's against the rules. Edit your latest post to add the information you need.

[bobhoil]

I am working on an update to the application that will fix a lot of the issues people had with the first version but before release I am hoping to get some extra feedback before I update it. So first some of the main changes are in the layout mainly being the article page. The new article page will feature a grid based layout with images and a title of the post. This will look a lot cleaner and function better on a variety of phones. I have also fixed a few bugs that were stopping it from working on certain devices and am implementing a check for a data connection before attempting to download data which will increase stability. There will also be a loading screen for when the app is downloading content from the web.

Any more suggestion on what you would like to see in the application? Any other types on content maybe?

[Nocturne]

Hi there! This is the Community forum for issues that affect GM, Yoyo games, or the Community as a whole... it's not really the place to post looking for feedback on your projects!!! In fact, this doesn't seem to have any real place on the forums as it doesn't quite fit into any category... But as I can see how this may interest people and the fact that you are looking for feedback and things, then I'm going to move this to the Games Discussion forum.

[bobhoil]

Could I get some feedback? What everyone would like to see in the app? I am working on prettying it up a bit and making it a little more user friendly.