News » HunterDavis.com

Android Game: Pop Them Balloons! Released

Android Apps, Android Games, gaming, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Dec 302012

Pop Them Balloons! – The first game from the 5-Seconds mini-game and article series compilation has been released on the Google Play store. You can download it (for free) here. This may take up to a full day from this posting to reach your particular Play market, so if you don’t see it on your Play market, be sure to check back later this evening!

Pop Them Balloons! is a casual game where you try to pop a certain number of different colored balloons within a time limit.

Please note, It’s ad-supported, but no in-game ads, only title screen. I feel this is a fair compromise, especially since everything about the game is open source on GitHub and free for you to use however you like.

Using Open Source Android Libraries for Game UI – IconPagerAdapter as a Game Select Screen

Android Apps, Android Games, gaming, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Dec 292012

While UI is often the last thing a programmer thinks about when starting on a new project, it’s often the very first thing a user knows about your project. Why then don’t we all use the latest and greatest UI patterns? Perhaps many coders find visual design to be out of their domain, or perhaps they feel that the execution of the algorithms contained within their program are of paramount concern to users. Regardless of the reason, disgruntled users have started to leave once trusted programs whose interfaces have not kept up with the times. How then to update your app(or game!) to the newest visual hotness?

In this article I’ll be taking you through the creation of a dynamic game selection screen based on the excellent ViewPagerIndicator library by Jake Wharton. As always, you can follow along in code at the 5 Seconds GitHub repository. When you finish the article, you should be able to easily implement a icon-enabled view pager for your Android app or game.

Read on for the full article!
Continue reading »

Tutorial: Spruce Up Your GitHub Readme with a Current Source Tree Visualization

Discursive Labs, Multimedia, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Dec 242012

As programmers, we’re almost universally guilty of it: Boring Readme.md files that nobody wants to read. Why then, shouldn’t we spice up our Readme.md files with some pizzazz? A source tree visualization is easy to add to a Readme.md using GitHub markup, and there’s an open source project which makes the visualization of the tree itself a breeze. While it never found a market as a product, Source Tree Visualizer (STV) has found a new life since being open sourced last spring. Below, I’ll show you how to add STV to your build process and display the most current version in your README.md file.

Here’s what the Readme.md for “The Grind” looks like:

While you read through the tutorial below, I’ll be working on sloooowly converting my ~90 GitHub projects’ README files over to this method as well.

And here’s a graph of a dinosaur, my favorite QuickGrapher promotional graph:

Project Updates: ASLJS on GitHub Pages, QuickGrapher is Back!, QuickGrapher Graphs Anywhere On HunterDavis.com (Even Comments!)

Javascript, News, Personal, Programs 1 Response »

Dec 232012

I’ve been working on a skeletal animation/game programming article for a little while now, and it has prompted me to update some of my other projects. The first update is that ‘Quick Grapher’ functionality is now embedded into my WordPress theme. I’ve posted up the original ‘Quick Grapher Embedded’ tutorial page here.

This means that you can embed XKCD style equations easily now too!

I’ve also updated the QuickGrapher GitHub repository with an index.html that references the non-obfuscated version of the source. You can now fully use QuickGrapher straight from hunterdavis.com/quickgrapher with working examples!

Bonus* – This means you can embed QuickGrapher graphs directly in comments!

Also, a quick update for those following my JavaScript work on GitHub. I’ve moved ASLJS over to GitHub pages. You can now view a working demo of it directly from Github, here.

Adding Automatic Crash Reporting to Your Android Apps with Crittercism

Android Apps, Android Games, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Dec 072012

While pushing out an update to ‘The Grind‘ this week, I had a few users who reported crashes with the newest content pack update. Unfortunately, Google Play’s dev console did not show the errors, and the users were not sure where the crashes were occurring. What is a developer to do?

Keep reading for a quick tutorial on setting up Crittercism crash reporting in your app.

Crittercism Logo

The Grind: Expansion Pack 3 is Live

Android Apps, Android Games, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Dec 072012

Just a heads up for folks leveling characters in my pseudo-RPG The Grind, I’ve just pushed live a new expansion pack! This updates the leveling system and adds a ton of new data items. You can (of course), grab the newest code from the GitHub repository, or from Google Play

The Grind

Adding Sound to Your Android Apps and Games (Part 2 of the 2012 Android Apps Refresh)

Android Apps, Android Games, gaming, Multimedia, News, Personal, Programs No Responses »

Nov 262012

This is the second in an article series about Android development, open source software, audio production, and so much more. You can read part 1 here.

Preface – A New Game!
Using the Hardware at Hand
Capture List, Gotta Capt’ em All!
Fun with Audio Capture
Editing your Audio – Audacity
Removing Ambient Noise with Audacity
Recording a Title Theme with Audacity

Preface – A New Game!

When I wrote the first article in this series, I never thought It would take me where it has. I’ve been all over town recording audio samples on my little boom mic, learned quite a bit about basic audio and recording techniques, and received a ton of excellent feedback from friends and strangers alike. My original intention was simply to update all of my previous Android apps to use my new audio library, but the sparks of creativity cannot be contained. I am therefore starting work on a new minigame collection titled ’5 seconds’. It will; of course, be fully open source. Expect cameos from all of my previous game characters and a good dose of fun. You can also expect site updates describing the game development process and how ’5 Seconds’ is evolving. You can checkout the GitHub page for it here.

Weekend Update: Dreamcast Coffee Table gets Legs, Building an Electronic ‘Game’ from a 1972 Electronic Slide Rule

gaming, Hacking, Hacking and Robotics, News, Personal No Responses »

Nov 192012

Just a couple of quick updates for my weekend readers.

First, I spent a bit of time on the Dreamcast coffee table, adding a set of chair wheels for mobility, and a hook beneath for holding the controllers, and replacing the plastic leveling shim with a nice metallic U-grip built from an old flat wrench.

Second, I took apart an old 1972 electronic slide rule calculator while scavenging for parts. It originally ran on a chained set of 3 1.5v batteries, so a modern AA is enough to drive the display and chipset. I realized that the mathematical operations and numerical keys were all still available for use after gutting the calculator, you simply must bridge some header pins on the (very readable) circuit board. Thus, ‘Pi Finder’ was born. The goal? To get the display to render the digits of pi by any means necessary, extra points for cleverness! You see, not only can you calculate a good approximation of Pi from division, this ancient electrical marvel has the value of PI encoded deep within the chipset. Can you access the stored value? Can you spell “Google” in calculator language? (379009) Good times.

WIP Dreamcast Coffee Table Gets a Nintendo Style Makeover

gaming, Hacking, Hacking and Robotics, News, Personal No Responses »

Oct 282012

After a week or so of using my unfinished Dreamcast coffee table, some of its flaws were beginning to irk me. The 1/8″ acrylic top was too bendy to hold heavy drinks or pitchers, and the clear-top table was too camouflaged for my aging dog to see properly. As such, she wouldn’t notice it was there until she was right up on it; at which point she’d get spooked and run off. I taped paper over the corners in an effort to not terrify my dog on a regular basis. This helped her see the table, but looked rather unfinished. I knew what had to be done. I headed out to my local hardware store to purchase some 1/4″ acrylic sheeting and a can of “Gamecube” purple spray-paint. I have to say, there’s something oddly satisfying about embedding a Sega system in a table painted like a Nintedo system.

While I’ve still got a long way to go in terms of aesthetics (i.e. adding a nice rubberized edge and another thin top-plate with Nintendo or Sega themed graphics), the table is fully functional and completely usable (and doesn’t frighten my dog).

Read on for more details and photos of the construction.
Continue reading »

Dreamcast Printer as a Coffee Table: WIP

Hacking, Hacking and Robotics, News, Personal No Responses »

Oct 222012

A couple of weeks ago I threw a Dreamcast and an LCD monitor into a Printer/Scanner shell. It turned out great, but was just the beginning. I was playing some Marvel Vs Capcom on it, and I realized that with a bit of modification it could make for a great coffee table. The first part of that modification is completed, and the lower top-plate has been attached to the unit. It’s pretty much finished, functionally speaking, but there’s still much to do in the visual department. I still need to decorate the case, add a front-plate for the DC controller ports, decorate the upper portion of the top-plate and secure it the the plate that’s currently on there, and a few other visual niceties (like a volume control rocker). In the meantime, here’s a preview of how it’s going so far.

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