Color Mania Spree - Released

Color Mania Spree

Over the last 2-3 months me and +Кире Серафимов have been working on a Brain and Puzzle game for Android called Color Mania Spree.

You are presented with a black and white picture and a color palette. The goal of the game is to guess the missing colors from the image. There are 125 images in the game from different categories like logos from brands, country flags, games, cartoons etc. The images are grouped in 12 levels with 10-20 images each. There is a bonus level called Spree with all 125 images appearing in random order.
The game includes Leaderboards and Achievements powered by Play Game Services so you can compete with your friends.

Over the last 4 week the game was in beta while we tested the functionalists and implemented new ones. We want to thank all the beta testers who helped us improve the game.

On December 2 we finally published the game on the Google Play Store. In the meantime we released 4 new versions with improvements and small bug fixes.

The game is free with in-app purchase to remove the ads. You can also buy hints and rubies but you can enjoy the game without spending a single $.

For the first 1000 people who download the game we want to offer the in-app purchase for ads removal (worth $2) for free via promo code. All you have to do is download the game from the Play Store, click on Hints, click on Promo Code and enter the promo code CMSPREE. The ads will be removed the next time you start the app.

If you have any suggestions, comments for the game please leave a comment below.
Rating the game on Google Play would be really helpful.

I'm making a game - Color Mania Spree

I'm working on a game for Android together with +Кире Серафимов.
The name of the game is Color Mania Spree.

You are presented with a black and white picture and a color palette. The goal of the game is to guess the missing colors from the image.

There are 125 images in the game from different categories like logos from brands, country flags, games, cartoons etc. The images are grouped in 12 levels with 10-20 images each. There is a bonus level called Spree with all 125 images appearing in random order.

Color Mania Spree

The game will use Google Play Services for achievements and leader-boards.

At the moment we are most of the game logic is done and the game is in beta. There are some bugs with the game-play, the tablet layout isn't finished, achievements and leader-boards are not yet implemented.

We are looking for beta testers to test the game trough Google Play.If you are interested drop me a message on Google+.

Android and Facebook sharing

Intro

Recently I worked on a freelancing project for Android. It was a port of an app/game from iOS to Android. The app included sharing with Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email. This the story about and android developer trying to do a simple thing (share on Facebook) the hard way.

The problem

Sharing on Android is simple, it's 5 lines of code:
But that's just in theory, in practice it's a little different. The problem: Facebook.
Facebook shows in the list for the ACTION_SEND intent but it ignores the text sent as EXTRA_TEXT.
StackOverflow is full with topic about the broken Facebook share on Android:
There is even a bug reported on Facebook developers but the status of the problem is "By Design". They are not fixing it any time soon.

After a round of swearing at Zuck I started looking for a solution on Google and I found a blog post with an elegant solution (it's actually a hack).
The idea is simple:

1. Create your intent
2. Query the Android PackageManager for apps that support the intent
3. Manually create the Share dialog using AlertDialog
4. When the user selects an app
1. If the app is Facebook - Share using the Facebook SDK
2. If it's any other app let Android handle the sharing

More details and code example on the link above.

Integrating the FacebookSDK for Android

I started with visiting the developers.facebook.com website, I registered as a developer, downloaded the FacebookSDK and started reading the Getting Started guide.

Basically you have to download the SDK, import it into Eclipse, and reference it as a library project for your app. Then you have to create a Facebook app in your Facebook developer console, and add a Native Android application to your Facebook app. It's simple you just enter your package name, the full activity name (where you do your Facebook authentication) and a keyhash. You can enter more than one keyhash (ex. one with your debug key and one with your release key). There is a nice command in the guide for getting the key, it's a simple command you write in the terminal. 

Don't do that. I tried with two keys (debug and release) and it gave me a wrong key hash twice. Use the second method (under troubleshooting). Alter the onCreate method and add:

It's the safer option.

To login with Facebook you just need to call one method, implement the callback and add on line of code to the onActivityResult method on your activity.

Sharing a status update What I tried first

First I tried using the Request class and the newStatusUpdateRequest method. It didn't work.

What worked

To post a status update first you need the publish_stream permission. You can find the code for asking the user for permission and publishing to the feed here.

Finishing toughts

I'm not sure why Facebook chose to handle the share intent but ignore the text. The should either do things right - handle the intent and text or not show in the list when we chose ACTION_SEND.

Another question is why are they a TOP DEVELOPER on the Play Store when the can't (or won't) handle a simple ACTION_SEND intent.

Meetinger - Meeting manager for Android

Meetinger - Meeting Organizer for Android

Meetinger is a project developed by eWorldCommunity. I worked on the Android application for about 4 months. It's a powerful tool for organizing your meetings. It includes:

• Meeting info - name, date & time, meeting location and description
• Attendees - you can add attendees from your contacts list or create new contacts
• Agenda, Discussions, Conclusion - you can take written notes about the meeting
• Sketch - You can draw sketches using free pen, line tool and eraser
• Audio - Audio recording and playback
• Report - You can export all the meeting data (except audio files) into a pdf report and share it with anyone via email or other apps

You can download the app from the Play Store.

Ringtones Roulette

Ringtones Roulette

Ringtones Roulette is an app for Android OS.

You can create lists with your favorite ringtones. The app will change your ringtone using ringtones from the list. The interval can be configured, it can be any number of hours/days/calls. 

You can also create lists for your notification tones (including SMS).

With the latest update the app comes with an integrated MP3 cutter. You can create a ringtone from any mp3 file on your phone.

Mobile Network Diary

Mobile Network Diary

My first application for Android. It's a local, Macedonian app. It categorizes the outgoing calls by mobile operator. It uses a web service (hosted by aek.mk) to check the current mobile operator for the number is the phonebook.

Mobile Network Diary was one of the ten finalists on a contest organized by aek.mk.