Because everyone needs a piece of the Internet…

For the moment, MTG Arcanum is off the App Store.  I am busy over the summer working, and I cannot (legally) work on MTG Arcanum or any other iPhone app.  Because of this, I’ve let my App Development agreement cancel for the summer.  In August, when my internship is over, I will join again.

I haven’t been able to work on it as much as I want to, nor as much as I should.  Depending on what happens in the fall (at school and such), you may see it again.  If not, thank you everyone for your support, and if you have any features, I’ll see what I can do in the future.

Funny, isn’t it?   I haven’t had any time to really work on my iPhone apps, until finals week.  And now, here I am, updating the Magic App.  Should I be studying?  Probably.  I already have a bit.  I just really wanted to push forward with this update.

Why?  MTG Arcanum was my first iPhone app.  I learned a lot building it.  By the time I was done, I was an entire league ahead of where I was. But what did that mean for the code?  It meant that the code I was writing at the end was a lot better than the code I was writing in the beginning.  And by better, I mean “OMFG, how did I write that?”

So what am I doing?  Refactoring.  I have gone back through all my code, and redone many parts of it.  In the end (I’m getting there), I’ve made the code a lot more manageable, useable, and updateable.  I’ve also updated a lot of my own documentation about the app, so future partners can work on it easier.

However, in the processes of refactoring, I’ve had to make some design decisions.  Some of these were easy, like removing single player, and adding a two player instead.  Others have been more difficult, such as my decision to remove profiles.

These decisions I have made in the app’s best interest.  I want it to be more useable, easier for the users, and have more functionality.  I didn’t think profiles were doing enough, and they were too confusing for the user.  In the end, I decided to remove them.  Of course, now I am dealing with the consequences, such as how to reset the game in multiplayer.

This is where I want your opinion.  If you are actually reading this post, and you’ve used MTG Arcanum, and you care enough to send me an email, please do so!  I will personally respond to every email I get (as long as it’s not spam…), and I will be more then happy to discuss features, ideas, or bugs that you want to see fixed or put into a new version of MTG Arcanum.

The next update of MTG Arcanum is being worked on.  I’ve been busy with some other projects, but those are having some issues, so I decided to concentrate on getting MTG Arcanum of to speed.  There are some things that bug me about the app, mainly I can’t get to the “Tools” menu from Multiplayer.  But that has been changed!!

This new update will allow you to access the tools menu from multiplayer, and I am completely  (more or less) redesigning the home screen.  It now looks much more like the Facebook application, which means when I put in new options, it will be a piece of cake.

Speaking of new options, I’m also finishing up the Game log feature.  This will automatically record the damage dealt in a game to the players, so you can look it over.  It also stores the game logs, so you can look them over after the fact and remember awesome games you’ve had.  Or terrible losses, up to you.  But this next update will really move MTG Arcanum toward the top.

Question for anyone who actually reads this; would you be interested in a dedicated “Tournament” mode?  It would basically be Single Player on Steroids, meant for players using this app in Standard Tournaments.

Nothing too special, and you already knew it was coming, Apple finally just got around to saying “Oh yeah, this guy can code.”  So now it’s out and you can get the juicy updated awesomeness!  iOS 4 compatibility is really sweet.  Not really.  I mean, unless you have an iPhone 4, you probably won’t even notice a difference.

But, it paves the way for me to get working on the next update… which I already have almost done!!  Some juicy awesome?  I think so.  Mainly fixes that bug me, but hopefully I’ll get something sexy in there for all you.  I’ve done some under the hood changes which make my life easier, and there are some bugfixes and then some usability changes.  Nice stuff, you’ll like it.

Stay tuned!

It appears Apple is slacking pretty hardcore on the “Approve my update” for MTG Arcanum.  iOS compatibility is not that hard to ask for, I mean, it probably should have been there in the first place, but not having it allowed the app to go through the approval process a lot faster.  Oh well, at least the app is out there and some people are seeing it.

Anyways, the next update (after iOS compatibility) is going to be useful.  I’m working on getting the Tools into the Multiplayer, and simplifying the options.  Instead of having the 4/5 buttons in the middle of the screen, there is only one, which launches a popup.  The popup will have the remove/add/reset buttons, as well as all the other options you will want (Coin flip, dice, with more to come).

Also… A ferocious frenzy ‘f fantastic fanatical freaking (awesome) dots are coming!

This next release which I submitted to Apple is mainly for iOS 4 compatibility.  I finally got around (and Apple’s tools looked stable enough) to making sure it worked.  For the most part, everything was fine.  There were some small issues in Single Player mode, with the Pickerwheel getting called twice (how does that even happen?), but I was able to fix those with some awesome hacks.

So, with everything going well, the update should be on the market in a week or so.  I also updated some images, so the download size is up to 5 mb (Oooo, scary).

If you have any comments, please let me know on the forums!

P.S.  Long live the Dev Team!

And the app is done.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:

MTG Arcanum (iTunes Link)

This is going to the be the last magic app you ever need.  At least, it will be.  All things need to start somewhere, and I thought it was good enough to start selling.  Not only will this give me motivation to continue developing, but I actually do need the money.  So, what is this app?

This application will be your end all for Magic The Gathering.  Right now, it is a life tracker, it keeps track of…

1. Life
2. Mana
3. Poison Counters

But it does it very well.  Poison counters, just because.  I mean, why not?  What other apps keep track of those?  And one day you will need them.

Mana!  It does mana well.  White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Colorless and Snow.  Yes, snow.  There is snow mana, and this app keeps track of it.  You can add WUBRG at once, clear the mana, and it persists.

Life!  It of course, keeps track of life.  You can add 1,5, or subtract 1,5.  You can also manually edit your life just by tapping on it.  (If you, you know, go to 1349058309485 in one turn.  It happens.)  And negative numbers, in case you have a Platinum Angel out.

Multiplayer!  This application handles multiplayer in an interesting way (take a look at the pictures).  You can have up to 12 or so before things get messy, and all of which can be edited by tapping on them and adjusting the life.  If you need to do some hardcore editing, double tap the player to “zoom in” and directly work with the player.  It gives you all the benefits of Single Player in multiplayer.  Absolutely beautiful!

And of course, it’s all wrapped up in a beautiful User Interface.

Is this it?  No, not at all.  Here are some things I plan on putting in soon:

1. Life Logs
2. Increased Players in Multiplayer
3. Ability to reorganized players in Multiplayer
4. Blue-tooth support between iDevices running this app (so multiple people can be controlling life at once!)
5. In app rules database (The Comprehension rulebook in the palm of your hand.)
6. Look up cards online, prices, oracle text, etc.
7. And many more things…

So really, this app is just beginning.  For a price of $1 (Maybe soon it will be $2), it will be much better than all other applications out there after a short while.  Show your support and buy it!

The good news is, the application is almost done.  I need to do a little more work, and with my parents out of town I haven’t been able to quite have enough time to finish.  Lots of work has been doing for parties, keeping the house clean, and driving my younger siblings places.

However, the application is still almost done!  I have one more thing to finish, and then I’ll put it up for sale, with my promise to keep making it better.  I saw some apps that did things similar to mine, so the competition will be fierce, but I think this will shine, and will continue to do so.

The last thing that is stopping me is the Apple Developer License.  I am looking into getting the business license, but that requires an actual business.  One which I am hoping to start with my friends soon, but the legal part of it may take a while.  In that case, I will simply get the individual license, and have multiple people working on the applications.

All in all.  Things are coming together.

It’s amazing what you can not accomplish in an entire school year, but what you can do in less than two weeks over the summer.  Working full time on a project, with a strong drive behind you, really gets things done. Hopefully I can make enough money doing this I won’t need to continue working at my job at RIT, although it wasn’t bad.

So, where does this put me?  I’ve started working with my Graphic Artist in making the images for the application.  Single Player life tracking is done, and I’m almost finished with poison counter tracking and mana tracking.  I need to read over a lot of Core Data information though, to figure out the best way to store all the information.   After single player has been finished, I jump over to multiplayer and finish up that implementation.  After that, it’s going to the App store!

Luckily for all you, and me (because I love doing this!) the first release will not be the last.  There are quite a few things I want to implement, but aren’t required for the first release.  This app is going to be the ultimate Magic Life Tracking application!  If you have suggestions, please leave a comment!