Because everyone needs a piece of the Internet…

I made a quick video here:

Which sums up the issue nicely.  Basically, the notifications which we create in one view affect the entire app, regardless of view.  This means the Done button will appear in all the views, and all the keyboards no matter what.

Edit:

After looking around, I found that if you are running a multiview application and don’t want to have Done Buttons appearing all over the place, you can stop the notifications by adding this:

-(void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewDidDisappear:animated];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
}

Also titled: One hack to get around UINavigation Controller not supporting orientation changes correctly.

I think this is a well documented bug, discussed here, and here, and here.  Basically, if you are using a UINavigation Controller in your app, the controller completely ignores all of your orientation preferences.  This isn’t an issue if you only use portrait, or if you only use landscape, or if you support both in all your views, but if one of those is false; you’re in trouble.  In MTG Arcanum, Multiplayer (for now) is strictly landscape.  It gives us more room left to right, which I think is important.  I’m working on enhancing Multiplayer, but for now, it’s Landscape.

So, in version 1.2.0, where I include a UINavigation Controller, my app went all wonky.  Multiplayer loaded Portrait, and that did not look good at all.  So, what did I do?  First thing off, in the Multiplayer

- (void)viewDidLoad

I put the line:

[self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:YES];

That got rid of the Navigation bar, which was taking up too much room.  But then, instead of using “Push” with the UINavigation Controller, I fell back to some old code to get the new view onto the screen.  One that, you know, respected my orientation preferences.

MultiPlayerViewController *controller = [[MultiPlayerViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@”MultiPlayerView” bundle:nil];
controller.delegate = self;
controller.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleFlipHorizontal;
[self presentModalViewController:controller animated:YES];
[controller release];

Basically, this makes the controller, assigns the delegate back to the view that calls it (which you then use to get rid of the Multiplayer view, as shown in the Utility app), makes the transition, and then shows it.  This causes the Multiplayer view to be loaded in a different way, one that actually correctly orients it.  So now the rest of the app lives with the UINavigation Controller, while Multiplayer is free!  It’s wonderful!

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!

I’m doing surprisingly well.  I’ve worked 3 days on my first application, and while I know it won’t be done in one week, I am getting very far on it, and I’m happy.  I am working on an Application to keep track of your life in Magic the Gathering, a game my friends and I play quite a bit.   I didn’t like the few apps there were out there, I thought I could do a better job.  And instead of just saying, “I could do better,” I am taking that next step and actually doing it.

What will this application do?  Well, it will do quite a bit, with more features planned in the future.  I’ll let you know once it’s closer to being finished and in the process of beta testing, but know that I am excited.

This weekend I am going to my Brother’s College Graduation, so I won’t be able to work much on Friday and Monday, but hopefully I will be able to mess around with the website some.  And if you are reading this, I hope you are doing something productive too, but I can’t imagine why you are reading this now.