ADC2 - Package Name

One of the last minute requirements for submission to ADC2 was that the Java package name be different from the name used in the Android Market. My package originally was com.mysticlake.galacticguardian.

As you know I'm not a Java guru so I wondered what I could do that would be easy. I finally changed the 'com' to 'adc2'. Eclipse readily made the change and all was good.

Except for version control. I use Subversion. The repository lives on my laptop computer. (Then I always have everything with me.) Subversion did not care for changing the top directory name. For all my years of development experience I've not worked with version control systems except in the most rudimentary fashion. Guess I need to figure out branching and merging.

Game Submitted to ADC2 - Galactic Guardian: Zap GPS

I finished my game and submitted it 6 hours before the deadline of 31 Aug 11:59:59 PT. No death march to the last minute here!

It was a bit of a crunch because a week ago my throat started feeling gluncky and by Wed I knew I was not well. (Or at least less well than usual.) Today is the first day I feel okay. But I persevered. My wife, Shari was really supportive taking over the cooking and a couple other household tasks I usually perform. I am retired but she still works as a college professor. Fortunately, it was the first week of classes so she didn't have much grading or other work to do. Not that cooking was a big deal because all I wanted were BLTs and cereal most of the time. We did manage a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert last Friday evening which was a good time away from everything.

You can see the material that appears in the game Info at Mystic Lake Software. I need to do more with the web site but wanted to get that page up quickly. I'll be using the web page for describing the game for users and, possibly, some of my thinking about the game itself. In this blog I'll discuss the technical development. There is bound to be some overlap but I'll keep that to a minimum.

The game came together pretty well. I went to the doctor Thursday morning, annual physical scheduled a few weeks ago, and took the Android with me. While waiting in the examining room I played the game and found it more interesting than I had realized. Of course all the time I had played it previously I was watching more for problems or if something I'd just implemented worked. That was the first time I'd just played with it.

The weekend before my granddaughter Meg had her 10th birthday. I showed her the game as it was then and she found it interesting. She went over to my mother and described it to her quite excitedly. That was encouraging.

I doubt that the game will have enough pizazz for the developers challenge but you never know. If I didn't enter it I surely couldn't win so may as well try. Plus it gave me a deadline to work toward and use as an explanation to others about why I was busy.

Next task is to make some minor changes and submit it to the Android market so it will be direclty accessible to all, not just those who will judge. Then on to making some improvements...and maybe make it a paid for application.