UIAlertView and Landscape orientation problem

For the next update of PUNK JUSTICE, I am adding a few UIAlertView’s to the interface.  You can see one below, but can you spot the problem?

Yes, even though I set the orientation in the info.plist file to Landscape Right, the UIAlertView doesn’t seem to take any notice and displays in portrait.  So, how do you get around this problem?  Simple.  You just need to remind it which way up you have set it in your delegate m file under the applicationDidFinishLaunching method, by adding a line like this:

[application setStatusBarOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight animated:NO];

With that line added, I now have an alert showing the right way up:

Minor bug found but is already fixed for next update

I managed to spend a bit of time playing my game the weekend, and found something that shouldn’t have happened-

Basically, you should always end a park with the last fight/fights being Double types.  In the first 2 parks, the 9th and final fight should be a Double, in the 3rd park the last 2 fights should be, and the 4th park should have the last 3 fights as Double’s.  However, there have been a couple of times when the game chose to give me a Normal fight when it should have given me a Double.  The final straw was the game I played the weekend when the final fight of park 4 (the last one to end the Campaign) ended up being a Normal!  This made it too easy to complete.  So, I found the part of the code that chooses the fight type, and re-wrote it.  It is now more straight forward, and the game no longer gets confused in picking the right fight type.  It is a minor bug which doesn’t affect gameplay apart from perhaps making some parks easier to complete than they should be.  But it is now fixed for the next update regardless.

I have plans for update 1.2, which need looking into a bit more.  I don’t just want to release a ‘bug fix’ update if I can help it, and want to release one that people will WANT to download rather than have to.  So the update will be a few weeks away yet I should imagine.

I hope everyone who bought the game is enjoying the last update.

New dedicated PUNK JUSTICE site

At the request of Apple, I have set up a new site dedicated to PUNK JUSTICE, giving game description and screenshots etc, as well as the Strategy Guide and support page.  It will be the site you are taken to if you click the link in the app store.  The one major difference is the site does not allow viewers to post comments.  It will also only announce new versions of the game etc, and won’t go into me learning Objective C.

You can view the site here.

Version 1.1 now submitted!

Listing for update 1.1:
- Your own Library music can now be played during the game
- New in-game titles tell you to start fighting or dodging depending on fight type
- New backgrounds added
- Each park has their own set of backgrounds
- Jed’s sprites given a clean-up
- Strength at 100% after a lost fight in Campaign mode instead of 40%, to make it more forgiving
- Made second jab in 3-hit combo easier to perform
- Audio issue fixed when continuing a game from sleep mode
- Pause button enlarged

Audio Session and Jed receiving some polish

One of my forum friends came to my aid yesterday, when Andrew Schenk reported audio issues when pausing the game, putting the device into sleep mode, and later coming out of sleep mode and continuing the game.  However, InsertWittyName from the TA forums Skype’d me with the solution.  I had omitted, what seems to me now, crucial code called Audio Session.  Apple have detailed documentation on this and what it does.  Suffice to say it sorted the problem out.  What I have in my delegate class now is a new method called “checkIfOtherAudioIsPlaying”, as well as another method added called “ApplicationWillResignActive” which calls on it.  The method is also called when the app loads in the “ApplicationDidFinishLaunching” method.  What it basically does is make sure the apps audio is active at the appropriate time.  Essentially, this means not only does it not have the bug mentioned earlier, but also my game can now be played whilst the player is listening to their own Library music!!!  FINALLY I have managed to find out how to do that!  So if anyone hasn’t yet, Look up Audio Session in the Apple documentation, and it should tell you all about it.

And here is a small sample of what else I have been working on- Jed’s sprites getting a bit of spit and polish:

I will be finishing these off today, and uploading version 1.1 soon.

Pause area will be larger

I have made a small adjustment for the update, and made the pause button area bigger in the game.  Whereas before you could tap the opponent to pause, now you can tap anywhere in the middle of the screen.  This means tapping either the opponent, Jed, or the timer clock at the top will pause the game.  In Xcode, it is a simple case of loading the Interface Builder and adjusting the size of the button as you would selecting part of a picture- that’s how easy it is.

I have also made the adjustment to the instructions page to show this, as well as adding the other combos (left dodge then left hook, and right dodge then right uppercut).  Just managed to fit those in at the bottom of the screen to the left of the Continue button (pheww!)

Adding new in-game titles to update

Due to customer feedback, I am slightly altering in-game titles (video uploading as I write- will post link when done).  They will be moved further down, and will state FIGHT or DODGE when the fight starts.  Endurance and Double fights won’t allow you to attack till after 30 seconds, so DODGE is displayed, then FIGHT once the 30 seconds are up.  Some people have played the game straight away without reading the instructions (it’s something I always do too, to be honest!), and have asked why they can’t punch on certain fights.  The new titles will make it clearer.

[UPDATE]  HERE’s the link to the new update preview video, showing the new titles.

Adding new backgrounds to update

I will be releasing an update within the next couple of weeks, as I will be able to incorporate some more backgrounds into the game, and have each park select from their own group of backgrounds for the fight (so each park will be different).  At the moment they all select from one big group of backgrounds.  So that’s in the update.  Also, I am considering upping Jeds strength after a lost fight to 50% instead of 40%, to give the player a slightly better chance of winning the next fight.

IT’S OUT NOW!!! YAY!

As the title says, it’s out!  The first I knew about it was when someone posted on the TA forum- I have NOT had an email from Apple to confirm.  Weird.  Anyway, HERE’S the iTunes link ($0.99/59p).

New Preview vid out!

While we are waiting for the game to be approved, I thought I’d upload a new Preview video, just showing a couple of fights in the Campaign.  You can watch it HERE.  Note the improved quality using my new HD camera.  The video consists of a Timed fight, and an Endurance fight.