ZombieBird goes HTML5

A really nice thing about libGDX is that it is cross-plattform and I managed to get the HTML5 version of ZombieBird running today.

Works fine in recent versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox but don't even bother trying Internet Explorer. Not sure about other browsers.

Play it here: http://www.zombie-bird.com/

Also the graphics has been improved since the last post.

The flying dead

So I was looking for a crossplatform library to use for game developing and I found libGDX which looked promising. While looking for examples I found a great tutorial by kilobolt. I've been following the tutorial but doing some tweaks of my own and it has been great fun and educating. I strongly recommend this tutorial for anyone who wants to get started with libGDX.

Today I decided to publish what I've done so far on Google Play Store.

 

Please realize that this is not the finished product and a lot can happen before it reaches version 1.0.

I also do not intend to use my newly acquired knowledge to make Flappy Bird clones, it's just a way to learn libGDX and make something fun at the same time.

I made it a bit harder than the example in the tutorial and now my kids complains that it's even harder than Flappy Bird so I might tweak the gameplay a bit in the next version.

Get it from Google Play Store

EKH Tutorial 7 - Enabling Voice Input

With version 6.4 of External Keyboard Helper a new keycode has been added that is called Voice Input. It can be mapped to a key and then that key can be used to start voice input. Exactly how this works out may vary between different devices and Android versions but here I will describe how it works on my Nexus 5 that runs Android 4.4.2.

First of all you need to assign a key to trigger the voice input. Since version 6.5 of the app you find the configuration for this in Advanced Settings > Other settings. In this example I've mapped it to Scancode 57 which is Space and I've checked the checkbox that says it also requires Alt to be held down.

As an alternative way to configure this there is also a keycode that can be used to trigger voice input (this is the only way to map voice input in if you are still on version 6.4 of the app). The example below maps scancode 88 to the keycode that triggers voice input. Scancode 88 is usually F12.

 
Voice Input can be accessed in two ways. The first way is with Google voice typing enabled.

In this mode you must disable the Physical keyboard switch or voice input will not start.

To be extra clear, you need to turn the above switch to OFF.

In this mode pushing our mapped button (Alt+Space in my case) will automatically switch to the Google voice typing input method and it will looks something like this.

  

As you speak the text will be continuously added to the input field.

 

The other mode is when "Google voice input" is disabled.

In this mode it does not matter if Physical keyboard is ON or OFF and when we press our mapped key it will start voice input in a less integrated way.

Once you spoken it will present you with a list of interpretations.

 

Once you make your choice it will pass that line of text into the active input field.

This is the two ways I got it working on my Nexus 5, it may look and work different on your device so you may need to experiment a bit to get it working.

On one device (ZTE Blade III) that was running an unofficial CyanogenMod version I needed to install this to get it working: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.voicesearch

So basically this tutorial doesn't necessarily show the exact solution for your setup but hopefully it will provide enough help to get you going.

When size matters

So you have a 10-incher and she still complains about it being tiny.

Don't worry, she isn't talking about your Android tablet, she's talking about the Analog Clock widget and now the solution is just a click away.

It's time to stop being ashamed and enlarge that Clock of yours because guess what? Size matters...

Get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.clockwidget