Replica Island
Just wanted to comment on a new Android game Replica Island I found out about this game via Gizmodo and am very impressed, not only is this a high quality Android game that is free it is also Open Source I initially assumed that the game must have been using the ndk because of the smoothness of the gameplay but after browsing the source code I see that this game appears to be implemented in pure Java, once again I was very impressed. According to their project page they are even working on abstracting the game engine from the source and releasing a sample using the engine. I am excited to dive into the code, I feel like there is a lot that I can learn from such a well put together product. Plus I have really been wanting to expand my OpenGL knowledge, all of the experience I have with OpenGL is from my college days of CS334 at Purdue Univeristy (Go boilers, beat Duke in the sweet sixteen).
Well other than awesome open source Android games I have been doing a lot of work with BreakTheBlocks lately to try and ease the “lag” issues that the comments seem to complain about so often. Basically gabage collection is killing me and trying to track it all down is definitely not easy work. BreakTheBlocks and BreaktheBlocks Lite have both been extensively updated for performance and theupdates include new shiny flat icons inspired by the Android 2.1 icons on my Nexus One. PingPong Lite got an update of a new shiny icon and Adsense ads rather than Admob ads, and PingPong Pro got an update of a new shiny icon. I am working on a update for WordWrench Lite to use Adsense ads and now offer gameplay of 50 random puzzles (6 letter words), up from the same 20 that have been out for months. The full version will still have 8000+ puzzles (6 letter words). I truly believe that WordWrench is one of the best products that I have made and I want to continue to support and improve it even after a year of being available on the Market.
Other than that I am brainstorming new ideas and trying to learn some new skills to put out even better content.