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Native iBlackjack for iPhone

Looks good.

Couple of minor suggestions that I think would make a HUGE difference:

1- Why are the cards so far apart? I liked the way you did card placement in the previous version

2- I HATE the "Hand Over .. Deal New Hand ..." pop-up.... Could you make a "Deal" and "Change Bet" button instead of a pop-up? It would look a lot better and would help the overall pace of the game of feel of the play.

3- Custom card backs would be cool

4- An Image of chips on the table would be cool. Would be nice if they represented how much $$ you had but just some generic chips for now would be cool.

2 is the biggest one as this messes up game play, 1 is pretty big but cosmetic. 3 and 4 are cosmetic and minor.

Anyway you could address # 2 soon?
 
j0ebeer said:
Patrick, I had the same problem. I ended up adding the repository via the Installer app. On the Sources pages of Installer you can edit (add) sources and that how I got your source to work.

Great app, now that it can save the bank I will gladly donate. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks much for the donation!

I actually had the App saving it's current state to memory as well at one point. But I decided to lose that feature. May add it back in but for phone calls only though, I want it still easy to close out which the saved state didn't let happen too well.
 
jasonnorm said:
Looks good.

Couple of minor suggestions that I think would make a HUGE difference:

1- Why are the cards so far apart? I liked the way you did card placement in the previous version

2- I HATE the "Hand Over .. Deal New Hand ..." pop-up.... Could you make a "Deal" and "Change Bet" button instead of a pop-up? It would look a lot better and would help the overall pace of the game of feel of the play.

3- Custom card backs would be cool

4- An Image of chips on the table would be cool. Would be nice if they represented how much $$ you had but just some generic chips for now would be cool.

2 is the biggest one as this messes up game play, 1 is pretty big but cosmetic. 3 and 4 are cosmetic and minor.

Anyway you could address # 2 soon?
Click to expand...

jasonnorm said:
Also, the animation of "Hit", "Stand" etc is a little too fast. Can you slow that down a little bit?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.

#1 is an effort to make better use of the screen space, and is the result of allowing the game to display more than 5 cards for the dealer/player. They are automatically spaced based on the screen width. With this algorithm in place I may actually allow the game to be rotated to landscape as well.

Issues #3 and 4 is coming in later versions, more than likely for version 2.0. Both are noted in the To-Do roadmap. It's a bit more complicated, and I want to get the core of the game up and running first. #3 can be done via by hand or if Customize added ability to do this, but I play on allowing options for this in time.

The Hit/Stand/Etc animations timing can be tweaked, maybe a half second extra. I'll be adding an option to turn them off as well. The effects will likely be redone as I learn more about CoreAnimation, those are one of the few remaining effects that are done via CoreGraphics and not CoreAnimation.

As far as number 2, I don't want buttons on the screen at all times taking up space. That's why they pop-up when needed. A constant set of buttons on the screen will never happen because it has no use while the game is in progress. It's just not smart UI to have them there when not needed, especially with little real estate to work with on the iPhone. I could fade them in or just make them appear, or change how the look but don't expect drastic changes soon.
 
Thanks for the update; alpha 4 is a great improvement. I think I'm missing something though - how am I supposed to save the app state/bank? When I exit the app and re-enter, everything has re-set, and I can't see any option to save.

What am I doing wrong?
 
Cpt said:
Thanks for the update; alpha 4 is a great improvement. I think I'm missing something though - how am I supposed to save the app state/bank? When I exit the app and re-enter, everything has re-set, and I can't see any option to save.

What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

While the game menus start over, your bank should remain the same. Look at it when you return to the game. It should save automatically. Your Preferences as well should be saved.

Also Alpha 4 should be available via Installer's Community Sources now.
 
McCarron said:
While the game menus start over, your bank should remain the same. Look at it when you return to the game. It should save automatically. Your Preferences as well should be saved.

Also Alpha 4 should be available via Installer's Community Sources now.
Click to expand...

No, that doesn't appear to happen. When I return to a game, the menus start over (as you say) and when I hit Start Game I get $200 again.

I'm actually using the version from the Community Sources, version alpha4-1 from Ste.
 
Cpt said:
No, that doesn't appear to happen. When I return to a game, the menus start over (as you say) and when I hit Start Game I get $200 again.

I'm actually using the version from the Community Sources, version alpha4-1 from Ste.
Click to expand...

Yeah I confirmed it right before you posted here, I was playing in Traffic and came into the problem as well. Working on the fix right now.

Alpha 4-1 is still Alpha 4, just Ste changed the file info so he added the -1. I'll make the next update Alpha 4.01.
 
Cpt said:
Tremendous! Updated & working as described!

Thanks for all your hard work (and speedy updates). Donation on its way.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the donation!

I plan on getting more done sooner than later to get a beta for 1.0 out soon. Splitting the hand requires a bit of rework, so I've been saving it for last. ;)
 
hey love the game, just got a couple of comments:

1) Can you show the total of the cards, as much as i love maths i generally can't be bothered (maybe lift the cards up a few cms and put it underneath?)

2) automatic stand on 21


3) bet more?! $100 is boring when you have like 4k in bank

4) more of a bug than a comment but if you go to deal and you get like 16 vs a 10 you can exit out of the game (by pressing the home button) then open it up again and you get your money back and get the hand over.
 
xJay said:
hey love the game, just got a couple of comments:

1) Can you show the total of the cards, as much as i love maths i generally can't be bothered (maybe lift the cards up a few cms and put it underneath?)

2) automatic stand on 21


3) bet more?! $100 is boring when you have like 4k in bank

4) more of a bug than a comment but if you go to deal and you get like 16 vs a 10 you can exit out of the game (by pressing the home button) then open it up again and you get your money back and get the hand over.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at issues 1 and 3 for fixing soon. #4 is a "feature" but it is really an issue I need to find a way around properly. I know how to fix it, but I want to do it the right way. I'll be resolved eventually.

And now for the reason I came to the thread:


Hello iBlackjack Fans,

I made some updates, and added some functionality to iBlackjack tonight. I want to release a build Wednesday or Thursday sometime, just need some testing of the new functionality before I release it. So whatever you can do to help would be great!

To install, add this URL to your Installer.app Repositories Tab:
http://iphonefanclub.com/native/
(You can also navigate there via Mobile Safari to have it prompt you to add it to Installer)

Alpha 4.2 Updates:
(The test build is Alpha 4.1.9, the release version will be Alpha 4.2.)

Updated graphics thanks to the awesome Kevin Andersson (http://blog.kevinandersson.dk/)
Added Surrender (Swipe Across To Left).
Altered Stand to be Swipe Across to Right only.
Added No/Early/Late Surrender Preference
Added Blackjack Pay Preference (3:2 or 6:5)
Added Dealer Hits To Preference (16 to Soft 17)
Fixed not showing dealer card on bust.
Removed text from Insurance button due the Devil's cease and desist.

Thanks for your support and I await your feedback!

Patrick McCarron
 
Surrender

Just installed the 4.1.9 release and it keeps getting better. One suggestion, I'm not a real big fan (user) of surrender so instead of using swipe to left for surrender how about using it for splitting the hand instead.

In reality I personally would use splitting more then surrender.

My .02
 
j0ebeer said:
Just installed the 4.1.9 release and it keeps getting better. One suggestion, I'm not a real big fan (user) of surrender so instead of using swipe to left for surrender how about using it for splitting the hand instead.

In reality I personally would use splitting more then surrender.

My .02
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.

As far as swiping. Split will be swipe up. It'll make sense too with the card moving up to a new row when you do it.

I made Surrender a swipe left because of that's closest (almost exact) to the hand gesture you use in the Casino to indicate you want to surrender.
 
I made the actual update to Alpha 4.2 today. Here is a list of the changes. The ones in bold are changed since Alpha 4.1.9 I released earlier this week.

* Alpha 4.2 (November 8, 2007)

1. Updated graphics thanks to the awesome Kevin Andersson
2. Altered Stand to be Swipe Across to Right only.
3. Added Late Surrender (Swipe Across To Left).
4. Added Early Surrender (Alert Box before dealer peek).
5. Added Surrender Preference (No, Early or Late)
6. Added Blackjack Pay Preference (3:2 or 6:5)
7. Added Dealer Hits To Preference (16 to Soft 17)
8. Fixed not showing dealer card on bust.
9. Fixed rapid hits causing game to be unresponsive
11. Updated in-game text on how to play
10. Removed H word from Insurance button due requests.

It should be in Installer.app Community Sources later today or tomorrow. So until then to install, add this URL to your Installer.app Repositories Tab:
http://iphonefanclub.com/native/
(You can also navigate there via Mobile Safari to have it prompt you to add it to Installer)
 
McCarron said:
8. Fixed not showing dealer card on bust.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU!

The new cards are ugly, that's my immediate impression upon running it. I thought, "whoa, do I have my screen smudged or something", but no, it's just the cards that now look 'blurry' or something.

I'll reiterate the suggestion I emailed you last week: In a casino the dealer will tell you your total if you ask, so maybe you could have a button near the dealer that would allow you to "ask" for a total and have it show up in a conversation bubble.

As for the "Hand Over" popup, why not just have an option to "Auto-deal" and an associated "delay time" preference after it tells you about the hand.
 
As for the "Hand Over" popup, why not just have an option to "Auto-deal" and an associated "delay time" preference after it tells you about the hand.
Click to expand...

Good idea, I too second the "auto-deal" option. Would be great to have as an option in the Preferences.
 
pacohaas said:
I'll reiterate the suggestion I emailed you last week: In a casino the dealer will tell you your total if you ask, so maybe you could have a button near the dealer that would allow you to "ask" for a total and have it show up in a conversation bubble.
Click to expand...

This will be implemented as an option to display card counts via little hovers near the cards on the table. Hopefully with as a 1.0 feature. The artist I am working with has a cool concept he put together that I want to implement.

pacohaas said:
As for the "Hand Over" popup, why not just have an option to "Auto-deal" and an associated "delay time" preference after it tells you about the hand.
Click to expand...

The hand-over popup will be changing/going away in version 2.0 of the app in my current roadmap. So not sure how exactly I'm handling it now, thinking it out still, but it will be different. It wont be an auto-deal because the user still has to make bets somehow, but it'll be simpler and hopefully cooler.

I may find a way to implement an auto-deal close timer in this version though, gotta look into it still yet though.

===

Also, quick update made. Version now is Alpha 4.2.1.

Changes:
# Fixed bet sheet issue in alpha 4.2
 
WhiteShadow said:
how about a native texas hold'em app?
Click to expand...

How about you work on that and let Patrick work on iBlackjack? I bet he won't even mind if you borrow his card images(even though the new PNG images are 10x the size of the old .gif ones that look cleaner). Good luck! While you're at it, could you make iBackgammon too please WhiteShadow?
 
pacohaas said:
How about you work on that and let Patrick work on iBlackjack? I bet he won't even mind if you borrow his card images(even though the new PNG images are 10x the size of the old .gif ones that look cleaner). Good luck! While you're at it, could you make iBackgammon too please WhiteShadow?
Click to expand...


Or at least teach me how to clone myself. ;)
 
Although I love Kevin Andersson's graphic work he did with iBlackjack, I decided to do a skin for iBlackjack with a more casual feel to it. Download here.

Current:



Redux:

 
That is amazing. Excellent work! Best skinning job I've seen yet.

I'm actually going to be adding built-in skin packages so you can add skins via Installer.app and change them from within the App itself. There seems to be a lot of demand for that. I was going to save the feature for v2.0 of iBlackjack, but I think it'll make v1.0 afterall due to high demand.
 
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