WeGoIgo 2.2 -- with Lite version!

Just a quick post to say that I've released version 2.2 of my Go app just now. Along with a handful of features and changes, this version fixes a slew of bugs and stability issues. Thanks to everyone for reporting the bugs! I'm very happy with this new release—so happy that I've finally gotten around to releasing the Lite version. As before, the Lite version has all the same great features of the paid version, but shows somes ads in a (I hope) non-intrusive manner, and is a lower priority for releases (as is apparent by the several weeks between 2.0 going live on the normal version and this release).

Follow the break for the official changelog.

UPDATE: There were two issues with this update that have since been resolved. The first was with the Lite version. Apparently I accidentally imported the "internal" version of the ObjectAnimator class from ActionBarSherlock instead of the nineoldandroids version, which caused an immediate FC in any game mode for devices with an older version of Android. Sorry!

The other was an issue where files would appear to hang while loading. It was missed by me because I forgot that I had the "don't keep activities" developer setting enabled, which hid the problem. Sorry again!

WeGoIgo 2.0 Released!

The new home screen

It is with great pleasure that I finally announce the release of WeGoIgo 2.0! There are still a few things that I plan to add, but I decided that if I kept stalling to add new features, it would never get out the door. I've spent the last couple of weeks testing it, tweaking it, and making last minute changes in an effort to make this release the best Go app on the market.

To anyone who has upgraded to the new version, please feel free to send me feedback-- especially if something doesn't work, or breaks! I did my best to test everything, but the app has many parts-- a lot of which are new or drastically updated in this release-- so it is very possible that I've missed something.

If version 2.0 is news to you, check out my announcement blog post for more details on what has changed. Please be aware that I have increased the price to $2.49. This is still cheaper than almost every other Go app on the market, and I feel the many, many hours I've put into the app deserve the extra change. If you don't agree, then feel free to wait until I update the lite version with the new features :)

That's it for now. I hope you enjoy the new version as much as I do!

Coming soon: WeGoIgo 2.0

Today I've uploaded GnuGo for WeGoIgo version 1.2 onto the market, in anticipation of the release of WeGoIgo 2.0.

Version 2.0 of my Go application for Android represents a huge step forward for the app---and, I think, for Go on Android in general. For this release, I've gutted the original app, taking everything I've learned since I first wrote WeGoIgo and improving it in nearly every way. While reading SGF files may be a bit slower, it is actually way more efficient---using a custom-built database to store large files for quick retrieval with minimal overhead---and way more flexible, and using the official SGF checker code as a base for more "correct" and compatible SGF loading.

In addition to this, I have finally added annotation features---a first, I think, on Android. You will now be able to edit comments, add labels and symbols, and place stones. Furthermore, once you've added comments and annotations to a game, perhaps you want to email it to someone---no sweat! With WeGoIgo 2.0, sharing games your playing or reviewing is just a click away!

Version 2.0 will be coming out very soon! I don't have anything else on my To-do list at the moment and am in the process of testing, trying to iron out any last-minute bugs.

Follow the break for screenshots and a more comprehensive list of updates, changes, and new features. There are a lot!

WeGoIgo 1.16 and GnuGo 1.1

Well, like I promised, I've released v1.16 of my WeGoIgo app and v1.1 of the GnuGo AI app. I haven't made all the changes I wanted to the interface-- I want to take some time to really think through the best way-- but I have made the magnifying glass try to go above your finger instead of to the side. I've also slightly improved the efficiency of the SGF loader, so people who've had trouble loading Kogo's might try to clear their cache and try again. No promises-- it was a very small change-- but you never know!

The biggest thing here, as I said, is the AI. I'm confident that it will be more responsive and more stable-- something I know many people, including myself, have been wanting for some time.

I haven't gotten around to releasing the update for the free version yet-- enjoy the perks, paid users! I changed my system for managing them so it's easier and quicker for developing, but publishing is not quite as automatic. But, since I spend more time developing than I do publishing, I'm happy with the tradeoff.

Updates

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been pretty busy working for Minus (previously Min.us) developing their Android app, a job which I happily took over from my good friend Colin. Everyone should check out the service-- it's pretty slick. And, they've got a pretty awesome Android app, which should see a pretty good update sometime very soon.

In other news, I've finally found my way back into my WeGoIgo code. It's definitely showing it's age (it was my first published app, and only the second I wrote). There's a lot of rugged stuff that shows how little I really understood about the platform when I first started, and I feel I've really developed as a programmer since I started the project about a year ago. I've already executed several ideas I had for revamping some of the code to make it sturdier and just generally better. The focus for the next release (whenever I have the time to finish some things up) will probably be AI. I've completely re-written the bridge between GnuGo and Android to make it faster, more efficient and stable, etc. I've also scrapped all the logic for the interactions between GnuGo and WeGoIgo and rewritten it, so that should also be significantly more stable. GnuGo will now throw up a Notification while it's running, so there's no doubt about whether it's crashed and just not told you!

I may release just these changes if I don't have time to improve the interface like I want to, but I hope to add some fun enhancements to stone placement and stuff that I think everyone will like.

Look forward to it!

WeGoIgo 1.15

Just uploaded yet another update. Someone requested the ability to pass in Joseki on the reviews, so I thought I'd go ahead and put it in. You can pass through the options menu, a new button that's only enabled if there's a "pass" in the dictionary for the current move, or if there's a "tenuki spot," which is just some label in the bottom corner without a variation associated.

In other news, I've changed handicaps to follow this page: http://senseis.xmp.net/?path=Handicap&page=HandicapPlacement. I think this is more common. If you don't like those, however, I've also added custom handicap placement.

Finally, I've added a bit more SGF/Tsumego compatibility, and updated the visual area calculation to include labels. Also, if it surrounded the board completely, it now shrinks it back down to what you'd expect.

WeGoIgo 1.12

Another quick-- but very important-- update for WeGoIgo. The last update changed some things about loading files to be more compatible with poorly formatted files, but I neglected to notice that the change would not be compatible with the loading method used for Joseki (it's different because Kogo is so huge). As a result, an initial load of a Joseki file would get stuck at 0%-- anyone who had installed it and used Joseki before the update should be fine, but another change in the loading made WeGoIgo apparently refuse to read files it created (such as the autosave). These embarassing bugs have all been fixed with this update, so PLEASE grab it if you haven't!


For those of you affected by the Joseki issue, you can to to Preferences > Advanced Preferences > Clear Cache to get rid of the failed Joseki reads. This applies to you if, when you load a Joseki, the board is empty and the comments field at the bottom says "End of recorded path."


Sorry for the inconvenience! Full changelog after the break, as usual.

WeGoIgo 1.11

Just a quick post to announce that I've (finally) posted version 1.11 of my Go app. I decided to take a break from my class projects and address some issues with loading SGF files that I've been emailed about. Otherwise, the full version is withing spitting distance of 100 downloads, and the lite version is not that much further from 3000. I'm pretty excited! I'll be more excited, though, when I'm done with all the projects I have to do and can back to working more on those I want to do, like this.

Full change log after the break

WeGoIgo 1.10

Didn't I say I wasn't going to be working as much on this for a while? Ah, well.

Version 1.10 brings some pretty nice improvements, like faster draw speeds for games with lots of stones (noticeable when using the magnifying glass), a more comprehensible stone toggling functionality when trying to use the "score" button on games (note that this is still NOT that accurate, and should be used more for visualization), and a comments popup window, that might be helpful if your device has a small screen.

In other news, apparently my developer's info thing hadn't updated when I posted yesterday, as WeGoIgo Lite now shows over 1700 downloads. I'm very excited by this! I also received the following review, which made my day:

This has the potential to be the best Go study tool on any mobile device. Keep up the great work.

Thanks, Mark, for your support!

As usual, the full changelog is after the break.

WeGoIgo 1.9

Released version 1.9 of WeGoIgo today. Not many huge changes, but several bug fixes.

Among the "nice new things," the circle magnifying glass will now properly "look at" points in the corners, and there are some coordinates on the side of the board, to help with reviewing games. They're kinda small (especially on phones with small screens), but there's not a whole lot of room, and I'm trying to maximize stone space, so it's easier to place stones where you want to. It's better than nothing, right?

Also, I'm excited to announce that WeGoIgo is now in the 50-100 downloads range. Thank you to everyone for your support! The lite version is almost at 1500 downloads-- wow!

Full change log after the break

WeGoIgo 500+

Nothing too substantial to report today, but I was excited enough that I thought I'd share: I was happily surprised today when I loaded up the Android Developer's page, to see that WeGoIgo Lite has seen over 500 total downloads. I would be even happier to see that many purchases of the paid version, but I can't complain ;) This project was always a labor of love, and the fact that I'm getting any money out of it at all is a truly exciting thing, and a first for me-- the vast majority of my pet projects haven't left the safety of my harddrive.

In other news, I've come up with what, I hope, will be a very fun and interesting new game, and one which, to my knowledge, will be pretty unique, too. I don't want to reveal anything yet-- it's little more than a freshly created project in Eclipse and an idea in my head, but I thought I'd throw it out there that I'm developing more than just WeGo.

That being said, my frantic update pace from the first couple weeks is sure to fall-- University is starting up again in a few days, in addition to this new project-- but fear not! I am still very interested in improving WeGo, and my To-Do list for it is by no means empty.

Thanks to everyone who's purchased my app and supported it so far, and a special extra thanks to everyone sending me constructive emails with suggestions and bug reports!

WeGoIgo 1.7

Today I've released v1.7 of my Go app. While functionally there's just a minor bug fix, there are a couple graphical changes that combine to (I think) represent a drastic improvement. First and easiest is the addition of shadows to the stones. This was a sort of "while I'm at it" thing, but I think it looks really nice, and gives a depth to the board that wasn't there before.

Next, I've changed the zoom box/magnifying glass drastically. It's no longer a (rather ugly) rounded square, but a circle. In addition, it has a nice shadow, and a light shine, giving it some depth as well. I'd received some complaints that the zoom box was more confusing than helpful, because it wasn't much different from the rest of the board, and I hope that these changes will help to ameliorate that situation.

Updated screenshots and full changelog after the break.

Happy New Year and WeGoIgo 1.6

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping 2011 treats us all well.

In App news, I just pushed out WeGoIgo v1.6 for both lite and paid versions. This release has a slew of fixes and a preference to flip the positioning of the zoom box-- this should be relevant for anyone who thinks the tilt-sensor puts the box on the wrong side, or for those just using static positioning but hold their phone in the other hand.

Updates and Ads

Today, I released a free, ad-based version of my WeGoIgo app, known on the market as "WeGoIgo Lite." I know I love free apps myself, and don't mind wading through ads, so I thought I would bring that option to users of my own app. The users of the paid version of my app will always have precedence over those of the free version (They are paying money, after all!), but I don't plan on crippling the free version by removing features-- hopefully this is good news to everyone. I do reserve the right to include games/go problem sets ONLY in the paid version, as a thank you-- but I haven't gotten to that point-- I'll let you know when I do. To clarify, the paid version is still on the market, and still is ad-free. The "Lite" version is must to give people another option.

In other news, I've released several updates since the original upload, with a few changes, several fixes, and a couple of new fixes. 

Full change log until now after the break.

WeGoIgo

I just released my first Android app onto the Market today, called WeGoIgo. I wrote a pretty detailed description about it on the Market, so I won't waste too much space here, but I wanted to put this here as a placeholder. Any future posts about the app will go under the tag WeGoIgo. Anyone who came here from the link on the Market may feel free to comment on this (or future) posts with feedback.

Screenshots after the break