flipt Updated!

A new version of flipt is now available in the Google Play Store!

What's new?

• Added a full interactive tutorial to the game. This should make it much easier for new players to learn the mechanics of the game!

New players will be prompted to start the tutorial the first time they play.
Existing players can access the tutorial from the PLAY menu (when no save game exists).

flipt Reviewed!

flipt has just received it's first review over at droidaphile!

A big thanks to Robert Best for taking the time to check out the game!

Read the review here!

Rendering Text in OpenGL on Android

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Updates:

* November 2013
  - Added v1.1 of the standard example code, with a small
    fix to clear vertex array state after drawing.
* February 2013
  - Added a version that works with OpenGL ES 2.0, provided
    by Aleksandar Kodzhabashev.
* January 2013
  - Added a version that includes z-values for rendering text
    in 3D space. It was written by Jocelyn Demoy.
* September 2012
  - Added a mirror for the code download.
  - Added a Scala port of the code, provided by Alexey Aksenov.

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This post is intended for developers. It describes the method I used for rendering high-quality dynamic text efficiently using OpenGL ES 1.0, with TrueType/OpenType font files.

One of the most frustrating things I have encountered while working with 3D APIs (such as OpenGL) is the complete lack of support for text rendering. Because of this unexplainable shortcoming, we have to implement text rendering on our own. Before starting with my Android game, I had already done this multiple times for both Direct3D and OpenGL, using methods ranging from static text on a bitmap to complete bitmap fonts (usually generated via a tool).

Sadly, these implementations did not translate well to OpenGL ES....so I had to do it again :)

Interested? Keep reading for details and a download of full source code that can be used immediately in any project, without limitation!

flipt Published, finally!

Welcome to the support blog (slog?) for fractious games, my little endeavor to create games.

I am a seasoned developer from South Africa who has just started developing games for Android. In fact, I just finished my first game :) And finally, after a bit of a struggle with Google Wallet and developer registration (I won't bore you with the details), flipt is live in the Google Play Store!

The game is free (and ad-free) so go get it while it's...uhmmm...new :)

flipt is a simple match-3 game with a twist, or rather a "flip". It should work on all android devices (tablets and phones, all OS versions) - I even tested it in BlueStacks. Check out the details page for full info and screenshots.

If you have any problems with the game, or just some comments, please post them here.
Enjoy the game.