• Exporters: Added support for Maya 2013 and Max 2012
• iOS: touches are no longer passed to the surface below the web view
• iOS: s3eOSReadString now handles split keyboards correctly
• iOS: added s3eEdkAppGetInitialOpenURL to get the initial open URL
• android: fixed icf splash screens when fixing rotation
• playbook: s3eOSReadString now cancels properly
• IwHTTP: fixed to work without threads
• Added menu options to Windows simulator for Retina display
• OSX: fixed to make building extensions possible
• Android splash fixed when using dispfixrot=2
• android: building of EDK modules
• ios: WebView orientation (IwGX and s3eWebView) on iPad
• android: fixed crash with image property in CImagePtr when loading a png file

There is however a crash issue with Bada builds

• Scrolling grids
• Scrolling list boxes
• Horizontal list boxes
• 9-patch brushes
• Child element sizing based on percentage of parent
• Child clipping
• Grid per column bindings
• Dynamic resizing of elements, grids and list boxes will automatically re-layout child elements to make use of extra space
• UI elements can allow touch events to bubble up to parent elements allowing them to also receive the same events
• Tidied up the UI input system
• 4 parameter skewing – See the wonky text on the large and small buttons for an example

Heres a quick screen shot showing the current UI demo:

More Advanced IwGame Engine UI Screen Shot

Those frogs look happy to be sat in that list box like that

And here’s a new and better video showing the new UI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhtT_e5u8gU

I hope to spend a few additional weeks on implementing more UI controls such as sliders and tab vies etc.. before we released 0.35.

My mind is a strange one and loves a thinking challenge, so it began running through hundreds of possible theories. One theory I quite liked was the “Luck Bubbles” theory (not an official theory as far as I know). In this theory, Luck Bubbles are basically areas of luck that exist in 4-dimensional space-time. They float around and are attracted to positive thoughts / energies. If an area at a specific time has a particularly strong attraction then Luck Bubbles will congregate there for a while.

Luck Bubbles change the nature of positive chance events in the area that they cover, being stronger towards their centre and tapering off towards the edges. Conversely bad luck bubbles also exist in this theory which have the exact opposite affect of good luck bubbles tending to congregate around negative energies / thoughts.

So maybe luck is a state of mind? Positive thoughts could lead to better luck. Next time you put the lottery on or release a new app, think positive just in case.

Well, I’m off to travel the globe tossing a coin to test my theory

Basic IwGame Engine UI Screenshot

This is just a static image however, so you cannot really see the animation that’s built into the UI, for that you need to take a look at a quick video I stuck together showing the UI in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV3kYLbzcKo

The UI itself consists of the following elements:

•  StackPanels – The top left hand control is a vertical stack panel containing 3 horizontal stack panels. Each horizontal stack panel contains multiple basic UI components including buttons, labels and text input boxes. The check boxes and the long named button are toggle buttons. The top stack panel and the components within the panel have been draggable so they can be dragged away from the stack panel and moved around. Tapping the Expert check box will spin the control 360 degrees using an animation time line. One of the buttons and two of the check boxes also have animation time lines applied to them.
• Grid – The control to the bottom left is a 3×4 grid that contains 12 items. These items are simple label buttons that when tapped will animate. A XOML array variable is bound to the grid and data from the array is moved into the grid. Updating the XOML array will automatically update the grid elements. The types of elements within the grid are defined using an item template. You can create a grid manually by adding components directly to the grid in XOML or in code bypassing the binding system. This allows you to create more complex controls within each grid cell. Tapping an item in the grid will set it animating
• List box – The list box to the top right work on the same principles as the grid where data is bound to the list box and a template can be specified that defnies the type of items. This list box is a multi-select list box which allows you to select multiple  items
• List Box 2 – The list box to the bottom right is more complex list box that shows list items using a more complex control. The list box items in this instance are created using a horizontal stack panel, which contains a label and a button. The list box is a single item selection list box

The UI controls themselves can be moved around and placed anywhere in the scene. the whole scene can also be moved around.

To give you an idea as to how the XOML looks, here’s a short code clip showing the XOL that creates the list box to the upper right of the screen:

    <!-- Create a listbox --> 
    <!-- ListBoxItems - Defines a list of items that will be bound to the list box -->
    <Variable Name="ListBoxItems" Type="arraystring" Size="4" Value="Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4" />
    <!-- Create a template that will be used to generate the list box actors -->
    <Template Name="ListBoxItemTemp">
        <Label Name="ListItem$index$" Background="ListBoxItemBrush" BackgroundColour="200, 200, 200, 255" SelectedColour="80, 80, 255, 255" Font="trebuchet_12" TextColour="255, 255, 255, 255" SelectedTextColour="255, 255, 255, 255" Margin="0, 0, 20, 0" SelectType="toggle" Selected="false" />
    </Template>
    <ListBox Name="ListBox" Position="351, -190" Background="ListBoxBrush" MultiSelect="true" ItemsData="ListBoxItems" ItemsTargetType="text" ItemsTemplate="ListBoxItemTemp" HitTest="true" Draggable="true" />

As you can see its pretty straight forward:

• We create an array string variable and assign it the data that will be bound to the list box
• We create a template that represents our items
• We create a list box that uses the template and data and make it draggable

Well that’s it for now. We will be adding more and more features to the UI over the coming weeks and will keep you updated.

Pocketeers Limited Mobile Developer

Need a mobile game or app developed across multiple platforms (iPhone, iPad, Andriod,Bada, PlayBook etc..) at little extra cost? Or maybe you need a rapid prototype of your next game or app idea creating as proof of concept?

Pocketeers Limited a UK based mobile app and game developer (established in 2002) responsible for the creation of the IwGame Engine are looking to take on additional gaming and app projects. Pocketeers will consider any size project, but will favour those projects that utilise the IwGame engine / Marmalade SDK. Pocketeers have worked with clients large and small including the likes of Electronic Arts, Destination Software, Ideaworks, Honey Badger Studios, Tournay Software, and others.  Pocketeers provide a full range of services including design, coding, art work, audio and testing at very competitive prices.

For more details you can contact Pocketeers Limited via the web at http://www.pocketeers.co.uk/?page_id=8

Another job posting has come across my desk recently so here it is. A new start-up called Playalla is seeking a  C/C++ Marmalade SDK developer for a short term contract (around 3 months) to help them finish their word games. Playalla already have a prototype of their game up and running based on match-3 game play. Ideally they are looking for a developer that has previous experience with creating word games. The work can be carried out remotely so is ideal for a freelance game developer.

If you are interested then please send a few details about yuorself, your experience (games released etc..) to Wissam at wissamharoun@hotmail.com

Mat

The guys over at http://www.beintoo.com/ that developed the awesome BeInToo gamification and rewarding technology are looking for a capable Marmalade SDK developer that can use the EDK to bring their SDK over to Marmalade. If you know your way around the EDK and know enough about the Android / iPhone SDK’s then you should probably get in touch.

The work can be carried out remotely and does not have to be done on-site which is great for freelance developers.

You can take a quick look at the RESTful API to see what the SDK is all about http://documentation.beintoo.com/

Good luck

Mat

If you have a spare 5-10 mins please consider leaving a review for the IwGame Engine at http://mobilegameengines.com/iphone/engines/40-iwgame-engine

And possibly also a review for the Marmalade SDK at http://mobilegameengines.com/iphone/engines/11-marmalade

A BIG thank you to anyone that gets the time to leave a review

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puzzle-friends/id513683800?ls=1&mt=8

Its FREE so grab a copy now and check it out. Please consider leaving a nice review if you like the game

The XML Schema for XOML can be downloaded from http://www.drmop.com/XOML.xsd

Updated versions of the Schema will also be included with the IwGame Engine from v0.35 onwards

To use the Schema in Visual Studio 2010, open your XOML file, right click somewhere on the page and select properties then go to the properties windows. Click in the Schemas box then click the small file selector to the right (this will open up all of the available XML schemas). If XOML.xsd is not already in the list then click the Add button which pops up the file select dialog. Select XOML.xsd and open it, this will place it in the XML schemas list. Now click in the Use column next to XOML.xsd and select “Use this schema” then click OK. Your document should now be validated against the XOML schema and you should have intellisense / auto-complete etc..

Note that there are a few restrictions, for example, the schema does not include support for custom actor / scene names or support for FromTemplate parameters. if you are XSD savvy enough to figure out how to add that support then please let us know (I personally have only spent one day working with XSD which was today so I’m still a little wet behind the ears). For the meantime, you may want to edit the XOML.xsd schema file and add them yourself. A quick and easy way to get the schema to recognise your custom named scenes is to edit XOML.xsd, go to the bottom of the file and you will see a group called TopLevel. Copy and paste the line that defines Scene and change the word Scene to the name of your own scene class, e.g:

<xs:element name=”Scene” type=”SceneType” />

<xs:element name=”MenuScene” type=”SceneType” />

To add a custom actor create a copy the ActorImage tag and rename the copy to your custom class name, e.g.:

<xs:element name=”ActorImage” type=”ActorImageType” />

<xs:element name=”FrogActor” type=”ActorImageType” />

For actors, you will also need to copy the same line to the ActorGroup (situated just below the TopLevel group)

Please note that this will not take into account your own custom parameters, for that you will need to add your own complex types and attributes to handle it.

Lastly, to add custom actions, go to the top of XOML.xsd to the ActionsEnum type and copy one of the existing actions, paste and replace your own action name, e.g:

<xs:enumeration value=”CustomAction1″ />

Well that’s it, hope the schema helps to make XOML more usable. Please let us know if you have any problems (don’t send me complex schema questions because I don’t have a clue )