android.rabold.org

AndroidTapp.com has released a very nice review of Puzzle Blox rating it with 4 of 5 “droids”:

“Looking for a Fun Android Game with Hours of Challenge? Then Download Puzzle Blox.”

Thanks! Always nice to hear positive feedback

Check out the full review over at AndroidTapp.com: http://www.androidtapp.com/puzzle-blox/

Have you guys and gals already seen the Android Network Awards sponsored by AndroidGuys.com? It’s a joint venture of many famous Android community web sites to launch a new award for the best and most original Android apps.

Today the official list of all 125 nominees in 25 categories was published. And the good news is that Puzzle Blox is one of them! Whooohoo

Be sure to join the voting when it starts early next week! AndroidGuys.com is a great web site for news with a great weekly podcast so you should have it in your RSS reader anyway

Update August 5th:

Official web site http://androidnetworkawards.com has been updated with the list of nominees. The user voting starts August 10th. Make sure you note that date in your calendar

Enjoy and thank you for the nomination. You’re awesome!

Puzzle Blox has received a silver award by the Russian web site and download portal SoftPortal.com! Very cool

Find the Puzzle Blox and Puzzle Blox Lite web sites over here:
http://www.softportal.com/software-11870-puzzle-blox.html [English]
http://www.softportal.com/software-11869-puzzle-blox-lite.html [English]

Thank you guys and I’m really happy that you like my game!

AndroidPit.de, a very active German Android community web site, has posted a review of Puzzle Blox! The game was rewarded with 5 of 5 stars. Whoohoo! And the review features a very nice and appetizing video explaining the basic concepts of Puzzle Blox. (Note to myself: I have to do such a video on my own next time)

Read the full review over here (German language only):
http://www.androidpit.de/web/guest/puzzle-blox-game-app-knobelspiel

Or use Google Translate for a baaaad translation :

http://www.translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpit.de%2Fweb%2Fguest%2Fpuzzle-blox-game-app-knobelspiel

It is now eight weeks since the initial release of Puzzle Blox and Puzzle Blox Lite to the Google Android market…

Let me first state that the Google Android market is a great opportunity for all you independent software developers and people like me who do programming as a hobby. Since Apple launched their iPhone and iPod Touch AppStore it has never been easier to release apps and games to potentially millions of customers.

During the first few weeks after the release Puzzle Blox approached not only to the Top 100 games downloads but also got easily into the Top 50 puzzle & brain category. I did only very less promotion as I have been on holidays shortly after the launch The first download numbers where surprisingly high and promising. But today, eight weeks after the launch, download growth starts to stagnate now. Time for a review of what worked and what didn’t.

Android Market Observations Part 1 | Reach for the top – FAST!

The most important thing on Android market is to get recognized. Personally I don’t read a lot of blogs about apps and games and so do others of your users. Many people will just start browsing the market (maybe choosing a specific app or game category) and start checking out the first few entries which draw their attention. So the goal is clear: to be one of those first apps listed and to draw enough attention! But how can you achieve this?

(more…)

Android is an open platform and most developer tools can be obtained for free. That’s great especially for hobby enthusiasts like me and a lot of other developers out there

So if Eclipse and the Android SDK are free to use why pay a lot of money for Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office and all the other accessories you might need to create your homebrewn software? LostInTechnology.com has a nice article about the 20 Best Free or Freemium Alternatives to Popular Paid Software Programs:

Microsoft Office Alternatives

• Google Docs
• Open Office
• Neo Office
• Zoho
• gOffice

Adobe Creative Suite Alternatives

• Aviary
• Seashore
• GIMP
• InkScape
• NVU
• Picasa

Adobe Acrobat Alternatives

• PDFreDerict
• PDFescape
• PDFedit
• XPDF
• Skim
• PDFpen

Check out the full list over at LostInTechnology.com. There’s not much to add from my side… Maybe Paint.Net is worth mentioning as a quite good photo editing software for all you Windows fans

This is just a very small update targeting especially new users of the Lite version. It adds a short description text if the level failed. Judging from various comments some people where confused when the “You Failed!” message popped up and they didn’t understood what went wrong. Besides adding this new message I also fixed various strings as the apostrophe character didn’t show up correctly. Nothing serious though

Thanks for the guys over at androidpit.de for the suggestions! The German speaking visitors should definitely check out their site for great app reviews and a pretty active forum!

Have fun!
André

___
Having trouble with “Authorizing Credit Card” message when buying various apps from the Google market?
Problems with your accelerometer or orientation sensors? Is your tilting not working as expected?
Then check out the FAQ section for answers!

Whooo… A picture is worth more than 1000 words…

Actually that’s a PC x86 emulator running inside of the Google Android emulator. It already boots into the Bochs BIOS but then crashes due to an OutOfMemoryException. Stay tuned for more updates on this

And please don’t ask about the performance. You don’t wanna really know yet!

Have fun!

Today I have another update to Puzzle Blox for you!

What’s new?

• Added new calibration function within the options menu! As every phone is slightly different so are the sensors. Using the new calibration and sensitivity settings you are now able to adjust the accelerometer and orientation sensors of your phone to your needs. No more blocks falling in wrong directions! Also check out the FAQ if your sensors are really off or misbehaving.
• All levels get correctly unlocked if solved.
• High score dialog remembers your player name now.
• A new community page has been added. Join the Puzzle Blox fan site today!

Upcoming!

I’m still working on a major new release which is to be released soon! It features two brand new playing modes called “Arcade” and “Challenge” for more action, more fun and more puzzling. Stay tuned as I will release some sneak preview screen shots and more details the coming days.

Puzzle Blox Lite

Get the latest update from Android market by searching for “Puzzle Blox” or use the Barcode Scanner application to scan the following image:

Now go and enjoy this update

Having trouble with the payment status or your credit card?
Please check this following posting for details!

I’m working on the tilting issue some people are still reporting. Here’s a short excerpt of a posting over at ktk.bz, the creators of the “Bubble” app for Android. If you encounter issues with the tilting functionality of your phone please check out the following two paragraphs:

Bubble uses your phone’s accelerometer to determine the current angle. Dropping your phone can cause its accelerometer to malfunction, suddenly becoming extremely inaccurate or even stuck in one position. (I had this happen to me after I dropped my phone on pavement.) Luckily this does not necessarily mean your accelerometer is permanently damaged. A factory reset was able to correct this problem for me and for a number of other people who contacted me with similar problems.

If your angle is off by a large amount (mine was off by about 30 degrees) or stuck in one position with little or no change in value no matter how you hold it, your accelerometer is probably malfunctioning. Try testing other apps that use your phone’s orientation, like Amazed, Wikitude, or Google Street View with compass mode enabled. If you find similar problems with other apps, you should definitely try performing a factory reset on your phone to correct the problem. T-Mobile support will walk you through this process.

I would be happy to get some feedback from you on this. Thanks