I am still getting a fair number of reports for two particular bugs, but nobody seems to want to get involved enough to help solve them. If you can, please take five minutes and help me fix these things.

Here’s the first one. Some people say they are still getting the “stuck robot” problem. This is when you’re playing Hearts Net and it’s all working fine, then it’s time for one of the robots to play a card, but it doesn’t. Nothing happens, the game is stuck. You can exit the game to the home screen and come back, and it’s still stuck.

I’ve gotten maybe ten reports of this bug in the last week or two. I’ve told those people the “simple” fix, and urged them to help me with the harder fix, but nobody has ever written back! I am positive I could fix this if just one person would send me her game state, so I could use it to analyze the problem. Surely one of you is willing to help?

Here’s how you do that. Play the game until it gets “stuck,” and the robots won’t play. Go to the “Settings” tab, then go all the way to the bottom, and press “Upload State.” That takes you to another screen, where you must press the “Upload State” button. Finally, send me an email to allen.brunson@gmail.com so I can ask you a few follow-up questions.

I suppose it could be that everybody who has experienced this problem is still using an older version of Hearts Net? If this happens to you and your Settings view does not have an “Upload State” button, then you are not using the latest version of the program. In that case, then yes, I am already aware that older versions had this problem. I only need to hear from people who are using the latest version.

Second bug: some people say that the number of games played and games won is sometimes inconsistent. For example, one time you’re playing and the game says you’ve played 30 games and won 18 of them, then the next time you look, it says you’ve played 20 games and won 5, or something like that. This bug is trickier. I don’t think I can solve this one with the “Upload State” trick, for complicated reasons that you don’t want to hear about (heh). But if you can make this happen “at will,” every time, and explain to me how you did it, then I could fix this one, too. For example, it could be that the game is crashing for some reason, and so it doesn’t get to save its state to disk. Then, the next time you start it, you’re looking at the game state as it existed the last time it was able to save its state. Or something like that. So if you can make this bug occur “at will,” let me know how to do it too, so I can fix it.

Categories: cards
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In Hearts Net 2.1.1, I added a feature where you can upload your current game state to my web server. It’s the very last thing on the Settings view, labelled “Upload State.” Among other things, this is useful for helping me improve the robots.

Let’s say you see the robots make a card play that you consider poor. Right after it happens, use the state upload feature to send your current game to me. Then send me an email to describe what was happening in the hand, and how you think the robots should have handled the situation. If I agree with you, and it’s not too hard to fix, I’ll add that improvement in a later version of the game.

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Hearts Net 2.1.1 is now available for download from the App Store. This is a free upgrade for anybody who has already purchased the program.

I tried to resolve the “shy robot” problem, described in an an earlier blog post. I can’t be sure I’ve fixed it, because that situation never happens to me personally. Perhaps somebody will let me know if I succeeded?

If you upgrade to 2.1.1 but find that games still get “stuck” sometimes, can you use the new “State Upload” feature to send me your game state? And then send me an email, to let me know who you are. When I get a state data upload to my website, I don’t know anything at all about who sent it, other than the UDID from their device. It’s nice to have a little more context.

Also, brand-new feature: You can now replay a hand from the beginning if you want. The first of many gameplay variations I’ll be adding.

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I just had a look, and my blog is the number one hit on google for the search phrase “iphone nibless.” That leads to a blog post I wrote on the subject last year. I linked to another blog that explained how to accomplish such a goal, but that blog post has since been taken down. Hrmph. Okay, I guess I have to cover this subject again.

Generally speaking, Apple makes beautiful apps that are elegant and easy to use. Interface Builder is a glaring exception. I can’t stand that thing. So unbelievably complicated. I can’t ever find what I’m looking for.

If you’re writing Mac apps, I guess you’re stuck with it. Most Mac windows contain a lot of controls, and you need a way to design them. If you’re writing iPhone apps, it’s a net loss. Most iPhone views contain a single control that takes up the entire view area, so Interface Builder is an unnecessary complication. So I’m going to tell you how to make an iPhone app that does not require any nibs at all. I am using Xcode 3.2.1 on Snow Leopard, but these instructions will likely work for older versions as well.

1) Start Xcode. From the File menu, pick “New Project.” In the window that opens, select the iPhone OS Application category on the left. In the group on the right, pick “Window-based Application.” This may work fine for the other project templates, but I haven’t tested that. Create the new project, name it whatever you want.

2) Remove MainWindow.xib from the project and put it into the trash. It is no longer needed. (Yay!)

3) Edit the Info.plist for your project by double-clicking on it. It will have a name similar to projectname-Info.plist. The plist file will have a key named “Main nib file base name,” with the value MainWindow. Remove this key completely: select it, and press the Delete key. Save the file.

4) Xcode will have created an app delegate class for your project, named something like niblessAppDelegate. Yuck, what a horrible name. Rename this class to AppController, by directly editing the header and source files for the class. You can of course pick a different name, or even skip this step altogether, but I’m going to assume from here on out that your app delegate class is called AppController.

5) At this point, you have destroyed the mechanism that iPhone OS normally uses to recognize the name of your app delegate class, which it needs to know to load your app. Fortunately, there is an easy way around this: you must pass your app delegate’s class name to UIApplicationMain(). Xcode created a file called main.m that contains your app’s main() function. Edit it now, and change main() so that it looks like this:

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool*  pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    
    int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, @"AppController");
    
    [pool release];
    pool = nil;
    
    return retVal;
}

That’s it, you’re done. You may continue modifying this project until you have a real application.

At this point, you might be thinking: Whoa, scary change. Is this really safe? Well, I can offer myself up as an example. I’ve submitted two of my own apps to the App Store that use this technique, both of which have been downloaded thousands of times. I’ve gotten hundreds of emails from users over various issues, but my apps not having nibs has never been a problem.

Categories: cocoa, iphone, objective-c, programming
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Dear internet: I have been searching for a UIProgressHUD replacement for many, many months. Why have you failed me? I don’t suppose it was because of that other, similarly named UIProgressHUD replacement? Which I am not going to link to or name, because it sucks. Sorry, yes I am a jerk, but it does. If I have to explain to you why it’s a bad idea to make a progress view that’s launching background tasks, then there is no helping you.

UIProgressHUD

So, anyway. In case you’re new to this. UIKit has a nice control called UIProgressHUD for displaying a heads-up, semi-transparent view with a spinny-control on it, and a single line of text. It looks good, it works well, it’s easy. The only down side is that it’s undocumented, so you can’t use it in apps destined for the App Store.

I used UIProgressHUD in a project I was writing for a client a few months ago. This particular app was not destined for the App Store, so it seemed like a nice shortcut. Maybe that’s not such a hot idea, but they weren’t paying much, so I couldn’t justify a detour for writing a brand-new view. But now here I am again, needing the exact same thing for my card game, and google searches still only turn up that progress view that thinks it’s an app launcher. Hrmph. Time to write my own, I guess.

WBProgressHUD

My goal was to write an exact, drop-in replacement for that view I can’t use. I’ve included screenshots of Apple’s original view, and my clone view. Pretty darn close, don’t you think? The only real differences are details that I don’t want to change. For example, I think they picked a font size that’s a bit excessive.

It would be great if I could just paste the source file and header file right into this post, for your amusement. My view is mercifully short, and would lend itself to that. Alas, it requires several support modules, so I had to make it into an example Xcode project. I’ve developed a huge library of iPhone support code by this point, so it doesn’t make sense to duplicate things in every single view and controller I write.

One clever feature of my demo project: you can change one line of code and it will use either UIProgressHUD or my own WBProgressHUD. No other code has to change, because the two views are that similar, dawg. It makes for a good test bed for developing a clone view such as this one.

Download wbprogresshud.zip by clicking here. If you like this project, how about hiring me to write more stuff like it? My contact details are on my About page.

Categories: cocoa, iphone, objective-c, programming
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I’ve heard from several players that it’s possible for Hearts Net to get into a situation where it appears “stuck,” because one robot won’t play a card when it should. This seems most likely to happen to people who play the game in short bursts, interrupted frequently with phone calls or texts or whatever. The bug also exists in Hearts Solo, but is unlikely to be experienced there, since it doesn’t let you play a game for very long. I’ve never experienced this bug personally, because I almost always play whole games at a time.

The short-term fix is easy. The game isn’t really locked up. Go to Settings, and press “New Single-Player Game.” This starts a new game, which won’t be stuck.

The long-term fix, of course, is that I have to find and fix the bug. I have an idea what it might be, but I’m not 100-percent sure. I’ve applied my hoped-for fix to the code, and I’ll submit it to the App Store pretty soon.

The reason that I haven’t already submitted this is that I’m also working on another feature, which I guess I’m calling “state upload.” The card game engine is capable of saving all its state to a block of memory about 3.5k in size. This is the mechanism used when the game saves its state between runs, so it can start up right where it left off. An interesting side effect is that, if I have the saved state file from your game, I can recreate whatever situation you might be experiencing in my local development environment.

Everyone is telling me that the “shy robot” problem persists between runs of the program. That means that the screwed-up situation is definitely stored in the game’s state data. By examining state data from somebody whose game is in “shy robot” mode, I should be able to exactly duplicate the problem locally. Any programmer can tell you that a bug with a reproducible test case is a bug that’s easily fixed. So if my first try for fixing this bug doesn’t work, it’s almost a certainty that I can fix it by examining the state data from somebody who’s experiencing the problem.

There’s another reason why I think this is a feature worth spending development time on. I now have several players who are very opinionated about perceived shortcomings in my Hearts-playing robots. They email me with very detailed situations where they had this set of cards, and a certain robot had that set of cards, and then the robot played this particular card, and oh boy that is dumb.

If I start with nothing but an explanation like that, it could take me days to determine the particular behavior that player is talking about. I’d only have about 60 percent confidence that I could ever figure it out. But if that player can send me his game state, I can reproduce the exact scenario he is talking about with basically no effort whatsoever.

I am fairly baffled that a silly card game is now my Flagship Product. But if lots of people are going to take it seriously, I guess I will too.

Categories: cards
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I lost my momentum. My rank for Hearts Net is now down to number 46 in the U.S. store. Sales are still substantial, though, so that just means that I can’t live solely on the profits, as I might have been able to do if I’d made it into the top ranks. Still plenty good enough for me to want to continue improving it. Right now I’m working on porting the game to Mac and iPad.

Here’s an excerpt from an email I got from a satisfied player, named John Maldaner:

Last night I played Hearts Net via wifi with my wife. Game setup was exactly as described in the instructions. No problem. There is a slight delay when you pass and accept passed cards. There is a slight delay to go to the Next Hand. Both of these delays make sense since one or more opponents are real people now. But, the delays can confuse you at first just because you’ve played the single-player version so much. Game play is perfect. We had no issues with the flow of the game. Nothing unusual happened. Except that I lost the game! LOL!

Regarding the robots and shooting the moon. The robots are better at stopping moon shots. They intercede early. I will give this some study and report back. I had gotten pretty good at shooting the moon in Hearts Solo. The real key, there, was playing low cards early in a manner that seemed innocent. I could pretty easily lull the robots into playing early high hearts. That is the key. They would usually play their high hearts first, sometimes even in an obvious situation where playing a lower heart would have set me. I have not experimented enough in Hearts Net to give you a fair comparison. I will do so.

I would be interested in the demographics of folks that have purchased your game. I am 56 and played hearts (and spades) extensively, especially in college. I do like card games in general, but there is something comfortable about playing the games you grew up with. For that reason, Hearts and Spades are the only card apps I have purchased and play. I play both daily, at least a couple games each.

I have not experimented with other Hearts games available. I have looked at some, but it’s never gone past looking. Why? Well, most look gimmicky. Some designers have chosen to concentrate on elaborate board designs or adding in extraneous character enhancements that, to me, just take away from the game itself. Your game is true to the game. I especially like the two-touch approach to choosing a card to play. I know I can change that to one-touch. But, I don’t because at times I want to change my mind. Also, the two-touch method helps me make sure I touched the right card. This sounds simple, but other card games have not embraced that. I like your method the best.

Categories: cards
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Everyone’s second biggest complaint is that they don’t like one or the other of the new color schemes. Okay then, version 2.1.0 of Hearts Net is now available on the App Store. It allows you to switch back to the original Hearts Solo “classic” theme, if you wish. The game will look almost exactly like it did when you first started playing. Get the new version of the game by clicking here.

AND: the game is currently on sale! Used to be $2.99, marked down to $1.99, because I need to move some units.

To encourage you guys to help me push the game into the top 25, I’m giving you another couple of promo codes. Instructions for redeeming promo codes can be found here.

A9EKEANX9NEF
43797R4E77RT

Categories: cards
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So, a funny thing happened. I thought that the people buying my game were all Hearts Solo players, forced into upgrading because I crippled that version. But the number of people downloading Hearts Solo has peaked, and is heading down. Yet the number of people buying Hearts Net is still going up.

I wondered: You don’t suppose I made it on to one of those top lists, do you? So I looked, and I am in fact number 33 on the top paid card games list in the U.S. store. Further inspection reveals that I am in the top 100 card games list for every single country. My highest rank is 17, in Lebanon.

This is great news. Please help me drive the app even farther up the highest paid apps list!

Categories: cards
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Just got the sales numbers for yesterday. It’s going to sound like bragging if I keep quoting them. So I’ll just say that they are still going up.

Dear internet: I have a shameful confession. When I crippled Hearts Solo, I honestly didn’t know that it was going to create such a firestorm. But once I saw that there was indeed a great groundswell of anger bubbling up, I decided to see if I could turn it to my advantage.

There are a number of prominent, successful people in the tech community who are essentially professional trolls. I could name names, but that’s exactly what they want, and I don’t feel like further glorifying them. I’ve always despised that kind of thing. It seems like a cheap shortcut to success. Why not just do good work, and be recognized for that?

It doesn’t always work that way. There is this thing that us techie-types are mostly unfamiliar with, called “marketing.” Apparently it has something to do with connecting customers to stuff they might want to buy? I guess? I think there may be pie charts involved.

I’d always written off “marketing” as unnecessary fluff. Then I started trying to sell my own products directly to customers. Strangely enough, buyers did not just magically appear, ready to stuff money into my pockets. Puzzling.

Nowhere is this more true than for Apple’s App Store. Apple controls way too much of the experience. If you sell products on the App Store, they control your store front, your customers, your reputation, your prominence, your payment processing, and your customers’ ability to find your products. People write ridiculous, unfounded reviews of my game every day, and I have no way of knowing who they even are, much less a way to respond or correct those impressions.

I have more than a passing familiarity with trolls. I was there up close and personal as USENET was entering its death throes. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but I have a fairly strong trollish streak myself. I try to suppress it for the most part, but sometimes, it’s useful to be familiar with that personality type.

I’ve gotten, oh, let’s say 200 emails regarding my Hearts games in the last few days. More than I’ve gotten in the entire life of the app, before this. And a lot of them, I realized, came from trolls. They don’t care whether I crippled Hearts Solo or not. They just smell blood in the water, and they want in on the feeding frenzy.

So, here’s the confession. I fed them a little. Just a little bit. So that they would make a slightly bigger firestorm, and that the resulting blaze might attract a bit more attention than I was getting before.

Was this a good move or a bad one? It’s too early to tell. Early indicators, like my sales numbers, say “good move.” Boy, talk about conflicted. Am I joining the ranks of the professional trolls? Will I be able to live with myself? If it makes me enough money to keep me from having to get a day job, then yeah, it’s worth the ickiness.

If you find yourself sickened by the fact that I’m “turning to the dark side,” well, there’s an easy way to put a stop to it: give me something better to do. Give me enough contract work so that I don’t have to go back to a boring, paranoid, stultifying office environment ever again, and I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll keep my mouth shut and code, which is my place in the natural order of things anyway. But until that money-laden benefactor arrives, I’ll be twiddling the knobs here by myself, trying to find a way to get along in the world.

I don’t regret crippling Hearts Solo at all, by the way. That was the push that my true customers needed to see that I am serious about this. But if I’d known everything that I know now back at the beginning, I would never have released a full-featured, free card game to begin with. Then I wouldn’t be in the position of competing with myself right now. Live and learn.

Categories: cards
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