Researching my next app (surprise!)

Games
#1

Hi guys,

I am researching my next app (not a game) and I already see some issues that I need to deal with if I want to proceed!

Say (since I want to keep the idea as a surprise for now!) that I have one those girls “dress up” game (my app is not a dress up game) You know the one where a child can dress up a character (like a princess) with different accessories. Accessories may include glasses, dresses and so on.

Basically  those apps have an image (main character) and then bunch of other images (accessories) that the player can drag and drop over the main character. The player can also sometimes rotate and change size of those “accessories” images. Finally the player can share the final image by taking a screenshot and email/FB…

Now for question! First I am not interested in taking a screenshot of the final image but I want to share the position/angle/size of the “accessories” images (along with main image) between users of the app. So say someone (person A)  has the app (again not a game), use it and then wanted to share the final product with a friend (person B)  Of course the friend will need to download the app from the appstore. Then person A can send person B a “file” or something that would allow B to see both the main image and the “accessories” images when opening that “file” as person A set them up over the main image.

Long story to ask about how I can proceed with this sharing of data (ie: image + position/angle/size of other smaller images that makes up the all scene) Again because the app is not a dress up app, I cannot just take a screenshot of the final image and send it to other like an email. I need to share data that someone else can open and see on his/her device. Of course I am doing this so that the app gets shared in a social manner and get downloaded more.

I am sure I am not making any senses but please do not hesitated to ask questions!

THANK YOU!

Mo 

ps: I am not sure yet what is the best way to share this “file” but I will think JSON maybe a good way…

#2

Hi,
I’m a newbie so could be flaws in my logic but how about treating it like a player vs player type thing?
So player A designs their image based on what is allowed within the app - that creates a string which is like a move - they send that move to player B and then player B’s device (with the app - all preloaded with the all the dresses etc…) converts that “move” string into a display object which is exactly the same as what player A designed.
Now i know nothing about the player vs player side of things - have not incorporated it in any of my apps - but i would think that the string would be a better and smaller data size than sending a photo file.

A string that use Sql to look up a database containing the image file names - then it’s just a process of loading the images and display

Only hiccup would be if you wish to use IAP’s for wardrobe expansion - Player B may not have purchased a particular accessory - but perhaps an opportunity to drive IAP’s sales by allowing B show access , but not create access to the IAP accessory.

All this is above my pay grade code wise - but to me the logic seems sound.
T

#3

Thanks for taking the time! Yes, that’s really interesting take. I am not worry about IAP (even so it will have IAP) So something like a:

custom = {“dressID” = 5 , “angle” = 30, “size” = 1}, {“glassesID” = 3, “angle” = 0, “size” = 0.5}…}  ???

Again this is an example since the app is not a dressing app. Since the app is not really a realtime the string (or probably more like Json) could be send later once the “player” A played with the app and designed the composite image. The app will allow him/her to share the image with a friend with the understanding that “player” B need to first download the app. Not sure if the data “sharing” part suppose to be some kind of an email containing all the info needed to “re-assemble” the orginal composite image. I am pretty sure an email to transfer that data from app to app is not the way to go!

Thanks again for your suggestion!

Mo

#4

Hi Mo,

Long time no speak, I hope you are well  :slight_smile:

Just saw this and as you are a Level Director user I thought I might be able to offer some ideas.

If you plan to share the info then using a simple database stored on a server might be easier with each entry having a userid/sessionid.

With the data in one place, your app (regardless of how many users) can reference the same data, you just need to figure out who can see who.

If you intend using Level Director then you can just store the AssetName (e.g. ‘dress1’), x, y, scalex, scaley and angle values and store them against the user/sessionid.

When you read each entry you simply call CreateObject passing these values as a table and voila!

To help when saving the data, you could also give each asset a class name, e.g. ‘Data’ and use the LD function to read all objects of that class name and store them away (see the PottyBird example).

These are just ideas of course and there never is a single solution so good luck and let me know if I can help.

Thanks

Alan.

#5

Hi Alan! Nice to hear from you. Actually i am not too worry about having each user of the app accessing the same data (accessories image) since all those items will be common to all and will be included into the app itself. What needs be shared is only the position/orientation/size of those extra images. I am struggling how to share that data (JSON for instance) in addition to the background image. That last image will be different for each user and it will be provided by the user who wants to share. So imagine someone sending an email that would include an image and a JSON file (for instance) to another user. The second user would launch my app then maybe open that “special” file and be able to reproduce what the first user build. The app will simply display the background image received and then use the internal images (think glasses, shoes, dresses in my example) to place those elements on the screen over the background image. Each of those element will scaled and oriented by reading the JSON file.

How I can send an image and JSON file on the same share? If that’s of course the best way to do this. I will prefer not add complication with server side issues but I may have to use that. Parse seems to be a cool thing to try :slight_smile:

Thanks again. Please keep them coming!

Mo

ps: Unfortunately i switch to a Macbook Air (which I love!) and was not able to use Level Director anymore. Still, I need to think of running Windows on my Mac. I recently looked at the new Level Director features and they look FANTASTIC! Congrats on the bringing the LD to that level!

#6

Hi,
I’m a newbie so could be flaws in my logic but how about treating it like a player vs player type thing?
So player A designs their image based on what is allowed within the app - that creates a string which is like a move - they send that move to player B and then player B’s device (with the app - all preloaded with the all the dresses etc…) converts that “move” string into a display object which is exactly the same as what player A designed.
Now i know nothing about the player vs player side of things - have not incorporated it in any of my apps - but i would think that the string would be a better and smaller data size than sending a photo file.

A string that use Sql to look up a database containing the image file names - then it’s just a process of loading the images and display

Only hiccup would be if you wish to use IAP’s for wardrobe expansion - Player B may not have purchased a particular accessory - but perhaps an opportunity to drive IAP’s sales by allowing B show access , but not create access to the IAP accessory.

All this is above my pay grade code wise - but to me the logic seems sound.
T

#7

Thanks for taking the time! Yes, that’s really interesting take. I am not worry about IAP (even so it will have IAP) So something like a:

custom = {“dressID” = 5 , “angle” = 30, “size” = 1}, {“glassesID” = 3, “angle” = 0, “size” = 0.5}…}  ???

Again this is an example since the app is not a dressing app. Since the app is not really a realtime the string (or probably more like Json) could be send later once the “player” A played with the app and designed the composite image. The app will allow him/her to share the image with a friend with the understanding that “player” B need to first download the app. Not sure if the data “sharing” part suppose to be some kind of an email containing all the info needed to “re-assemble” the orginal composite image. I am pretty sure an email to transfer that data from app to app is not the way to go!

Thanks again for your suggestion!

Mo

#8

Hi Mo,

Long time no speak, I hope you are well  :slight_smile:

Just saw this and as you are a Level Director user I thought I might be able to offer some ideas.

If you plan to share the info then using a simple database stored on a server might be easier with each entry having a userid/sessionid.

With the data in one place, your app (regardless of how many users) can reference the same data, you just need to figure out who can see who.

If you intend using Level Director then you can just store the AssetName (e.g. ‘dress1’), x, y, scalex, scaley and angle values and store them against the user/sessionid.

When you read each entry you simply call CreateObject passing these values as a table and voila!

To help when saving the data, you could also give each asset a class name, e.g. ‘Data’ and use the LD function to read all objects of that class name and store them away (see the PottyBird example).

These are just ideas of course and there never is a single solution so good luck and let me know if I can help.

Thanks

Alan.

#9

Hi Alan! Nice to hear from you. Actually i am not too worry about having each user of the app accessing the same data (accessories image) since all those items will be common to all and will be included into the app itself. What needs be shared is only the position/orientation/size of those extra images. I am struggling how to share that data (JSON for instance) in addition to the background image. That last image will be different for each user and it will be provided by the user who wants to share. So imagine someone sending an email that would include an image and a JSON file (for instance) to another user. The second user would launch my app then maybe open that “special” file and be able to reproduce what the first user build. The app will simply display the background image received and then use the internal images (think glasses, shoes, dresses in my example) to place those elements on the screen over the background image. Each of those element will scaled and oriented by reading the JSON file.

How I can send an image and JSON file on the same share? If that’s of course the best way to do this. I will prefer not add complication with server side issues but I may have to use that. Parse seems to be a cool thing to try :slight_smile:

Thanks again. Please keep them coming!

Mo

ps: Unfortunately i switch to a Macbook Air (which I love!) and was not able to use Level Director anymore. Still, I need to think of running Windows on my Mac. I recently looked at the new Level Director features and they look FANTASTIC! Congrats on the bringing the LD to that level!