IsoPix 1.2.0 & the Trophy

IsoPix 1.2.0 is released! Transparent image background option, portrait screen orientation support, and single-touch zooming/panning buttons for devices without multi-touch are added.

By the way, I have just proudly received a trophy from a real pixel artist who uses IsoPix Pro! Look:

It is not a very big trophy but it means a lot to me. In fact, pixel art images are small in general. Being able to fit in subtle details with a limited number of pixels is definitively an art talent. This is one of the reasons why I love pixel art so much. Let me use IsoPix to zoom in to this lovely trophy a little bit closer just to observe its magnificent details:

Wow. I just love it. Thank you so much, PixelGeek!

One more thing, IsoPix has been reviewed by a German Android website Androidmag. That website seems pretty big in the German Android community and I am pleased to have gotten 4 stars out of 5 with IsoPix. Thanks for the kind review Androidmag!

I also sincerely thank all of you who rated/reviewed IsoPix in the market. No matter how many stars you gave, your feedback is very valuable to me. (of course, I must admit that I love all those very kind 5-star ratings :D)

Finally, the full changelog for IsoPix 1.2.0 is as follows. Have fun!

Version 1.2.0:

- New feature: Transparent image background support
- New feature: Portrait screen orientation/rotation support
- New feature: Added single-finger pan/zoom buttons for devices without multi-touch support (optional)
- Now the line/shape tool menu lists the tools in two rows
- Now the last used tab in the color picking dialog will be remembered and reopened at the next launch
- Now the last used image background color will be properly remembered
- Updated the instruction
- Fixed a potential color distortion problem in the color picking dialog on some devices when hardware acceleration is enabled
- Fixed a potential error

Nice Simple Photo Widget 1.2.0

Nice Simple Photo Widget 1.2.0 has arrived and the free zooming mode for photo viewing has been added. In that mode you can use intuitive gestures to zoom / pan the photo. Basically, pinch to zoom and drag to pan. You can enter the free zooming mode by long pressing the photo in the widget configuration screen.

I have also added the random photo rotation option for the slideshow. Originally, photos are shown one by one in a fixed alphabetical order according to their file names. Now you have the option to make the photo widget randomly choose the next photo for the slideshow. This may make the slideshow a little bit more interesting.

Here is the full changelog. Enjoy! :D

Version 1.2.0:

- New feature: Added the free zooming mode for viewing photos with dragging and 2-finger pinching navigation (requires Android 2.0 or newer)
- New feature: Added the random photo rotation option
- Fixed an error in the image cropping component for some Android 3.0+ devices with hardware acceleration enabled
- Changed the image cropping instruction text color

IsoPix 1.1.0 & IsoPix Pro

IsoPix 1.1.0 is released! Now you can optionally show the gridlines on your pixel art image. Like this cute little mario pixel art image:

(Nope, I didn't draw it from scratch - I referred to some example as I am not that good at art :))

Along with that are various improvements in the rendering speed and app stability. The zooming function is also improved so that the user won't get lost when zooming in / out the image.

I am also pleased to introduce the ad-free pro version of IsoPix - the IsoPix Pro. Exclusive Pro features include direct input of RGB / HSV color value for precise color specification, extra customization power to change the app background color and grid color to make it your own personal pixel art editor, and completely free of ads.

Of course, the free ad-supported version will continue to be free and I will continue to update both versions. New features will be added to both versions although some of them will be exclusive to the Pro users.

I thank you all for your feedback and support in any form. :)

The following is the full changelog. Have fun making pixel art!

Version 1.1.0:

- New feature: optional grid display (toggle button in menu-key-menu)
- New feature (Pro): color specification via direct HSV/RGB value input
- New feature (Pro): custom app background color option
- New feature (Pro): custom grid color option
- Improved the rendering performance when zoomed in
- Improved zooming so that the users won't get lost
- Improved the app session restoration after being paused
- Fixed a potential error which may occur when returning to the main interface

Nice Simple Photo Widget 1.1.0

Nice Simple Photo Widget has been updated to version 1.1.0.

At first I didn't plan to add the photo cropping functionality to this widget because I wanted to keep it simple. I thought the photo editing such as cropping was other photo editing app's job. But then I found that a number of users really want that cropping feature in my app for convenience, so I added it. :)

I have also added two sub-minute slideshow photo update intervals to the widget. (10/30 seconds) Please note that if you really want to switch photos that fast in the slideshow, more system resources would naturally be used. I would give you the choice tho, as this is also requested by some of you.

Enjoy and have a great 2013!

Version 1.1.0:

- New feature: Added built-in photo crop/rotate editing functions
- New feature: Added sub-minute slideshow photo update intervals (every 30 seconds and every 10 seconds)
- Redesigned and improved the built-in simple file browser
- Now the images are rotated in a fixed alphabetical order in the slideshow
- Fixed a few potential errors in photo file selection
- Fixed an error which occurred when the available memory of the Android device is too low
- Made some internal changes

So long, Ninja Dodge!

I recently discovered that Openfeint, the online leaderboard/achievement service I use in Ninja Dodge and Melody Squares, had been shut down. Openfeint has been bought by GREE on November 16, 2012. Without any email notice that I am aware of, the original Openfeint service has been shut down in less than 1 month. In my opinion it is a very poor and irresponsible act of Openfeint / GREE. Even if they did send out notices properly, many developers would definitely be happier if they can have more time to react.

Although my games are not very popular, I really wish I could backup the online leaderboard data of them. It may sound silly, but they are proofs that my games were once played/enjoyed by those top players. I feel sad that I am not able to do so now.

I am thinking to host my own server for making my own online leaderboard system. It would cost me time and money so I have to think really carefully before going for that.

Ninja Dodge! is my first Android creation and I learned a lot in its development. It uses Openfeint for both of its online leaderboard and achievement system. As a result, these two parts are currently broken when Openfeint is gone. Also, there are many things that I want to redesign/rewrite in Ninja Dodge!, therefore, I decided to unpublish it in the official Android Market for now.

Maybe, in the future, there would be Ninja Dodge! 2. :)

Farewell, Ninja Dodge!!