Category Archives: Tic-Tac-Toe

Android, Auto Respond, Tic-Tac-Toe

Auto Respond 1.2.8.2, Tic Tac Toe 1.1.1

I just published a small update to Auto Respond. This update moved some menu items around a bit, and added a new item “My Other Apps”. This will take you to a market listing where all of my apps will be listed. Right now that list only includes Auto Respond and Tic Tac Toe.

I also published a small update to Tic Tac Toe. I added menus, similar to the ones in Auto Respond (with the exceptions of settings… although I may add a couple small settings later.)

There is now a Credits screen, a Help screen, and a few other menu items.

The “My Other Apps” item was also added in Tic Tac Toe. PLEASE NOTE that if you click this item in Tic Tac Toe and are using a tablet, you will ONLY see Tic Tac Toe in that list, as Auto Respond is not currently available on tablets. (I hope to eventually build in functionality for DeskSMS and TabletSMS, at which time it will be available on tablets.)

As usual, these updates are not available quite yet, but they have been published. They should get pushed through Google’s servers in a couple hours.

Android, Auto Respond, Tic-Tac-Toe

New apps!

I think both apps are ready!

Auto Respond:

The only thing I didn’t finish is adding the new settings to individual schedules. To tell the truth, I’ve just been too lazy to do it.

Change Log:

  • Fixed a bug with “Silence Ringer” option
  • Fixed a bug with “Desk Dock Response Message” in “Dock Settings” screen
  • Fixed a bug which caused the “OK” button on the main settings screen to disappear on orientation change
  • Made responding to text messages optional
  • Changed some more “Cancel” buttons to “OK”
  • Added Analytics to learn how users interact with the app
  • Added “Share App” option to menu
Tic Tac Toe:
It’s done! Roughly 36 hours after I started, I have a playable version of Tic Tac Toe with 3 difficulties:
  • Easy – chooses a random number, and if the spot is free, it moves there. If not, it chooses again until it finds an empty spot
  • Medium – If it can win, it wins. If it can block, it blocks. Otherwise, same random number scheme
  • Impossible – If you can win (not tie, actually win) I did something wrong.
I have a very simple icon for it, and some basic graphics… nothing too amazing it’s Tic Tac Toe!
I do still need to add some advertisements to it, just to attempt to bring in some small amounts of cash, but that’s quick and easy.
Neither of these have been released yet, but I will likely upload them late tonight or early tomorrow.

Android, Tic-Tac-Toe

New App: Tic-Tac-Toe

Yesterday I started some initial work on a new app. This is actually something that I already have programmed as a DOS based C++ program, I just need to build a GUI and translate the code from C++ to Java.

Background
In college I received a project to build a Tic-Tac-Toe game. That was the only requirement… build a working Tic-Tac-Toe game. There was extra credit involved if you were able to make your game unbeatable. For those who don’t know, by using the correct logic while playing, it is possible to never allow your opponent to win a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, their only choices are lose or tie.

After completing the project, our professor told us that had we even made a working game that was  two human players, without a computer player aspect, we still would have gotten full credit, due to the vague requirement specification of the project.

I didn’t need the extra credit (I already had above 100% in the class due to all of the extra credit he offered) but I was bored and wanted the challenge, so I made my game unbeatable. I later ended up modifying it to give it 3 difficulties: Easy, Medium, and Impossible.

Difficulties
Easy simply picks a random spot to move into. If that spot is already taken, it generates another random spot, and so on until it finds one that’s empty and moves into it.

Medium checks to see if it can win, or if you can win. If it can win, it wins. If you can win, it attempts to block you. If neither player is in a position to win, it falls back to the random location.

Impossible uses a HUGE amount of nested if statements (72 if I recall correctly) (correction – the 72 nested if statements were for a different game. This one actually only has about 20 if statements for the computer logic) to make sure that either the computer wins or the game ends as a tie. You cannot defeat impossible difficulty. (At least, not that I know of. Feel free to try to prove me wrong when I release the app!)

Where I am Now
So far I have only begun work on this. I spent some time yesterday working on the initial user interface. It starts with a selection of 1 player or 2 players, if you select 1 player it takes you to a selection of difficulty.

After that, so far nothing happens. I haven’t even looked at my old code yet to start implementing game play.

I will begin working on this as well as Auto Respond, and will hopefully have a product available soon(ish)! (I still need to work on the graphics even. You know, the icon and whatnot.)