Android App and Game Development: Customizing Dialogs –The Easiest Way

Native dialogs in Android are boring! if you are developing an app having some cool and customized theme then doing something about those dull dialogs is a must. They wouldn’t just compliment the overall look of your application. I faced this kinda scenario recently and while experimenting and trying different suggestions on forums, I finally got around it and made it to work!

First things first, as far as my experience went, AlertDialog is not going to help you here. It just don’t get rid of that black background that is there by default (talking about gingerbread dialogs here). No matter what you do, it’ll always show the black background from behind your image (if you have any). Anyways, to create a custom dialog, we need to create a layout first in a separate xml file. Here’s an example:

This is just a simple layout having a background image that has irregular borders. Now we just need to write a few lines of code in order to make it work:

Here, we are setting the background color to transparent in order to get rid of the default dialog background color. After that, we just need to assign the layout resource to the dialog and that gets the job done.

Notice the resultDlg.getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DIM_BEHIND); This will remove the dim effect that makes your parent layout a bit darker. You can also set some additional flags like adding a blurred effect to the background/host activity from which this dialog is invoked. To do this, simply use the addFlags function with FLAG_BLUR_BEHIND flag. Here’s the exact statement:

resultDlg.getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_BLUR_BEHIND);

This will create a very nice blur effect which I find more neat than the original dim effect. And that ends this post here. Feel free to comment and ask questions, I’ll try to answer them as swiftly as I can.

Checkers Redux is out now!

The wait is finally over, we have just unleashed our new checkers game on Android, GetJar and LGWorld marketplaces. Here’s the game’s description:

“Here comes the rebirth of one of the most played and entertaining board games on earth; The Checkers!

Play in Single player mode with your phone or in Multiplayer mode with your friends. Track your past performances against your phone and become a Checkers/Draught Master!

Play on Beach, on Leaves, on Paper and with Smileys (all selectable themes, more to come in future versions)

Choose from 4 difficulty levels. From Beginners to Advance level players, this game is for all. Challenge your inner Checkers/Draughts player to beat the phone in the best possible ways!

Intuitive touch controls make it easy to play checkers on your phone, just tap a piece and then tap where you want it to go. If you accidentally hit the wrong spot, the undo buttons let you take back your move and try again.”

Checkout the video after the break!

Here are the Android Market Links:

Paid: https://market.android.com/details?id=excelarz.games.checkersRedux.paid

Free: https://market.android.com/details?id=excelarz.games.checkersRedux.Free

Checkers Redux is out now!

The wait is finally over, we have just unleashed our new checkers game on Android, GetJar and LGWorld marketplaces. Here’s the game’s description:

“Here comes the rebirth of one of the most played and entertaining board games on earth; The Checkers!

Play in Single player mode with your phone or in Multiplayer mode with your friends. Track your past performances against your phone and become a Checkers/Draught Master!

Play on Beach, on Leaves, on Paper and with Smileys (all selectable themes, more to come in future versions)

Choose from 4 difficulty levels. From Beginners to Advance level players, this game is for all. Challenge your inner Checkers/Draughts player to beat the phone in the best possible ways!

Intuitive touch controls make it easy to play checkers on your phone, just tap a piece and then tap where you want it to go. If you accidentally hit the wrong spot, the undo buttons let you take back your move and try again.”

Checkout the video after the break!

Artwork For Mobile Apps and Games

Here’s the artwork that I did for some Android/iPhone/WP 7 games and apps.

Checkers Redux (For Windows Phone 7) Artwork:

 

Following fighters and bombers were made for an iPhone game. Unfortunately the game wasn’t completed successfully and was not released in the end. I got their model’s profile from the internet and painted them in Paint.NET:

 

Checkerzzz (Android Game) artwork:

 

Other Android Apps Designs:

That wraps it up. Do give your feedback about all these designs and work that I covered in this post and in following:

https://aubykhan.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/old-artwork-revisited-part-1/

https://aubykhan.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/old-artwork-revisited-part-2/

Old Artwork, Revisited: Part 2

The rest of the 3D stuff renders will be covered in this part.

First, the Airwolf:

KITT, from Knight Rider’s series:

The StreetHawk:

Miraj from Silver Hawk (cartoon series), I found very few reference images for this so it is sort of an approximation:

A scene comprising of all the super vehicles :

Old Artwork, Revisited: Part 1

A while back, I was having a look at my old stuff, the artwork (3D and 2D) that I made over the years. I eventually thought of sharing them here on this blog through a series of posts. These posts will not contain much description but they’ll mostly contain images.

For 3D models, I used 3DS Max; 2D designing was done in GIMP and Paint.NET. Though the models are very low-poly and are not refined but that’s what I could do back then. Some of the artwork was specifically made for games while most of them were just done for exploration and fun .

First up is the artwork that I did for my Final Year Project (year 2006). It was an RTS game and these models were mostly poly-models which were made from a single cube:

 

And all rendered together:

 

 

The buildings, textures were mostly picked from CnC Generals

 

Enough for this post will post the rest of the work in the next one.