e4c solutions

Just before the European launch of the iPad, Apple expanded the What’s Hot list into each app category. Pad Math was on the list just during the last week prior to European launch. Although we are not on the updated What’s Hot list this week, it was an honor to have a second app featured on iTunes. Zanshin, our martial arts combat game application, was featured on iTunes by Apple during the busy 2009 Holiday season.

It has been a while since I posted on the e4c solutions blog.  I have been busy with some work outside e4c solutions which has been causing a bit of slowdown on the app side of things.  Without further delay, here’s what’s been happening:

Pad Math was released on iPad intro day back on April 1.  Using the vast screen real estate of the iPad, it allows kids to practice long division and multi-digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  The student is given huge freedom to answer the questions the way they want.  You can use borrow/carry notation or not.  You can do a lot of intermediate calculations for multi digit math or not.  Students using practice mode will be notified instantly of any incorrect digits they “write” down.  Test mode will give the students a preset number of problems to answer and any incorrect problems can be revised at the end of the test, if desired.

Way back when the iPhone/iPod Touch developer program came out in 2008, Pad Math was the first thing that came to mind to build on this new platform.  It was just that the screen on the iPhone was too small to do this right.  Now with the iPad, I finally built it.  I have gotten good feedback via email and I’ve incorporated a lot of those comments in version 1.1 which was released to Apple at the end of April.  Thanks for making Pad Math a consistent Top 100 Educational App!!!

I’ve tweaked the UI of Conversational Tagalog a bit.  It’s the first update in over a year!!!  I’m very proud of Conversational Tagalog.  Not only was it our first application on iTunes (and the only Filipino app in all of iTunes at the time), it’s done very well for us even after this long and with a lot of competitors.  I’ll be adding some paid optional features in the Conversational Tagalog app mini store in the future:  study aids and more phrases.  By the way, if things go well, watch out for Conversational Tagalog on the Android phones this summer.

Zanshin 1.2 is finally arriving to iTunes in early June.  We just wanted to finish up our December 2009 “What’s Hot” iTunes featured app for those that have supported us.  Here’s a sample of things that are in it:

• Lifebar free play mode – similar to arcade style fighting games where hits cause a reduction in lifebar and when the lifebar goes to zero, the match is over.
• 8-10 new attacks
• A couple of mini games
• A new controller that players will want to try out
• New stage music

Barring any unforeseen delays, it should go to Apple for review by the beginning of June.  For the many folks who own Zanshin, we hope you enjoy the update.  We want Zanshin to be the best it can be.  It will definitely surprise you!!

Now, for e4c solutions’ new app stuff, we’ve got a couple of things coming down the pipeline.  One of them is a very nice educational application that we think many will like.  The other is a huge app undertaking and we’re in the planning stages right now just trying to get our arms around the entire thing.  Assuming things work out with resources (time and headcount), we will do it.

I guess that’s all for now.  We appreciate your comments and suggestions via email.  Thanks again for your support!!

ZANSHIN Lite 1.1 has been released!  Since it was already based on version 1.1 of ZANSHIN, all that I added was the ability to make an “In-App” purchase for a full game upgrade from the “LITE” version.  ZANSHIN Lite update releases will mirror future full version updates. As I will detail in another article, ZANSHIN 1.2 will be a big update.

ZANSHIN 1.1 has been released according to an email from Apple earlier today!!  Although it still isn’t in iTunes, I believe it will show up sometime later this evening.  Thanks again for everyone’s patience.  We hope you enjoy this release.

We are working on version 1.2 and it is coming along well.  Version 1.2 is a pretty big update and we want to make sure everything is done as “right” as we can.

ZANSHIN LITE 1.0 was released today on iTunes!!  Actually, ZANSHIN LITE was sent for review a number of days after ZANSHIN 1.1 and it came out earlier.  Wow!  What a quandary we’re in!!

Essentially, ZANSHIN LITE 1.0 is a lite version (a small subset) built off of ZANSHIN 1.1 so you can get a sneak peak of some of the improvements in 1.1.  It will allow the player to get a feel for the game before they buy the full version.

Here’s a quick rundown of the LITE version:

• Single player Tournament and Free Play modes only…NO TWO PLAYER MODES.
• EZ and LT controllers with only 11 of the 27 total fight moves (based on version ZANSHIN 1.1)….NO ACCESS TO FULL FL CONTROLLERS.
• Some menu enhancements seen in ZANSHIN 1.1 for Single Player modes
• NO PERSONALIZATION of game sounds/taunts or controller mappings.
• NO MINI GAMES (”DODGE” or “MARATHON”)

It is my hope that ZANSHIN 1.1 will be released soon.  Until that time, please keep in mind that the ZANSHIN LITE app has some features found in ZANSHIN 1.1 but 1.1 has NOT been posted on iTunes by Apple.

Just wanted to let you in on what’s going into Zanshin Version 1.2 available this January.  We are currently planning on the following things in no particular order:

• Add a new hybrid buttons type controller so that players can slide back and forth on the buttons to activate them.  No need to lift the finger off of the screen to press the other buttons in that controller.
• Revisit the now “legacy” button and swipe controllers for improvements and possible expansion.
• Add a new 2-Player only “Free Play” fighting option that will distract your fighting effectiveness.
• Add two new mini games.  One of them is a board breaking mini game dependent on first building up strength and then a finishing tap to determine accuracy.  The other mini game is gonna be a surprise.  We hope it works out as good as we think it will.
• Rearrange menu screens to allow for a separate “Mini Game” menu item that will then present the four mini games:  Marathon (Survival), Dodge, Board Breaking, and the surprise game.  A future release (maybe 1.3) will incorporate the mini games in between the tournament mode stages.
• Adding five new stage backgrounds.  A couple of them could have surprises.
• A few more fighting moves to choose from for the FL controllers.
• Add Pause game.
• Add the ability to “automatically” save the game after a particular stage for tournament mode.  When the player starts up the app again, the player will have the option to start at the save point or start a new game or keep the save point to play later.

We definitely want to get this to you all as soon as we possibly can.  Please let us know your comments.  In a few days, I’ll try to cover what we’ll be planning for Zanshin Version 1.3.

I submitted version 1.1 on 12/9 to Apple for review.  It includes the following changes:

1.  Adds the Back Throw (aka the Captain Kirk throw) fight move where the attacker pulls the opponent into him and, while rolling on his back, plants his foot into the opponents torso area to throw him.  It was a favorite move of Captain Kirk’s back in the original series.  Aside from looking just plain cool, it will be very effective in Zanshin.  Available in the FL (Full) controller setting only……NOT EZ or LT controllers.

2.  Adds the Hip Throw fight move.  Standard martial arts throw.  In Zanshin, this looks more like an “arcade” type throw.  Effective all the same.  Available in the FL (Full) controller setting only….NOT EZ or LT controllers.

3.  Updated game controls.  Here are the changes:

• FL Game Controller – Added a tap gesture on the left controller side to execute a “change direction”.  Added a tap gesture on the right controller side to execute a random throw (app will choose either a hip throw or a kirk throw randomly).
• LT Game Controller – Added a change direction tap on the left controller side.  Added more rear attack moves.  Instead of just performing one rear attack move (a back high side kick), the user will be able to choose a mid (spinning back kick) and low (back foot sweep) rear attack as well.
• EZ Game Controller – Added a change direction tap on the left controller side.  Added more rear attack moves.  Instead of just performing one rear attack move (a back high side kick), the user will be able to randomly perform a spinning back kick or back foot sweep as well.

4.  New “Dodge” mini game.  Fighters will have to dodge or destroy jars that are being thrown at them.  Tan colored jars can be avoided or attacked.  Blue colored jars will change direction a maximum 3 times in order to end your game.  It’s best that the fighter attack a blue jar to survive.  This mini game can be played with LT or FL Game Controllers.

5.  Updated Menu options flow.

6.  Added Back Throw and Hip Throw to the Move Settings screen.

7.  Added high score “time to beat” to Marathon and Dodge mini games.

8.  Spinning Back Kick animation now ends with the fighter facing the opposite direction.  Same with the Back Foot Sweep.

9.  A few bug fixes.

Great News!!  Our martial arts combat app ZANSHIN has been added to the iTunes App Store (PC/Mac) Games What’s Hot List!!

Just a few hours ago, we showed up on the Apple App Store Featured List!! Obviously, that’s great news for us and we wanted to let our customers know about it!

To get to the list, grab your iPhone/iPod Touch and touch on the “App Store” icon.  Enter the “Featured” area and tap on “Hot New Games”.  Now, navigate to the location shown in this screenshot:

In the next few releases, you’ll see a number of changes that will, quite frankly, make this game a lot different than this beginning version ZANSHIN 1.0. We hope you’ll enjoy the upcoming surprises we have in store for you. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email me at edgar.abadines@e4csolutions.com.

According to Apple on 11/25, iTunes and the App Store has been fixed. Great news!! If anyone sees anything strange at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me: edgar.abadines@e4csolutions.com.