darkSpyro

Hello, as some of you know from this post: //forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=77609 that I'm the developer for an iPhone App that helps track skylander characters. When I build the original version I was really pretty new to Skylanders so I kind of guessed on a lot of things. It went ... ok. Fortunately, Ghost Roaster came along and helped me out a huge amount on the data of all the skylanders.

Now that more Swap Force information is coming out I feel that it's time to revise my current build into something more useful to users. I think tracking what you have is useful, but I'd like the next version to also have information about the characters.

So I'm reaching out to the community for any new ideas, here's some on my list:
iPad Version!!
Better 'Series' Recognition. I'm thinking to use the base colors Orange, Green, Blue as part of the UI.
Information about and shown with the characters the new Abilities like Rocket and Stealth.
A builder to track the combinations that you have or have not tried. Like if you made Wash Charge (Wash Buckler and Magna Charge) give it a 1-5 star rating.
More stock pictures if I can avoid the Activision Legal department. Ability to take your own photos.
Various character Stats.
Device Sync
Better Searching by Character Stats. Like: Find all characters I own that are between levels 10 and 13, are Tech, and dont have all upgrades.
Package Tracking. Track the 3+ packs, Battle Packs, Adventure Packs, etc.. Not just the items inside of them.


For those not familiar, my app is in the Apple App Store for Free, and I plan for it to always be Free. I'm not trying to sell anything here, I just want a product that people really like.
(https://itunes.apple.com/au/ap...d599731229?mt=8)

Setting this up for the iPad would definitely make me take another look. Yours was the best of the various Skylanders apps out there but was just too cluttered with as much information as you were trying to include within the limitations of the iPhone/iPod's display. Some suggestions I would like to see (both in an iPhone as well as an iPad version):

Collapsable accordions (such as the ability to hide all Skylanders of a certain element under the element name in that view)
Global display configuration options (such as the ability to have Skylanders sorted by their game in any/all tabs instead of all dumped together, by element, etc.)

The main thing that's kept from actively using your app is the clutteredness. It wasn't showing me, at a glance, what I needed to know. When we're playing, my wife and I have a couple of pages of graph paper that we keep up with everybody's stats, etc., as you can grab it, scan to who you need and go on.

Please don't take this as a complaint or criticism as to what you've accomplished with your app. It's great for what it is, it's just not (in my personal opinion) not quite polished/user friendly enough for me to use on a consistent basis. I got the newest version yesterday evening and have only had a few moments with it here and there, but it looks like you've made great strides. Making an iPad specific version (or giving the app the ability to expand to the iPad's display and give all the details more room apart) would go a long way toward making this a staple of my gaming evenings. Having the ability sort how I want and display only the specific info that I want would make it a must have.

Hope this helps.

-Doug

I really want the ability to track based on packs sold--I've said it before so sorry if toy already know--but all singles/triples/battle/adventures
Would LOVE that. I have every app available and I use the one I've adapted to semi meet this need by taking photos of my packs. At least I can reference what we have anytime. But I wish there were photos of all so I could have a "needed pack list"

Quote: shelly9871

I really want the ability to track based on packs sold--I've said it before so sorry if toy already know--but all singles/triples/battle/adventures
Would LOVE that. I have every app available and I use the one I've adapted to semi meet this need by taking photos of my packs. At least I can reference what we have anytime. But I wish there were photos of all so I could have a "needed pack list"

Dividing the app into two "tabs," one purely for collecting (what I own, what I want, how I got it, etc.) and another for stats for your figures might make this possible and yet make the app easily accessible and desirable for those of us who collect but mostly want an app for quick access to info (who do I have, what level are they, etc.).

Xerxxees, if you're interested, I could mock up some examples of what I'm talking about, if you're interested and what we've suggested would even be possible. Thinking more (as I've been able, as I'm still at work and will be for another couple of hours), having more specific information for each character on the character-level page (like tick boxes for each individual heroic challenge a character has done so you can look up which ones specifically, but if you don't click down that far, it will just give you a summary total like in the current character screen). If something like this could be added and you think it worthwhile, I'd be happy to assist in the data mining/collection/etc.

-Doug

shelly9871 - Yep, I'll see what I can do.

darkchylde28 -
Quote:

Please don't take this as a complaint or criticism as to what you've accomplished with your app

All good. I want a better app and I need to hear a lot of the negativities so I can turn around with something better.

Quote:

Xerxxees, if you're interested, I could mock up some examples of what I'm talking about

Definitely. There are 2 main issue areas I have:
1) I suck at UI. It's the case in my day job too and this is no exception. We have a UI guy that puts the designs together and I write the code to make it all work.
2) Collecting the data. It took me forever to just get the basic list of figures together. And once I had that list, turns out I was wrong on many of them. I originally wanted more figure specific data like stats, element, images, videos, etc. I gave up after much frustration. I now have a much better knowledge of Skylanders, so should be easier. But, there's just sooo much to collect.

Also, you mentioned you just updated, so I'm not sure which version you were running on. If it's a lot older you can take a look at the Tag Lists too where you could mark guys as 'Active' during your session.

cant you make one for the psvita too?.... you know, sony is all for indie now days...

Quote: kappapopm

cant you make one for the psvita too?.... you know, sony is all for indie now days...

I don't have one to test with. However, one of my options is just a Web Version. So if you have a browser then it would work.

Quote: darkchylde28

Quote: shelly9871

I really want the ability to track based on packs sold--I've said it before so sorry if toy already know--but all singles/triples/battle/adventures
Would LOVE that. I have every app available and I use the one I've adapted to semi meet this need by taking photos of my packs. At least I can reference what we have anytime. But I wish there were photos of all so I could have a "needed pack list"

Dividing the app into two "tabs," one purely for collecting (what I own, what I want, how I got it, etc.) and another for stats for your figures might make this possible and yet make the app easily accessible and desirable for those of us who collect but mostly want an app for quick access to info (who do I have, what level are they, etc.).

Xerxxees, if you're interested, I could mock up some examples of what I'm talking about, if you're interested and what we've suggested would even be possible. Thinking more (as I've been able, as I'm still at work and will be for another couple of hours), having more specific information for each character on the character-level page (like tick boxes for each individual heroic challenge a character has done so you can look up which ones specifically, but if you don't click down that far, it will just give you a summary total like in the current character screen). If something like this could be added and you think it worthwhile, I'd be happy to assist in the data mining/collection/etc.

-Doug

I say post your wireframe here and let the public decide---everyone thinks they can develop something better but in a lot of cases it's personal preferences.

Also, now that you know the second generation of a character is "series 2" etc. you may want to start noting series on all characters, otherwise you'll be updating the names on each game release. But this is my personal quirk/preference.

I second shelly's desire to keep track of the packaging aspects for collectors as well.

I just started collecting last month and I would like to see some features which would make this app really helpful. These would be extremely helpful for those who are trying to use family and friend to complete the collection who might not be as familiar with the characters.

Here are some ideas from me:

• The ability to share your collection with other users and synchronize automatically like grocery gadget - http://www.grocerygadgets.com/...dgets-work.aspx.
  
• Pictures, or links to pictures for each character and series (good for garage sales, or flea markets).
  
• Share your 'Own List' the same as the 'Wish List'.
  
• Webpage version for people without an iOS device.
  
• Sorting based on Series, or different tabs for each series.
  

I really like the app, and I've used it several times while out to jog my memory for what I am looking for.

The only thing I personally would like different is under the Heroics Completed area. I wish I could mark which specific heroics I've completed rather than how many. For example, if I do not own the character that unlocks heroic #1 but own 2-10, I can check off 2, 3, 4, etc. I would find this more helpful when I get on to play and can easily see who I need to play rather than how many they've played overall.

^I second this. Problem is, not sure how they plan on doing this in the future, so the very concept of Heroics might change. I'm sure the developer would have to literally keep track of whatever performs upgrades of stats on skylanders and track it per game.

Would it be possible to have a tab, like elements, that organizes figures by what kind they are? For example, Series 1 (SA), Series 2 (Giants), Lightcore (Giants), Giants, Sidekicks, Items, and so on? Sorting by elements is nice, but working on my collection, I find myself wanting to know this information much more often.

^Characters and their series editions will vary and isn't cleanly divided into games. I'd like to know all versions of a character and the game that character was introduced. For example, Hot Head only has a Series 1 character that was introduced in Giants, for Eruptor that was SSA. I think to preserve our sanity we simply need to refer to the introduction of ANY character be "Series 1". For Chill, we got multiple Series 1 characters for example. If I'm not mistaken, this is the nomenclature Activision is FINALLY choosing to recognize and even on the packaging (about time).

All good ideas here. I've been trying to figure out how to handle all the packagin variations, just not finding a good solution with so little space.

Magyk,
1. The synchronize feature is absolutely on the list. In fact it's been on the list since before I started. I'm waiting for the some SDK upgrades and then I'll handle the syncing either through a Dropbox or Facebook login. The main issue is images. Storing the text of characters is crazy small. However, if people have images, that makes it more complicated as the size constraints are a big issue.
2. Pictures. Also on the list. See #1. My thought right now is to allow users to save the images as THE character image, as opposed to the 'group level' that I provide now. I'm still not certain what my options are with Activisions Legal department.
3. Via Email and Facebook, you can make your own lists and share them. Just change the sort and it should be doable now.
4. Webpage. Web development is actually my bread and butter so I can probably go all out with this. Just a matter of time. I'd like to tie it in with #1 though.
5. Sorting. More on this later.

Kluless3 and Ghoast Roaster,
For me, this is mostly a matter of data gathering. I'd need the list of all characters and the heroics that are associated with them. The ideal is even being able to create a report that shows which characters haven't done which heroics. Once I had the list of characters and heroics I could even cross reference that to the 'own' list to make it more straightforward. Lots of work to do though....


GhostRoaster and RyukiSurvice,
Ghost and I talked aout this before, but I believe with the new packaging seen for Swap Force it's going to be official that the Series will be based on when the character was released. With that I'm hoping I can also use the base color in the UI. So an SG char will have Orange text, or base, or something. A small difference, but at least one that will be recognizable. And for 'new' people, the whole concept of Series is a little weird. I know I was very confused when I first started.

I think I'm going to need to introduce a pretty big change to how the UI works when Swap Force comes out. Right now I've gone with a 'group', then details approach. Pick the Group, like 'Jet-Vac Group', then all the variations underneath it. Since most characters have had a SSA release and then SG version. And some of the Giants had different versions too so it worked .... well enough. With Swap Force and the intro of so many more characters, I don't think that option is really going to fly anymore. I think a more advanced filter to quickly identify:
1. SSA, SG, SSF
2. By Name
3. By Element
4. Specialty: Giant, Lightcore, etc.
4. Own / Don't Own
5. Non Figures, like Sidekicks, Expansion packs, Packages, etc.

What that will look like, I don't really know. But right now I have 5 tabs, but I think I can take that down to 1 or 2.


Edit: Oh yeah, how the **** will I track 1/2 a swap force characters stats!?!?!

Quote: Xerxxees

3. Via Email and Facebook, you can make your own lists and share them. Just change the sort and it should be doable now.

I see the option now....totally missed that.

Just wanted to say thank you for the awesome app, use it all the time. I would love to see the sets broken down by game series. It would be cool to be able to break down what figures you own based on which set they come from. I hate looking at the "own it" tab and seeing that I have only 78/173. I realize that some of them are figures that aren't even out yet or are very hard to get without being independently wealthy but. I just think it would be cool to go into Giants separately and being able to compare my haves and have nots that way. Thanks again.

Check out skylandercharacterlist.com and look at the new "packs"
Check lists...one for SSA and one for Giants--
I'd love to have that info on app.

Quote: shelly9871

Check out skylandercharacterlist.com and look at the new "packs"
Check lists...one for SSA and one for Giants--
I'd love to have that info on app.

Do not fear shelly9871, I have not forgotten you.

Yay---I knew you hadn't--I have faith!!

Quote: Xerxxees

With that I'm hoping I can also use the base color in the UI. So an SG char will have Orange text, or base, or something. A small difference, but at least one that will be recognizable. And for 'new' people, the whole concept of Series is a little weird. I know I was very confused when I first started.

The color will tell us what game it was released in, but it will NOT communicate the series stuff. It really does depend when the character got released. Much of the confusion is because they never note the first generation release as "Series 1" in the game they are released but only in subsequent game. Even in the game demo I don't see them noting the new guys as "series 1" so I suspect they won't be re-releasing the "special guests" and as such may be devoid of series notation in game (Giants and Swaplanders) while everyone else will get series notation starting with series 2 and forward (series 1 notation only occurs on the core figures on the game following their release).

In short, be consistent Activision--it really is ok to call something Series 1 in the game they are released in. And--do it for everyone please.

Sorry, I wasn't specific enough. My plan is to have both. Some type of (S1), (S2), (S3) designation AND also have a color. So if it's Orange S1 then you can conclude that it was one of the new characters in Giants. For people that reference by S1, S2, S3 then they'll be ok and the people that reference by release game will also have an idea.

I may also just omit S1 entirely if there is no S2.

Since swap Force will require a hole game and a new portal for everyone, they may also update the text thats displayed on screen. I assume if we watched enough trailers we might be able to identify it.

Ok, been busy, but trying to get back to it.

Here's an idea I had for helping users (all users from noob to expert) identify which release/base/product a character belongs too. The addition is of the colored bars under the elements. These will match the bases of the figures themselves. So a Spyros Series 1 Cynder has the green box. Whereas Giants has orange.

My question for everyone is if that makes sense? Does it help? Good/Bad?

Thanks again,

Pic:
<removed>

Base color is a great idea. They seem to be changing how they want their characters to be named, so I suspect it will be an eternal source of confusion depending on when you jumped onto the ship. The base color helps in this regard.

Now, you DO know the naming you're giving to reposed characters totally breaks your naming scheme? Probably need to wait and see how the character registers and what's on the box.

I'm thinking Cynder - Series 3 Phantom may be more appropriate. If you are adding the game to the description, then do it for all.

In other words, be consistent. (I know what you're going to say---maybe Activision needs to do that too).

Lastly, sort the last by game (SSA, SG and then SSF) and allow the user to sort in chronological or reverse order.

Say, if you don't intend to make any money on this, why not put it on Chinese third party app markets? Many older Chinese Android phones (mine included) can't use the Play store, and if your app's successful enough, it'll be added by someone else anyway onto the Chinese third party markets (it may have already, I recall seeing some collection-tracking app once).
EDIT: I relooked on my phone's pre-installed third party app store and didn't find SkyLister, but did find something called Skylanders Guru Pro.
EDIT2:Quote: Xerxxees

Ok, been busy, but trying to get back to it.

Here's an idea I had for helping users (all users from noob to expert) identify which release/base/product a character belongs too. The addition is of the colored bars under the elements. These will match the bases of the figures themselves. So a Spyros Series 1 Cynder has the green box. Whereas Giants has orange.

My question for everyone is if that makes sense? Does it help? Good/Bad?

Thanks again,

Pic:

Not bad. If possible, i think a ring of color around the elemental icon would look better than a bar. Another idea is the text for the title of the figure could be made the corresponding color.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Now, you DO know the naming you're giving to reposed characters totally breaks your naming scheme? Probably need to wait and see how the character registers and what's on the box.

I'm thinking Cynder - Series 3 Phantom may be more appropriate. If you are adding the game to the description, then do it for all.

In other words, be consistent.

I completely agree with this. That way if you're looking for Cynder, phantom or otherwise, you can easily find it. (Although I haven't looked at it lately, maybe it is just as easy, but I'm a bit OCD and it would probably annoy me even if its easy.)

How about you use image recognition to get the character?

You could take a photo of the base which I think is unique for each figure, and from that outline and colour you have most of the information!

You could have a "quick Scan" mode that constantly checks the live camera feed and then logs each Skylander base it recognises for later inputting into the app.
That would make it easy to enter a large collection from scratch.

For the naming: Yeah, at this point I just wanted to make Swap Force stick out a lot more. This way it was very obvious that the character was swap force. I'll definitely be changing it around. I'm hoping to see more details on Activision on how they're going to handle naming in game.

Sorting: Yep, once I put the colors out there it seemed obvious that I needed to change that around. Whereas without the color I never really even thought about it.

If possible, i think a ring of color around the elemental icon would look better than a bar:
I like that idea. I'll have to see what I can do as I'm pretty graphic challenged. MS Paint is about as far as I can go.

Another idea is the text for the title of the figure could be made the corresponding color:
I thought about this first but the the green doesn't look very good. Blue and Orange aren't so bad. I might be able to go a darker green just for text.

How about you use image recognition to get the character?:
I like that idea, but unfortunately I'd need to have an image of every base character. Also, are the bases for the variants different or no?


Thanks for all the advice, I'll get back to my lab and see what i can work with.

Ok, I went with a bigger surface area and I think it works better.

What do you think about:
<img removed>

Edit: Switched the sort order as well to go by Spyros, Giants, Swap Force. Though I'll probably reverse that since more people will care about the new then old.

I think the block of color looks better than the line underneath it. I think it stands out more and is just more appealing to the eye. :)

I like it!

I've updated the image again and this time it's with new naming conventions. This is tricky IMO because Activision hasn't really set official guidelines so I'm trying to guess based on their new packaging.



Main 2 issues are:
New prefixes like 'Blizzard' for Chill and 'Phantom' for Cynder.
Series #. Now that I have the colors to help designate Spyro, Giants, Swap Force, I'm trying an abbreviated S1, S2, S3 to match the packaging designation.

So above you can see Cynder and Chill which have a lot of variants, so it's a pretty good test.

Edit: Changed all the characters to Series Abbreviations, S1, S2, S3.

Edit: Changed all the characters to Series Abbreviations, S1, S2, S3.