Planets goes Mobile!

Saturday, April 11, 2015
Since late last year the Planets team has been working on a secret project to bring Planets Nu to your phones and tablets. We are excited to announce that we're ready to release the first Alpha version of Planets Nu for Android! 

The goal of this project is to make the game accessible to more people and on more platforms. Mobile gaming has the largest world user base today and is still growing at a tremendous rate. 

So we would now like to enlist the community's help in giving us feedback and testing on this very early release. Please be aware, it does have some bugs and some missing features but you can definitely play your turns. As with all things we've done on Planets Nu we believe getting code into the communities hands as early as possible helps us produce the best end product.  

To use the new version you must have an Android device with at least Android version 4.4 (kitkat). We have been testing on a Nexus 5 phone so it probably runs best on that. For reference on the Nexus 5 zooming and panning are smooth and fast and the VCRs run quickly and smoothly. If you experience slow zooming or panning or slow VCRs. Please let us know and tell us about your device.  

iPhone and iPad users - don't despair! To build the new user interface we have been using a cross platform framework (http://xamarin.com for curious technologists) which will allow us to get an iPhone and iPad version out with about 95% code re-use. We already have iPhone versions working in development they just need a little more love before we can go public with them. The product must be also be at a more polished level before we are permitted to put it in the App store. The feedback the Android community brings will be applied to the iPhone versions as we go forward. 

The new UI can do every function needed to actually order your ships, planets and starbases through your turn. Missing features however include:
  • Sign Up new accounts
  • Viewing the main activity feed (you can see the in-game activity feed)
  • Sending messages
  • Viewing game information screens
  • Viewing player profiles/history etc.
  • Joining new games
  • Creating new games
  • Tutorial functionality
While there are quite a few missing features as listed above the UI is fully functional for playing your turns. A great deal of time and energy has been put into the design and play mechanics to make playing a turn actually enjoyable and intuitive on the small screen and touch interface. 

As an experienced web player you may find that it takes some time to adapt to the new design. We have tried to keep many things familiar to the web interface but have had to simplify things a great deal to fit on tiny phone screens. 

Innovative design features include:
  • Touch scanning - touch any object to get a quick scan view - this replaces the "hover" info as you look at objects. Scans will stay on the screen for 5 seconds - touch an object in the scan to activate that item and view its info further

  • Zoom selection - If you touch the map where two objects are very close together the map will automatically zoom in so that you can select the item you intended to select - upon selection the map will automatically zoom back out (unless you pan or manually zoom). 

  • "Super Zoom" - The " + " button in the bottom right of the screen can be toggled on and off. If you have a ship screen open and activate the super zoom you will get up, down, left, right controls for moving your waypoint by 1ly units. If you touch the map with super zoom enabled you'll zoom in to the warp well level on the point you touched. Toggle off the super zoom to return to your previous zoom level. 

  • +/- toolbox - When you choose to build factories or mines, or transfer resources between ships or planets the +/- toolbox will appear. This allows you to select a specific resource or building type and then increment/decrement the amounts.  

  • Waypoint locking - On the touch screen it is particularly easy to accidentally move a waypoint, we have added waypoint locking for "ready" ships so that you can prevent accidental changes. 

Again, please be aware that this is a very early Alpha release. There are many small things that are obvious. Our main concern right now is to get the product out onto more devices and in front of more people so we can identify performance issues that may exist and hear your ideas on feedback that may improve the UI as we go forward. We will continue to improve it by adding more features and fixing bugs as we identify them. 

Please don't post negative reviews on the Google Play store. If you have bug fixes or feedback post them in the Activity feed on Planets Nu.

The game will run in both Portrait or Landscape orientations. We have primarily been designing the in-game play to be played in Landscape and feel it works better that way. Let us know what you end up doing.  

Where do I find it?

You can find Planets Nu in the Google Play App Store online or on your device: 


A couple of screenshots can be seen there as well. 

Summary


This is a very big and exciting step for Planets Nu. Bringing VGA Planets to mobile is as big a step as bringing VGA Planets to the web. We hope this will expand our reach with the game and make playing Planets Nu easier and more fun. Your testing and feedback will help us make this new experience great. 

Have fun and thank you!