Beta done?

I think the beta is done!

• 4.1.1 bugs fixed (mostly).  
• Last monster color change made (W.A.A. legs) 
• Registration tests performed.  
• Four initial test accounts archived

I made a new account a few days ago, Kathleen made one tonight.  Then she promptly went out and found 8 monsters so she could be the top Legend.  I jokingly got mad at her and said everyone was supposed to be at 0 when we launched beta, and she pointed out that I'd found 2 and I gave myself a head start a few days ago, LOL.

Anyway, too late tonight to send it out, but I plan to send in the morning.

Google Maps API Circle issue is Android 4.1.1 only

After many hours of making test examples and posting some things online over past 4 days, I've basically confirmed my initial suspicion that the map problem I'm seeing is only an issue on Android 4.1.1.  I assumed that was the most popular version, but now I see that it is only used by 2% of Android users!!

http://www.zdnet.com/android-4-1-jelly-bean-reaches-1-8-percent-market-share-7000005096/

So this maybe isn't *AS* big a deal as I thought, and hopefully they will fix it soon, and it will go away.  I already posted it to a Google Maps issue list:

http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=4597&thanks=4597&ts=1353784580

Now I'm going to try to detect the Android version and do an ugly flashing workaround for 4.1.1 only.  Then we'll be ready for beta with a nice little bonus from upgrading PhoneGap.

Back button override fixed in Android PhoneGap!

As a long shot, I updated Cordova/PhoneGap from Cordova 2.0 to Cordova 2.2 to see if it would fix my maps issue. It didn't, as I expected.  But it totally fixed another problem that I'd spent a few hours on! LOL

I've always had trouble with the back button closing the Android app.  You'd think it would just go back to the last HTML page you were on, but that (almost) never happens.  Once every 50 times or so that I hit the back button it goes back a page, and I have no idea why.  Usually it closes the app.  So as a workaround, I wanted to override the back button to give the user a confirm message about closing the app.  The examples posted for how to override back button were pretty simple so I could never understand why it didn't work for me.  I always hoped it would magically start working with a Cordova upgrade, and it has!

Now just have to figure out this dang map issue in order for Beta to be ready....

Beta setback - Android 4.1.1 maps

First post on the MonsterCache blog!  I've been working on the game for about 9 months now.  I've always thought it would be interesting at some point to blog about the process.  I thought that the Beta launch might be a good time to start.  I'll probably gradually fill in more details of the past 9 months as I write more.

As it turns out, we were JUST about to launch the beta when I hit a problem.  I was developing with Android 2.3.  Then I got a new phone a couple weeks ago and started testing with Android 4.x.  I found a minor issue with how I was doing local storage, fixed it, and all was good!  Then....here is the email I sent to Kent and Matt:

I was *SO* close to sending out the beta email last night.  I inactivated my old account, decided to do one last registration test, registered a new account and then I found a big problem.  On the Google Map, its occasionally showing two nets and two circles that are slightly offset, so it looks terrible.  Seems to do it about 1 out of every 4 times the map comes up.  It appears to be only on the new Android, still seems fine on my old phone. Sometimes the nets and maps stay on top of each other, so maybe I jut never noticed it last week, but I actually think it started with an Android update a few days ago.  

Anyway, I need to see if I can fix it, or hope that an Android update comes and fixes it.  Already banged my head against the desk for a couple hours last night but couldn't figure out what in the world is happening.  Could also be PhoneGap, so I'll try updating that next.  But probably won't be resolved until after Thanksgiving. :-(  Sorry.

And here are some screen shots of how the issue looks: