Monthly Mewsfeed – May 2025

Last Month

May brought an unexpected amount of focus and motivation. I can see things being almost release-worthy and really want to get it through the door now, so let’s go!

On the other hand, my favourite game has just released a really cool sequel and I love it, so yeah 😅️

✅️ Implement x01 logic

The game mode that originally made me want “an app for that” is now done in Count Dartula V2. With the new UI delay between turn changes, things didn’t quite fit between versions and I could reuse less code than I hoped. On the other hand, V2 takes way better advantage of similarities between game modes, so I’m not too mad.

✅️ New x01 UI

With the shared code in V1, this has become so much easier that I had most of it implemented by accident because I wanted to see what my logic was doing. Satisfying!

✅️ Write/Translate x01 rules

Programmers hate documenting things and can’t do it in a way anyone else understands what they meant. Please let me know if you think I botched it!

✅️ Win screen ATW

The UI still needs a little cleanup after I changed the font, but the winner now sees a nice stats screen showing them how they did on the board!

✅️ Testing, testing and testing

This went reasonably well. I wish I had some better ideas about testing UI behaviour, but overall I am way more confident in the game modes than I was in V1.

✅️ Additional stuff

• Good start on the UI overhaul
  It’s not 100% done yet, but there isn’t much UI work left over before I feel OK to unleash it on users. Icons are adapted to the new colour palette, most UI is adapted to the new fonts, and the Count is now a prominent part of the game modes.
• Surprise game mode – Shanghai!
  Sometimes, I don’t feel like doing UI things. This month was such a time, so I added a new game mode instead! Shanghai is now playable, with rules, options and everything 🤓️
• Misc bits and bobs
  Things I missed, refactors, minor changes… happy to have them off the plate, but too boring to discuss.

Next Month

There is another long weekend ahead, but also one where I’ll be away, and probably several days of gaming… I’m just going to plan for a normal month and be happy if I end up with more time.

The release should be coming soon – or rather, replacing V1 with V2. If I get that done in June, that would be really cool 🙂

➡️ Fine-tune UI

Some small adaptions are still left to do here, so it is on the list. Afterwards, I think I will let other people tell me what sucks and go from there.

➡️ New license handling

Godot seems to have a way to access current license texts from within the engine, so I won’t have to check for up-to-date texts for every published app. It’s either new with one of the recent Godot versions, or I missed it before. Really boring, but I might only have to do it once? Worth a look, and it has to be done for a release anyway.

➡️ Test on phone

Touchscreens are just not the same as a PC interface, so who knows what will have to be adapted? Some thorough tapping of all the buttons will happen here.

➡️ Playstore release

The dreaded release. With a new version, all the texts and pictures and everything has to be updated as well. And I gave myself another language to do it in, too! Urrrrggggh 😒️ worst part of development.

➡️ New social media stuff?

The website is out of date (still shows Dartula V1). Twitter doesn’t exist anymore – at least not in a way that this nonbinary human and their Meowerlords are happy to participate in. Where do I even go and promote a Darts app? Things have changed and I am curious to see what is out there now.

I would love some feedback on Dartula soon, though. Otherwise, it will forever be a case of “Well, it made sense in MY head…”

Moving closer to a release is always a bit strange, and difficult to plan for. If experience taught me anything, it is to expect the unexpected and handle whatever comes up. I will let you know if and how it went in a month!