Saturday 2 October 2010

Epic second post!

Hey! This is the first post by me (mrfungfung) after Rex's previous post on the lovely EpicWin wallpapers. I hope that moving posts to a blog will mean I can get more words out since Facebook has a 400 character limit on posts.

Let me begin by just thanking everyone who has enjoyed EpicWin so far, and also those who stuck with it and helped with asking for features and giving encouragement! EpicWin was coded entirely by myself in a space of about ~3 months, with Rex doing the design and art. It was intended at the start to "just" be a simple to-do app along the lines of SimpleNote or something, but with pretty graphics and some amusing loot to collect to make it a bit more fun to actually bother using a to-do list. But then it blew up...and became self-prophetically epic!

I want to make it clear that I am currently the ONLY CODER on the project - so I hope people can understand why I haven't, say, got multiple versions going on for PalmPre/Android/WinPhone7/PSP/iPad/Facebook/Website all at the same time, whilst also fixing bugs, designing and coding more features and also making Final Fantasy style gameplay and also answering support emails, doing PR and advertising. I barely have time to eat and wash!! I smell like garbage - and my hair is "grody" as my friend told me (this is not a good look she explains further).

This is obviously not the way to have a meaningful life! So right now what I'd like to do is list the things I am hoping to do for EpicWin as next steps here, and then also find help to do it. To this end I have found someone to help with coding on a contract basis - he just needs to finish up his current contract job before he can join. It's a very slow and difficult process to find good people to hire for coding, as there are so many factors - interviewing, finding, making sure he's good and up to the job, making sure they're actually available at the right time etc. so I am really lucky to find someone at all. And no - I didn't make Minecraft so I don't have a million pounds to spend so that's not a valid option I have to tempt people (although if I had charged more than $2.99 for each copy...)!

So let's give a rough road map of what is going on!






Update 1.3
Right now - Update 1.3 is still "Waiting For Review" in Apple's queue. They've been a bit slow lately so expect it to come out in ~2 weeks (sad face :o( ) This is a minor update - and here's what's in it:

1) FIX to the daily repeating tasks skipping a day if you *dont* complete it.
2) FEATURE Automatic Online Save/Restore with manual options to switch it on/off, and manual option to save it. Basically - this is a sync for just your statistics -so that you can recover your data in case of a loss. This is NOT a sync with any 3rd party calendars. That is coming later!

Update 1.3 with the save is a quick stop-gap solution to make sure you can feel a bit more confident with your data being saved somewhere safe - providing you have a good connection so that it can actually upload stuff of course!






Update 1.4 (Work In Progress)
This update will hopefully be the one which introduces some big features, and will take a bit longer to finish.

1) FEATURE Rehaul of the "Repeating" mechanism. The idea is to give it the full flexibility of being able to repeat tasks on the right days and combinations of days that people would reasonably expect.
2) FEATURE Local Notifications - those reminder thingies that you love so much!
3) FEATURE
Task List Syncing with some other service. At the moment we are considering iCal (which I think combos with Google and/or Microsoft Exchange depending on what you've set up), Evernote, RememberTheMilk and ToodleDo. We might not do *all* of them in one go - but the idea is that there will be a set of accounts you can login and "hook up" your task lists. You can then sync your tasks with other, more feature-full calendars and have a powerful way to manage tasks - but you can use EpicWin as your "window" to actually make you do those tasks! This will free up EpicWin and myself to design and code more game-related and fun things as the main motivator for task completion!






FUTURE
Once we have the above solid base of features - we can then focus on FUN! I believe Rex has created gameplay features on how to spend your Gold, and other RPG-esque elements (fights and other things from your progress map). We have to strike a balance with people who are happy with the simple incentives and don't actually want anything more involved as it gets in their way - to those people who want a fuller game experience.

Also - a big plan is going on (IN MY EXPLODING BRAIN - MY POOR BRAIN) on doing a web interface with multiplayer tasks and quests. This feature is VERY FRIKKIN EXCITING for me, but unfortunately is also the hardest task to do and a massive pain in the butt.

Anyway - enough text for a first post! I'll come and explain more about Android market etc in the next few posts - but please make yourself at home, and join in the Epic Journey!!

20 comments:

  1. I'm actually very excited about this blog. I think a lot of people don't realise the amount of work you're putting in this app.

    In any case, I use Epic Win daily and it's seriously helped me get organized. So, thanks for that. :) and make sure to eat and shower every now and again. It's a good thing to do!

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  2. Hey.

    The Blog is a really nice idea. Because rumors say there is a small tribe of lunatic people out- and inside the interwebs which do not prevere to swear allegiance and give away private information to the Kingdom of FaceBook ;)

    So hurray, now we can tell you what we think directly here in your blog.

    First ... really epic job till now! :) I hope Apple accepts update 1.3 soon.

    Looking in the Future I´m really thrilled to get the fun features like the FF style fighting or buying stuff with the collected gold. Hope I can sit still for some more time and wait for it quietly ;)

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  3. One of my readers added a comment to my review of EpicWin, pointing me to a site called chorewars.com Have you ever checked it?

    Cheers,

    Ruben

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  4. Heya,

    thumbs up for this posting! :)

    Are there plans (maybe for 1.4?) to improve the repeating tasks? When I forget to complete a (lets say weekly) task it just hops to the next date, so I should not forget it to set the date back by myself which isn't a good handling for a reminder app. ;) It should be marked as overdue.

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  5. Great idea with a blog! *subscribe* You're also doing a outstanding job developing this app. I'm very grateful and understand that it's A LOT of work! You get loads of exp for it, I presume. :)

    Thumbs up!

    Ta!

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  6. To cmi, the Update 1.3 actually fixes that - so when repeating tasks don't pop to their next date until it is actually due - so you have the Overdue reminder for it to remind you!

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  7. Good idea making a dev blog :D I can't believe you haven't got more subscribers yet.

    Sadly, I am not fortunate enough to have seen EpicWin in action, since I own an Android device, but I do not doubt its epicness. I really hope for an Android version of this app, and I know MANY other people do too (Android users have problems getting things done too, you know!) xD

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  8. Hi, quick question: will the calendar synchronising including syncing with the iPhone own built in calendar?

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  9. That would be the iCal thing listed above!

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  11. I wanna help out! Is there anything I can do? I'm not really good at anything, but I really like trying new things. Maybe I can learn something new while I'm helping out! :D

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  12. I've been excitedly awaiting Epic Win since it was first discussed on Geekologie. The only thing I think it's really missing is the ability to sync with the iPhone's native calendar app.

    I'll still use Epic Win but I can't wait for integration with the iPhone's calendar!

    Keep up the incredible work!!!

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  13. Great app! The first to-do list that I actually check instead of avoiding! Quick question about the new update (assuming you have time to deal w/ questions...)

    Does the new sync feature allow for sync between devices? If I sync my iPod, and later sync my iPad, is it a "true" sync, or will the data from the iPad just overwrite the data from the iPod?

    Thanks!

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  14. I was just saying the other day that there needed to be Evernote integration. Can't wait to see it!

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  15. One more vote for Toodledo! Epic Win and Toodledo would be a lethal combination for serious task management with a fun twist! How can I help make it happen?

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  16. Oh, almost 3 years since the last post here:
    I just have two questions:
    Is there a chance to get the Todeldoo-Sync anytime?
    Will there be any further update of EpicWin?

    TIA,
    Torsten

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    ReplyDelete