Monthly Archives: April 2014

April 25, 2014 · 2:28 pm

US Presidents

Yesterday, it was a very productive day for me and my apps. Two were approved and released: US Presidents and Asian Countries, about which I’ve already written in the blog.
US Presidents had been initially based on the quiz model of Famous Scientists but evolved into something more similar to my other apps. It has a main menu screen with two modes: a spelling quiz and a multiple-choice quiz. Some 19th-century presidents are so obscure for the modern public, that I disabled the loss after 5 mistakes that I introduced in Scientists. For me, it’s more important to keep users happy and allow them to learn new information.

Americans are obsessed with their presidents and school-children learn their names and years in the office. There is an ongoing 1-dollar coin series with portraits of all presidents. As usual, I localized the app into 9 languages but I expect about 75% of downloads and revenue from the U.S.

The English description of the game is the following:

Learn all US Presidents. Improve your knowledge of American history!
* George Washington,
* Abraham Lincoln,
* Theodore Roosevelt,
* John F. Kennedy,
* Ronald Reagan,
…and all other US Presidents in one app.

*****

Features:
– “Rate the App” button on the main menu screen. Let’s see if it will bring more reviews.
– There are all 43 presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. Wait a minute, isn’t Obama the 44th President? He is. But Grover Cleveland who held the office for two non-consecutive terms is considered being both 22nd and 24th President. 44 presidents and 43 men.
– Many US presidents had the same last name. In the “letter-quiz”, I ask only for the last name for the sake of consistency. There should not be any confusion, because first names still can be revealed as a hint by pressing the “Info” button.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 24, 2014 · 5:00 pm

Asian Countries

The fourth geographic app is Asian Countries. Africa will be next in about a week.

The English description of the game is the following:

The lands of dragons, elephants, and camels – 49 Asian countries:
* All flags
* All capitals
* All maps

Become a Master of Geography!

*****

Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 21, 2014 · 2:26 pm

Functional Groups

Functional Groups had to be my first organic chemistry app. The topic is so general and fundamental for everyone studying organic chemistry. However, it is published only now after several apps devoted to specific classes of compounds: Hydrocarbons, Carboxylic acids, Heterocyclic Compounds, and Amino Acids.

The English description of the app is the following:

The most important app for organic chemistry students includes 80 functional groups, the classes of organic compounds (hydrocarbons, ethers, esters, etc.) and natural products (amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, etc.). Take a quiz or use flashcards for memorizing them. Start from the basic groups and proceed to the advanced topics.

*****

The app has four sets of questions and a flashcard mode. The mode called “Difficult” should actually be quite easy for a college student majoring in organic chemistry, not saying about PhD organic chemists. I included only 80 classes of organic compounds and natural products and I can easily propose 80 more important classes. It means that I have a lot of opportunities for the updates and all suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 18, 2014 · 9:51 pm

European Countries – Update to v. 1.1

This time I added to European Countries those useful features that I have previously implemented in the update to 50 US States: 14 letters on the “keyboard” and scaling of the answer boxes to accommodate all those 14 letters.

Moreover, I added to European Countries a new mode called the “Time Game”. It is essentially the European Challenge mode with a timer. The goal is to give as many correct answers as possible during 1 minute. Each wrong answer cut the time by 5 sec. A similar mode was in my old app Greek Letters and Alphabet.

The second addition is the Dutch localization. Initially I thought to add it to Chemical Elements but European Countries suited better for attracting users from the Netherlands and Belgium.

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April 16, 2014 · 7:03 pm

Geometric Shapes

It is a good time to probe a new quiz topic with the Geometric Shapes app.

The English description of the game is the following:

Please learn the basic geometric terms: the types of triangles and polygons, the parts of a circle and the important lines and segments such as a median of a triangle or a tangent to a circle.

– Triangles
– Polygons
– Circles

*****

– The figures were drawn using a LaTex extension.
– Two questions about the sum of inner angles use a keyboard with numbers only.
– If this app is very successful, there may be an app about 3D geometry in the future.
– The review time in recent weeks were 5 days. That’s good.

Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 14, 2014 · 6:31 pm

American and Caribbean Countries

A new app in my geography series is American and Caribbean Countries. It covers all 35 independent states in North, Central, and South Americas (there are many dependent territories ranging from tiny islands to French Guiana and Greenland – I didn’t include them).

The English description of the game is the following:

This is an excellent app for tourists planning a Caribbean vacation, for students taking a geography class, and for those people who want to remember where Central American countries are situated and stop confusing Paraguay with Uruguay.

All 35 independent countries in Americas:
* Flags
* Maps
* Capitals

*****

The game modes are the same as in European Countries: flags, maps, capitals, and “American Challenge” – a multiple-choice quiz on all above topics.

Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 10, 2014 · 5:38 pm

50 US States v. 1.1

50 US States was my the most successful app so far and has changed the focus of my app-making efforts from chemistry to geography. Now it gets the first update and there are three important improvements.

1. There is a new mode “Find the state on the US map”. It is somewhat similar to the previous mode with state borders outlines but it shows where exactly the state is situated on the US map. Most people will find this info quite important. For smaller states of the Northeast, I use the zoomed map. Still Rhode Island is a tiny red spot.

2. There are now 14 rather than 12 letters on the player’s “keyboard”. And the answer boxes are scaled down accordingly if the name is too long. So if the answer has 14 letters or less, you can spell it completely. If it has more than 14 letters, you can place first 14 and then there are additional letters printed with a large blue font. This is a very important improvement and now I wonder why I didn’t do it for my very first quiz of this type.

3. Despite high downloads and ad revenues for 50 States, nobody purchased an IAP “Remove Ads”. It is very surprising for me, because even in a very nerdy and unlocalized app about Heterocyclic Compounds, there was one ads-removing purchase. It seems that ads are fine for most of users. At the same time European Countries quiz has shown that people are willing to pay for an additional content. So in the new mode, I made only the first half of questions free. Then the player sees the “Buy screen” and is offered an opportunity to support the developer (i.e. me), get the rest of the questions and remove all ads: the banner and interstitials.

And as usual, there are tons of small fixes in design, localization and keywords. The new mode and main menu prompted me to change two of five app screenshots. This update is a huge step forward for this game and all my quizzes. Enjoy!

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April 8, 2014 · 2:59 pm

Famous Scientists

Famous Scientists is a bit different from my previous quizzes. This app has so far one linear mode. Each question is a portrait of a famous scientist or a mathematician with an option to view an addition info (when he or she lived and why this person is famous) for 10 hints or open the next letter for 15 hints. If a player makes 5 mistakes, the game sequence returns back to Einstein (question #1). If you hate to lose and want to see all scientist and all info, you may consider buying the unlimited hints in Settings.

The English description of the game is the following:

Can you guess a famous scientist or a mathematician? Do you know why he or she is famous? Challenge yourself!
More than 40 scientists from Ancient Greek philosophers to modern cosmologists and molecular biologists.

*****

1. There are 42 scientists in version 1.0. I tried to choose ones recognizable by a broad audience, not only by chemistry PhD’s. Depending on how successful this app is, I may add a couple of new faces. By the way, the longest part in preparing the app was to find and translate the info about scientists into all 8 languages.

2. Features:
– If first+last names have 11 or less letters, I put them both. Otherwise, only the surname.
– English physicists is the most numerous party in the app.
– There are 2 women scientists and 2 living scientists.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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April 7, 2014 · 12:56 pm

Amino Acids v. 1.2

For quite a long time, I didn’t like the app icon of Amino Acids Structures and Names. It was too dark and the spacial formula was hard to comprehend that it is cysteine. So I decided to prepare this update with a new app icon (proline has three-letter abbreviation Pro) and some other improvements in design and localization. I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied with the resulting icon. The formula could be a bit larger, especially its labels. Maybe I’ll update Amino Acids again, but not now.

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April 5, 2014 · 7:37 pm

European Countries

My second geographic app is about European Countries.

The English description of the game is the following:

If you know all European countries, you can test yourself.
If you don’t know flags and capitals of European countries, or where they are situated on the map of Europe, you’ll learn all this stuff with this simple and entertaining app.

* 50 European countries
* All flags
* All maps
* All capitals

From Finland to Portugal. From Reykjavík to Athens. The European journey begins.

*****

1. In contrast to 50 US States, where the question database was clear, the European politics is rather complicated. Besides dependent territories such as Faroe islands, there are several unrecognized states. OK, I exclude them all. But there is a map with country borders and I did my best to avoid offending anybody.

2. New features:
– Multiple-choice mode called “European Challenge” that combines all other questions and shows them in a random order. The player has three lives and after three mistakes the strike ends and best results are recorded (there is a separate Geme Center leaderboard for this mode)
– The flag mode is completely open. Two other modes have 30 free questions each and after these questions, the player is offered an option to unlock the rest of questions together with removing ads.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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