Monthly Archives: July 2014

July 27, 2014 · 2:15 pm

Russian Federation Regions

At last, I created an app about my native country – Russian Federation Regions. It will add to my collection of apps about the regional geography.

The English description of the game is the following:

Learn names, locations on the map, capitals and coats of arms of all federal subjects (regions) of Russia (there are 85 subjects according to the Russian Constitution: 46 oblasts, 22 republics, 9 krais, 4 autonomous okrugs, 3 federal cities, and 1 autonomous oblast).
Become an expert in Russian geography!

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The app is only localized into English and Russian, because I understand that it’s not so much interest and knowledge in Russian subdivisions in the world. I followed the Constitution of Russia and thus had to include the two newest and still disputed regions: Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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July 25, 2014 · 1:09 am

Flags of All Countries of the World

I already have 5 separate apps about all countries on all continents. They range from very popular European Countries to Australia and Oceania that is lagging behind. The idea to combine all countries in one comprehensive app seemed reasonable. My new app Flags of All Countries of the World accomplish this in respect of national flags.

The English description of the game is the following:

Why do I prefer this app to many other apps about flags?
Because it has all flags of all 197 independent countries of the World! It is extremely user-friendly. You will always get a hint whether you’re right or wrong. Thus, you’ll never get stuck by the question for which you don’t know the answer. Choose the game mode and find the state flag of your country:
* Spelling quizzes (easy and hard)
* Multiple-choice quizzes – “challenges” (also easy and hard)
* Time game (give the most answers in 1 minute)

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The user has to give 50 right answers in the easy spelling quiz (the easiest flags to guess) to access the hard modes. Two multiple-choice quizzes have different sets of flags and separate leaderboards in Game Center. The Time Game includes all 197 flags and can be opened after an IAP that also removes all ads.

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

Thanks!

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July 22, 2014 · 9:59 pm

California Counties

California Counties is an unexpected subject for a geography app. Is it too narrow? For me, creating this app is more like a joke than I really believe that it may become popular.

The English description of the game is the following:

I was searching the topic for the geography quiz when a strange (crazy?) idea came to my mind: why am I studying Africa or Europe while the Golden State of California doesn’t have a trivia game about its counties?
I lived for a year in Alameda county. I’ve been in Orange county several times. I have visited many California’s national and state parks. Still I have had no idea how many counties are in CA (the right answer is 58). As usual, the best way to learn all those 58 counties, their county seats and locations on the California map is to create an app about them. Testing the app, I’d have a plenty of time to browse them all from San Diego in the south to Crescent City in the north, from the famous CA ocean coast to Mohave desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains.

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I localized this app only into English, Spanish, and Russian.

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

Thanks!

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July 19, 2014 · 2:12 pm

French Regions

French Regions is just one more app in the category “Regional geography”. The only distinct feature is case of France is that there are 5 overseas regions that must be shown on separate maps. Luckily, I already had contour maps of Africa, South America, and the Caribbean due to my previous apps.

The English description of the game is the following:

Learn all 27 Regions of France: 22 in Metropolitan France (Normandy, Burgundy and others) and 5 overseas regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe).
* names
* maps
* capitals
* flags

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When I was working on this app, I realized that it should be done a week before to be released exactly for the Bastille Day (July 14). This idea came too late and the app was released on July 18. Better late than never.

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

Thanks!

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July 18, 2014 · 2:58 am

Russian Leaders

Russian Leaders is my new app that has one important feature that I never tried before: it’s default language is Russian, i.e. it is shown in Russian in all non-localized Stores. The app itself may be called an answer to my previous and quite successful app about US Presidents. In case of Russian and Soviet leaders, it is not straightforward to build a definite list of names. There are many insignificant Grand Princes or Tsars who ruled for just a couple of years. So I finally chose 28 leaders with a possibility to add several more if the app is doing well.

The English description of the game is the following:

Check your knowledge of the Russian and Soviet history! This app has portraits and additional info about 28 most important Russian leaders – Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin, Ivan the Terrible and Mikhail Gorbachev. Can you guess them all?

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

Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev: Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #850809 / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Photos of Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, and Dmitry Medvedev: Attribution: Kremlin.ru.

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July 15, 2014 · 2:08 am

Geography Games

Today I updated this site by renaming the undeveloped Tutorial page to Geography and moving there 11 geography-related apps I have created so far. Thus, all apps are divided to three categories: Geography, Chemistry, and Games. The later can be more precisely called “Miscellaneous Apps” because it includes everything non-chemical and non-geographical: quizzes, puzzle games and even my only app in the Entertainment category.

Meanwhile, I have 4 apps waiting for review and I am going to make several changes on the site in the nearest future. It’s unsurprising that many things changed since the time when I started it a year ago with only one published app.

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July 11, 2014 · 7:10 pm

Regions of Italy

Regions of Italy is my new geography app devoted to this beautiful country.

The English description of the game is the following:

Learn all 20 regions of Italy and their capitals: from Piedmont to Sicily, from Lombardy to Sardinia:
* names
* maps
* capitals
* flags

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

Thanks!

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July 10, 2014 · 7:37 pm

Famous Scientists – version 1.1

I prepared a major update for Famous Scientists. Perhaps, I spent more time on it than on the original app, but it’s worth it. The number of improvements is significant:
1) 20 new scientists (from Descartes to Avogadro) with info descriptions.
2) Main menu like in my other apps with the choice of modes.
3) Multiple-choice mode (called “Chaos”, while the original linear mode is called “Order”). Portraits of scientists can be answers and the buttons are scaled correspondingly.
4) There is no longer possible to lose and start all over after 5 wrong letters. This innovation didn’t stimulate purchasing of Unlimited Hints and just annoyed the players.
5) Minor corrections in the German title and keywords. However, I didn’t add the Dutch localization (though I added a new Dutch scientist – Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, an inventor of the microscope and the discoverer of unicellular organisms).

If these improvements revive the app, I’ll update several my old apps as well and I’m always open to your suggestions.

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July 5, 2014 · 2:24 pm

100 English Nouns

100 English Nouns is another simple app about words that I created following the relative success of English Irregular Verbs. It took some time to choose the topic, and I chose the most basic set of words I could imagine. These are not the most frequent words of English language (“the”, “is”, “it” – it’s hard to find an interesting questions about them), so I limit myself to nouns only and I found that there is no one authoritative list of English words in order of their frequency. Finally, I combined several of such lists and substituted some common but too abstract nouns to well-known words such as “cat”, “stone”.

The English description of the game is the following:

This app is for everyone! Learn 100 most frequently used English nouns. The app has 3 modes:
* guess the word from its definition
* translate the word from Spanish
* flashcards: word – definition – Spanish translation

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The first mode is the same in all languages: guess an English noun from its definition in English. The second mode is to translate a foreign noun into English. If the user’s language is already English or it is a language I don’t localize into, the second mode is translations of Spanish words since Spanish is the most popular foreign language in the US.

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

Thanks!

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July 4, 2014 · 2:32 am

Famous Operas

I continue create apps on the topics I like and know relatively well. Please, ladies and gentlemen, welcome Famous Operas.

The English description of the game is the following:

For all opera fans! Demonstrate your knowledge of the 50 most performed operas by the most important opera composers. The app has 3 game modes:
* guessing the opera from its poster
* guessing the composer from the portrait
* find the correspondence between the title of an opera, the name of a composer, an opera poster, and a composer’s portrait

Please contact me at asmolgam@gmail.com if you want to see your favorite opera in the updated version of this app.

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It was surprisingly time-consuming to find good-looking posters for all operas. In case of “Wozzeck”, for example, I just dropped it, but how can I miss “Il Trovatore” in the app called “Famous Operas”? On the other hand, portraits of composers are easy to find.

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

Thanks!

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