Category Archives: Games

May 17, 2014 · 2:05 am

Irregular Verbs

The Irregular Verbs app appeared on the App Store several days ago. It took almost 2 weeks for me to prepare it – the longest among all other quizzes. The reason is the vast database: there are 206 distinct verbs in the app and for each verb, I had to find an English definition and a translation to 8 languages. The topic itself is competitive, there are dozens of apps about irregular verbs on the App Store, but none of them use the “letter quiz” approach and after the first days, my app shows promising figures.

The English description of the game is the following:

Begin – began – begun…
The app contains all important English irregular verbs (more than 200 verbs overall). Please choose the learning method that suits you the best.
* Learn by spelling three verb forms: infinitive, past simple, and past participle
* Guess the verb from its definition
* Learn verbs with the help of flashcards

It is an essential app for everyone learning the English language!

*****

There are 3 modes in the app: 1) the first one is universal for all languages; the infinitive (“the first form”) of an irregular verb is given and the user has to spell the two other forms: past simple and past participle. In this mode, I excluded some longer verbs (such as understand/understood) and the verbs for which alternative spellings of inflected forms exist.
2) The second mode depends on the language settings of the device. If the language is English or any language I don’t localize to, the mode is called “Guess the verb” and a short definition of a verb is given, the user has to spell the infinitive form. If the user’s language is Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, or Dutch, the question is not a definition but a translation of an English verb into that language. The answer is still an English infinitive, even the order of the answer is the same. This type of question may not be directly related to the verb irregularity. It is a separate tool for language learning, I can code any word in such a way. The knowledge that the answer is an irregular verb is just an additional hint.
3) Finally, there are flashcards that show all the above info for all 206 verbs that I decided to include in the first version of the app.

I estimate that there are about 150 basic irregular verbs in the English language. Several of them are archaic, and I don’t use them myself and don’t encounter in the texts I read (“lade”, “beget”). Then there are about 30 verbs which are often conjugated as regular (“shave”, “learn”). In many cases, the frequency of the usage of regular vs irregular form varies between British English and American English. And using prefixes, one can create multiple derived verbs that are also considered irregular (“overtake”, “babysit”). The longest list of irregular verbs I’ve seen had 470 words.

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

Thanks!

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May 1, 2014 · 12:27 pm

African Countries

A new addition to my geography collection is the app about African Countries. Do you know that there are 54 independent states in Africa? This quiz is hard comparing with European Countries, for example. I consider myself good in geography but I don’t know a half of African capitals and flags.

The English description of the game is the following:

Learn all 54 independent African countries, including South Sudan:
* All flags
* All capitals
* All maps
* African Challenge
* Time Game

*****

The lion’s head for the app icon was taken from the coat of arms of Burundi.
After it was approved, the app had the status “Processing for App Store” for 1.5 days. Usually, it takes no longer than 30 min. I don’t have good explanation why it was so delayed this time.

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

Thanks!

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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 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 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 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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March 29, 2014 · 1:42 pm

Days of the Week and Months of the Year in 7 Languages

The app Days and Months was approved on Monday but I decided to experiment with postponing the release day. I chose Saturday, because the most successful starts of my apps happened on this weekend day.

Its quiz mechanics generally follows the Learn Numerals app. However, both Days and Months modes are open from the beginning.

The English description of the game is the following:

Today you’ll learn the names of all 7 days of the week and all 12 months of the year in 7 important languages. Please choose the learning method that suits you the best.

* Tables
* Flashcards
* Quizzes

– Spanish
– French
– German
– Italian
– Portuguese
– Russian
– English!

*****

One problem that I didn’t have with numerals was how to ask the question on the user’s language. How do you ask an American to translate “Monday” from English to English? It sounds like a stupid thing to do. So for the user’s own language, I change the names of days and months to their order: 2nd day, 9th month. And preparing this app, I learned a lot of things about the calendar. It seems that the US is a rare place where the week starts on Sunday. The standard now is to start it with Monday.

The icon is a fragment of the Aztec compass. But it was also a calendar, so it is relevant to the app.

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

Thanks!

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March 25, 2014 · 5:05 pm

Greek Letters and Alphabet 2 – From Alpha to Omega

The Greek Letters and Alphabet 2 was approved and released yesterday together with Carboxylic acids. Now I’d like to write briefly about the first one.

Many (7.5) months ago, I published my second app called Greek Letters and Alphabet. I didn’t expect much from it, but it turned out to be fine. Especially, after it accumulated 10+ positive ratings and I made it a paid app. When I thought about updating it, I had two options. But the normal update to v. 1.1 would hide the rating history and I planned more serious changes in the quiz modes that would require the complete rework of the main menu. So I decided to go with the second option and release Greek Letters and Alphabet 2.

The English description of the game is the following:

It is a perfect app to learn Greek letters and alphabet. Choose the way of studying that suits you the best:

* Quiz “Find the Letter”
* Quiz “Name the Letter”
* Flashcards
* Greek alphabet table
* Example of the usage of Greek Letters in math and science
* Time modes, multiple-choice questions (in Greek Letters and Alphabet 1)

Alpha, beta, gamma, and go on!

*****
Features:
– The app is localized to 8 languages (vs. 2 languages in the first part)
– I used the same color in its design, but there are no ornaments, dragons, and the stuff

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

Thanks!

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