Hangman Challenge’s new interface for iOS 7

Version 2.0 of Hangman Challenge has a new user interface, redesigned for iOS 7. This article will tell you a little bit about what we did and what we learned.

The new interface design was a collaborative effort between Ben Corrales and myself. Ben is an architect and visual designer. He did the initial designs for the new interface and then worked with me to refine and polish the designs. I did the final implementation.

Here’s a screen from Hangman Challenge 1.5

Hangman Challenge 1.5 in Play

Here’s the same screen in Hangman Challenge 2.0

Hangman Challenge 2.0 in Play

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Hangman Challenge 1.5 Release

HangmanChallengeMoat

Rescue Mission Software is pleased to announce the release of Hangman Challenge 1.5 on August 8, 2013.

This version features four new word sets:

  • U.S. States and Capitals, a word set from Natalie Chithelen.
  • Dr. Bruce’s Medical Terms, a word set from Dr. Bruce Chou.
  • Dr. Bruce’s Stumpers, a word set from Dr. Bruce Chou.
  • Common Household Words, a Spanish-language word set from Zahid Gómez.  The words for this word set are in Spanish, the definitions are in English.

In addition to the new words, Natalie Chithelen has upgraded the definitions for the starter set with more than 50 new illustrative graphics.

The game now has more than 1,000 words and definitions, with illustrative graphics for 400 of the definitions.

Please click the following link to get Hangman Challenge from the Apple App Store.

 

Hangman Challenge 1.4 Release

iPhone 5 Definition Bass Clef

Rescue Mission Software is pleased to announce the release of Hangman Challenge 1.4 on May 26, 2013.

This version features:

A new word set for musicians and singers. “Musical Notation” has more than 200 words and phrases that you might find in sheet music. 80 of the words have graphics as part of their definitions.

Hangman Challenge now supports playing music from iTunes or another music app while playing the game.

Please click the following link to get Hangman Challenge from the Apple App Store.

 

Musical Notation: a word set for Hangman Challenge

Bass Clef screen shot for Website

Musical Notation is a word set made up of the names of symbols and instructions that you might see while looking at sheet music. The resulting word set has more than 200 words and phrases, including both common markings and some less common ones.  Eighty of these words and phrases also have graphics to illustrate them.

To create this list, I went through several hundred pages of sheet music from my library, including baroque and classical works, modern choral music, dixieland jazz, and pieces for marching band and wind ensemble. By the time I was done, I had a good collection of the most common markings, as well as some more challenging ones.

Many thanks to my beta testers for this word set: Pat Ellard, Tim Ellard, and Marcia Chithelen. They made many helpful suggestions and corrections.

In doing the research for the definitions, I found the following resources to be helpful:

None of these resources has all of the terms included in the Hangman Challenge Musical Notation word set, but they provide terrific reference material for anyone researching musical terms.

The graphics for this word set were created using Encore from GVOX and edited using Pixelmator.

The Musical Notation word set is available for free as part of Hangman Challenge 1.4. Please click the following link to get Hangman Challenge from the Apple App Store.

– Michael Patrick Ellard

Colors: a word set for Hangman Challenge

Hangman Challenge Periwinkle

When I was growing up, color names always frustrated me. For example, Oxford defines “ecru” as “the light beige color of unbleached linen.” But what does that look like? I didn’t want the dictionary to tell me. I wanted it to show me.

When I was preparing to do a new word set for Hangman Challenge, my friend Paula Mason suggested several colors to add to the set. This inspired me to create a word set consisting of nothing but colors. But I wouldn’t just have definitions for each color – I would show a sample of each color instead. Finally I would have the guide I always wanted as a kid.

The resulting Colors set contains more than 200 colors. 170 of the colors come from the World Wide Web Consortium’s CSS standard. Colors for this word set were also suggested by Paula Mason, Richard Goldman, Kimberly McKinnis, David Preston, Gigi Schofield, Ernie Morgenstern, Pat Ellard, Lenny Galatioto, Anna Warren Cebrian, and Jeff Sensabaugh.

Wikipedia’s List of Colors article was very helpful for some of the colors that are not part of the CSS standard, although I sometimes deviated from their suggested RGB values.

Special thanks to Pat Ellard, who beta-tested an early version of the Colors word set on her iPad and provided several pages of written feedback.

The Colors word set is avaialable for free as part of Hangman Challenge 1.3.  Please click the following link to get Hangman Challenge from the Apple App Store.

– Michael Patrick Ellard

Hangman Challenge 1.3 Release

HangmanChallengePowderBlue

Rescue Mission Software is pleased to announce the release of Hangman Challenge 1.3 on February 16, 2013.

This version features:

Colors – a new word set with more than 200 names for colors. Definitions for this word set show samples of each color.

Controls which allow you to choose between word sets or play multiple word sets at the same time.

Please click the following link to get Hangman Challenge from the Apple App Store.

 

The Monarch Keyboard

The Monarch Keyboard is a new idea in keyboards. With the Monarch software, the iPad forms a keyboard under your fingers as once you’ve placed them on the screen. The result is a keyboard that matches the size, shape, position, and rotation of your hands.

The first demo of this product was on Sunday, July 22 at iOS Dev Camp 2012. The demonstration showed the keyboard’s ability to accurately detect a user’s finger positions from ten fingers placed on the screen regardless of angle, hand size, shape or rotation.

The Monarch Keyboard development team were Michael Patrick Ellard, Darpan Dhaimija and Ashish Singh.