For my CIS 350 ”Software Design/Engineering” (University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2011) final project, we were to work together as teams to create a mobile app as a hands-on exercise with the software development cycle. And so, Team MAGi (consisting of Art Young, Austin Woodlin, Jessica Ouyang, Yash Kandoi and myself) decided to make a game, specifically one inspired by the free 2D fixed shooter game, Warning Forever. The WF clone more or less was a bullet hell (danmaku) with a simple “evolving” AI boss after each level but with no level cap (after lvl 10, it repeats), so we called …

Due to some Google policies, Beats has been re-released under a new package name (now ‘com.beatsportable.beats‘ – its the same app, just a different Market download). (or manually download the .apk from the Release page) Please uninstall previous versions of Beats (aka 1.5b or earlier) and install the new package (just search for “keripo”, “advanced rhythm game”, “stepmania”, “ddr”, or “osu”). The donate version has also been removed – please use the Donate page if you wish to express thanks and help keep development rolling! Because the Android Market will treat 1.5.2b as a new app, all previous ratings and …

After tons of work into adding new features and optimizing to reduce/remove lag and increase framerate, Beats 1.5b is finally ready! Beats 1.5b has TONS of new features, as described in the Changelog. Some of the most important features include: osu! Mod and scroll up game modes various new tapbox layouts much, MUCH faster now and with less lag (even faster than 1.3b!) lots of nifty shortcut buttons on the main menu Russian, Dutch, and Italian translations (looking for translators, see here) Not sure what this new “osu! Mod” game mode is all about? Check it out in the new …

One thing I’ve noticed many of my users requesting/mentioning is support for osu! files or a separate osu! port/clone all together. I’m a big fan of rhythm-based music games (mostly StepMania, Beatmania IIDX, and DJ Max) but I actually haven’t tried much osu! style games (I tried Elite Beat Agents a few times on a friends’ DS but thats the extent of things). After downloading the latest version of osu! and trying out a few beatmaps, I convinced myself that modifying Beats some bit could definitely lead to a new Ouendan-style gameplay. Eventually, I could make a proper, full-fledged osu! …

One of the most requested features for Beats is different tapbox layouts (aka the area where you tap to hit falling notes). Ever since Beats 1.0a, notes always fall down from the top of the screen to the arrows at the bottom, with the tapboxes being invisible rectangles on top of the arrows. This is akin to the Beatmania/DJ Max “reverse” scroll where notes fall down and the same setup I’ve always used when I play StepMania (for which I usually play with 3.0x, Reverse, Notes+ and Dark modifiers). The majority of new users, however, are only familiar with DDR-style …

Warning! Long, random, technical rant ahead! Read at your own risk! I may also misuse a few words incorrectly here and there – I apologize in advance for any incoherence within my rant

(Direct download) Forsaken World North America (Closed Beta 2) PvP Tournament – PIGuild Singles PvP Tournament. 2011-01-09 Singles PvP Tournament, sponsored by PIGuild. Captured by Moonlite, lvl 40 marksman (loli). Background music is “Faces” by Ashley Wallbridge & Andy Moor feat. Meighan Nealon from Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance Episode #483, followed by “My Blood” by Ashley Wallbridge feat. Meighan Nealon. Forsaken World Forums: http://fw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=75251

Small update with a fix for the rotate-reset issue as well as a link to the new gameplay video: Beats 1.4.2b – Changeset [237] – fixed a rotation-restart issue – gameplay video link in Info settings category And here’s the new gameplay video! (The Demo page now links to this video while the Tutorial page links to the old tutorial video.) (Direct download) As always, if you find any other pressing/immediate bugs or would like to help out with testing (particularly the lag and touch-screen issues some users are reporting), please PLEASE contact me (Keripo) via IRC or MSN (see …

There were tons of positive feedback on Beats 1.4b as well as numerous requests and suggestions for a new release. While we are already working on the next major release (Beats 1.5b), here’s a small update with a few minor fixes and tweaks that were most demanded based on Beats 1.4b feedback: Beats 1.4.1b – Changeset [233] – orientation-based main menu layout – re-added adjustable Accuracy Level setting – reverted accuracy weightings to 1.3b’s scheme – fixed multi-touch install restriction? – fixed minor notetype parsing issue – fixed a few odd crashes With Beats 1.4.1b, the installation/disappearing-from-the-Market issue some users …

For the PennApps Mobile 2011 hackathon, I teamed up with fellow STWingers/classmates/friends Albert Kwon, Gianni Chen, and Seth Shannin to form Team CJT and create the Android app, “hypup”, described by Seth as “Stumbleupon, but for local events.”. The official description was as follows: “HypUp aims to present a previously unexplored paradigm in social networking. While services like Facebook and foursquare approach social networking through people and locations respectively, we decided to try a different approach. HypUp is an event-based look at social networking.” The app went through many revisions, feature additions, and changes and we managed to just finish …