Unity 5.x Screenshot Manager

After watching one of the dev log videos for Limit Theory, I wanted to duplicate his screenshot functionality.

Basically after pressing the screenshot key a nicely framed window displayed the screenshot and offered "Confirm" and "Delete" buttons.

I whipped this up in my Unity 5.2 but honestly there's no reason it should't work all the way back to Unity 3D 4.6 (<- completely untested mind you).

You can download the unity package right HERE.

Here is what it looks like in action:

Package has an Instructions.txt file along with prefabs.

Do let me know if you find it useful.

Current version 1.0
Date: Sept-11-2015

Enjoy :)

Rename SpriteBuilder Project

So, unless it's easy to rename an existing (like for example a nice game starter package); it will be pretty un-helpful to publish said examples.

So... off I went to discover the steps involved in the renaming process and it boiled down to TWO major steps.

STEP ONE:
1: Copy and rename the .spritebuilder file (bundle).
2: Once duplicated, rename it - make sure you conform to the standard SpriteBuilder limitations (USE NO SPACES).

3: Right-click and choose "Show Package Contents" to open the bundle folder. Just rename the .ccbproj file.

4: Double-click the Xcode project to open Xcode and proceed to STEP TWO.
In our example we are going to rename "StarterGame.spritebuilder" to "AwesomeProject.spritebuilder".


STEP TWO:
1: Once open in Xcode, perform a normal rename via the "Name" field in the right column.

Afterwards I usually close and exit Xcode then open the new project in SpriteBuilder, publish and use the shortcut to open Xcode.

Enjoy
:)

From Dev to Release version

...without deleting the app from your device.

Back story:
I do a bunch of testing on all my devices AND I also use (play) live apps on my device(s). In the past I resorted to deleting my test build app and then installing my newly released version, thus loosing all my IAP's and other non-Game Center stats(2).

I've recently started using this method:
Once my new version has been released and is available on the store I take a copy of my current project and reset the version back to the previous one and build for the device. Now I install this version onto my devices. Then either with iTunes (after updating the app) or the App Store on each device, I download and install the updated (released) version. This allows me to install the new updated version without loosing any of my saved data.

Notes:
1: It's worth mentioning that if you install your live (released) version on your device and then you install your new test build with Xcode, your app will not show up in the list of Applications as (I'm spit-balling here) it replaces the production version of your app. The downside is you cannot get at the app bundle via Xcode.
2: All my game have a resync Game Center functionality (I guess just for me).

Prevent Older Apps From Installing

The wonderful black-hole that is iOS development, we (as in all Developers) were informed (not by Apple but by a tech blog) that users can install older versions of apps even AFTER you have released an update.

Yeah, me too... I was like WHAT???? Anyhow, just before I got kicked off the Apple Developer forums (seems I was a bit too vocal) several developers confirmed that yes Veronica there are Angels, er wait no.... When you select the checkbox entitled "Are you upgrading for a legal reason" (<- purposely using the OLD text, notice how they have magically updated the text so it is now only 30% unclear of what it means). This will prevent a user on an older, no longer supported version of iOS, say iOS 4.x from instaling on older version of your app.

Really this IS great news for users and crap-tastic for developers. One question immediately comes to mind, though:

1. If we DO NOT check that box (like I have NEVER, because I've never had to update FOR A LEGAL REASON!) but we DO REMOVE an older version in our Game Center compatibility, what does Apple do???

So there you have it, in all it's Apple-vagueness.

Show Developer Notices

So while we are deep in the forest, putting out fires, inspecting the underbrush... sometimes... I know just every so often, um, we forget to "undo" our developer hacks / changes.

I now call this method from applicationDidBecomeActive ... to help :-)

In a common header file I have:

#define kAllowCheats                    1   // 1 on, 0 off

In my game manager I have this:

-(void)checkDevSettings

{

    // Developer notices

    if (getenv("NSZombieEnabled") || getenv("NSAutoreleaseFreedObjectCheckEnabled")) {

        NSLog(@"NSZombieEnabled/NSAutoreleaseFreedObjectCheckEnabled enabled!");

        UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Developer Notice"

                                                        message:@"NSZombieEnabled is ON!\n* * *\nDisable BEFORE submitting!"

                                                       delegate:nil 

                                              cancelButtonTitle:@"Okay" 

                                              otherButtonTitles:nil];

        [alert show];

        [alert release];

    }

    if (kAllowCheats) {

        UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Developer Notice"

                                                        message:@"kAllowCheats is ON!\n* * *\nDisable BEFORE submitting!"

                                                       delegate:nil 

                                              cancelButtonTitle:@"Okay" 

                                              otherButtonTitles:nil];

        [alert show];

        [alert release];

    }

}

This first one I almost submitted an app, the second one; yup went live with my developer / cheat codes active. That wasn't a game center game so it wasn't a real problem but with all the hacking in Game Center games I suppose it could cause you extra work.