Input - MTG Life Tracker App
General forum
Posted on June 8, 2012, 5:22 p.m. by Obliviate
Hey everyone. I'm currently in the designing or idea phase of a Life Tracking app to be used in casual and tournament play. I've never really been satisfied with the current life tracking apps and I'd like to tackle it on my own. I was wondering if you guys could give input on a few things that could better my app:
1) What do you like about any current apps you use?2) What don't you like about any current apps you use, or why DON'T you use any apps that you have access to?3) Do you have any other thoughts on the subject? Any features to include?4) What other things besides a life tracker function do you think would be beneficial to a magic player? Particularly in a tournament scene.
i have made my own life app before and what seams to be what I love is where the life count faces their player. For example, 1 vs 1, one life total is right side up and the other upside down. 3 for all type of game is in thirds and so on...
June 8, 2012 5:46 p.m.
I also created this program in my life tracker that takes your win/loss percentage from each game and give you a output percentage of winning against a certain color deck
June 8, 2012 5:49 p.m.
PasorofMuppets says... #5
In the same vein of thought, an input for names combined with a record of win:loss against those names would be neat. At least at a local shop level: "Oh, Justin, I whooped your ass 7:1".
June 8, 2012 6:10 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #6
Notepad. Do it. What most competitive players do is they write down notes (hand contents spells played etc.) just have a little button that pulls up a simple notepad. What would be awesome is if you made it compatible with android's speech to text that way the players would just name cards and it would jot them down. I have NEVER seen a note taking function on an app and it would be a beautiful addition.
June 8, 2012 9:54 p.m.
operationremie says... #9
notepad would be phenomenal. it'd probably be a delay of game in tournament based because you'd have to type things unless you make it so you can write it with your finger. the voice-to-text would be cool.
i also like the idea of having the life totals face the person.
i have the official magic app as well as star city games' app. both have their nice parts to it. definitely like the addition of pictures for who you are playing so you could keep a running percentage of wins/losses for that particular person would be cool.
June 9, 2012 9:43 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
You could always shorthand it. Obl=obliterater and fbal=forbidden alchemy. This way everyone would come up with their own code making it hard for others to see what they were doing. If you do this it might be wise to do it line by line in the GUI with a delete function so as they cast it you can "strike it off" without clutter.
June 9, 2012 10:23 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #11
Also, just remembered. You NEED to make the life counter with an embedded "paper trail" so you can show a judge in the event one is called. This is a must if you expect to not use paper because the first thing after hearing what he is ruling on is he will want to see the paper trail.
June 9, 2012 10:31 a.m.
Great input! Thanks everyone. Keep it coming.
Questions:
1) What information needs to be on that "paper trail"? I plan on keeping history but does there need to be more information than just the totals your life goes through as things happen? (like 20, 18, 15, 17, 11) Does there need to be turn or damage/life source information?
2) I like the data/stats tracking. So, to be clear, things like the deck you're using, the player you're playing, the deck you're playing against would be tracked. This way you can keep statistics comparing any of your decks vs. any opponent decks you've played (any player playing them), or any player, or against a particular player's decks. Sound about right?
I think the app needs to feel as much like paper as possible because that's what I see most competitive players using, so I think the paper trail will be very visible.
Thanks for the notes suggestion. I like that and I think I know how I would implement it.
Dice, coin flip, poisen counters, emblems are also on the list. Library count would have to be optional. I wonder how to best implement the emblems... any ideas?
June 10, 2012 6:41 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #13
@#1 Nothing more than the life changes so you can show them to the judge. (what you would normally have on a paper.)
@Obliviate If you make this for apple I would by the SHIT out of it. I would pay 2 bucks for it and if you added a card search portion linked to TCGplayer I would pay 5.
June 10, 2012 6:46 p.m.
PasorofMuppets says... #14
Cute little emblems would be neat, like below the life or something. There might be few enough that colors could differentiate.
June 10, 2012 6:48 p.m.
PasorofMuppets says... #15
Also yeah I probably would also buy the shit out of it. Would be nice if you could save the database linked to tcgplayer so if you go offline you can still use it. (I have an ipod touch :c) also the service in my shop is shit.
June 10, 2012 6:52 p.m.
Well the life tracker would actually be an addon to an already existing card database. It's not very prominent yet but I really like it. It shows you the low, mid, and high price from store.tcgplayer and gives you links to tcg player and gatherer for each card. It's free right now.
The app is called Orcish Librarian. The creator is also a very nice guy.
June 10, 2012 6:52 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #17
Dude send me a link when you get it up and running... I WANTS IT!
notepad. (preferably one that you can easily delete entries from like "striking through" on paper.)
life/poison count
paper trail (just the numbers should do)
emblems/other assorted goodies
you'll have a REALLY nice app that does more than anything else on the market.
Shane says... #2
Dice, coin flip, poisen counters, emblems. Maybe even library count so u know whats left cause sometimes counting can give away plans.
June 8, 2012 5:35 p.m.