AgalSoftware

I created this blog in 2011 to chronicle my journey as a novice Android developer. Over a year, I published two apps, PocketFan and Silver Dollar Shooter.

PocketFan was a silly idea meant to learn Android App development. I ended up learning Photoshop and Illustrator along the way. I even dove deep into Android’s low-level audio processing in order to get rid of an audible “hitch” in my looped fan recording. What started as a joke turned out to have a legitimate purpose: white noise. Play Store reviews mentioned people wishing the fan noise stayed on while the screen was off to help them fall asleep. So I learned how to make a service that could keep the phone awake and keep making those imaginary breezes throughout the night. PocketFan was by far my most successful app, earning me literally tens of dollars in ad revenue.

Silver Dollar Shooter was my first attempt at Android game development. I integrated a mobile game engine called libGDX to handle physics and drawing. I got to talk to the libGDX developer and pass along issues that cropped up (GitHub was still pretty new, so this was all in email). Silver Dollar Shooter wasn’t as successful as PocketFan, but it’s the most complicated Android app I’ve ever made and it was a lot of fun to build.

Unfortunately, I have long-since removed both apps from the Google Play Store. As new Play Store requirements came out, my apps became less compatible with new versions of Android. I lost the original source code during a migration to a new laptop, so I couldn’t make required changes. I guess backups really are important…

I felt weird just taking this website offline even after so many years. It was like a diary for me. So I ported it to WordPress.com and changed to a more modern theme. Maybe I’ll get back into Android development and pick up where I left off. Who knows?