I know there is a Mobile Game forum, but it looked a little dead. As of right now, I am developing a primitive alpha to a "MTG" style app that has a EDH feel. One query would be the UI design and the other would be implementing TCP to a SQL database to compute the booster packing and TCP commands. The SQL seems like it's gonna be a bitch, but the true headache is Java. I have been coding with Java for 4 years and the Android SDK looks so damn convoluted (With Eclipse). If there are any comments, I will elaborate further.
I don't really have an in depth knowledge of Java but I am willing to give you my insight into UI design, but please elaborate further.
Google's pretty much moved over to Android Studio. It's been out of beta for a while, so give that a try. I like it much better. Google did a much better job of integrating the Android tools this time.
The whole game would be like a massive MMO that would be similar to a massive EDH game for mobile devices. End Users could be on separate factions that fight against each other in the EDH game, but there can be a 2 player type to go along. That's a rather terrible description, but you probably can see the gist of it. Players could earn "gold" or whatever and buy boosters for other "cards". It wouldn't be a flat out MTG clone, but it will be a derivative of such.
I have seen it implements some features from IntelliJ. At least UI of it looks like it.
I belive it actually is / is based on IntelliJ. Hopefully you like it better than that mess Eclipse.
As someone who has also suffered over Eclipse, I agree, haven't taken too much time to look into android studio yet though. Last I saw, it looked mostly like Eclipse though.
Regardless, I'd love to follow the project, just let us know if you need any input.
Ill do a blog post on the concept later on, probably tomorrow. The only issue I see is the TCP protocol sends/gets whatever crap because the concept requires some significant computation. Ill link the blog post to this one to migrate the topic.
Whenever you are making a UI, you have to keep it simple, fast and efficient. For the start I would suggest to also automate as much as possible (as long it doesn't make the game-play too easy).
1) I would make the card drawing from the deck automatic.
2) Card selection should be done with a single tap.
3) Any special use of the card would best be displayed as a little pop up menu with the possible options or a particular motion (this might be harder to implement), before the card is utilized (tweaks are need based on the exact game-play and screen sizes, need more info on the game rules)
4) For online battles just steal the UI of any other PC or Mobile MMO, they are all the same and only the small tweaks are necessary.
Hope this is in any way useful, and I am aware this all seems to obvious and unoriginal but this sort of thing is quite hard to implement and program properly.
Also this might help you realize some things while making your game:
Hello Everyone. I have been a little busy with school work and other things. Sorry for the massive delay. I'll be posting some brainstorming ideas later during the month for you all.
I'm both a novice at Java and Android, and I found that I picked up Android Studio really quickly as compared to Eclipse and jMonkeyEngine SDK. I've also been able to figure out how to embed stuff that I develop in Unity within the native app I'm working on in Android Studio. Not sure if Unity would help your development or not...
It could, but animation is a whole different trade to me. I'm more of the programmer logic type.