Localisation of Astraware games.
You've read about the graphics in Astraware Solitaire and you've also read Kat's view on its development. So I will write a little about an aspect that perhaps many of you won't even notice. For those of you who do notice it, I hope this feature makes the experience of playing even more pleasant. I'm talking about localisation.
Among other things, I am responsible for getting all resources translated into different languages. The process starts when the English text is nearly finalized. I then get the strings from the developer and have the job of translating them. Not all localisation is done in-house; I am a native Spanish speaker so I work on the Spanish strings but my knowledge of other languages is not very advanced, so we also rely on an external company for this.
To handle the strings, I take the text document that contains them and covert it into a spreadsheet. The table has all the strings listed vertically and each string has its translation listed horizontally on the same row. This format enables me to identify which string I'm working on as well as which language.
The most challenging part of the process is making sure all the text fits on-screen. So once all the localised strings are put in the file, I figure out the longer text for each string (a task that only takes two minutes when done using formulas in the spreadsheet) and the developer creates a special build of the game containing all the strings. This special build in what we call 'Longlish' lets us see how well the text fits on the small screens. Sometimes we need to move things around the screen, sometimes artist time is needed to make changes to graphics or even the font, and sometimes we don't have other option but to abbreviate words (some times in the most unusual way).
While all this is being done, different versions are fed out to beta testers and those who understand other languages send us back their feedback.
Currently, Astraware Solitaire only supports Spanish, but other languages will be added soon. It took a lot of time and effort but it is all worth it if some of you decide and prefer to play it in this language. For other games like Astraware Sudoku and Bejeweled, we have done localisation into French, Italian, German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Who knows, maybe in the future we will decide to localise into other languages, perhaps even those that don't use the Latin alphabet.
A few years ago, I never thought I would be part of a games development process. But here I am today and I've enjoyed the experience. I hope you enjoy the result.
Palm Foleo first impressions
Yesterday Palm and Astraware issued a press release about our upcoming releases of Astraware Sudoku and Astraware Solitaire for the Palm Foleo. Having worked with the Foleo through the porting process, I thought I'd put together some thoughts on the what we've discovered about the mobile companion...
First let's get this out of the way: the Palm Foleo isn't designed specifically for me, or many of the tech bloggers who've been writing about it over the last few weeks. Some writers have started to work this out, which is good to see. The Foleo is for people who nearly exclusively deal in email, and lots of it. And on the road. It's for those people who use a smartphone for push email but also lug around a laptop to fire up Outlook, Word or Excel. Software developers such as I need all the power of Windows, but maybe others don't? That's Jeff Hawkins' bet.
But even though I'd not use one for what it's really designed for, there are some things that get me excited. Instant on, for instance. Some people are getting really bored of hearing about it, but in practice it's a revelation. Sitting in front of the TV and want to look someone up on IMDB? In less than a second the device is on, and in less than 5 the wi-fi is up and running and Opera is open. Proper full width web browsing in next-to-no-time! Perfect! If you've not got wi-fi nearby then it'll use your phone's data connection via Bluetooth, though I've not had chance to try that out.
Another really exciting feature is the battery life. Palm quotes it as 5 hours, and I reckon that's quite conservative. After a couple of hours surfing with wi-fi I had used about a quarter of the battery, though I wasn't being scientific. Palm have put a lot of work into the hardware and into making their version of Linux as lean as possible. This being Palm, efficiency is a priority.
In the Astraware office the appearance of a new category of Palm device has created lots of chatter between the tech people and the business people. Those of us mainly in the tech side are excited by the fact that it runs Linux and such. But those in the business side are the most excited...
We send John out to lots of conferences and meetings in lots of locations. Almost every month he's on a transatlantic flight, staying in hotels, meeting with people. And one of the things that gets him down most is lugging his laptop around with its brick of a charger. Flying from the UK to the West Coast of the US takes about 12 hours, but the battery lasts nowhere near that. So he loves the idea of a mobile companion that would allow him to do email and Office documents in something a third of the volume and a third of the weight. He'll be right at the front of the pre-order queue!
That's what's so interesting about the Foleo. I think it'll have quite a market amongst tech-loving types who'll love, for instance, being able to open up a Terminal window. But amongst the people who use mobile email and Office applications out of need rather than want this could be absolutely perfect.
Astraware Solitaire Release!
Today marks a very special occasion for me - the release of my very first game!! 
I've spent the last few days feeling a mixture of excitement and trepidation. It's amazing to see the game live on the website at last, but I'm still a little scared! What if I missed a bug? What if no one buys it? Of course, on the other hand, I'm so excited that my game is finally up for sale and people everywhere will be able to enjoy it
So to calm my nerves last night I baked a cake! 
It seems to contain rather excessive amounts of chocolate... a good way to either celebrate sales, or commiserate a lack of them 
Chocolate Chip Sponge Cake
300g Self-raising Flour
250g Caster Sugar
250g Butter
4 large eggs
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
25g melted chocolate (milk or dark)
20g of Chocolate Chips (milk, white or dark depending on your preference!)
Throw the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and cocoa powder into a food processor and mix until smooth (or put it in a bowl and mix by hand if you're feeling energetic!) Then add the melted chocolate and chocolate chips and stir. Line a fairly large square tin with greaseproof paper and then fill it with all the gooey cake mixture. Put in a preheated oven at about 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for 30 to 40 minutes (until a sharp knife comes out clean).
Once cooled, I cut the cake in half and filled it with chocolate butter cream (75g butter, 150g icing sugar, 1tbsp cocoa powder and about 20g of melted milk chocolate all mixed together). To cover the cake I melted about 300g of white chocolate and poured it liberally over the top!
The decoration is made out of marzipan, with a little food colouring where needed. I recommend drawing the design out on paper first so you know what you're aiming for. You can even use it as a template Roll out the marzipan on a surface with a light dusting of icing sugar, and then use a sharp knife to cut bits away until you get to your desired shape. Cutting things out of the middle of pieces is not easy, so avoid it where possible! If you want to make layers, then I recommend using a little of the white chocolate that's no doubt left around the edges of the bowl you melted it in to stick them together (So it's best to put the decoration on before licking... washing up the bowl!)
Everyone in the office seemed to enjoy eating the cake this morning, and apparently we've even sold a few copies of Solitaire... so celebrations are clearly in order! Personally, I think it's time to sit back and relax with a game of Four Seasons, or perhaps Spider, but apparently I have to start work on my next project!
I highly recommend you go and download a copy and give it a try! Obviously I'm a little biased but I think it's the best card game available for either Palm OS or Pocket PC! Of course, I'd be very interested in what you all think of the game so click the comments link below and let me know! I'd also love to know if anyone uses my cake recipes and how they turn out!
The Divine Miss M becomes a Google Girl Geek
Following on from previous Girl Geek Dinner events, some of the Astraware Team headed down to London to the Google Girl Geek Dinner to find out more about Google Checkout for Mobile. Katherine and myself, along with our honorary girls for the evening, David and John, were accompanied to the Girl Geek Dinner by the Divine Miss M. Regular readers will already be familiar with WikiMonkey and his many adventures, but on this occasion WikiMonkey was washing his hair and as it was an event particularly aimed at women, the Divine Miss M happily volunteered to come along.
The Google Girl Geek Dinner was hosted at Google's London office. As you'd imagine from their logo, there's lots of bright, jolly flashes of colour everywhere - from red, yellow and blue sofas to a giant handprint artwork on the wall in the restaurant. Before the event we were given a mini tour by our old friend David Fedor, who we've known since he worked at PalmSource (now ACCESS). We were particuarly impressed with the open, informal style of the working areas.
Before the speakers, we had some dinner in the restaurant where many of the Google employees have their lunch each day. The food was very nice indeed. Once dinner was over Danielle Drew and Li-Wei Lee from Google's QA and Engineering teams told us about the development of Google Checkout for Mobile devices. They talked about the issues involved in making the existing Google Checkout system for PCs work for mobile phones and smartphones with much smaller screens and more limited browsers. After the talk the Divine Miss M caught up with Danielle and Li-Wei, and discovered that Danielle is a complete Bejeweled addict!
We also took the opportunity to introduce the Divine Miss M to Sarah Blow, the founder of the London Girl Geek Dinners. They compared notes on being girly, geeky and glamorous all at the same time!
As we headed off home back to Staffordshire, there was much discussion about Google Checkout for Mobile (and desktop) as an alternative payment method. It's something we're definitely considering for the future, but we'd love to hear your experiences, so use the Comments link below to tell us what you think.
A Year At Astraware
Today is the anniversary of something rather special, at least, it is for Mike and I. One year ago today was our first day at work with Astraware! So to celebrate we baked a cake! Alright, I baked the cake whilst Mike played with marzipan and made some awesome gnomes to honour the first game he worked on here - Hammerheads I shall forego the recipe today since it's just a simple Victoria sponge cake with jam and butter icing in the middle, it's the amazing marzipan gnomes on the top which make it special!
The first day was a little daunting, as it always is when you start anywhere. It was somewhat comforting that I wasn't alone in being "the new person"; although I'm sure it was just a ploy so they only had to give all the introductory speeches once! I had always wanted to work on computer games and it's amazing to be here, with my first game soon to be released!
It's actually quite hard to believe it has been a whole year. We've seen the office through all the seasons, seen games go from idea through to design, to beta and then being released. In the last year I've worked on improvements to the website, created Flash animations for new games, and perhaps most importantly, seen Solitaire go from an idea to a releasable product
Mike: Wow! A whole year? After a couple of hectic years in the world of "next gen" games I was pinching myself regularly to find myself doing what I love most. From the crazy, little characters of Hammerheads to the careful, delicate revisions of Solitaire. Drawing is what I love and it's nice to be working for a company who cares... and has cake!
The last year has seen us working hard, making new friends, and baking cakes! The next year promises yet more excitement with new offices being built and more new game ideas waiting to be created. Who knows what might appear on next year's cake!