One Door Closing, Another Opening!

All apps will be removed from Google Play!

What's happening?

• After years of fighting to protect your user data I am now fighting to protect my own. By the end of April 2025 Google is deleting all my apps and developer profile! At that time this link to my developer page will go to a dead page.

Why?

• Google has added a mandatory requirement that indie developers must publish their full legal names and full home addresses on the play store. I will not do that. That's an overstep of their use of my personal information.

What now?

• If they choose to reverse this decision, which I hope they do, I will be back.
  
  
• Current plans are to build web based apps that will be available for both Android and iOS users without need for hosting apps in either of their app stores. Track that progress here on jarjarbits.blogspot.com as I'll try to post occasional updates about any progress made.
  
  
• It just so happens that since August 2023 I have been working with AO Lab. They are a team that is building a completely web based and open Bible platform with the option for developers like me to publish extensions. My hopes are to begin developing for their ecosystem, stepping away from Android apps, away from in-app advertising, and of course remaining completely free to everyone.
  
  
• While I hope to port a Bible Books learning game, a 3D CrossWord game, and the Random Verse generator to web based formats; the Dots and Boxes Territorial game currently has no plans of being available after my apps are removed from the Google Play Store. Apps will be rebuilt from scratch in a new environment that itself is currently under development. This will bring completely new experiences and may take some time but has the potential to be something better and accessible to more people than ever.

Caution:

• Be aware that if you uninstall any of my apps you may not have a way to download them again.
  
  
• Please don't download or use copies you find on third-party sites as those are bootleg copies and who knows if you can trust that they haven't modified the apps in some malicious way.

CrossWord3D — Verse Text Easier to Read

What's New (in version 0.8.01-Beta)

• Fixed, as suggested by a user, green answers in verse text were too hard to read. Now the green is darker so they are easier to read. Eventually I want to work with the font more to add a border and drop shadow to the letters but this will take a lot more work and time.
• Wrong letters entered in by the user that show up in the verse text are now lowercase instead of uppercase. This makes the verse as a whole easier to read as you are trying to solve the remaining letters and words.

New (easier to read) version 0.8.01	Old (harder to read) version 0.8.0

CrossWord3D — New User Interface

What's New (in version 0.8.0-Beta)

• New user interface elements added in, needs a lot of work still but it's a start.
• Verse text is much easier to interact with now. It is scrollable and doesn't jump between a full view and an interactable view, instead it stays interactable and you can tap any of the unsolved words to move around in the puzzle.
• Tapping any unsolved word in the verse text will jump to that word and start on the first letter. Tap again on any letter in the word once it is active and the cursor will move to that letter.
• No longer trying to make the current word large in the middle of the verse text, instead it will auto-scroll to the selected word. Eventually I hope to make the puzzle itself spin to focus on the current word but for now it doesn't do that.
• The verse reference such as "John 3:16 KJV" is now broken off from the verse text itself and remains visible during play.
• Rebuilt the keyboard and all interfaces so they now fit better across all screens. Need to make them look better but for the purposes of this release the goal was functionality.
• Pinch to zoom is limited to only detect if at least one touch point is in the puzzle area. This will stop accidental zooming in and out while using the keyboard or the verse panel.
• Swipe to rotate will ignore any touches outside of the puzzle area. Would like to change this so if you start swiping from the puzzle area it will continue until you release but at the moment it stops swiping when your touch point leaves the puzzle area.
• Some of the cube's letters were not visible on the splash screen, now they are.

CrossWord3D — Automatic Screen Fitting

What's New (in version 0.7.9922-Beta)

• When a puzzle loads it will auto-size itself to fit the screen.
  
• Pinch-to-zoom limits so the puzzle won't get too large or too small now that it knows the screen size and can do that.
• The previous/next buttons to move between words are now bigger and easier to tap.
• The verse text while working on a word shouldn't get as small anymore.
• Lots of small tweaks to the User Interface (UI) as the first baby-steps toward an entire UI rebuild.
  

CrossWord3D — More Improvements

What's New (in version 0.7.9731-Beta)

• Moved the keyboard up a little so that it is no longer on the very bottom edge of the screen. This should help with devices that use gestures (the system navigation buttons popup from the bottom) and with ergonomics in general for longer playing without your hands hurting.
• Previously any non-playable characters on the end of the current word (such as " 's " or punctuation) would bump to the next line while playing a word. Now those characters will stay attached to the current word that is in play. This makes it a little easier to see what is going on and to guess the word.

CrossWord3D — Playability Improvements

What's New (in version 0.7.9330-Beta)

• New Fonts
• Now has a new font that will keep words from changing sizes and moving the verse text all around during play.
• Also changed the blank answer character from a simple square box to a 3D cube which matches the cubes in the rest of the game.
• The font used now makes letters like "I" and "L" much easier to distinguish between, before sometimes it was hard to know if you had typed a lowercase "L" or an uppercase "I".
• I really don't like this font but it does help in the ways mentioned above so it will be in place for the time being. I plan to do a lot of updates to the user interface and using nicer looking custom fonts will be a part of that process. However; I am also building a completely new game (KnowRefs) so updates to the look/feel of CrossWord3D will likely take a backseat until the new game is up and running.

In addition to the above changes, all of the below changes from version 0.7.9130-Beta are also included for the first time due to the fact that the Google Play Store never rolled out the previous version of this app. Since they are taking over a month in some cases to even begin rolling out app updates I have decided to remove this app from the "Designed for Families" program. Pretty sure that was causing all the delays in the publishing pipeline, but I guess we'll see if that actually gets fixed now. Anyway, here are all the previous updates that never made it out:

• Show full verse after every correct word.
  This will now happen instead of jumping to the next unsolved word as before. I feel like this makes for a much better play experience when less of the words are known but maybe a little more of a hassle if you happen to know all the answers. Since most of the time answers are probably not all known, I believe this is the better option.
• Hints won't be wasted if you happen to use them while only one word is unsolved.
  Currently the only type of hints in the game are to narrow the keyboard down to the letters needed for the current word, removing any needed for only the other words. So logically if you only have one answer left to solve tapping hint would do nothing and so now a hint isn't removed from your count if you do that. Although if several answers remain and they all happen to be the same exact word, it will use a hint even though the keyboard really stays the same.
• Max hint value 99.
  So if you never use hints and they keep building up then the most you can have on hand now is 99. Unless you already had built up more than 99 before updating to this app version. In that case, you won't lose those extra hints, you simple won't have any more added to it until you start using them and it goes below 99.
• When a word appears in several locations solving it in any one spot will solve it everywhere.
  I never really intended for the same answer to show up in several different spots in same puzzle, but the way I wrote the puzzle generator it seems to be happening every once in awhile; mostly with shorter words like "I" or "A". So for now if this happen then interacting with any one of them should effect each location it appears at. Eventually I would like to fix the puzzle generator so this doesn't happen but wanted to solve the problem from this end before I ever started on that.
• Keyboards (virtual/physical) outside of the built-in game keyboard work now (well, hopefully).
  So I haven't actually tested this anywhere and I don't know if this is something that will actually be useful to anyone. Though in theory, if you have a virtual keyboard of your own on screen while playing then those keys should work, with some added keys such as the left and right arrow keys to cycle through unsolved answers. I don't expect swipe/gesture typing to work, only single key taps on the keyboard should work. Otherwise if you have a physical keyboard attached to your device then those keys should hopefully work as well. I set this up because I am able to use it while running/testing the app on a laptop and if it works or not for anyone else I would love to hear feedback.
• Platform updates and security patches.
  These are from Unity and Google AdMob as well as any other Google services.

CrossWord3D — App Updates

What's New (in version 0.7.9130-Beta)

• Show full verse after every correct word.
  This will now happen instead of jumping to the next unsolved word as before. I feel like this makes for a much better play experience when less of the words are known but maybe a little more of a hassle if you happen to know all the answers. Since most of the time answers are probably not all known, I believe this is the better option.
• Hints won't be wasted if you happen to use them while only one word is unsolved.
  Currently the only type of hints in the game are to narrow the keyboard down to the letters needed for the current word, removing any needed for only the other words. So logically if you only have one answer left to solve tapping hint would do nothing and so now a hint isn't removed from your count if you do that. Although if several answers remain and they all happen to be the same exact word, it will use a hint even though the keyboard really stays the same.
• Max hint value 99.
  So if you never use hints and they keep building up then the most you can have on hand now is 99. Unless you already had built up more than 99 before updating to this app version. In that case, you won't lose those extra hints, you simple won't have any more added to it until you start using them and it goes below 99.
• When a word appears in several locations solving it in any one spot will solve it everywhere.
  I never really intended for the same answer to show up in several different spots in same puzzle, but the way I wrote the puzzle generator it seems to be happening every once in awhile; mostly with shorter words like "I" or "A". So for now if this happen then interacting with any one of them should effect each location it appears at. Eventually I would like to fix the puzzle generator so this doesn't happen but wanted to solve the problem from this end before I ever started on that.
• Keyboards (virtual/physical) outside of the built-in game keyboard work now (well, hopefully).
  So I haven't actually tested this anywhere and I don't know if this is something that will actually be useful to anyone. Though in theory, if you have a virtual keyboard of your own on screen while playing then those keys should work, with some added keys such as the left and right arrow keys to cycle through unsolved answers. I don't expect swipe/gesture typing to work, only single key taps on the keyboard should work. Otherwise if you have a physical keyboard attached to your device then those keys should hopefully work as well. I set this up because I am able to use it while running/testing the app on a laptop and if it works or not for anyone else I would love to hear feedback.
• Platform updates and security patches.
  These are from Unity and Google AdMob as well as any other Google services.

CrossWord3D — Split Screen

What's New (version 0.7.8930-Beta)

• Split screen compatibility:
  While not always the best fit to the screen or the easiest to play, at least now split screen is possible so you can try to do other things while playing this game.
• Platform updates and security patches:
  These are from Unity and Google AdMob as well as any other Google services.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Status: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Status: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Currently only have hints showing up but I want to add more types of these. Such as solving the first letter of the word, or solving all of one letter across the whole puzzle.  
  Status: Haven't started.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Status: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Status: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.
• Puzzle Cube Interactions:
  Idea: I'd like to do some work on the 3D puzzle made of cubes so that it is easier to see what is going on and easier to control.
  Status: Haven't started yet. 

  

CrossWord3D — Bug Fix

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.8530-Beta

What's New

• Fixed an issue where using a hint on a word that happened to start with a capital letter caused the keyboard to disappear. Keyboards seem useful, lol.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Status: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Status: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Currently only have hints showing up but I want to add more types of these. Such as solving the first letter of the word, or solving all of one letter across the whole puzzle.  
  Status: Haven't started.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Status: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Status: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.
• Puzzle Cube Interactions:
  Idea: I'd like to do some work on the 3D puzzle made of cubes so that it is easier to see what is going on and easier to control.
  Status: Haven't started yet. 

  

CrossWord3D — Privacy Policy

Your privacy is my policy, simple as that.

I use the least possible amount of app permissions and do not create user data on my end. All app data stays with you on your device, unseen by me. I use the Internet permission for serving ads (which turn off automatically on Sundays, but you could always play in airplane mode to block them * wink * wink *).

To build the app I use Unity and some Google services. Their services may do some level of tracking, crash reporting, or data collection. The Google Play Store provides me with some anonymized download and usage statistics.

I do what I can to protect you and I’m learning as I go. I even try to block Google from using unique identifiers to serve you personalized ads.

I only publish apps directly to the Google Play Store for Android. If anyone else packs anything into my app and redistributes it somewhere else there is nothing I can do to stop them. Please be careful where you get your apps from.

Updated May 27th, 2022.

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.8330-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.8330-Beta

What's New

• Added "Hints!" Now every time you complete a puzzle you will gain 1 hint. Anytime during gameplay you can tap on the hint button to remove all extra letters for the current word. Otherwise all remaining letters for the puzzle will be visible even if they aren't needed for the current word.
• Keyboard keys should be even easier to tap. Key layering has been modified so that letters closer to the beginning of the alphabet aren't harder to hit. Letters closer to the end of the alphabet were drawing on top of them near the edges.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Added in "Hints" for narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word!
• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Stated working on a mini game that will be a cross between the games breakout and alien invaders. It's not included in the game yet.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.8130-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.8130-Beta

What's New

• Keyboard keys should be easier to tap now. Now it makes a larger hit area around the next correct key that should be hit. This should make miss-taps a bit less frequent.
• Updated to the newest versions of all Google AdMob code.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Stated working on a mini game that will be a cross between the games breakout and alien invaders. It's not included in the game yet.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.7730-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.7730-Beta

What's New

• Added 53 verses with 10 versions for each making for 530 puzzles shipped in the app! On top of that there are still new verse of the day puzzles added daily.
• Made puzzles a little smaller in general so that larger ones fit on the screen easier. You still have the pinch-to-zoom option to resize as needed while you play.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Stated working on a mini game that will be a cross between the games breakout and alien invaders. It's not included in the game yet.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.7530-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.7530-Beta

What's New

• Looks like all crashes were fixed in the previous release, if you are still having any issues it is probably because you are on an older version of the app. Update to the newest version directly from the Play Store to resolve any issues.
• Made the splash screen faster and changed the animation around a bit.
• Removed the dark overlay when the "Next" verse button appears.
• Made the title "CrossWord3D" more consistent from the splash screen all the way through to the menus.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Stated working on a mini game that will be a cross between the games breakout and alien invaders. It's not included in the game yet.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.7330-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.7131-Beta

What's New

• Attempting to fix some crashes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Unfortunately there have been a lot of crashes lately which completely kill the game and you have to open it back up to start over. Trying something today that I hope will fix some or all of those issues, but I'll have to keep investigating further to see what else needs to be fixed.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Stated working on a mini game that will be a cross between the games breakout and alien invaders. It's not included in the game yet.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.7131-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.7131-Beta

What's New

• Delete key now clears the entire current word of any wrong characters and moves the cursor to the beginning of the word.
  
• One issue is when you get to only one remaining letter missing in a word and you enter the wrong letter it may feel like nothing is happening if you don't notice the change in the puzzle (seeing the red box and clearing the letter very quickly). Might need to find a better solution for this at some point.
• Fixed issue with verse Isaiah 41:10. The word "I" was appearing in multiple different locations in the puzzle. The idea is to never have a duplicate word as more than one separate answer for the puzzle. So answering once should always fill all matches of the word. There might be some other remaining puzzles that will need to be fixed, but I will have to fix those as I come across them.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.5931-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.5931-Beta

What's New

• The puzzle will not snap back to the original position after each word as it was doing. Now it should retain any position you leave it in until the puzzle is completed.
• Swiping left and right should move the puzzle a quarter turn. You can still drag the puzzle to any position.
• Fixed an issue where the "Bible Version" button wasn't always working on the first load.
• Fixed an issue where the "Bible Version" button and the verse of the day text were showing at the same time and overlapping each other.
• Added a "CrossWord3D" title at the top of the screen for now because some devices push the ad down a bit and leave an empty space at the top of the screen.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.5731-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.5731-Beta

What's New

• Verse of the Day (VOTD) now loads both from Bible.com and BibleGateway.com
  
  VOTD will start showing up on its own, but if you aren't seeing it yet this might be why:
  To active VOTD you must first play through a few verses. After you close the app completely, on the next app open it should show up. You will know it is the verse of the day because at the bottom instead of the option to select a Bible version you will see some text like "Verse of the day...". If it still doesn't appear, there might not be a puzzle for that day (or for that version for that day). Try another Bible version, make sure the app is allowed to use the Internet, or check back the next day.
  
  Some days certain Bible versions don't have a VOTD because the puzzle generator backend that I built needs some work, but for now, most days a verse of the day should show up in the app. 
  

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.5331-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.5331-Beta

What's New

• New Feature: Verse of the Day (VOTD) will load on open (most of the time... still working some issues out).
  
  VOTD will start showing up on its own, but if you aren't seeing it yet this might be why:
  To active VOTD you must first play through a few verses. After you close the app completely, on the next app open it should show up. You will know it is the verse of the day because at the bottom instead of the option to select a Bible version you will see some text like "Verse of the day...". If it still doesn't appear, there might not be a puzzle for that day (or for that version for that day). Try another Bible version, make sure the app is allowed to use the Internet, or check back the next day.
  
  The BibleGateway API for using their verse of the day has some issues (or at least I haven't figured out how to properly use it yet) so those haven't been included In this version. YouVersion's bible.com doesn't have a verse of the day API so I built my own YouVersion verse of the day API.
  
  The puzzle generator backend that I built will need more work, but for now, most days a verse of the day should show up in the app. 
   
• Removed transparency from letter cubes
  
  Way back before the puzzle had options for pinch to zoom and swipe to rotate I had to cheat by making the letters transparent. That way without the puzzle being able to move you could still see each of the words.
  
  Eventually I would like to do something in the middle of the two extremes. Maybe words on the far side of the puzzle can be solid and any words in front of the word you have selected could be transparent. Then it could keep automatically fixing which words are transparent as you rotate, but this isn't super easy to do so it might never happen.

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Verse of the day puzzles:
  Idea: A new puzzle for each day matching up to the YouVersion Bible App's verse of the day.
  Progress: Added in as a feature in version 0.7.5331-Beta. The next step is to also add in the verse of the day for BibleGateway.com. The puzzles are automatically generated but the generator still needs some work, currently it won't build a puzzle everyday because it often fails during the build. Failures shouldn't show up in the app, instead the verse of the day will be skipped when that happens.
• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.

  

CrossWord3D — Update v0.7.4931-Beta

Rolled out an update today: Version 0.7.4931-Beta

What's New

• Now choose from the ten most popular Bible versions 
• Hint text around selected word shows all of the verse when possible
• Fixed issue that was limiting to only two correct words at a time

Road Map

These are the things I hope to build into the app someday. These may or may not happen but they are what I am currently working on behind the scenes.

• Play Packs:
  Idea: Groups of verses ("Play Packs") instead of randomly selected verses.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Custom Play Packs:
  Idea: User generated puzzles saved into play packs.
  Progress: Built a puzzle generator. Needs a user interface and is waiting on main menu with play packs to be completed first.
• Mini games:
  Idea: Playable mini-games (for example they could be similar to: pong, flappy-bird, minesweeper, etc.) the purpose being to break up game play and to acquire power-ups to be used on puzzles.
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Power-ups:
  Idea: Gained from mini-games, storable and usable for things like narrowing the keyboard to only letters for the current word, solving all of one letter on the puzzle, etc. 
  Progress: Haven't started. Waiting on mini-games to be completed first.
• Sounds:
  Idea: Default to off but allow to be toggled on
  Progress: Haven't started.
• Better Graphics/Animation:
  Idea: After core functionality is built in I hope to start working on the graphics, animation, and general "gamification" of the app.
  Progress: Added in some playful animations but they caused lots of issues and had to remove them. Need to start over with these.
• Verse of the day puzzles:
  Idea: A new puzzle for each day matching up to the YouVersion Bible App's verse of the day.
  Progress: Built an API of sorts for the You Version verse of the day, also found that pulling BibleGateway.com's verse of the day should be pretty easy to accomplish. Need to rewrite the puzzle generator code in another language so it can run on a server separate from the app. Then this feature will be waiting on the main menu and the play packs to be completed.