Too good to go

Too good to go!Too good to throw out. Toogoodtogo is an app that makes an effort to reduce waste. When a product is still pretty good a company can decide to toss it in the trash, or sell it with a big discount (or give it away, but that sometimes conflicts with the business interests). I installed the app and we have tried it twice!

Chinese foodFirst experience (4.99)
There were some left-overs available at a local Chinese restaurant. This felt like quite a risk, because what are you going to get? The left-overs from the buffet? Still we took a gamble, and what we got was unexpected. Four containers with freshly made Chinese food. Nothing to good to go, just normal Chinese food, with the only exception that we could not chose the menu. What we got was pretty good. White rice, rice with chicken, noodles with chicken and croquet’s. All very tasty, but not something that was at risk of being thrown away.

Meat!Second experience (3.99)
The second time we rescued a package from the trash from a big supermarket. This time we got lots of meat. Bacon, bacon pieces, sausages, yogurt (8x), and three apples. All the meat was from a pig. The best-before dates were all on the current date. Not bad, the products all looked pretty good, and we received a big amount of food. I spend the evening frying the meat and even though I would normally avoid pig-meat out of personal preference it looks like the next couple of days I’ll be having pig for lunch.

Conclusion
It is really a gamble. You don’t know what you will get, and you don’t know what state it will be in. I don’t think we will use this app a lot more. The food you get is cheap, and it can be a lot of food, but it is still a gamble. It is unusual to get something you really need. In our case it is much easier to simply pay a little more and get exactly what we want/need. As a game/gamble/surprise it might be fun to get something with friends.

For the company it is an easy way to achieve something. In the case of the Chines restaurant I think they used as a new way to advertise. A random menu for a low price, to maybe get some new customers. In this case I think there is a high probability I would try this Chinese place again, just to see what I will get next time. In case of the supermarkt the app clearly achieved its goal. Avoid throwing away food that was perfectly fine.

Companies that can really benefit from this app are companies that deal with perishable foods. Fruit, vegetables, bread, meat, fish, etc. These shops can avoid throwing away things and get some new potential customers at the same time. For the customer there is the potential for cheap food, but with a risk in not knowing what you are going to get.

Recognizable game

As a test/hobby project I have been building a game similar to minesweeper, but with a completely different theme. Instead of looking for mines you will need to look for mushrooms. The game logic was easy because it is shared lots of times online. The entire app structure was for me, and was basically what I wanted to learn/achieve. What I was missing was the assets. Images and sounds to make it all look perfect. For this I used fiverr and I hired an indonesian guy to make around 20 images for me. Great to have such a huge international marketplace. What I am still missing it some soundeffects. I will probably try and convince the kids to help me with this, because Alex has already showed me he does this very well, like the shooting effect in our stopmotion.

Bugfinder

Bugfinder!What can you do when you find a little critter near your home and suddenly you get curious about what you found? Sometimes it can be very nice to investigate a little more and find out a little more about the bug you found. Lots of little animals have very positive properties and most of them would never hurt a human. Some of them are beautiful, and some have a important role then you might realize.

At Naturalis I contributed to the creation of the Bugfinder app (Dierenzoeker, for now only in Dutch). This fun free app is made for Android and iPhone. You can use the app to find out what bug you found and read all about it. The app is easy to use, made specifically for children from 7 to 11 years, but also very nice for all adults.

Ladybug!If you always wanted to find out what the strange yellow ladybug you sometimes find in the garden really is? After a little searching you will find out all about the little bug, including the fun fact that the little animal ‘plants’ his own crops.

With 300 little bugs and critters for sure you will be able to name a lot of the animals you find around your home.

Cats&Dogs

Dog!Cat!The wait is finally over. Cats and Dogs, Boys and Girls, a never ending battle between men’s best friends, combined with the most epic battle of all, the battle of the sexes. Action-packed in just half a minute of gaming frenzy.

An easy and exiting game, now playable on your Android phone. Practice your reflexes as you try to keep up with all the action on your mobile. This hot new game is available as an Android App on Google Play now and best of all, totally free!

The object of the game is as easy as it is challenging. Select either cats or dogs and boys or girls and start the action. Avoid touching the wrong animal or gender. Are you able to get the high score of the day, while only playing one minute? Don’t wait any longer! Get this game now!

View the all time high scores and today’s best scores.

Android update April

After a long wait finally all the pieces are falling into place. I expect I will be able to finish the game soon. As always the final details and polishing up take the most time. Last month I already introduced the entire cast of the game. I also showed you one of the specials you can find in the game. The rest I leave for you to find out playing the game.

I enjoyed creating this game a lot. It is my first Android program, and it was very useful for me to get some hands-on with this new media, and with programming for mobile devices. I expect the announcement for this new game ‘Cats and Dogs’ to appear on this blog, and the android store, somewhere in the next few months.

Android update March

Time to introduce the entire cast of the game.

Cats and Dogs, Boys and Girls.
Cat!Dog!Boy!Girl!

There are still quite a lot of details to work out, but things are progressing. Maybe in a few months there will be a big announcement. One detail more that I will reveal in this post is the name of the game. The name will be quite simple: ‘Cats and Dogs‘.

Android update February

Sometimes you just need to give your mind a break. Stop thinking for a short while and just enjoy yourself for a minute. This is exactly what I am trying to create. A short break and a way to enjoy yourself for just one minute. The game I’m creating will be playable for 60 seconds. After which you can continue your life.

Pepper!60 seconds is all that is needed for the game to be played. In this 60 seconds you will be introduced to the already familiar dog and girl, but you will also encounter a red hot pepper every now and then.

More information next month.

Android update January

I am continuing with my Android game, and right now I have the main interface more or less ready. This means you can start and stop the app, start the game, modify the settings and view the high scores. What is missing is the actual game itself, the content of all the screens, and the method of uploading your personal high score to a website. Still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Dog!Here is another small part of the game. This girl is a little less important then the dog, but she also plays an important role in the game. If you are getting curious return in a month to find out more!

Android update December

Android app!In creating a game using the appinventor I was running into quite a lot of problems. Programming the logic is very simple, but fine-tuning details is in a lot of cases impossible. For this reason I threw the appinventor out of the door and right now I am reinventing my game-app using Eclipse and Java. A lot more flexible and a lot more fun. The only drawback is developing it is not so fast, but this is mainly because there are a lot of things that need figuring out.

Dog!I think I will be needing a few more months to finish my first project, which is mainly caused by the lack of time I seem to have. But still, I will try to publish something every month from now, so I have a good reason to keep progressing. This dog is one of the important parts of the game. Next month something unimportant.