Sunday, April 21, 2013

Pembajakkan: Hal yang Terlalu Sulit untuk Dihilangkan

Sedikit berbeda dari biasanya, kali ini saya ingin menyampaikan unek-unek saya tentang pembajakan.
Apa itu pembajakan ? Bajak-membajak di sawah? Eng... Bukan itu yang saya maksud. Pembajakan di sini merupakan tindakan menggunakan / mengambil suatu produk tanpa ijin yang jelas. Saya tidak berkata bahwa saya 100% pure bersih dari benda bajakan, namun saya hanya kecewa ketika mendengar sebagian orang Indonesia yang berkata: "Ngapain beli kalo ada yang gratis?"

"For what we must buy if we can get it for free?"
Damn, that quote is really broke my heart. . . Yes... Yes that's true, but...
Okay, saya tidak munafik, kalau saya juga menggunakan benda-benda bajakan. Namun, saya berpikir, saya kuliah pada jurusan IT yang pada akhirnya terkait secara langsung atau tidak, suatu hari nanti saya mungkin akan membuat app sebagai mata pencaharian utama saya. (Pemikiran yang egois nampaknya... Come on, ini pekerjaan saya, dan saya bekerja untuk mencari uang).
Saya bisa membayangkan posisi saya jika saya adalah seorang developer yang appsnya dibajak. Oh, man... I got no money, no food, no life then Dead :P
Kemudian saya berpikir mungkin itu sebabnya, perindustrian di Indonesia agak susah maju. Sebagian orang terlalu banyak memegang prinsip, "GRATIS PANGKAL KAYA"
Jika gratis di sini, gratis dalam arti sebenarnya , saya tidak masalah dan justru mendukungnya. Namun, nyatanya gratis di sini: mencari benda bajakan.

Oke, jika kita mendownload suatu lagu secara gratis melalui internet, saya masih bisa memaklumi hal itu. Salah satu sisi positifnya, lagu penyanyi tersebut lebih cepat terkenal, dan tangga chartnya pun cepat naik. Penyanyi tersebut juga bisa diundang ke sana kemari untuk mengisi acara.
Lalu mendownload film bajakan. Paling tidak sebagian dari kita masih ada yang menonton di bioskop bukan?
Namun lain halnya dengan suatu aplikasi. Jika kalian berkata, pembajakan itu membuat suatu app terkenal. Ya, memang benar. tapi, kita tidak bisa melakukan hal sama seperti yang penyanyi lakukan pada kelanjutannya. Apps juga tidak bisa diputar di tempat lain. Pemberian lite version atau demo adalah salah satu cara menghindari pembajakan. Mungkin kalian belum punya cukup uang untuk membeli suatu app. Oke lah, jika menggunakan bajakan terlebih dahulu, namun hal itu bukan untuk selamanya atau kalian juga bisa menggunakan freeware dengan fasilitas sejenis.
Bayangkan saja, jika semua orang di Indonesia selalu berharap gratis (memakai barang bajakan). Bagaimana Teknologi di Indonesia bisa maju? Untuk apa ada kuliah jurusan IT?
Kami yang belajar dan berkarya pada bidang teknologi dan perangkat lunak, mencari sesuap nasi melalui karya yang kami buat. Namun, apa yang kami dapat?
Software hasil karya kami dibajak. Pembuatan suatu app bukan lah peristiwa 1 atau 2 hari yang mudah seperti membalikkan telapak tangan.
Ada perjuangan keringat, waktu, ilmu, tenaga, dan uang yang dikeluarkan untuk melakukan hal itu.
Oke, kalian bisa bilang, "Kalau ga mau dibajak, cari pekerjaan lain ... (Maksudnya jangan bikin apps, kembangkan yang lain seperti hardware atau perangkat kerasnya saja)

Baik, kita tidak akan bekerja sebagai pembuat aplikasi dan kalian jangan pernah lagi berpikir bahwa negara ini bisa bersaing dalam kancah Internasional di bidang Teknologi.
Sekarang ini Teknologi kian maju, kita semua juga ingin maju, kita belajar dari negara-negara maju, membuat aplikasi perangkat lunak yang dipergunakan untuk kemajuan bangsa. Jika kalian berpikir bahwa aplikasi itu tidak penting, kalian salah besar. Kehadiran suatu komputer atau mesin tidak akan berarti tanpa suatu pemrograman di dalamnya. Jika kita sukses, kita bangga karena bisa membawa harum nama bangsa. Kalian sebagai WNI pasti turut bangga bukan?
Tapi apa? Nampaknya masih banyak orang-orang di sekeliling kita kurang peduli akan hal itu.
Mereka hanya melihat dari hasil akhir bukan dari proses perjuangan yang dilakukan.
Mereka tidak menghargai kerja keras kami. Mereka melihat kami dari permukaan luarnya saja.

Saya menulis hal ini bukan karena saya kuliah pada jurusan IT. Saya juga bukan seorang developer. Saya menulis ini karena saya prihatin dengan sikap sebagian orang Indonesia yang kurang menghargai hasil karya orang lain. Jika gratis yang mereka cari memang asli berasal dari developer (promo code, game freemium, freeware, shareware) saya tidak masalah. Namun jika gratis yang diharapkan adalah hasil bajakan seperti (jailbreak, hacking, dsb) , saya sudah tidak bisa bilang apa-apa lagi. Kalian sendiri yang berhak memutuskan apakah hal ini memang layak atau tidak?
Jika kalian mengeluh, akan maraknya game-game freemium akhir-akhir ini. Sampai Real Racing 3 untuk mobile yang sebenarnya layak pada kisaran $4.99-7.99. Kenapa mereka memilih freemium dengan segudang IAP di dalamnya?
Mungkin ini didasari oleh sifat kebanyakan orang yang suka akan gratisan. Jadi, kembali lagi ke diri kita sendiri , bagaimana sikap kita sebenarnya...
Memang sulit untuk menghapus pembajakan. Kalian mungkin tidak bisa menghapus hal itu dengan mudah. Beberapa pihak juga dapat kehilangan pekerjaan karena penghapusan pembajakan. (Contoh: Penjual DVD dan CD bajakan)
Namun paling tidak, mulailah dari diri kalian sendiri, kurangi penggunaan barang atau aplikasi bajakan.
Perluas persepsi kalian akan apa itu makna GRATIS sebenarnya. Lebih mulia menunggu diskon daripada mengambil gratis yang tidak sepantasnya :p

Monday, April 15, 2013

1800: Are you Quick Enough?

So many games on AppStore today can make you confused to decide which one to try, moreover, almost everyday there's at least a new game coming in to AppStore, and also most of them are provided for free.
I'm here to tell a new game which interesting enough to be play for all ages.

1800



With a simple UI, don't let this game deceives you.. Firstly, You might think it's not interesting for a game with too simple graphic. Dominant with white and pink color, it also has very simple gameplay. The main goal is to stop the arrow in the middle of the rectangle. The arrow will move automatically, all you need to do is tap the screen to stop it rightly in the middle of the rectangle. As your level increase, there're more lines to make complexity of scoring. If there're 2 lines, you need to stop the arrow between (inside) the lines, if the lines are more than 2, the lines are counted from the outer lines, so make sure to try your best for stoping the arrow between them.

An easy gameplay, but addicting is the main goal of every game. I found that this game is almost doing it well. It comes with 20 levels for arcade mode and time mode which can be unlocked after gain 40 stars from 60 stars, (Yes, 3 star score makes this game has higher replay value). I also found that people might be challenged to beat their previous score and make all levels perfect scoring 1800.
For time mode, try to tap in the middle as much as possible. You only get 60 seconds for doing that. So, use it wisely





The main key to play this game is the right timing, also how quick your finger tap the screen to stop the arrow. You might feel some frustration while you've already try for several times, but still got nothing perfect .. Me feel bit same too.
Overall, 1800 is a good game for testing your reflex. So, what are you waiting for? Just take your copy right now, n prove who is the quickest.. :)

Graphic: 3.5 of 5
Music and sound: 3 of 5
Gameplay: 4 of 5
Replay Value: 4 of 5
Overall: 3.625 of 5

1800 is a simple game that's tasty enough to train your reflex. I wish they update the game with more levels and features in the future.



Download 1800 for iOS Devices

Monday, April 8, 2013

Overkill 2: Kill Madness

If usually, I play puzzle, adventure, simple platformer, music, arcade games. I also like RPG too, such as KRPG, but unfortunately never finished the game... Normally, I only play until 88-95% progress :P

And this time I try a new genre (game), a FPS (First-Person Shooter) game. I never pay attention about this genre before, moreover to play kind of this game cause I think it might be boring (okay... may be because I'm a girl :P). However, I definitely have wrong mind this time. I hooked up in to this... and I realize that a FPS game is so much fun to play.. (That's why my friend whos a girl too is so in love to play a fps game :D , and now i know how does it's feel.. :* seriously, it's really fun and challenging to play.. lol)

Okay, I tried Overkill 2 game. I might not ever play the first one (Overkill), but it doesn't matter, also I don't think the game has a sequel story line related into the first one. Cause the game is only shoot, shoot, and shoot, and survive as long as you can. I'll post some tips and trick of this game later. 


Overkill 2 has been released since late last month on some AppStore only. Finally, Craneballs released it worldwide on April 4.

There's no story line in this game. All you need to do is kill your enemies. There are 2 mode of the games, Battle mode and Survival Mode. The battle mode consists of 20 stages for each area (current version has 3 area, so total there're 60 battles). It's kind of Tower Defense game, which some wave (enemies) come to attack you, and you must survive till the wave cleared. And to defense your self, you need to shoot all of your enemies. Nah, here is the best part.

In the first time, I found it might bit weird for me to play, but it's really attract my reflex to shoot. So, after a few minutes, I know how to play the game properly.
The control are great , the left screen is to set the position of your gun, and the button in the right screen is for shooting. To reload the bullets, just shake your device or reload it manually using the reload button in the right side.
There're many kinds of enemies, and if you want to play the game and win it , all you need to do is learn how your enemies work and search their weakness. ;)
Some power ups box, such as Air-Strike (BOM), Healthy Box (+30% health), Armor are really useful during the game, so don't forget to shoot the boxes too when you see them.


In the survival mode, play and survive as long as you can. The health is based by your multiplier, in the first time you only got 2 multiplier, equip some armor or level up your rank to increase your multiplier. If your health is decreased to zero, your multiplier is decrease too, and you'll die whenever your multiplier goes 1. You can switch the gun during the gameplay, so you can easily shoot enemies with your favorite gun. Currently, I only have 3 guns, 2 of them is black market guns which I got for free (the developer is still generous, they give the premium gun for free). They are AK47 gold (can be used while you reach rank 8) and MP40 (rank 3). Not too bad, but as you play the harder level, their performance are bit dissapointed. (I know.. i know, better to buy another guns) but I prefer to save my money for buying the best gun of all may be I'll buy Famas (still need to level up my rank, since it only be used on rank 19), so right now I only use 3 of them and upgraded them to max for playing the game, may be will buy another one later... (I have spent my money to buy armors :'( need to gain more money)

The game is free-to-play. However, I don't think the IAP is agressive enough, there're about 30 kinds of guns in the shop, also Black Market guns. The game has 2 kinds of currency, coins and overkill medals. You'll get 5 medal for each time you level up or complete some missions. The coins which you can get is about 3000-5000 for each playing in battle mode, and relative for survival mode. Only, if you want to buy the best guns directly, you'll need to buy the IAP, but if not, the grinding is so much fun. Just do the grinding on survival mode. 

Unlock the survival mode on rank 10 (if i'm not wrong, forget for this one), 15, and 20.
In the shop, you can also prepare your army from head to toe (build your best armor to defense yourself). Buy some grenade or medkit if necessary.


Right now, I'm in level 15, and I still need some friends (Ps: friends can help you to revive / continue the game without pay any medals), if you need an ally, just add my GC ID okay... Don't forget to mention it on your friend request message, so I can know if you play Overkill 2 too. :)

Download Overkill 2 for iOS Devices

Note: It will coming soon in to android, I'll update the link later after they release it.

Graphic: 4.5 of 5 (the graphics are good, some explode effects make the games more alive, the bloody thing also nice :) )
Sound/ Music: 4 of 5 (No need to background music afterall, the bullets shooting sound also breath sound effect are already good for kind of this game)
Gameplay: 4.5 of 5 (Controls are good enough, can set the sensitivity on options menu. Bit monotone gameplay, but still fun to play. IAP are not agressive....Totally, a  nice game to play)
Replay Value: 4 of 5 (Kind of replay value here is the survival mode, try to be the best in the leaderboard. I wish they integrated the global leaderboard into the GameCenter Leaderboard too. The various missions make this game has more good replay value.)


Overall: 4.25 of 5 
Overkill 2 is a good FPS game to play, though it'll bit monotonous to see the same environments during the 20 stages. Fortunately, the challenging gameplay can hide this minus side, many kind of customization guns (the upgrade) make the game more interesting. So, what can i say anymore, just try this game and decide it by yourself :)


Monday, April 1, 2013

Nimble Quest Tips n Tricks

Before, you say anything about this post. I just want to say the disclaimer about this post. The tips and tricks here are based by my observation. Because of that, I'm not 100% guarantee if the tricks or tips is official/qualified enough for some people. Some of them might think cheap of this post. However, I'll try my best to bring the tips n tricks and I'll update it if I get more info.. :)

#Tips 1

THE LEADER

If you have unlock some characters, choose your leader wisely.
Here, I love to use archer for the early time playing before I unlocked Uther, the champion.
Archer (Merida) has lightly armored, but she has far attack range. The trick, do the attack from back side of your enemies. Avoid to attack from frontal side of your enemies , especially if your enemy is knight. I sure you'll be dead easily.
If you use Uther, he can attack from frontal side with his long lance and it has far and wide range. So far, I just can tell you this one is the best leader. (Despite, I haven't unlock all the heroes, only unlocked till the 7th hero). He has medium armored though it's written that he has heavy armored, but I don't think so, if it strong enough. Why, I'm not recommend the other? Actually, It's depend by your choice. However, I think the others are strong enough to attack, but they have less defense than they both. At least till now (I'll update if I've unlocked it all ;D)
Trick: if you want to last longer, use the one which has the strong defense and wide/ far range attack. The others one like Gizmo and Blaze are great for the middle part, not the tail. Both has strong damage with side play attack. The tail can be archer, or knight. Unfortunately, this kind of style is depend by your lucky, caused you'll get the heroes randomly.. :(

#Tips 2

UPGRADE YOUR POWERUPS AND CHARACTERS

That's why we need to collect gems. The better you play, more gems you'll get. Use the gems especially to upgrade the power ups. Firstly, upgrade the potion to increase your HP, don't forget the shield. The others are also important too. So, don't hesitate to upgrade it all.


# Tips 3

PAY ATTENTION WITH THE TYPE OF YOUR ENEMIES

After you upgraded your power ups and your characters, what must you do next?
Learn, how the enemies attack. Yeah!
Example:
- Never attack the rats from frontal side. Although, it's a weak enemies, but it run faster than you. So, be careful, if you hit it. You'll die cheaply.
Trick: use side attack to defeat rats. Can be used bomb or blazer to hit. The leader can be hit from frontal but choose the one which has far range attack, and quickly turn right or turn left. If some of your allies was defeated, at least the leader still alive and you can collect your heroes again.
- Careful, with spiders, some of them are poisoning , or their webs can make us move slowly.
Trick: hit the spider from behind or side. Can be from frontal too. The effective one is back side, if your leader is strong enough, use the side attack if you have blazer or bomber or the one which has big damage.
- Knight and princess
They have healing ability.
Trick: Try to attack from side way or from behind, by using the one which has big damage weapon. Avoid to attack from frontal , especially for knight. He has wide and far range attack, also activate side range attack. So, watch out ! and take your steps carefully.

If some of you have more information about this, please tell yours in comment section.


#Tips 4

BUFF IS NEEDED... SOMETIMES

Buffs is used as a headstart, can be useful sometimes if you use it properly, caused it costed you token not gem. So, be wise. Luckily, tokens can be get by watching ads video (sometimes the video is available more than 5 times,which mean you'll get 5 tokens ;) or get it during the gameplay.




So, that's all my Tips and Tricks from me. If you have other Tips, Tricks, or may be Walkthrough to be shared. Just left it in the comment section. :)
Thanks for reading.... Happy playing!
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