Welcome to LadyBuggery


		Welcome to LadyBuggery by bitSplit™ Enterprises <--- check it out! ---

Overview	Objective	Rules
Scoring	Settings	Purchase
Speech Recognition	Appreciation
Your Privacy & Data	Contact

Overview top

LadyBuggery is a simple, non-violent game of strategy. The screen displays a lawn and a grid with moving ladybugs. Your task is to direct them all toward the center of the screen where they fly off into the sunset. When all ladybugs are gone you move on to the next level. You can play against the computer or another player (on the same device) or simply try to achieve higher scores.

A page curl icon on the bottom right of the screen leads to tabs with settings, scores, info and purchase screens.

Objective top

The game area displays two to ten concentric rectangular lanes which are connected by one or two connectors on each of the four sides to the next inner lane. A varying amount of ladybugs is crawling around the outermost lane. The ladybugs keep going around and around (sometimes they reverse direction.)

The objective of the game is quite simple: direct the ladybugs towards the inner lanes by making them turn left or right onto the connectors. Once they reach the connectors on the innermost lane - indicated by daisies - they fly off the screen and disappear.

You make the ladybugs turn at the next connector by tapping the right side or left side of the screen. The command will apply to all ladybugs and will make them 'signal' by flashing either their right or left eyes. This is where the strategy comes in - some bugs will turn the wrong way and some the right way. It is up to you to herd them all towards the daisies in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of signalling commands.

Rules top

• Ladybugs start in the outermost lane, randomly going clockwise or counterclockwise. Their speed and size also varies randomly.
• Bugs keep going around the lane they are on unless they are signalling - then they turn at the first connector they encounter and which lets them turn in the direction they are signalling.
• A bug can turn onto a connector only if no other bug occupies the connector.
• If a bug is signalling, then the next command turns signalling off.
• A bug turns off its own signalling when it turns a corner or when it enters a connector.
• A bug randomly chooses to go left or right when it leaves a connector.

Scoring top

• Initial score: 100 points.
• Each signalling command: -10 points.
• Each passing second: -1 point.
• Each bug that reaches a daisy: +100 points.

Two players:

the first player who finishes a level gets 100 points for each of the opposing player's remaining bugs.

The Scores page lists the ten highest scores. The most recent game is marked with a green patch in the first column.

The computer player's name will be whatever you named your device. The other player names can be entered from the main screen.

Settings top

The Settings page displays a list of game parameters. They are (hopefully) self explanatory. All settings can be changed with voice commands (see Speech Recognition.) Please purchase the full version to make all settings available.

You can select the number of players and which of those are played by the device. You can select the number of levels to play per game as well as the start level and the number of additional bugs presented with each new level. The speed, theme, sound and speech settings take effect immediately; all others take effect in the next new game.

Purchase top

You can make an in-app purchase to enable the full version of LadyBuggery. This will make additional settings available (the ones indicated in red on the Settings page.) You will be able to play more levels, increase the number of bugs and their speed. You will also be able to play against a second player on the same device - either human or computer.

Thank you for supporting my efforts to produce low-cost, ad-free quality software!

Speech Recognition top

Speech recognition (without an internet connection requirement) in the form of the open-source OpenEars library was an exciting discovery for me. It may be a bit of overkill in this app, but I just had to explore the possibilities. It also includes text-to-speech. Both are presently implemented only for words spoken in English.

Unfortunately, the free version of the library has a (small) lag after recognition and also, sounds played by the app itself interfere (using headphones or external speakers may help with the latter). Therefore recognition is automatically disabled during actual game play. You can tap in the scoring area to toggle it on and off. If your device is listening, an ear icon (

) will be visible. Play by voice works better (though still not very well) at the lowest speed setting.

The commands for game play are:

Single player: LEFT, RIGHT. Two players: RED LEFT, RED RIGHT, BLUE LEFT, BLUE RIGHT. And: SPEED ONE, SPEED TWO, SPEED THREE, PAUSE.

On the main screen you can use:

DARK THEME, LIGHT THEME, DEFAULT THEME,
NEW GAME, START GAME, PLAY AGAIN, RESUME,
STARTLEVEL ONE, STARTLEVEL FIVE, STARTLEVEL TEN,
ONE PLAYER, TWO PLAYERS,
NONE, RED, BLUE, BOTH,
SHOW SETTINGS, SHOW SCORES, SHOW INFO, SHOW PURCHASE.

Recognition is more fun on the tab pages. Common to all of them are:

DONE,
SHOW SETTINGS, SHOW SCORES, SHOW INFO, SHOW PURCHASE.

On the Info page (this one) you can use:

SCROLL TOP, SCROLL BOTTOM, SCROLL UP, SCROLL DOWN,
SEND EMAIL, VISIT BITSPLIT.
For alerts: OK, CANCEL.

On the Scores page you can use:

SCROLL TOP, SCROLL BOTTOM, SCROLL UP, SCROLL DOWN,
CLEAR.
For alerts: OK, CANCEL.

On the Settings page you can use:

NEW GAME,
ONE PLAYER, TWO PLAYERS,
NONE, RED, BLUE, BOTH,
SPEED ONE, SPEED TWO, SPEED THREE,
STARTLEVEL ONE, STARTLEVEL FIVE, STARTLEVEL TEN,
THREE LEVELS, FIVE LEVELS, TEN LEVELS,
ONE BUG, THREE BUGS, FIVE BUGS,
DARK THEME, LIGHT THEME, DEFAULT THEME,
SOUND ON, SOUND OFF,
SPEECH OFF.

A bit of cogitation will reveal why there is no 'SPEECH ON' command :-). It will take a few seconds for recognition to start after switching it on.

Appreciation top

Thank You to all the people who share their knowledge on stackoverflow. Your help is invaluable.

LadyBuggery uses the CMU Pocketsphinx library, the CMU Flite library, the CMU CMUCMLTK library (cmusphinx.sourceforge.net) and Politepix’s OpenEars (www.politepix.com/openears). Thank You for the great speech recognition and text-to-speech tools!

Graphics found on openclipart. Thank You to the artists. Copyrights remain with them.

Your Privacy & Data top

LadyBuggery does not collect any private data! Where you are, who you are, what you do, watch or buy and who you know is your business. Any information that you provide via e-mail, purchase or by any other means will never be shared with any third parties.

Contact top

Thanks for checking out LadyBuggery! Comments, questions, suggestions? Please let me know and send me an e-mail.

		Copyright ©2013 Christopher M. Knox d.b.a. bitSplit™ Enterprises. All rights reserved. February 12 2013		top