The original design for UnNamable.

Last summer, I released UnNamable as a free application for iPhone OS. Why free? Well, it was my first try at iPhone development, and I did not really think it would be of much use to people. Turns out I was wrong, as the first version of UnNamable was bought ~1,400 times in its first six months. Realizing that the application could be better, I want about the process of creating a new version of UnNamable, including everything I have learned about iPhone development since its initial release. With the time and effort required for this new release, I made the decision to change UnNamable to a paid application. Those who previously purchase or used UnNamable 1.0 should be able to download 2.0 for no charge, but I am hoping that this new version will bring more users to this product, and hopefully their purchases will be able to subsidize more enhancements to UnNamable.

Redesign

When I first designed UnNamable, I had a thing for black screens. I enjoyed the contrast of white text on the black screen for making it stand out when in use. Also, I had just learned how to make code run after the user shook the iPhone, and so made that the primary (and only method) for creating new names. Lastly, I really did not know how to save data, so I added the ability to email out the current list of names to save for later use. All these things worked out great for my own uses of UnNamable, but I later discovered that surprise, surprise, other people use things different from me. So for this version, UnNamable’s UI has been redesigned from scratch.

To begin with, the all black theme was just not working. I would at times have trouble seeing parts of the screen while I was out and about in the sunlight (Yes, gamers and programmers go out in the sun sometimes). Instead, I went to the same white and blue theme that Apple uses in their applications. These makes the app not only more usable in sunlight, but also conforms a lot more to Apple’s design principals and looks.

All new design for random name page

Next up has how to generate the names. I loved shaking my phone like a monkey to get the new names, but a

pparently some users did not. That was a simple enough fix, just add a button to the screen to generate the names. Of course, I kept the shake feature on, as I really like shaking things.

Last for UI changes was how to save data. I kept the ability to email out the list of names but now your list of saved names is actually saved across sessions. This was to both help out users in remembering the names of previous characters generator, as well as to add some new functionalities to UnNamable, including the ability to include descriptions and other notes about the characters you create using UnNamable. Hopefully, this new feature will help out the English writers out their who have been using UnNamable to create characters for their stories.

What’s Next?

I don’t know, you tell me. I am very much focused on making this application what you the user needs and wants. Leave comments about what you want to see in the next version of UnNamable, and I’ll see if we can make that happen for you.

For all those Keepers of Arcane Lore out there.

While playing Call of Cthulhu, I would often find myself in need of random names for NPCs. I never was very good at coming up with good era-specific names, so I created this iPhone app to help me.

Using data from the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau,shaking this app will generate names from among the top 1000 baby names for a given decade and gender and the top 1000 last names for the U.S. When you see a name you like, tap it to add it to the list. When you are done, just email the list to yourself for later use.

The decades range from the 1880′s to 2000′s, so there are 26,000,000 possible names to use for your next campaign.

If you have liked Dataslate and own an iPhone or iPod Touch, please think about supporting my development projects by purchasing some of my iPhone software.

A friend of mine had been running a weekly Dark Heresy game and asked me to write him a simple application that would help with managing the initiative order in combat. The app slowly expanded with some additional features, and is now a pretty well-featured Encounter Manager.

I call it Dataslate.

I am posting it here for everyone to use according to the license below.

Please comment if you have any feature request for this application, and I will try to incorporate them as I find time. I have also added tooltips to parts of the application to help explain those parts. Just hover over the Title for that part and a tooltip should pop up. If one doesn’t, I have not added help to that section yet, so please leave a comment telling me what section needs to be clarified.

If the flash installer below is not working, you can directly download the Air package. Requires the Adobe Air Runtime

Dataslate by Brandon Bodnar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.fantasyflightgames.com.

*Fantasy Flight Games, I in no way mean to tread on any of your copyright or trademarks, and do not believe I have done so. I only mean to provide the community with some free useful tools to play your awesome game.