All Artifact Cards on Deck

In life, you must make the best of whatever hand you’re given. In a game like Artifact, though, you have the power to choose the cards that make up your deck as well as the power of knowing what other Artifact Cards can do. And that’s exactly what Artifact – All Cards is about!

To make sure that you’re privy to all cards that should be in your deck, do yourself a favor and check out this efficacious little app. But before you do so, take a look at what Daniil, a whiz kid who is the brains behind Artifact – All Cards, has to say about his app, and coding in general.

(1) Tell us about yourself (name/nickname, hometown, age, occupation, favorite games that you play and what platform(s) you play)?

My name is Daniil. I’m 19 years old. I currently study at the University and live in St. Petersburg, Russia. I like playing computer games and programming. Mostly, I play DOTA 2, Sid Meier’s Civilization V/VI, GTA V and Assasin’s Creed IV BF.

(2) Do you work independently or in a team? If in a team, how big is it?

I coded this app independently.

(3) What inspired you to create an app specifically for this game? When did it cross your mind to create your app?

As I said, I love to play DOTA 2 as well as programming. When Valve released Artifact, I knew some programming languages such as Python and C / C++, for example. I also wanted to learn new languages like Java, Go, or Javascript. The idea to make an application came to me immediately after the first Artifact game because my computer (unlike my smartphone) is quite weak and it was impossible to explore the cards. So, I decided to explore Java because it is the official development language for Android.

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(4) What programming language or tool did you use to create this app? Do you have any favorite PLs or tools in particular?

I used Android Studio (Java, XML) for the app creating and PyCharm (Python, SQLite) to download files by parsing some websites, working with images, valve’s API, databases, as well as to create prototypes of algorithms that were later rewritten on Java. My favorite programming language is Python. As IDEs, I prefer JetBrains’ products.

(5) When it comes to designing the user experience/UX of the app, what motivated you or what influences did you have?

About the motivation, as I said, my computer (unlike my smartphone) is quite weak and I found it impossible to explore the cards. So the goal was to create a list of maps so that the user could find the card he was interested in. The application also should spend as little of the device’s memory and not be dependent on the Internet connection. The images of the cards that Valve provides are the size of about 300 MB, so I had to think about how to reduce this number to 11MB.

(6) From the developer’s and gamer’s perspective, how do you think the app affects the overall experience of the game?

It’s very useful for me to have all the cards on my phone while playing. That way, I can check up on what my opponent can theoretically have.

(7) Is there any margin of error when it comes to the app’s performance and provided information?

All the text that is displayed when you click on the card is obtained using Valve’s official API, so there is no error in the information provided. Nobody has complained about the app’s performance, but I am aware of the problem with the fast scrolling of the list and I will solve it as soon as there is time.

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(8) What were your biggest challenges for this project? How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was that the images of the cards that Valve provides are sized at about 300 MB, so I had to think about how to reduce this number to 11MB. I also had problems with the UI creating and I solved them so far.

(9) Are you expecting the game’s expansions to change your app’s dynamics and performance? Is it something that you’ve already prepared to tackle?

No problem. The app is ready for new cards and mechanics.

(10) Are there any exciting new developments for your app that you would care to share?

Yeah, a new menu is coming to the market soon, and I will also make the ability to work with decks and steam trading platform when I have time between studying and DOTA.

(11) Could you share a few quick tips to new players of the game?

While the game is not well-balanced, it’s better to play for tickets in draft mode.

(12) Any advice you’d like to share to aspiring game app or web developers?

I recommend you to do what gives pleasure. You also need to make sure that you are ready to spend time on it.

Deck Thy Foes with Cards of Artifact

The best app developers are the ones who actually play the game(s) that their respective apps were created for. As we can see, such is the case with Daniil and his Artifact Cards app. You can thank Daniil’s critical mind for coming up with such a tool to help you gain an all-important leverage over opponents when playing Artifact. Download it out here!

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