Catch The Monsters | iOS Universal Geolocation Game Template (Swift)

Both iOS and Android version can share the same Parse database

13 Jun 2024
• New app design
• iOS 17+ support
• xCode latest support

6 Dec 2023
• Fix critical crash on iOS 17 and improved design

21 Mar 2021
• Fixed the Facebook login issue and changed it to new Facebook developer account
• Fixed the crash issue on the leaders board listing
• Fixed the updates and permissions to support new Xcode version and iOS version

30 Apr 2020
• Implemented a new feature “Apple sign in”
• Added support to iOS 13+ and Xcode 11+ with swift 5+ versions.
• Added support to iOS Dark mode
• Fixed the crash on getting the location of a user on the home listing page
• Fixed an issue of the crash on user listing screen
• Fixed a crash on the account screen

8 Aug 2019
• Improved the design of login and signup screens by adding views and transparency in the background 
• Upgraded the design of home screen by adding a separator
• Fixed the Crash issues from the entire application
• Improved the layout and color schemes according to Game themes 

25 May 2018
• Accordingly to the new EU GDPR terms, I've updated the 'tou.html' file and Documentation.
IMPORTANT: This means that if a User asks for his/her Account deletion, you must do it within 24 hours, as the GDPR's "Right to be forgotten" Article states (LINK: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-17-gdpr/)

3 April 2018
• Updated to recommended settings with Xcode 9.3
• Updated the 3 Facebook SDKs (because of Swift 4.1 release):
FBSDKCoreKit.framework
FBSDKLoginKit.framework
FBSDKShareKit.framework

7 October 2017
• Edited the Location Privacy Usage keys into Info.plist. 
So right-click on Info.plist in Xcode, Open As -> Source code, and replace the existing <key>NSLocation... rows with this code:
    <key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
    <string>The App needs your current location to show Monsters around you</string>
    <key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
    <string>The App needs your current location to show Monsters around you</string>
    <key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
    <string>The App needs your current location to show Monsters around you</string>
    <key>NSLocationUsageDescription</key>
    <string>The App needs your current location to show Monsters around you</string>

In this way, the Location permission alert will show up on devices with iOS versions older than iOS 11

Catch The Monsters is a Universal Geolocation Game Template where you have to find monsters around your area, and if the app finds them you must get closer to them (at least 50 meters) and catch them to earn points and climb the Top 10 Leaderboard, or just share your statistics on social networks, Mail, and SMS. As the Admin of the app, you have to insert as many Monsters as you want in any location of the world into your Parse Dashboard, so users who access the app can search for Monsters around their areas, and if they are there, User can tap a Monster and get its position on the Map. You can easily insert Monsters’ coordinates, name, and points via the Parse Dashboard, everything is explained in the User Guide included in the package. The embedded Map gives you the possibility to trace a route to get from your current position to the Monster’s one.

TIP FOR TESTING AND PUBLISHING:

You should create some Monster around your current area and use a real device to test this app, so you can walk or drive towards those monsters and catch them. Please also note that once you catch a Monster, it gets removed from the Monsters class in your Parse Dashboard, otherwise other Users may catch the same Monsters you’ve caught in a specific area, so you should daily check your Dashboard to add new Monsters and keep the game alive.

It’s a big challenge that may amaze your users anywhere they are, or just in a specific Country, because you may place Monsters in a chosen Country and publish your own version of this app to that Country’s App Store only, then buy another License on this page, localize Monsters in another Country and publish a new app, and so on.

Another great thing you (Admin) can do is to use Push web console on back4app to send Push Notifications to all registered devices. For instance, let’s pretend you’ve added new Monsters in the New York area, you can send a notification to your users like “New Monsters got in New York City last night, catch them all!”, and keep your users wanting to play the game!

Since its backend is by Parse Server, you don’t have to buy any domain/hosting, there are NO php files to upload to a web server so you’ll save some money for server side.

Catch The Monsters is a native XCode project, Swift language, Storyboard, Universal, super easy to customize, backend with Parse SDK hosted on http://back4app.com

About Parse SDK and back4app

Read this article for more info about back4app and Parse SDK: https://hubpages.com/technology/Parse-SDK-will-not-shutdown-in-thanks-to-back4app

Can I host Parse Server on my own server?

Yes, although I don’t provide support for the setup process, you can read the official Guide here: http://parseplatform.org

I get a Code signing error in Xcode 8.x

That’s a bug of Xcode 8 with macOS Sierra, check this sample video to see how to fix it: https://youtu.be/z2LemT1_LqA

How to remove AdMob banner ads

Check this video out to see how to remove the code that shows AdMob banners: https://youtu.be/e-HQYnta2Jg Keep in mind that you must repeat the shown steps for every .swift file that contains this line on the top:

import GoogleMobileAds

What about free support for this template?

I can offer free support for bugs encountered in the original code. Instead, if you’ve edited the code and messed something up with it, I may apply some fee to fix it either via TeamViewer or by checking your app project files directly on my computer.

Should I use the latest version of Xcode to edit this template?

Yes, I always update my apps to the latest version of the IDE.

• XCode 9.x – Swift – 64bit
• iOS 8.0+ – Universal – Storyboard
• Admob banners
• Facebook login
• Backend with Parse SDK hosted on back{4}app
• Push Notifications via Push web console on back4app
• Place Monsters anywhere in the world by inserting their GPS coordinates in your Parse Dashboard
• Find nearby Monsters and catch them by going close to them in the Map
• Trace route to Monsters in the Map
• Statistics and caught Monsters list
• PDF User Guide and PSD icons included
• Easy to customize | Well commented code

• Apple Mac with its latest OS version installed
• The latest version of Xcode and some knowledge about its UI interface
• Photoshop or any other image editor software
• An Apple Developer account to submit apps to the App Store
• An AdMob account to generate your own banner UNIT ID
• A free account on back4app.com