Slice HD: you will hurt your fingers on your iPad | Hacker News Reader

Slice HD: you will hurt your fingers on your iPad

arstechnica.com

308 pointsivank52 comments

I've got to try this. I love it when people come up with really original stuff for the iPad like this.

edit: bought it, great fun. the touch interaction works the way you need it to (ie. more advanced than most touch apps) so you can come up with lots of different techniques to beat the levels. when you get cut it does cause a slight 'aaaahh!' reaction and withdrawal of fingers. you get kicked back a level if you get cut, but hey, no pain no game.

I'm stuck at level 16 or so, I had to use my nose to touch the red button in one level because I ran out of fingers. Amazing game.

Use your nose?

The iPad has no way of knowing your nose isn't a finger!

There are other appendages that could also be useful...just saying.

Don't put that anywhere near this game if you don't want your life to flash before your eyes.

I was talking about toes :^)

I noticed that when you push blades out, some stay in locked position longer than the others. Start from 8 o'clock and keep going clockwise, very, very fast.

A true tablet game! Not another try at porting a console or PC gameplay like a First or Third person shooter on this form-factor. This is something that you need a touchscreen device to experience at best. Simply amazing as is the execution!

It's surprising to me how few apps really seem to get the touchscreen. So much of what's on the store would work well enough with a mouse. I guess the upside is that there's still a lot of room for new ideas.

I collected a few thoughts about that from friends who do touch apps for a living:

http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/05/wysiwyt.html

Insightful piece. Thanks for the link.

It's novel, but it's still fundamentally a toy. How long are you going to play with it in total, an hour?

I'm all for innovation, but stuff like this is no substitute for real games.

What's a real game? What do you mean by that?

This is a video game like any other video game, saying that it's no "real" game is nothing more than a veiled insult. You should explain the difference, then you can start insulting.

There's no denying that there's a difference between this and (something like) Civilization. It won't hurt anyone to recognize that this is a completely different sort of game, so long as we don't jump to the conclusion that that's a bad thing.

There's certainly room for this sort of thing, just as there's room for horror flicks in a world with Citizen Kane. There absolutely is: they are entirely different products. I'm not going to play this when I want a thinking sort of game, and I'm not going to play Civilization when I only have fifteen minutes.

I did not deny that there is a difference. All I was saying is that this is also a real game. (I also think that more complex games are possible on tablets. Carcasonne is more fun on a tablet than on a computer, for example.)

I picked Civ because it's an excellent example of a game that would probably be better on a tablet :)

I don't disagree that this is a game, I was just going after my parent's sentiment.

Compare with numbers:

A "real" game like you say costs around 40$. It is a very well known gameplay (RTS,FPS,RPG,MMORPG,etc.) but in different clothing. You might play with it for 2-3 months.

Slice HD is a unique gameply, a new experience. You will have a heck lot of fun playing it because it is something fresh that you interact with. I may not be an iPad fan, but the thing is that your 1 month with this whole new game and experience only costs 3$.

For 40$ you can buy multiple amazing games with new dynamics while supporting some indie developpers. It sure wont replace those "big game" but for the price and the fun, it can't be matched!

I do not disagree with any of this. Upvoted.

Also, I can totally see you taking this out when you have friends over and passing it around, making this more of a true "game" (where there is social interaction) than something like "Civilization".

How long does a great movie last? A filet mignon? A roller coaster?

I don't think they wrote the game to compete with the latest iteration of Call of Duty or Halo or anything of that sort.

Tic-tac-toe fits every definition of a "game" and the matches are real short.

All games are toys.

Cool trick, but the blood spatter could be done a lot better. From what I can see, blood just "grows out of" the point of contact, and a general splat appears all over the screen. I hope knife velocity impacts the blood splat in the next version.

I think that would be more realistic but it might also lose some of that "pow" effect when you get sliced if you saw a dribble of blood pool up then slowly expand outward. Does the iPad have a vibrate function? If it does, I think it would add to it if it vibrated when it hit your finger.

dexter ?

Since you brought up suggestions on how to improve, using the front facing camera to reflect the surrounding area on the blades, would add a touch of realism that would be ire.

Simulation at its best! Great app!

Here's a popular story of the "hand" study: http://www.postgazette.com/healthscience/19980219bhand1.asp

Here's the paper: http://www.pni.princeton.edu/ncc/publications/1998/Botvinick...

Sounds cool. Makes my hands feel uneasy just reading it.

Agreed. The game definitely creates an engrossing environment. I was cringing just watching the video and thinking about my fingers getting sliced.

Seems Ramachandran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran -inspired, right?

Thought the very same thing.

One of the few apps that really makes use of multi-touch.

It's like Twister but for your fingers and with knives. For $3, I love it.

I'm finding myself fascinated and curious about the review...

What a great spin "I was anxiously waiting my review cide, then realized it's three freaking dollars, so I bought it myself". That's marketing/PR/psychological manipulation gold! I'd love to hear aout the process that lead to Ars publishing that for them. Was it just pure dumb luck on the reviewers part? Was it a "primed" phrase from the developers? Or was it part of a carefully planned and highly skilled marketing/PR campaign?

I _really_ like it!

I might even buy the game...

I just tried this and I endorse every aspect of the game. I reached lvl 15 and I had to call my roommate in to help me on one level (yea yea cheating ... :()

I do think they should include more boobie traps though. Most levels I played were easy to solve mechanically. I want to be scared to touch ANY part of the screen.

What a great concept. For $3, I'm all over it. Great use of the multi touch features

Killer app

Sharp comments like this are the reason I read HN ;-)

Great job! Definitely creates an environment of fear for the player, just watching the video gave me that 'oh my gosh I'm cutting a lime' feeling.

We HN readers know it takes more than an original idea to shock and awe, nice work on the execution!

For apps like this it's worth to buy an iPad.

If that's the case, then this might be the first killer app for the ipad. And the first killer app I have seen in a very long time.

Anybody figure out how to get past level 10?

You must 'walk' two fingers in the corners like a treadmill, to draw the spikes back far enough (as long as at least one finger is down at all times it won't spring back), and then time your finger press to the rhythm to avoid the shunting guillotine and hit the exposed button.

Anyone else beat it? I'm still not sure what exactly happened in that last level..

Looks amazing.

No iPhone version :(

Get all your fingers on the screen and it might be a little tough to see what was left to do.

The iPhone version is strictly for masochists.

The iPhone version just looks like an electric pencil sharpener.

Not quite same but similar concept

http://toucharcade.com/2010/05/07/hand-of-greed-dodge-the-bl...

It's like a Mikado 2.0.

wow.. just amazing. Cutting-edge, like someone on ars said

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