Introducing Trifecta, the first iPhone game to come out of the App Academy
krisallenfields.tumblr.com
krisallenfields.tumblr.com
From the Human Interface Guidelines[1]:
Users switch their devices to silent when they want to [...]
- Avoid hearing sounds that are the byproducts of user actions, such as keyboard or other feedback sounds, incidental sounds, or app startup sounds
- Avoid hearing game sounds that are not essential to using the game, such as incidental sounds and soundtracks
[1] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexp... ("Sounds")
I think The dialog after finishing a game would be better as "title screen" and "play again" directly on the buttons, or "play again?" should be more prominent.
Another thought: a lot of puzzle games have a way to "chain", which mastering is the most addictive element.
Wihout that element, this game has a little of the problem that randomly tapping is no less effective than playing "properly"... Good puzzle games are really tough to make, given that they rely on a sweet spot between entertaining and frustrating. Good luck!
Randomly tapping won't get you very far actually. You get time bonuses for clearing more than 6 blocks at once. You really need to play patiently to keep the game going. Score bonuses are also a lot better when you clear a lot of blocks at once so again it pays to play strategically.
There is no music in this game and that would be fine if you could listen to iTunes or Spotify while playing it but that currently doesn't seem to work. Any plans on adding this feature? The gameplay does not need to "sync" to the music in any way, it's just that I would love to be able to listen to music in the background.
Once again, very well done. It's a visually appealing, fun game. I also like the animation on the info page.
If you do want to have your own music I have a good friend who specializes in audio for interactive media. He mostly works on games and would probably be very interested in this project. My email is in my profile if you'd like to discuss this more.
I found your earnings online which I found interesting. I'm thinking your poker career might resemble that of many other professional poker players: http://www.pokerpages.com/player-profile/kris-fields.htm
But data that isn't including the cost of buy ins to events.
That's a good link but it leaves out a lot of information, like how many tournaments I entered but didn't cash in as well as online earnings. And it doesn't include the tournaments in the Bahamas where I had a great run.
Good story by the way, way to push yourself to accomplish things.
And thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post.
I suppose wife+baby+parents changes things. Anyway, good luck!
If you can look at the left-most column, you'll see that the game ended because that column overflowed; however, no 3-block of the same colour was available in that column and its neighbour (and so forth), so eventually I had no possibility of being able to reduce that column and save the game. I'd consider that a level-generation problem. What do you think?
But even when you think ahead and play as strategic as possible, I think the unlimited mode is probably a bit too hard right now.
How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?
Two hours later, and officially being hooked on Trifecta, I had to come back to at least upvote. Glad I read the story this time. Thank you for sharing and thanks for the game!
What's the pixel font? One of the '04b' series?
Going forward, we have two choices: we can still change the game's name or we can do a hard marketing push to get our game to be the first result for Trifecta. So far the latter has been our game plan. When Trifecta Blocks Challenge first launched, it was 14/14 for the term Trifecta. It's now 6/14 so it's definitely on the rise.
Thanks!