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Comment by seanalltogether | Hacker News Reader

I wanted to share this with you guys because it's taken around 3 years of reading HN to really convince myself to quit my job and build my a business with my friends

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You should charge for it.

I agree. Free demo on website + charge for app = profit... probably.

Does the website demo work on an iPhone (I don't have one to test)?

This only works if their site gets views and the free demo gets plays. In my experience, apps in the App Store are primarily found through the App Store, meaning potential users won't hit the site first to try the demo.

The standard solution is to give away a bunch of levels for free and charge for additional levels using IAPs.

I'm guessing that demo is getting a lot of plays right now and they should capitalize on the hype that's being built.

Relying on the App Store is a good strategy for development firms that cannot build their own hype. So far, I'm guessing these guys are doing an okay job.

But I have zero data on any of this, hopefully they do and are acting appropriately.

By the way, the parent of this comment is getting a lot of up votes. Others seem to agree with me.

He/she probably can't. The concept is not new. Here's a flash version of the same game. it is a few years old.

[1]: http://www.addictinggames.com/puzzle-games/3dlogic2.jsp

Who says you need completely novel gameplay mechanics to charge money for an app? Surely more polish, hand-built levels and an app are sufficient. Whether OP would make more on ads or IAP remains to be seen, though. An IAP to get more levels would be a good way to hook users.

The overwhelming majority of app users would not pay a cent for any app, much less a game.

Free sells.

I saw someone charging for a game based on the exact same principle last week. No reason not to.

Angry Birds wasn't a new concept either.

People charge for Chess apps. :)

exch, you point to the mother of all "we stole your game play and made a new game" sites. :)

I was looking for this, I knew I had played it before.

This one has much better controls on the web app, as well.

We felt that out of the gate making it free to download was our best chance for success, but who know, if we start getting into A/B testing in the future, we may find that keeping the game free in the browser and charging for app store installs is the way to go.

I don't play a lot of games, but this is really cute. It reminds me of Freefall by Denis Auroux (http://math.berkeley.edu/~auroux/software/freefall/index.htm...: a Java Applet (1996)).

This game is really fun. Congrats on that.

I agree! Congratulations!

Yeah, I got to level 9 before I had to pull myself away. Good work.

You mean totally unwinnable I'm so mad right now I can't see straight level 9?

Then I beat it not 5 seconds later. facepalm

Very nice! I beat the ten demo levels too quickly, and found myself wanting more. Two things:

* An iPad version is needed. The graphics seem to be high res enough to make an iPad version feasible, and if this is on the iPad I'd buy it for sure. I don't really like the idea of trying to trace out the paths on the tiny iPhone screen.

* Charge money for it. I'd definitely be willing to pay personally.

Congratulations! Looks even nicer than "3D Logic" by Alex Matveev [1] and has an advantage of being playable on mobile platforms.

[1]: http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic

Congrats on doing that. Please keep us posted on the progress of the commercial part. Now that the game is out and since it's a good game, i'd be really curious to know how you plan to get people to buy it, and if it succeeded.

Is it intended that any solution will have all squares coloured? I like that property, and I think most of the online levels have it, but I solved level eight with some blanks.

If I had an iDevice I would pay for this. Good luck.

It's a fun game and has a great style. Great work!

I'm not sure how making a game for free is a business, but still, best of luck!

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