Show HN: My First iPhone Game – can you beat it? | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: My First iPhone Game – can you beat it?

mgw.us

50 pointsrachelpinsker46 comments

Just a tip: the validation on the SMS phone number should really be a lot nicer. I tried AAAPPPNNNN (Area code, Prefix, Number) first, and it said I needed the international code. So I tried 1AAAPPPNNN and it still complained. So I tried 1-AAA-PPP-NNNN, and after getting the same message for the third time, I realized that the message was very literal, as in, I had to type +1-AAA-PPP-NNNN. Requiring a format that virtually 0% of people will type the first time isn't a great idea.

Humorously, the success message then says "Success! SMS sent to +1AAAPPPNNNN."

Thanks for the input. Sorry you had so much trouble.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! We (MakeGamesWithUs) are just rolling out these landing pages and when building this we were not 100% sure the best way to implement the phone number validation. About half the people downloading our games are outside the US, so it seemed relevant to address international numbers. The dashes don't actually matter, but without forcing the '+' it wasn't clear how to figure out what country the number is from. If the '+' is optional, we could assume any 10 digit number is from the US, but I think this would cause problems for a few smaller countries. We could check your IP and prepend if the correct country code wasn't present in number, but my instinct says this would cause unforeseen issues. Alternatively we could simply give inline feedback (instead of the notification at the top) to specify you need the '+'. I agree it sucks that most people won't get it right the first time, but I'd also like to guarantee nobody gets a success message when the SMS wasn't sent to their number, any suggestions on how to fix this?

Ashu! Your friends at iCracked would love to help... reach out to me anytime man! Rachel, I feel it'd be nice to have a visual indicator as I touch the screen, right now if you can press anywhere and it just seems unresponsive. Also, for a while I didn't realize you could move obstacles so the "get a hint" constantly resetting the level was a little confusing. Finally, undo occasionally crashes the app. Overall, great work!

Someone else also mentioned getting feedback when you touch the screen. That seems like a great idea and I'll try to update the app to respond to touches immediately.

And thanks for letting me know about your confusion. I'll try to update the tutorial so it's as easy as possible to figure out!

As for the crashes, I am aware of users encountering a few issues and I'll work on fixing those problems.

> any suggestions on how to fix this?

Could you have separate input boxes for each segment of the phone number? (as in #2 here: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1015 )

Parse this list: http://wikitravel.org/en/List_of_country_calling_codes to generate a dropdown menu where you choose you country and it puts an uneditable +XX beside the number.

Bonus #1: Most visited country default option

Bonus #2: Use IP geo to pick country

Recommended UI: Have one of those gray placeholder texts in the input box saying "+11234567890" or whatever format you require.

I don't think I'll have enough interest to beat all 1000 levels, but I can crash the game reliably:

  1. Slide a block off the board where it starts wiggling.
  2. Attempt to slide it back.
  3. Press Undo.

Crashes the game every time for me.

Thank you for letting me know, I'll try to fix this issue.

This is a great game. I also appreciate your positive attitude as you handle the feedback in the comments.

Do you have any ideas for how to incorporate multiplayer gameplay into Penguins? It's generally harder to do (or not as fun) with puzzle games, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Keep up the great work!

Thank you! One of my ideas is to let people design their own levels and challenge their friends with the level they wrote. This is something I've thought about implementing in a future update. If anyone here has any thoughts, I would love to hear them.

Rachel, we're beta testing a new 'hub' feature of our SDK that allows users to create and share levels, Elemental Fury (http://mgw.us/ef) will be using it in a future version. The hub behaves similarly to a social network, where every level created is a post that can be liked, completed and commented on. You can view the feed of levels that everyone you're following has interacted with, or look at lists of top, new and trending levels. We're curious to see whether it can become an fun multiplayer mechanic for puzzle games

Nicely done, I'm on level 11 and having a good time with it so far. A question and some feedback:

I've always wondered how people do level design for puzzle games like this. Is there a formula or is it just experimentation?

I think the feedback when sliding the penguin could be improved. Sometimes it doesn't respond at all and when it does it either goes or doesn't move at all. I think it would feel better for the user if the penguin slid with your finger but would pop back into place if you don't pass a threshold.

Thanks so much for your feedback.

I designed the first 50 levels by experimentation. There are a total of 1000 levels, so the last 950 were computer generated.

That's a really great idea and definitely something I would love to implement in the next update.

1000 levels! I think I'm going to call it a night at level 21 in that case. Enjoyed it so far. Well done :)

Thank you!

You should change the title, I thought it was iPhone only but then I went to the website and realized you have it for Android as well.

Yes, it is available for android too. Thank you for pointing this out.

No. I don't have an iPhone.

-----

And unless I clicked to see if there was an android version, I never would have known.

I know, sorry about this. Someone else mentioned that the title of my post should include android, but I don't think I can change it at this point. I'm glad you clicked the link anyway and found it!

.99 for random access to all levels would be a no-brainer purchase. My other suggestion is to allow sub-optimal solutions, while letting the user know that they are sub-optimal. You could show the best solution so far, in blue if it's optimal.

If you're unaware of them, check out Lunar Lockout and/or Pete's Pike.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lunar+lockout https://www.google.com/search?q=pete's+pike

Those are really great suggestions. Thanks for posting, I'll try to include those updates soon.

And I'll look into those!

The site is so simple I'm going to feel like an idiot if missed it, but is there a video of the gameplay? I'd rather see that before I give you my email/phone number.

Unfortunately, there is currently no video of gameplay. There are images on the app store info page. You could search for "Penguin Plunge: Stuck in Antarctica!" on the app store to see the pictures of gameplay and then download the app.

We're definitely planning to add gameplay videos to these pages down the road. If you don't want to give your email/number you can also click the "Download on the app store" and "Get it on google play" buttons to go directly to the app store

Maybe a description at least?

This is how I described it to someone else below, so I hope this helps:

This is a puzzle game in which you're able to slide objects (one penguin and a few ice blocks) around a 5x5 grid. The objects will slide off if they are not stopped by anything else, and the goal is to get the penguin to a waterhole in the center of the grid. It's difficult also because you get a limited number of moves on each level.

Could someone please give a summary of the game play and what makes it hard? The description of the game doesn't reveal much. (not able to try it at the moment)

I just started playing (on level 3) and it's difficult for me because you're not only sliding the penguin but also the surrounding blocks. It makes it harder to plan moves ahead..

Love how great apps like this make it to the front page. This under-the-radar game deserves more attention! #downloaded

Thanks! I hope you enjoy the game and let me know if you have any questions or comments about it.

I thought I was stumped at level 23, but I feel like I got smarter and figured it out. I love that it challenges me, but if I focus I can solve the puzzles. The artwork is really cute and I like the way the penguin slides on its belly.

Yes, most people I know that play the game find that as they play longer they get better. There are patterns in different levels and users learn how to see the solutions more quickly.

Sidenote: It looks like the sms link routes through a linksynergy url. Is that a reliable monetization scheme for free apps? Does apple provide affiliate revenue if I end up buying a paid app after clicking on the link?

The name of the game on the landing page, "Penguin Plunge", is the name of a different game in the iOS app store.

I liked the gameplay. The game would be a bit better if you could undo more than once.

Yes, there is another game named Penguin Plunge. This is the free app and the full title is "Penguin Plunge: Stuck in Antarctica!".

I agree being able to undo more than once would be nice. I'll look into changing this in a future update.

I really like how you send a link to the game via SMS. May I ask which service you're using to do that?

Yes, great idea. I'm guessing Twilio?

Yup, twilio for sms, mailgun for emails

Reminds me Zelda and the puzzle blocks you need to move on the ice : )

That's cool, I hadn't made that connection before now!

I love this game--it's totally addictive. I agree with some of the other posts about wanting the game to be more responsive, but overall this is a well done app.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it!

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