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> "pull this pin to drop lava on the knight" that you see advertised on Facebook Not at all your point, of course, but someone got fed up with those ads and ac

> "pull this pin to drop lava on the knight" that you see advertised on Facebook Not at all your point, of course, but someone got fed up with those ads and actually made the game depicted: https://www.theactualgame.com/ https://www.theactualgame.com/

danparsonson 5y ago
Wait... are those adverts not depicting an actual game??
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  On Twitter you can read the comments on the ads and the most frequent comments are from people complaining that the actual game apparently has nothing to do with those ads. I think I've read it's more like clash of clans.
  - danparsonson 5y ago
    Wow, TIL - I never click those ads because I assume the games are aggressively monetised nonsense but it didn't occur to me that the game might be completely different from the ad.
    - DilipSripuram 5y ago
      Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
    - Avalaxy 5y ago
      This is very very often thr case with crappy chinese games in the play store. I get ads for so many games that look cool in the trailer but are apparently something completely different if you read the reviews. There's even one that uses some kind of really weird ripped off Age of Empires textures/models for their game. What they have in common is that theyre all pay-to-win chinese games where loot boxes cost up to $100.
    - atatatat 5y ago
      They're probably also (digitally) malware in many cases, too.
  - DilipSripuram 5y ago
    Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
- DilipSripuram 5y ago
  Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
ALittleLight 5y ago
I had to try this after seeing all those ads. It is pretty similar to what the ads were. The game itself also has an obnoxious number of ads. For example, I had to watch a thirty second ad (or pay 75 "coins") to unlock the second level. In the second level I had pull one of two pins, to either dump lava on myself or gold. I chose gold and won a flawless victory, on to the next ad! The other annoying thing about the game is that every level it asks you to register some kind of account or sign in with your Google account. If I refused to do that at first, why would I want to be asked every level? I guess it's kind of fitting that the game is annoying as the ads that inspired it are too. I'd pay 1 dollar for an ad free version of this game, assuming the levels eventually became challenging and the game didn't nag me all the time about creating accounts. I won't watch 30 seconds of ads every 30 seconds though.
- DilipSripuram 5y ago
  Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
  - jsnell 5y ago
    Welcome. But please don't post the same message multiple times like that. It makes the thread hard to read, and you should not feel like you need to address every comment separately if this response already covers all the points.
    - DilipSripuram 5y ago
nxpnsv 5y ago
That trailer is great, epic music, I have no idea if the game is playable, but I guess that's beside the point
- DilipSripuram 5y ago
  Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
wolframhempel 5y ago
Actually this is something that's been bugging me forever - maybe someone knows the answer? What's the incentive to advertise one game but sell another? There's clearly a market for the "pull the pin" kind of game, they don't seem to be particularly hard to make and these ads are by large game publishers. Why not just make the game that people actually want?
- atatatat 5y ago
  Larger total market.
- hakfoo 5y ago
  The "pull the pin" game requires actual level design effort. You design 2000 puzzles and in 6 months the player's done with them all. Taking Bejeweled and painting it a different colour can be done once and keep the user occupied indefinitely.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

danparsonson 5y ago

Wait... are those adverts not depicting an actual game??

ALittleLight 5y ago
On Twitter you can read the comments on the ads and the most frequent comments are from people complaining that the actual game apparently has nothing to do with those ads. I think I've read it's more like clash of clans.
- danparsonson 5y ago
  Wow, TIL - I never click those ads because I assume the games are aggressively monetised nonsense but it didn't occur to me that the game might be completely different from the ad.
  - DilipSripuram 5y ago
    Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
  - Avalaxy 5y ago
    This is very very often thr case with crappy chinese games in the play store. I get ads for so many games that look cool in the trailer but are apparently something completely different if you read the reviews. There's even one that uses some kind of really weird ripped off Age of Empires textures/models for their game. What they have in common is that theyre all pay-to-win chinese games where loot boxes cost up to $100.
  - atatatat 5y ago
    They're probably also (digitally) malware in many cases, too.
- DilipSripuram 5y ago
  Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
DilipSripuram 5y ago
Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.

ALittleLight 5y ago

I had to try this after seeing all those ads. It is pretty similar to what the ads were. The game itself also has an obnoxious number of ads. For example, I had to watch a thirty second ad (or pay 75 "coins") to unlock the second level. In the second level I had pull one of two pins, to either dump lava on myself or gold. I chose gold and won a flawless victory, on to the next ad! The other annoying thing about the game is that every level it asks you to register some kind of account or sign in with your Google account. If I refused to do that at first, why would I want to be asked every level? I guess it's kind of fitting that the game is annoying as the ads that inspired it are too. I'd pay 1 dollar for an ad free version of this game, assuming the levels eventually became challenging and the game didn't nag me all the time about creating accounts. I won't watch 30 seconds of ads every 30 seconds though.

DilipSripuram 5y ago
Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.
- jsnell 5y ago
  Welcome. But please don't post the same message multiple times like that. It makes the thread hard to read, and you should not feel like you need to address every comment separately if this response already covers all the points.
  - DilipSripuram 5y ago

nxpnsv 5y ago

That trailer is great, epic music, I have no idea if the game is playable, but I guess that's beside the point

DilipSripuram 5y ago
Hello Guys, This is Dilip Sripuram. The developer of the TheActualGameRescue you are talking about. Just wanted to address the issues you mentioned. About the Ads, you don't need to watch an Ad. The whole game can be played without watching a single Ad. Each level gives you enough coins to unlock next and by the end of easy levels you will have enough coins to unlock 3 medium levels. The login issue is so that I can save the save file with Google Play services. I will recheck this and limit the number of times it asks to once. I recommend watching this video to better understand the gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneMachine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksI3YVoMwnM&ab_channel=GeneM... Thanks. P.S : Posting this to every mention here. First time here on Hacker News.

wolframhempel 5y ago

Actually this is something that's been bugging me forever - maybe someone knows the answer? What's the incentive to advertise one game but sell another? There's clearly a market for the "pull the pin" kind of game, they don't seem to be particularly hard to make and these ads are by large game publishers. Why not just make the game that people actually want?

atatatat 5y ago
Larger total market.
hakfoo 5y ago
The "pull the pin" game requires actual level design effort. You design 2000 puzzles and in 6 months the player's done with them all. Taking Bejeweled and painting it a different colour can be done once and keep the user occupied indefinitely.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]