6 ms·

Introducing Trifecta, the first iPhone game to come out of the App Academy

63 points by avalaunch 14y ago

donjo 14y ago
Is there any gameplay footage available? I don't have an iOS device handy.
- avalaunch 14y ago
  There is no video footage as of right now. You can see a screen shot here: http://www.randklabs.com/trifecta/ http://www.randklabs.com/trifecta/
  - mattzitzmann 14y ago
    You should check out Kamcord: http://kamcord.com http://kamcord.com. It allows your users to record and share a video of their gameplay. If you have any questions, just get in touch with me: matt@kamcord.com Thanks!
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      Ah, cool. I'll check it out. Thanks!
sgrove 14y ago
Ahk, it's free? After reading the post, I expected the app to be a way to bring in additional income. What's the motive behind making it free? Good story by the way, way to push yourself to accomplish things.
- avalaunch 14y ago
  It's more of a resume builder than anything else. The more downloads it gets, the better it'll sound to prospective employees and potential clients. If it did "take off", we'd then look at a way to monetize it - perhaps with an in app upgrade to a new game play type. And thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post.
  - sonabinu 14y ago
    nice way of going about it ... hope your career rocks !!! good luck!
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      thanks!
  - wilfra 14y ago
    Surprising that after being a pro poker player for so long (I was too) you're so anxious to go work for the man!
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      Heh. I'm anxious to do something meaningful. Poker was fun and challenging for a while but eventually it turned into a grind.
      - wilfra 14y ago
        Right. I can understand wanting to get away from poker. What I meant was, I'm surprised your whole focus is on getting a job - as opposed to remaining self-employed. Surely you enjoyed setting your own schedule and not having a boss. It's certainly possible to keep those perks as a developer. I suppose wife+baby+parents changes things. Anyway, good luck!
        avalaunch 14y ago
        Actually I technically still am self employed. I'm doing contract work as a freelancer. Thankfully I haven't had any problem finding enough work to keep me busy. In any case, I do love the freedom of setting my own hours but the priority is providing stability for my family.
avalaunch 14y ago
Direct link to the game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-challenge/id584109240?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-challenge/id...
1123581321 14y ago
The game is enjoyable; thanks for making it. Would you please change to using system-mutable sound that doesn't play when the phone is set to vibrate? You're using the un-mutable sound that is supposed to be for alarms, video and things like that. 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/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/TechnologyUsage/TechnologyUsage.html http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexp... ("Sounds")
- avalaunch 14y ago
  Ah. Good tip. We'll look into it and try to provide a fix in the first upgrade. For now you can press the mute button in the upper left hand of the screen. Your sound preference will be saved in the user defaults so you should only ever have to mute the game once.
  - minikomi 14y ago
    Congrats! 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!
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      Awesome suggestions. Thank you! 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.
kranner 14y ago
Good job! I love the simulation in the credits screen. What's the pixel font? One of the '04b' series?
- rtao 14y ago
  thanks kranner! yes the font is '04b03' in fact :)
  - kranner 14y ago
    Excellent. I recognized it because I use '04b03b' in my own iPhone game 'Alphabet Connection: Arukone' :)
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      Oh cool. We'll have to check it out.
xcubic 14y ago
Great story! :)
jyap 14y ago
Nice gameplay and story. 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 http://www.pokerpages.com/player-profile/kris-fields.htm But data that isn't including the cost of buy ins to events.
- avalaunch 14y ago
  Thank you! You're probably right. My poker career is a bit of a bell curve with the center being of the curve being the year before the UIGEA. 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.
weisser 14y ago
I really enjoy this game. I love a new take on the classic block game. Lumines is a personal favorite. 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.
- avalaunch 14y ago
  Thank you, and yeah, I think music of some sort will be added in the future. I don't know if we'll add in our own tracks, allow you to select from your own library, or both. But we will almost certainly add music sometime in the near future.
  - weisser 14y ago
    I think it's much harder to make music that will appeal to everyone that plays the game. If you get the music wrong it can be a detriment instead of a positive so that's why I suggest allowing players to use iTunes/Spotify. 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.
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      I'll talk to Ran and see how she wants to proceed regarding music. That ties in closely with design which was more her than me.
kranner 14y ago
There seems to be a problem with the 'unlimited' mode. See https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png 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?
- avalaunch 14y ago
  Some tweaking could definitely be done, especially on unlimited. That being said, there shouldn't always be a 3-block combo to clear. If there were, the game would be too easy and would likely go on forever. Instead, the challenge is to be patient and think ahead. Ex. If I clear these 3 blocks now, how will it line up the others? Will it create more clearable blocks or less? 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.
  - kranner 14y ago
    I hadn't thought of that: perhaps I'd cleared blocks before that I could have used for the left columns later. How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?
    - avalaunch 14y ago
      Yeah, but that might change in the future.
flexxaeon 14y ago
I didn't read the story at first (tl;dr) I just scrolled down to the bottom to see what the game looked like. Blocks game, so I rushed to try it out. 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!
- avalaunch 14y ago
  Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
You might want to do something to help users find you in the App Store more easily. I searched for "Trifecta" and was shown the game Trifecta. You were the sixth result, behind betting and other games. Just FYI!
- avalaunch 14y ago
  In retrospect, we probably should have changed our name to something else entirely. I wonder how many people have accidentally downloaded the wrong game already. 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.

63 points by avalaunch 14y ago

donjo 14y ago

Is there any gameplay footage available? I don't have an iOS device handy.

avalaunch 14y ago
There is no video footage as of right now. You can see a screen shot here: http://www.randklabs.com/trifecta/ http://www.randklabs.com/trifecta/
- mattzitzmann 14y ago
  You should check out Kamcord: http://kamcord.com http://kamcord.com. It allows your users to record and share a video of their gameplay. If you have any questions, just get in touch with me: matt@kamcord.com Thanks!
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    Ah, cool. I'll check it out. Thanks!

sgrove 14y ago

Ahk, it's free? After reading the post, I expected the app to be a way to bring in additional income. What's the motive behind making it free? Good story by the way, way to push yourself to accomplish things.

avalaunch 14y ago
It's more of a resume builder than anything else. The more downloads it gets, the better it'll sound to prospective employees and potential clients. If it did "take off", we'd then look at a way to monetize it - perhaps with an in app upgrade to a new game play type. And thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post.
- sonabinu 14y ago
  nice way of going about it ... hope your career rocks !!! good luck!
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    thanks!
- wilfra 14y ago
  Surprising that after being a pro poker player for so long (I was too) you're so anxious to go work for the man!
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    Heh. I'm anxious to do something meaningful. Poker was fun and challenging for a while but eventually it turned into a grind.
    - wilfra 14y ago
      Right. I can understand wanting to get away from poker. What I meant was, I'm surprised your whole focus is on getting a job - as opposed to remaining self-employed. Surely you enjoyed setting your own schedule and not having a boss. It's certainly possible to keep those perks as a developer. I suppose wife+baby+parents changes things. Anyway, good luck!
      - avalaunch 14y ago
        Actually I technically still am self employed. I'm doing contract work as a freelancer. Thankfully I haven't had any problem finding enough work to keep me busy. In any case, I do love the freedom of setting my own hours but the priority is providing stability for my family.

avalaunch 14y ago

Direct link to the game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-challenge/id584109240?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-challenge/id...

1123581321 14y ago

The game is enjoyable; thanks for making it. Would you please change to using system-mutable sound that doesn't play when the phone is set to vibrate? You're using the un-mutable sound that is supposed to be for alarms, video and things like that. 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/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/TechnologyUsage/TechnologyUsage.html http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexp... ("Sounds")

avalaunch 14y ago
Ah. Good tip. We'll look into it and try to provide a fix in the first upgrade. For now you can press the mute button in the upper left hand of the screen. Your sound preference will be saved in the user defaults so you should only ever have to mute the game once.
- minikomi 14y ago
  Congrats! 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!
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    Awesome suggestions. Thank you! 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.

kranner 14y ago

Good job! I love the simulation in the credits screen. What's the pixel font? One of the '04b' series?

rtao 14y ago
thanks kranner! yes the font is '04b03' in fact :)
- kranner 14y ago
  Excellent. I recognized it because I use '04b03b' in my own iPhone game 'Alphabet Connection: Arukone' :)
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    Oh cool. We'll have to check it out.

xcubic 14y ago

Great story! :)

jyap 14y ago

Nice gameplay and story. 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 http://www.pokerpages.com/player-profile/kris-fields.htm But data that isn't including the cost of buy ins to events.

avalaunch 14y ago
Thank you! You're probably right. My poker career is a bit of a bell curve with the center being of the curve being the year before the UIGEA. 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.

weisser 14y ago

I really enjoy this game. I love a new take on the classic block game. Lumines is a personal favorite. 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.

avalaunch 14y ago
Thank you, and yeah, I think music of some sort will be added in the future. I don't know if we'll add in our own tracks, allow you to select from your own library, or both. But we will almost certainly add music sometime in the near future.
- weisser 14y ago
  I think it's much harder to make music that will appeal to everyone that plays the game. If you get the music wrong it can be a detriment instead of a positive so that's why I suggest allowing players to use iTunes/Spotify. 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.
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    I'll talk to Ran and see how she wants to proceed regarding music. That ties in closely with design which was more her than me.

kranner 14y ago

There seems to be a problem with the 'unlimited' mode. See https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png 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?

avalaunch 14y ago
Some tweaking could definitely be done, especially on unlimited. That being said, there shouldn't always be a 3-block combo to clear. If there were, the game would be too easy and would likely go on forever. Instead, the challenge is to be patient and think ahead. Ex. If I clear these 3 blocks now, how will it line up the others? Will it create more clearable blocks or less? 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.
- kranner 14y ago
  I hadn't thought of that: perhaps I'd cleared blocks before that I could have used for the left columns later. How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?
  - avalaunch 14y ago
    Yeah, but that might change in the future.

flexxaeon 14y ago

I didn't read the story at first (tl;dr) I just scrolled down to the bottom to see what the game looked like. Blocks game, so I rushed to try it out. 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!

avalaunch 14y ago
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

You might want to do something to help users find you in the App Store more easily. I searched for "Trifecta" and was shown the game Trifecta. You were the sixth result, behind betting and other games. Just FYI!

avalaunch 14y ago
In retrospect, we probably should have changed our name to something else entirely. I wonder how many people have accidentally downloaded the wrong game already. 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.