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Show HN: 6 months ago I quit my job to pursue indie dev. Here is our first game

iamwil 14y ago
Pretty great work with all the little touches. How were you able to write both the web version as well as the iOS versions? Did you have two different code bases, or did you use something like Phonegap or trigger.io? Were you in game dev before you quit to do this? And would there be a possibility of rotating the cube?
- kayoone 14y ago
  Id like to know this too, do you use some kind of JS wrapper for iOS ?
  - tonyhillerson 14y ago
    Nope, Web is all custom, iOS is all native, but the data format for the levels is shared.
    - socialist_coder 14y ago
      Why spend time writing a web version when it's not really going to help with sales?
      - tonyhillerson 14y ago
        Actually the time spent writing the web version was small, and it was as a way to prove the idea and (in a limited way) crowdsource level design.
AdamTReineke 14y ago
Only 10 levels?
bsaul 14y ago
Reminds me of bit of "colorbind" and "flow" iphone games. it's really cool to see how small changes to a game makes it interesting again.
seanalltogether 14y ago
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
- bsaul 14y ago
  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.
- nicksergeant 14y ago
  This game is really fun. Congrats on that.
  - ceoloide 14y ago
    I agree! Congratulations!
  - NDizzle 14y ago
    Yeah, I got to level 9 before I had to pull myself away. Good work.
    - bones6 14y ago
      You mean totally unwinnable I'm so mad right now I can't see straight level 9?
    - bones6 14y ago
      Then I beat it not 5 seconds later. facepalm
      - seanalltogether 14y ago
        :)
- damoncali 14y ago
shawnc 14y ago
Great game! Played to level 5 on your site, heading to download it onto iPhone now, for more playage later. Without having looked yet, what is your revenue model, if there is one? Is the plan to release this for free, build an audience, a name, get feedback and all that - to go bigger later with a new game?
danielhughes 14y ago
Well done. I love that you allow users to try out the game on your site first. I wasn't initially inclined to download the app, but after trying the game I was hooked.
- ctdonath 14y ago
  Ditto. Was "meh" on yet another free trial, but one easy click "hey why not" and 10 levels later I'm downloading it, and figuring if addictive enough a buck for more levels is cheap.
  - seanalltogether 14y ago
    It's actually really good to know that spending the time to make an online demo was worth the effort.
lost_name 14y ago
How much would you say you knew about your game before you quit your job? By which I mean, had you sort of started on it before leaving?
frontsideair 14y ago
Awesome little game. How do you plan on making money, if I may ask? I really like the design language, very "flat" and modern looking. I'd like to see more games taking this approach.
gilesvangruisen 14y ago
Awesome! Very fun and a good challenge.
- skhamkar 14y ago
  Great work! The UX/Design is really great.
Jemaclus 14y ago
I've played this game before (well, not this one, but the same game by a different company). Very enjoyable and your UI looks better than the other. The question I have is: how does one go about creating a puzzle game? I've always wondered. It seems like a lot of work to make something that's difficult-but-solvable.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played about 10 years ago and felt it would be perfect for touch interaction. For this puzzle game specifically, I found that starting with the solution and working my backwards was actually the best way to build levels. I'm not sure if that holds true for other puzzle games.
  - clebio 14y ago
    Interesting. I kept wanting to rotate the cube in your game. Nice to see it in the 3d-logic game the other commenter mentions. Do you plan to add that?
- adam-a 14y ago
  Maybe http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic . I had the same feeling, it's annoyingly hard to find the original version, there are a lot of reskins and other very similar games.
luxstyle 14y ago
Interesting game. I downloaded it and will rate. Good luck!
alexvr 14y ago
It's simple and elegant. I might have to grab it on my iPhone. And as others have said, it's a great idea to offer it online to give prospective users a taste of the game. Now I can see if it's challenging enough to be worth my time :P
fitzpasd 14y ago
Fantastic, reminds me of one of my favorite mobile games - FreeFlow. I'd rather if my move didn't get set until I stop holding down the cursor (may be different on the mobile version, don't have an iPhone).
aqme28 14y ago
What is your monetization strategy if you have one? Ads? Free now but paid in the future?
- ctdonath 14y ago
  Seems there's an in-app purchase, $0.99 for additional levels. ETA: Thanks for no ads. Easy-priced paid content is worth not cluttering my head with more noise.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  For now the strategy is to avoid ads on iOS and sell in-game level packs, however I'm not sure how well that model works on android, I'd love to know if anyone has thoughts on that, it seems most people just do ad driven games on android
  - melling 14y ago
    Small tangent, but what is the state of the Lodsys in-app patent? Are mobile devs protected at this point? I also read somewhere that the patent was suppose to expire soon. I went with two apps and a Lite version. It's a bit of a hassle.
  - jhdevos 14y ago
    There are so many free things on Android that it's hard to get myself to try paid for games. The exception is games that I get to know through some other source, like your excellent web page with live demo. I'd pay for this game on android, but paid level pack would also work for me.
ebbv 14y ago
Well done. Visually pleasing, engaging and entertaining. Just grabbed it for my phone for free but I would have easily paid $0.99 for it. :)
km3k 14y ago
I really like the look of this. Any plans for an Android version?
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  absolutely, its probably our highest priority for the next month or so, we focused on just iOS for release since we have a small team.
  - yaddayadda 14y ago
    Please post an update to HN when you release the Android version.
- peeters 14y ago
  FYI, there is a less-polished clone on the Android store called "Flow Cube".
nkozyra 14y ago
The game is definitely polished and nice. How do you intend (or do you intend) to ramp up revenue to match your previous salary?
obviouslygreen 14y ago
Definitely well-conceived and fun! As others have said, very well done on the web-based version. It's too bad it's not on the Play store, though, any plans for an Android version? [edit: Asked and answered below. As an Android user (and obviously this is anecdotal but it's all I've got), I spend more money on in-game purchases -- reasonable ones, not FarmCityWhatever insanity -- than I do purchasing them outright. For something like this, level packs seem like a good IAP.]
knes 14y ago
I did the first few level on the website and I think they are a bit too easy
- nicksergeant 14y ago
  Did you keep going? They get more challenging.
  - precisioncoder 14y ago
    The later ones are more challenging, it's pretty fun =)
n00b101 14y ago
I like this game, good idea!
Scene_Cast2 14y ago
Not to detract from the fun of the game, but I get a strong feeling that this is probably a very studied problem in topology - and that thought keeps on nagging me to write a solver script :)
- namank 14y ago
  Haha, yes, that's what I thought too. But that's what makes it fun. It's the perfect combination of familiarity & challenge!
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  Yes in fact I've spent the past 6 months thinking about whether i could build a level generator that can verify and solve the levels too. The way I see it, with a simple 5x5x5 cube with 5 colors on it, the number of possible combinations to check is 75^5, which might take awhile to brute force, so there needs to be a intelligent way to map lines.
  - clebio 14y ago
    The general case might be something like that, but you only need any given configuration that fits those parameters (that is, you're not trying to solve complete, abstract topological problems). Maybe if you arbitrarily fix the first path, thereby artificially reducing the solution space? Just thinking out loud. Very cool puzzle! EDIT: or even take a lower-level solution and inject another path into. So every prior level is a seed to future levels. Rotation of the three faces, even cycling the colors, would probably make it hard to recognize the older level within the new one (at least, for casual use).
  - lkozma 14y ago
    I think solving any of these can be reduced to a max-flow problem, and thus it is efficiently solvable.
    - seanalltogether 14y ago
      Many of the levels have been designed so that if you follow the path of least resistance to solve them, you will always be left with one line that wont connect. Thats the true puzzle part of the game, and that's the aspect that makes me think it's difficult to solve without resorting to brute force.
whileonebegin 14y ago
Nice game. Please post any monetary results, once you have some data. I thought making serious money from a game in the app store today is very difficult.
arasmussen 14y ago
For the web based version, I might save the last color they clicked on and then use that when they click on a white square because I've found the game a little harder to play with that feature missing on a laptop with a trackpad.
tubbo 14y ago
So this is pretty cool, it's like a combination of Tron (light cycles) and the Rubik's Cube
prawks 14y ago
Question: how essential do you think it was for you to quit your job to create this game? How much longer would it have taken you had you developed it on the side/weekends? I'm in no way trying to argue your decision, I'm genuinely curious how much work it was to create a game like this. Also, how much of the conceptual work for this game had you done prior to leaving your job?
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  I would say pretty essential, but that's really because of my personality. I've started and stopped more projects then I can count over the past ten years while holding a steady job. Without saving up money and leaving my job, I'd probably have a half finished game sitting in my projects folder right now.
  - prawks 14y ago
    Thanks! It's a very fun game; it really gets me hooked in terms of difficulty around level 12-14.
cacois 14y ago
Neat idea, but FYI the web version doesn't seem to work in Chrome.
- robertfw 14y ago
  Experiencing this as well edit: It seems that on reload, things are working fine, there is some glitchyness with the intro help text not always disappearing
- precisioncoder 14y ago
  Worked for me in Chrome, so either fixed or may depend on version
- heywire 14y ago
  I'm also not able to get it to work. The only link that seems to work is the one to the iTunes store...
HyprMusic 14y ago
Great work. The fact you can play it straight away on the website is great, I'm not really a games player but I quickly got hooked. Out of interest, do you make the levels by hand, or do you have a script to generate them? Would be interesting to know the rules for a valid level against an impossible level.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  We made the levels by hand, writing a script to generate and validate levels is still an interesting math problem I would love to tackle if i had the time, its just very difficult from the limited attempt I made.
  - sbochins 14y ago
    I really like your landing page. Do you know of any other game devs that have a playable demo on their landing page or did you come up with the idea yourself?
    - seanalltogether 14y ago
      Honestly, it was just because I built the initial prototype in html5 and the level builder is also html based, since the effort to make a simple 10 level demo was so low we decided to throw it in.
  - 38leinad 14y ago
    Looks great! Did not play much yet but I guess it needed a lot of trial/error and deep insights to designer some of the hard "levels".
  - knowaveragejoe 14y ago
    Your game struck me as pretty similar to "Crazy Cube", a fairly popular flash puzzle game. I'm sure it's crossed your mind(s), but if you used an entire three-dimensional cube like that you could probably get even more permutations for levels. Just a thought :) Edit: Ah, didn't realize you increased the density of squares on the cube as levels progressed. Very nice.
bornon5 14y ago
I'm impressed with your take on the level list. It's so nice to see something more than a grid of colored, numbered boxes. It may be a simple puzzle game, but approaches like that make it feel like an adventure. The game is beautiful, too. Wonderful job!
lanna 14y ago
Very neat, looks much better than Flow. Congrats. You should charge at least $0.99 for it, no need to be free.
Swizec 14y ago
This is a really awesome game! Great work! Just one thing, the web version seems kinda blurry. Even on a non-retina 5+ year old LCD. Just checked and it's even blurrier on a retina ... the website itself is super crisp, but the textures in the game area itself kind of aren't.
deleted 14y ago
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MrUnderhill 14y ago
Very nice. Happy to see it work in Opera too - thanks!
unfamiliar 14y ago
Great stuff. * The cube could do with some lighting hints * Some visual clues on the menu would be helpful. I didn't know how to get past the tutorial besides randomly swiping.
slajax 14y ago
So much great feedback. Now I REALLY wanna see it but it crashes flash for me on latest chrome osx. Bummer.
vinayan3 14y ago
Level 5 is super hard
mariocesar 14y ago
Beautiful, If you include a puzzle editor would be awesome
Scene_Cast2 14y ago
Just finished my first play-through through the 10 web levels. Comments: an "erase" functionality might be nice, besides the "reset puzzle". By the end, I figured out a pattern to solving them (identify color with the least path choices, choose one and recursively solve from there) - but then again, I don't like Sudoku either. Congrats on the release, and best of luck with the game!
oftenwrong 14y ago
I only played a few levels so far, but I really enjoyed it. Excellent concept. I would probably buy it if it was available on Play. Some feedback from my experience playing the HTML5 version on a computer with a mouse (Firefox 19) and on an android smartphone (Chrome 18): - On both platforms the "LOADING" message does not go away after hitting "close" on the little instruction cloud, and the level does not load. Only after hitting the reset button (with the circular-arrow symbol) does the level load. - On my smartphone, my finger tracing can easily outpace the tile coloring, and this leads to some tiles being skipped. The animation is also choppy. Probably not an issue on the native version. - I think you should prevent diagonal tile markings since they do not work to connect the star tiles anyway. - If there was a way to stop accidental over-writing other colors due to clumsy mouse usage, that would be nice. This seems like less of a problem on a touch screen.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  thanks for feedback, i think we have bugs with asset loading in the playable demo but I haven't been able to easily debug it
  - oftenwrong 14y ago
    I tried the iOS version on a friend's iPad. I had none of the problems I mentioned, and it was really nice on the big screen. I am only about halfway done with the free levels, and hoping there are more special tiles like the rainbow-swirl one. Do the level packs come with more special tile types?
  - city41 14y ago
    The web version did not work on Metro IE10 on a Surface Pro. It didn't recognize my touches.
dylanz 14y ago
It looks very nice! Here is some initial feedback: - Even though it's bouncing, I didn't see the "play now" arrow, and went directly for the video button. You might also want a "Play now" button in the main button list. - In the video, I had to watch quite a bit of it to even know what the game was actually about. I would have liked if you showed me actual gameplay earlier in the video. Keep it up!
- justjimmy 14y ago
  Same sentiments. I didn't get the game till the last 10 seconds - and up till that point, it was rather boring. But It's a beautiful looking game and when the light bulb went off of how the game is played, I will be downloading it. Perhaps edit the video so it shows more of the core gameplay (like the part in the last 10s in the video).
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I think accurately portraying game mechanics is a challenge we keep try to solve. Any thought on a way to better convey how the game works?
  - tripzilch 14y ago
    In the video, use onscreen text, like "connect the squares that have the same colour" (sorry I didn't play your game, but this is what I got from the video that it's about, I'm not sure how the air balloons tie in though).
astalwick 14y ago
Nice work. The playable website is fantastic. FWIW, I would have paid $0.99 up front. I bought the level pack, but it's pretty rare that a game will hook me to the point that I make it through the free levels. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't seen this post - if I'd just stumbled across the game somewhere.
enraged_camel 14y ago
Nothing happens when I click on the arrow that says "play now."
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  which browser are you using?
  - damoncali 14y ago
    this got me too. I clicked the arrow, not what it was pointing at.
    - sic1 14y ago
      i had to refresh and all worked fine, but yes, this happened to me as well, the "cube" game play area never loaded first load. Chrome 25.0.1364.155 Either way, fun game. Great work.
  - enraged_camel 14y ago
    Chrome 25.0.1364.152
seivan 14y ago
Looks incredibly amazing! Quality work. This is what I say is missing from most iOS games out there. You did good. I hope it sells. I am gonna pay for it now.
t_hozumi 14y ago
Are there correct answers more than one? I could complete the Level8 without filling all spaces. I prefer only single possible answer, which fills all spaces.
scottchin 14y ago
Looks great! Congrats on the release! Did you work on this game by yourself or with other people? Did you use any existing game frameworks like Cocos2D or Unity?
quickpost 14y ago
Just FYI, google thinks your dev blog is / has spam: http://i.imgur.com/za2UXWh.png http://i.imgur.com/za2UXWh.png One a separate note - awesome game! I plan to buy it. On the web version, one thing I'd like would be able to toggle a miss clicked space back to "neutral" with a click. I'd also make the levels slightly harder before getting to level 5 - they all seemed too easy up to that point.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  Yeah I can't figure out where thats coming from, I've poured over my site to find it and even resubmitted to google and they don't see that spam when i manually submit. Maybe I should just go with a hosted solution and stop trying to manage wordpress on my own.
  - rachelbythebay 14y ago
    [site:craftymind.com viagra] Try that query on there. They managed to index a LOT of pages that way. Here's the thing. Your site has been compromised. Look. I'll fetch the same page with two different user-agents. One will show up as some generic curl thing and the other will look like Google's crawler. $ curl http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > ordinary $ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)" http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > googlebot So I look for the term in the first file. $ grep viagra ordinary $ ... Nothing. I do the same for the second. $ grep viagra googlebot [ ... tons and tons of garbage ... ] Your site is running something which only emits garbage when Googlebot (or something resembling it) hits it. Install a user-agent switcher in your browser and you can see it for yourself. Sorry.
    - seanalltogether 14y ago
      i ended up finding it! it looks like it was one of those backdoor wordpress hacks where they set up commands that are evaled() as base64 strings
snarfman 14y ago
Reminds me very much of Flow Free: iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-free/id526641427 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-free/id526641427 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgam... Incidentally, it would be nice if you could backtrack to remove colored path blocks if you make a mistake like accidentally dragging across a small corner. I've only tried the webapp version, so not sure if that works in the iOS one.
kdazzle 14y ago
Lots of fun! Great looking and all that, too! Except the strategy gets a little stale after the second level when you realize that at least one of the colors always has to take a really roundabout way to get to its partner.
itry 14y ago
Whats your business model?
fishercs 14y ago
just played through it and it's a pretty great game. fun and easy to pickup and play right away. so more levels?
Sumaso 14y ago
Just wanted to add my congrats! Very impressive!
webwanderings 14y ago
Nice and challenging. Is this an original idea? I don't play many such games.
tonyhillerson 14y ago
Soundtrack for the game, for your consideration and enjoyment: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack
BoppreH 14y ago
The puzzle is identical to 3D Logic: http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-of-sage http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stron... Are you sure this won't be a problem? Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332485 Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played about 10 years ago and felt it would be perfect for touch interaction. If you played it 10 years ago, it seems like a reasonable idea to clone it, but the fact that the old devs have been active may prove itself to be an issue.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  The game I was referring to is hyperframe and has been available at least since 2002. http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/hyperframe.jsp http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/hyperframe.jsp, I don't know which one came first, but I can't imagine it will be a problem since we built our own unique levels.
- pbhjpbhj 14y ago
  That 3D Logic game worked how I expected this one too when I started. >"it[']s a clone of an old shockwave game" // Personally it doesn't look close enough to me to be a copyright infringement, game mechanics aren't copyrightable (but are patentable [depending on jurisdiction]). It wouldn't matter if the game had been released yesterday - in copyright terms - you can copy the concept of the game as long as you don't copy (or derive) your implementation. IMO the 3D Logic version is vastly superior I'd just add a "hold button" to allow the cube to be held still whilst you draw.
bluetidepro 14y ago
I loved the demo! The 10th level had me stuck for a few. How many levels does the normal game have? It may be cool to include some text that describes that. Maybe like "Features 100+ levels. Try the first 10 below" or something like that.
ronyeh 14y ago
Welcome to the App Store! I'm very impressed with what you guys have done in 6 months; it took me much longer to ship my first app. Here's a little bit of feedback: + The graphics are super polished. Great work! + The touch interaction could use some work. Sometimes, I drag and I feel it colors squares that I don't want to color. Or it colors squares that I've successfully colored already, and it's not clear how I can backtrack. Take a look at path drawing games like Scramble with Friends to see how they handle backtracking. + I understand that advertisements are ugly and you want to keep your game very slick and polished, but... you are leaving a lot of money on the table. I would make your app a Universal Binary (add iPad support) and then throw an iAds/AdMob banner ad at the bottom of the screen. Then, make it very clear that if the user buys an IAP, that you'll remove ads forever. You can keep your iPhone version ad-free. + Why isn't your app just called "Adrift"? Was it taken already? "Adrift by Tack" looks a little clumsy, or err... tacky. + From appstorerankings.net, it looks like your keywords are "3d cube connect center adrift by tack". Center comes from Game Center, and Adrift by Tack comes from your title. So it looks like you don't use many keywords. As a new app on the store, I'd add more keywords like: puzzle, flow, board, etc. And try to find more unique ones where you might rank highly. + Good luck working the press! You've already done a great job with HN. :-) Email me at {my_user_name}@gmail if you want to chat.
- ronyeh 14y ago
  Additionally: Since you already have a web-playable version of the game, you should have a feature where a user can share a puzzle with a friend. Once they complete a challenging puzzle, say something like "Congrats. You demolished that puzzle! Want to share this with a friend?" Then when they hit the FB/TW share icon, you can share the same exact puzzle (http://playadrift.com/?puzzle=3653 http://playadrift.com/?puzzle=3653) as a link. This will improve your virality. Also, what toolkit did you use to write the iOS game? cocos2d? Or is there some magical toolkit that allows you to render out an HTML version of your app too???!!
  - seanalltogether 14y ago
    Thanks for all the feedback, it's all really good advice, We've gone back and forth on the ad thing and we're still not sold on whether to integrate them or not. The game was written in cocos2d, and I wrote the initial prototype in html5, so thats whats being used on the website. Also yeah "Adrift" was taken as an app store entry, so we had to figure out something else for the title, I agree its a bit clunky.
azharcs 14y ago
Very addicting. Amazing stuff.
flixic 14y ago
Very similar to one of my favorite flash games, 3D logic 2: http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-of-sage http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stron...
- mihn 14y ago
  I just wanted to say that. But game still looks nice.
digitalzombie 14y ago
loved it, all 10 levels. I wish you can undo a color so it can be neutral (grey again). But I realize you can repaint it with another color while you're in the middle of dragging, you just need to drag a diff color to the mess up paint.
- vyder 14y ago
  You can drag a 'clear' color over colored tiles to clear them again.
alexobenauer 14y ago
Wow - that version on your website was brilliant. I was hooked by the second puzzle; and would have happily paid for this app. You must have spent a lot of time making a web version, but I can only imagine how well that is going to pay off; I probably never would have downloaded this game otherwise (I don't download games, basically, ever). But with it, you sold me very quickly, and definitely left money on the table... edit: I would also love a shake gesture to clear the cube.
aw3c2 14y ago
You forgot about "colorblind users"! Best and easiest way to make the game accessible for people with color vision deficiencies would be to also use a unique symbol for each color and a variation of the same for the connecting tiles. Very nice presentation!
mcdoh 14y ago
Fun game! I'm colorblind, though, and on level 10 the orange and green look very similar to my eyes. The ability to adjust colors, hues, or even just the "star" icons would be a huge help.
pm90 14y ago
Very nice game! I couldn't stop myself from wasting 10 mins playing this. One minor feedback: when the tile color is yellow, the star should be colored different (because when highlighted, it is also yellow)
shloime 14y ago
Holy shit, that's addictive.
iends 14y ago
Got to level 7 without much trouble, but started to feel guilty about playing at work :) Would love to hear more about your technical stack, especially on the web side. Congrats to shipping.
- maerF0x0 14y ago
  maybe im not so smart, but level 7 was killer for me.
volcom 14y ago
Very cool game, love the graphics. Good luck!
AndyKelley 14y ago
I would be interested in following up on this and seeing whether this makes you enough money to sustain your company.
bpn_sasi 14y ago
Great game and well made. I am sure you guys know the little quirks with the product ( like dragging sometimes includes blocks which I dont wanna include ) but on the whole very impressive. Good way to get the brain juices flowing :)
fourmii 14y ago
Great job! Congrats on a slick product. I noticed you had a link to listen to the soundtrack. Cute music, did you guys make the music too? I'm glad people are getting onboard with HTML5 for apps and games. You should get a blog going, I'd love to hear about your trials and tribulations over the 6 months since you quit your job.
- tonyhillerson 14y ago
  Yup, we made the music too. YOu can hear the soundtrack here: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack
tarikozket 14y ago
Great work! My advice is just change the first screenshot at the appstore. Because it's not feel like a game at the first impression when searching the game.
RexM 14y ago
Looks very nice and polished. I downloaded your app and played it for a bit. I would have paid for it after being able to play the web version and knowing what the app was about. An IAP upgrade would be cool if you decide to put ads on it. I would upgrade in a heartbeat.
chillericed 14y ago
Love the music! First stab at basic time challenge puts me at rank #2. I think the challenge system could be something quite fun if you integrate it well.
- tonyhillerson 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! You can hear the soundtrack here: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack
prezjordan 14y ago
Excellent choice allowing me to play the game right on your website. Now I'm going to download (and buy, does it cost money?) your game. If I couldn't play it immediately, I probably wouldn't have.
mratzloff 14y ago
Great work! I finished all 10 levels on the website--I'm assuming more are available with the app, but it's not completely clear. I linked my wife to it and she got a kick out of it, too.
makerbreaker 14y ago
As a other-than-the-occasional-nes-play non-gamer, this is addictive!
VonGuard 14y ago
Hey guys, thought I'd throw in my 2-cents as an Independent Games Festival judge, and as press. First of all, your presentation is terrific. Great art and sound. Top notch, feels like it came from a very talented team. With this game on your resume, you've got a great future ahead of yourselves. Now, the bad part: from a gameplay perspective, your game is not unique enough to win out on its own merits in any app store. If you have any money left, spend that cash on those awful, dark-alley fake review and promotion services. Take all of Ronyeh's advice, it's excellent, but you can't stop there. To succeed today in the app stores, you have to cheat, so go buy some reviews and downloads so you can raise your ranking in the store. It's a self-fulfilling cycle: higher rankings, more sales. There is an awful lot to be said for this being a complete game with a pleasing experience, but there are already a dozen games with similar gameplay in the AppStore. though yours may be the most polished, sales of games in AppStores are less about quality and more about cheating to get more sales, or having a juggernaut that's already on top, like Angry Birds. That being said, this is a perfect game to hang such cheating tactics around: it looks the part and sounds the part of a successful game, and it doesn't go the easy route of copying Angry Birds in every single interface window. Compare that to, say, Hill Climb Racing, a top ten app store game that looks awful and is infested with spyware. But I think the best advice I can give you is to add some sort of meta-layer to your game. The fundamental gameplay is interesting and often challenging in the right ways, but there's no uniqueness factor. Perhaps adding some type of incremental reward for the puzzles. Completing a puzzle without reset gets you some form of currency, which can then be spent on customizing your hot air balloon, or on some form on in-game assistance. Think Dungeon Raid. Most mobile game companies just implement the puzzle and are done with it. The real stand out games take those simple puzzle interfaces and layer complex game elements triggered by successes and failures in the puzzle game. Keep up the good work. You're obviously talented. You'll make money at this, but you can't rely solely on the press and the quality of your game. You have to game the app stores to succeed. Oh, and when it comes to press, I really don't have any good advice. Try to find some small outlets to work with because the big guys will ignore you, and do so in a mean and churlish way. It's sad to say, but the gaming press these days are mostly retarded monkeys with no idea what it actually takes to make a game. Yer not going to get to the front page of IGN, so don't waste time trying. Find some small app store review sites no one has ever heard of and be nice to them. They'll give you a bigger bang for your buck.
zeidrich 14y ago
It's a good game, it's a bit short though. I think as a simple game it's pretty easy to solve the puzzles, and while you can make it more complex by introducing a larger grid and additional colors, it will ultimately be the same problem. Adding 20 more levels at the same level of complexity would make the game seem trivial after a while. It might benefit from additional types of tiles that introduce complexity, maybe like a tile that reacts to the color placed next to it and becomes colored the same way. Maybe a tile that reacts to all the colors next to it and becomes a mix. (IE: You need a purple tile in one spot, so in order to have that tile or tile group to turn purple, you need red and blue squares next to it). Sparse use of elements like that keep the problem from being identical. Then again, maybe it's not needed. People enjoy working through books of sudoku problems.
lucian1900 14y ago
With a web demo, I'd just charge for the game if I were you.
phil 14y ago
Very cool. This reminds me of Colorbind, one of my all-time favorite iOS games, but expanded and taken 3d. I've always wished there was more to Colorbind...
aeosynth 14y ago
Reminds me vaguely of http://arv.github.com/jelly/ http://arv.github.com/jelly/.
muuck 14y ago
Very neat how this game is presented. But I played this game years ago. Back when it was still called '3D Logic' http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727 http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727
FiddlerClamp 14y ago
I suggest you try Gamezebo (http://www.gamezebo.com/ http://www.gamezebo.com/) - they review many casual games.
sylvainww 14y ago
Game looks great. Pretty neat website, I like the attention to details. Best of luck!
lttlrck 14y ago
This is great fun. However, I installed it on iOS and found what looks like a bug: http://imgur.com/toAfNs7 http://imgur.com/toAfNs7
jordan_clark 14y ago
This is great. Fantastic work.
kenshiro_o 14y ago
That's a great puzzle game. It's even more impressive as you guys made it in 6 months. I am always amazed, humbled and energized with posts and projects such as this one. Keep up the good work!
- buildnship 14y ago
  Yea, great job on the game!! I was past level 7 before I had to pull my self away. The game is A LOT of fun ;) I definitely see myself and people I know playing it. Best of luck in the app-store. No doubt you all will do GREAT!!!
rartichoke 14y ago
Well done. The game is strangely intuitive. I skipped the trailer and just played. It almost felt like I knew what to do just by looking at the cube. That's a huge win IMO.
asgentile 14y ago
Can you provide a code or rather just set a cookie so that when I go back to play I can start on the level I was at. Fun :D
rorrr 14y ago
It took you 6 months to develop it?
jason_slack 14y ago
It sort of remind me of FEZ...yes, I said it FEZ.
braco_alva 14y ago
How many of you are in the team? The games looks very polished, amazing you made it in just 6 months.
rglover 14y ago
Please, please, please charge me. This is way too well done to not ask for at least 99 cents. Especially if you haven't been working for 6 months...
intelliot 14y ago
Reminds me of one of my favorite puzzle games of all time, Trainyard. http://www.trainyard.ca/ http://www.trainyard.ca/ But Adrift is definitely different. Love it!
Revex 14y ago
Posts like these are a great inspiration. I hope to see an update post with information regarding to how well it/you are doing. Also, the web based demo is sweet.
NateLipscomb 14y ago
This is great. Beautiful design and gameplay. Congrats on the launch.
kanamekun 14y ago
I love this game!! Once I got past the second level, I really got the hang of it and loved the mental challenge of solving levels. One thought: I'd consider making the first few levels much easier. This article on Yoyodyne's trivia games is along those lines: "As Yoyodyne got busier, we had less and less time to write each game's questions. Finally, one day, we launched a game that had very little effort put into the questions - a rush job, as I recall. The questions were factually correct, but there was no witty writing, no twist, and the questions were really easy to answer. When the game ran, we were surprised to see that the response rate, instead of hovering around 30%, actually exceeded 60%. We had put less work into crafting the experience, and there were more players who wanted to participate. ... [u]sers wanted two things from their e-mail game experience: 1. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: Users wanted to be told that they got the answer right, and that they were winning. 2. NO INVESTMENT: Users did not want to pay for that positive reinforcement in any way. They didn't want to think, work, get up from their chair, or otherwise make any effort to get the reward." http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/04/0513.slots.html http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/04/0513.slots.html
- nazgulnarsil 14y ago
  I realized this when I played the currently popular 4 pics 1 word game. I was expecting clever lateral thinking using homonyms. Instead I got 4 blue pictures and the word is blue. But it pops up a U DID IT screen and gives you fake money, with the option to purchase more fake money from the app developer. People ultimately want just enough veneer on their games that they can pretend it isn't just a big you win button that showers them in confetti.
jdflorezpa 14y ago
Very nice game, enjoyed the 10 levels. I would gladly pay for a version in Android.
mratzloff 14y ago
All you guys leaving advice and comments in this thread... download the app. It's much more polished than the website version. I rated it 5 stars, added a review, and referred it to a couple friends. I want to see this game succeed. If you want to support these guys, why not do the same?
- ruswick 14y ago
  In my opinion, the app is not deserving of 5 stars. The mechanics are grating and difficult to use. I spent 3 minutes trying to draw a path on level 10, and every time after rounding the corner a that I did not intend to change would change. After a while, I gave up and deleted the app. It looks nice, but there are more fundamental flaws in the gameplay.
zopticity 14y ago
This is exactly like the pipe game on the Android market / Apple store.
meerita 14y ago
My girlfriend loved the game and I, that hate iphone games, am enjoying it a lot!
vyder 14y ago
This game reminds me of laying out circuits in Eagle CAD for a 1 layer PCB. Yet, somehow, I'm addicted to it already.
- femto 14y ago
  My feelings exactly. The same topological rules apply. I wonder what happens if you throw this game at an autorouter? :)
dmauro 14y ago
Nice work! Very polished, good puzzles. The whooshing sound when going through the menu items in the main menu was a little annoying, but otherwise there wasn't a bit I didn't like.
tnash 14y ago
Awesome fun, played all ten levels. MORE LEVELS!
stevewilhelm 14y ago
If you like this game, you'll love Colorbind http://nonverbal.ch/colorbind.html http://nonverbal.ch/colorbind.html
ehaterade 14y ago
If you are looking to increase distribution you may want to consider reducing the title of the game and moving the buttons around so that the game is well above the fold. You can then approach different game portals to host the game iframed in, but with the way it is now you won't have much luck. Take a look at Cut the Rope web version, they have built a pretty sweet web version. If you change up your webversion to be better suited to being iframed in let me know (or contact us at Kano Games) and we can iframe it for web and link to you iOS version for our mobile users. http://www.kanogames.com/ http://www.kanogames.com/
barbs 14y ago
Nice work man. I really like the style, and the soundtrack. Will be listening to that while I code today ^^. Also, any chance for an Android release?
- tonyhillerson 14y ago
  Yup, we'll be working on an Android version.
anon987987987 14y ago
Please make it possible to rotate the cube!
seanalltogether 14y ago
I'm not able to respond to every individual, but I want to say that we've been reading every single comment here and GREATLY appreciate the feedback, you guys have given us a lot think about in terms of trying to make this successful.
consta 14y ago
After playing the first 5 levels I would definitely pay for this game. Keep up the good work!
dsego 14y ago
Great game! I'd definitely buy it. Too bad it's not already on the mac app store, I was ready to pull the trigger. Maybe it can be a part of the next Humble Bundle.
dools 14y ago
This is too fucking addictive. pins app tab I hope I get some work done today.
weaksauce 14y ago
Your website could use a tweak or two. I would change some of the text to reflect the fact that adrift is just a demo online and the iOS version is much longer. + the website javascript to load the next level or refresh the current level doesn't work on my computer(aurora firefox on osx) + the video doesn't work that well. (volume controls don't work, the play button doesn't work, got the video to play by clicking the video background) overall it looks like a fun game but I am curious how you are going to make some money with this if it's free.
doctorstupid 14y ago
Playing this triggered a familiar sensation, and I realized that this game has strong similarities with Slitherlink, an addictive puzzle developed by Nikoli, the Japanese publisher who popularized sudoku. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitherlink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitherlink
andrewroycarter 14y ago
Really fun game, and it looks great! Awesome job!
enraged_camel 14y ago
Minor issue: if you accidentally cross the paths of the colors, it fails silently. There's no "you fail" message or anything like that given, and it's not immediately obvious that the only way to try again is to reload the level.
- iends 14y ago
  I didn't have this issue on chrome, you can just start dragging again and reconnect the paths.
- greggman 14y ago
  you just draw over the tiles with the correct color. I guess that wasn't obvious though I figured it out. You can make as many mistakes as you want. I guess a tutorial would solve that but there is no fail. Just win or give up.
fedenusy 14y ago
Flow Free: Bridges, with nicer graphics and a better soundtrack. I like it. Controls could be a bit smoother, but nice game overall. Great start.
ruswick 14y ago
There are some irksome mechanics issues, and the game is far from novel, but it is excellently implemented and aesthetically pleasing.
kranner 14y ago
You should monetize with paid hints. I've got a similar game in the App Store (I'll be polite and skip linking to it) and as of this morning, 53.8% of my total revenue has come from hint packs. To see what I mean by hints, see this HTML5 port of my game I've been doing (work in-progress): http://noisytyping.com/NCT6745/index.html http://noisytyping.com/NCT6745/index.html
z3phyr 14y ago
Great work imho !!!! One thing I may want to add - Porting the game to different platforms would be great.
jonathanjaeger 14y ago
Love it, did all 10 levels on the website (addicting). Will download!
bblough 14y ago
Very nice!
imperialdrive 14y ago
great mind game - looked and felt good to me - i did finish the 10 levels in about 10 minutes so ya, what's next? congrats on the game and thank you for sharing!
sidcool 14y ago
Congratulations. It's a brilliant work of art and technology. Good luck, you guys have a great career ahead of you. Hard work pays!
crapshoot101 14y ago
Really enjoyed it. But was I the only one who took more time on 5 than 6/7 which were less than 30 seconds? Is the difficulty out of whack?
soemarko 14y ago
Very pretty,... it does remind me of Flow Free (http://html5games.com/2012/07/flow-free/ http://html5games.com/2012/07/flow-free/ - also on iOS and Android store near you) 1. You've earned my $1 2. Please cater more of my OCD. I see you count number of turn and time... GIVE MY 3 STARSSS!!! 3. Utilise Game Center more,.. "Hey, John finish this level in 2 second with only 3 turns." Since Letterpress I actually have friends in game center.
gurpreet42 14y ago
nice game ...
blinry 14y ago
This is based on Nikoli's number game called Arukone or Numberlink: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink Here are many more for you to enjoy: http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm
pschastain 14y ago
Got to level 9, which had no solution.
neworbd 14y ago
After playing in the browser for a good five minutes and deciding to purchase, I was sad there was no Android version. :(
lambtron 14y ago
Cool game. I remember flipping through old puzzle books as a kid and playing these types of puzzles. One small thing that annoyed me was that even if i connected a path to complete a puzzle, if my finger slipped and removed another path, i would still have to go back and correct it before the puzzle is completed. I think that the puzzle should complete as soon as the final path is connected; the validation shouldn't occur after my finger is lifted from the last move. Anyway, great look and feel and overall design. Best of luck!
huhtenberg 14y ago
Please make a paid version. I have the in-app purchases disabled in the Settings, so upgrading an app like yours requires doing an app switch, then typing in Restrictions password, enabling IAP, switching back to the app (frequently needing to restart it to), making a purchase (including typing a password), then going back to Settings and re-disabling IAP. In other words it's a hassle.
vicks711 14y ago
Thai is the most idiotic game I have ever played. Bad job. Sorry to be the who is speaking the truth here. Majority so HN comments are just sugar coated. Read it long enough and one one can get diabetes. But not me I call a spade a spade.
vicks711 14y ago
Thai is the most idiotic game I have ever played. Bad job. Sorry to be the who is speaking the truth here. Majority so HN comments are just sugar coated. Read it long enough and one one can get diabetes. But not me I call a spade a spade.
Eylith 14y ago
Nice game but too easy. Less than 15 minutes for all puzzles.
cubsink 14y ago
I will buy your game, really fun and unique!
Eylith 14y ago
This game reminds me the integrated circuit creation :)
culo 14y ago
You should have created APIs on Mashape.com too
CaptchaReader 14y ago
I sent you an email to adrift@tackmobile.com , copied it from your footer, and got a Mailer Daemon error :)
erikb 14y ago
I played the SAME game before as a flash game. Even the first 5 or 6 levels are the same... Hope, that you don't get sued for that!
a1a 14y ago
Love it! I would love to see social integration as well. For example 1 on 1 matches - first one to fail a level looses. And maybe even co-ops, this requires advanced levels though. You have n-sized teams, e.g. n on n matches - the first team to fail a level looses.
queasyroberto 14y ago
as associate producer on 65 iOS games w/ $12M in revenue to date... you guys made a nice game, but it's very fringe, and it's not even super striking like swords and sworcery, which, btw, was not a big financial success. i learned the hard way by working on ~20 super fringe games that failed hard (less than $5k total revenue) during the early days of the app store. these are the games where the artists went wild and really had themselves a time and were super pleased with themselves... not a formula for success. your art is fringe, your gameplay is fringe. try finding something else not so fringe that you guys STILL love, and make another game, and then another...
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kanamekun 14y ago
I've been playing your game for a day, and really enjoyed it. I found it really gave my brain a workout. That gave me a thought around branding. The name ("Adrift") and the tagline ("A puzzle game in worlds of whimsy") both feel whimsical and fun - which is great for a game. But I wonder if focusing the branding around "brain training" might help expand your target market. Most games are fun time-wasters, and tend to appeal to people who want to have fun and/or kill time. This game has a considerably wider appeal: it can help people exercise their brains, especially older people who want to keep their minds active. This is why a lot of people do Sudoku and crossword puzzles: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-keeping-brain-active-may-help-ward-off-alzheimers/ http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-keep... I had a brain injury a decade or so ago, and the doctors told me to do certain puzzles to keep my brain active. It gave my brain a workout, and I was reminded of that feeling when I played your game. One way to expand the target market might be to eventually do an expansion set called "Adrift: Brain Island" or something? You could target PR to the demos that brain workouts could appeal to. Good luck!!
giis 14y ago
cool game :)
triplesec 14y ago
Well, I enjoyed this game. I suppose I can see how this gets tougher and tougher as it goes on. I'd buy it, after the trial. Good luck. Game dev is a precarious and chancy marketing biz as all these HN experts are telling you!
gpgpgp 14y ago
This game is a complete ripoff of 3-D Logic... http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic
ckvamme 14y ago
more levels!!
meitalvered 14y ago
I understand you all, but even getting review these days dont give you so much traction... For example, we are a small Indie (3 People) and release our game for IOS...you probably didnt hear of the game unless you are in the cocos2d community... The game is FREE and it went live on the 15th of February 2013, till today we got more than 150 reviews with an average of 4.3 and we still dont see us in the rankings.. sorry, i forgot to mention the game :) Game name is Atlantis Breaker HD link is : https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-hd/id576385319?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-hd/id576385319... by the way any suggestion and feedback would be highly appreciated. thanks.
KevinWaller 14y ago
Well done on getting this to where it is - and especially for quitting your job to follow your dreams. It's looking good! I've got an idea for a game but I'm neither a designer or a developer - any advice on how to approach Game Devs with the idea?

Pretty great work with all the little touches. How were you able to write both the web version as well as the iOS versions? Did you have two different code bases, or did you use something like Phonegap or trigger.io? Were you in game dev before you quit to do this? And would there be a possibility of rotating the cube?

kayoone 14y ago
Id like to know this too, do you use some kind of JS wrapper for iOS ?
- tonyhillerson 14y ago
  Nope, Web is all custom, iOS is all native, but the data format for the levels is shared.
  - socialist_coder 14y ago
    Why spend time writing a web version when it's not really going to help with sales?
    - tonyhillerson 14y ago
      Actually the time spent writing the web version was small, and it was as a way to prove the idea and (in a limited way) crowdsource level design.

AdamTReineke 14y ago

Only 10 levels?

bsaul 14y ago

Reminds me of bit of "colorbind" and "flow" iphone games. it's really cool to see how small changes to a game makes it interesting again.

seanalltogether 14y ago

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

bsaul 14y ago
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.
nicksergeant 14y ago
This game is really fun. Congrats on that.
- ceoloide 14y ago
  I agree! Congratulations!
- NDizzle 14y ago
  Yeah, I got to level 9 before I had to pull myself away. Good work.
  - bones6 14y ago
    You mean totally unwinnable I'm so mad right now I can't see straight level 9?
  - bones6 14y ago
    Then I beat it not 5 seconds later. facepalm
    - seanalltogether 14y ago
      :)
damoncali 14y ago

shawnc 14y ago

Great game! Played to level 5 on your site, heading to download it onto iPhone now, for more playage later. Without having looked yet, what is your revenue model, if there is one? Is the plan to release this for free, build an audience, a name, get feedback and all that - to go bigger later with a new game?

danielhughes 14y ago

Well done. I love that you allow users to try out the game on your site first. I wasn't initially inclined to download the app, but after trying the game I was hooked.

ctdonath 14y ago
Ditto. Was "meh" on yet another free trial, but one easy click "hey why not" and 10 levels later I'm downloading it, and figuring if addictive enough a buck for more levels is cheap.
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  It's actually really good to know that spending the time to make an online demo was worth the effort.

lost_name 14y ago

How much would you say you knew about your game before you quit your job? By which I mean, had you sort of started on it before leaving?

frontsideair 14y ago

Awesome little game. How do you plan on making money, if I may ask? I really like the design language, very "flat" and modern looking. I'd like to see more games taking this approach.

gilesvangruisen 14y ago

Awesome! Very fun and a good challenge.

skhamkar 14y ago
Great work! The UX/Design is really great.

Jemaclus 14y ago

I've played this game before (well, not this one, but the same game by a different company). Very enjoyable and your UI looks better than the other. The question I have is: how does one go about creating a puzzle game? I've always wondered. It seems like a lot of work to make something that's difficult-but-solvable.

seanalltogether 14y ago
Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played about 10 years ago and felt it would be perfect for touch interaction. For this puzzle game specifically, I found that starting with the solution and working my backwards was actually the best way to build levels. I'm not sure if that holds true for other puzzle games.
- clebio 14y ago
  Interesting. I kept wanting to rotate the cube in your game. Nice to see it in the 3d-logic game the other commenter mentions. Do you plan to add that?
adam-a 14y ago
Maybe http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic . I had the same feeling, it's annoyingly hard to find the original version, there are a lot of reskins and other very similar games.

luxstyle 14y ago

Interesting game. I downloaded it and will rate. Good luck!

alexvr 14y ago

It's simple and elegant. I might have to grab it on my iPhone. And as others have said, it's a great idea to offer it online to give prospective users a taste of the game. Now I can see if it's challenging enough to be worth my time :P

fitzpasd 14y ago

Fantastic, reminds me of one of my favorite mobile games - FreeFlow. I'd rather if my move didn't get set until I stop holding down the cursor (may be different on the mobile version, don't have an iPhone).

aqme28 14y ago

What is your monetization strategy if you have one? Ads? Free now but paid in the future?

ctdonath 14y ago
Seems there's an in-app purchase, $0.99 for additional levels. ETA: Thanks for no ads. Easy-priced paid content is worth not cluttering my head with more noise.
seanalltogether 14y ago
For now the strategy is to avoid ads on iOS and sell in-game level packs, however I'm not sure how well that model works on android, I'd love to know if anyone has thoughts on that, it seems most people just do ad driven games on android
- melling 14y ago
  Small tangent, but what is the state of the Lodsys in-app patent? Are mobile devs protected at this point? I also read somewhere that the patent was suppose to expire soon. I went with two apps and a Lite version. It's a bit of a hassle.
- jhdevos 14y ago
  There are so many free things on Android that it's hard to get myself to try paid for games. The exception is games that I get to know through some other source, like your excellent web page with live demo. I'd pay for this game on android, but paid level pack would also work for me.

ebbv 14y ago

Well done. Visually pleasing, engaging and entertaining. Just grabbed it for my phone for free but I would have easily paid $0.99 for it. :)

km3k 14y ago

I really like the look of this. Any plans for an Android version?

seanalltogether 14y ago
absolutely, its probably our highest priority for the next month or so, we focused on just iOS for release since we have a small team.
- yaddayadda 14y ago
  Please post an update to HN when you release the Android version.
peeters 14y ago
FYI, there is a less-polished clone on the Android store called "Flow Cube".

nkozyra 14y ago

The game is definitely polished and nice. How do you intend (or do you intend) to ramp up revenue to match your previous salary?

obviouslygreen 14y ago

Definitely well-conceived and fun! As others have said, very well done on the web-based version. It's too bad it's not on the Play store, though, any plans for an Android version? [edit: Asked and answered below. As an Android user (and obviously this is anecdotal but it's all I've got), I spend more money on in-game purchases -- reasonable ones, not FarmCityWhatever insanity -- than I do purchasing them outright. For something like this, level packs seem like a good IAP.]

knes 14y ago

I did the first few level on the website and I think they are a bit too easy

nicksergeant 14y ago
Did you keep going? They get more challenging.
- precisioncoder 14y ago
  The later ones are more challenging, it's pretty fun =)

n00b101 14y ago

I like this game, good idea!

Scene_Cast2 14y ago

Not to detract from the fun of the game, but I get a strong feeling that this is probably a very studied problem in topology - and that thought keeps on nagging me to write a solver script :)

namank 14y ago
Haha, yes, that's what I thought too. But that's what makes it fun. It's the perfect combination of familiarity & challenge!
seanalltogether 14y ago
Yes in fact I've spent the past 6 months thinking about whether i could build a level generator that can verify and solve the levels too. The way I see it, with a simple 5x5x5 cube with 5 colors on it, the number of possible combinations to check is 75^5, which might take awhile to brute force, so there needs to be a intelligent way to map lines.
- clebio 14y ago
  The general case might be something like that, but you only need any given configuration that fits those parameters (that is, you're not trying to solve complete, abstract topological problems). Maybe if you arbitrarily fix the first path, thereby artificially reducing the solution space? Just thinking out loud. Very cool puzzle! EDIT: or even take a lower-level solution and inject another path into. So every prior level is a seed to future levels. Rotation of the three faces, even cycling the colors, would probably make it hard to recognize the older level within the new one (at least, for casual use).
- lkozma 14y ago
  I think solving any of these can be reduced to a max-flow problem, and thus it is efficiently solvable.
  - seanalltogether 14y ago
    Many of the levels have been designed so that if you follow the path of least resistance to solve them, you will always be left with one line that wont connect. Thats the true puzzle part of the game, and that's the aspect that makes me think it's difficult to solve without resorting to brute force.

whileonebegin 14y ago

Nice game. Please post any monetary results, once you have some data. I thought making serious money from a game in the app store today is very difficult.

arasmussen 14y ago

For the web based version, I might save the last color they clicked on and then use that when they click on a white square because I've found the game a little harder to play with that feature missing on a laptop with a trackpad.

tubbo 14y ago

So this is pretty cool, it's like a combination of Tron (light cycles) and the Rubik's Cube

prawks 14y ago

Question: how essential do you think it was for you to quit your job to create this game? How much longer would it have taken you had you developed it on the side/weekends? I'm in no way trying to argue your decision, I'm genuinely curious how much work it was to create a game like this. Also, how much of the conceptual work for this game had you done prior to leaving your job?

seanalltogether 14y ago
I would say pretty essential, but that's really because of my personality. I've started and stopped more projects then I can count over the past ten years while holding a steady job. Without saving up money and leaving my job, I'd probably have a half finished game sitting in my projects folder right now.
- prawks 14y ago
  Thanks! It's a very fun game; it really gets me hooked in terms of difficulty around level 12-14.

cacois 14y ago

Neat idea, but FYI the web version doesn't seem to work in Chrome.

robertfw 14y ago
Experiencing this as well edit: It seems that on reload, things are working fine, there is some glitchyness with the intro help text not always disappearing
precisioncoder 14y ago
Worked for me in Chrome, so either fixed or may depend on version
heywire 14y ago
I'm also not able to get it to work. The only link that seems to work is the one to the iTunes store...

HyprMusic 14y ago

Great work. The fact you can play it straight away on the website is great, I'm not really a games player but I quickly got hooked. Out of interest, do you make the levels by hand, or do you have a script to generate them? Would be interesting to know the rules for a valid level against an impossible level.

seanalltogether 14y ago
We made the levels by hand, writing a script to generate and validate levels is still an interesting math problem I would love to tackle if i had the time, its just very difficult from the limited attempt I made.
- sbochins 14y ago
  I really like your landing page. Do you know of any other game devs that have a playable demo on their landing page or did you come up with the idea yourself?
  - seanalltogether 14y ago
    Honestly, it was just because I built the initial prototype in html5 and the level builder is also html based, since the effort to make a simple 10 level demo was so low we decided to throw it in.
- 38leinad 14y ago
  Looks great! Did not play much yet but I guess it needed a lot of trial/error and deep insights to designer some of the hard "levels".
- knowaveragejoe 14y ago
  Your game struck me as pretty similar to "Crazy Cube", a fairly popular flash puzzle game. I'm sure it's crossed your mind(s), but if you used an entire three-dimensional cube like that you could probably get even more permutations for levels. Just a thought :) Edit: Ah, didn't realize you increased the density of squares on the cube as levels progressed. Very nice.

bornon5 14y ago

I'm impressed with your take on the level list. It's so nice to see something more than a grid of colored, numbered boxes. It may be a simple puzzle game, but approaches like that make it feel like an adventure. The game is beautiful, too. Wonderful job!

lanna 14y ago

Very neat, looks much better than Flow. Congrats. You should charge at least $0.99 for it, no need to be free.

Swizec 14y ago

This is a really awesome game! Great work! Just one thing, the web version seems kinda blurry. Even on a non-retina 5+ year old LCD. Just checked and it's even blurrier on a retina ... the website itself is super crisp, but the textures in the game area itself kind of aren't.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

MrUnderhill 14y ago

Very nice. Happy to see it work in Opera too - thanks!

unfamiliar 14y ago

Great stuff. * The cube could do with some lighting hints * Some visual clues on the menu would be helpful. I didn't know how to get past the tutorial besides randomly swiping.

slajax 14y ago

So much great feedback. Now I REALLY wanna see it but it crashes flash for me on latest chrome osx. Bummer.

vinayan3 14y ago

Level 5 is super hard

mariocesar 14y ago

Beautiful, If you include a puzzle editor would be awesome

Scene_Cast2 14y ago

Just finished my first play-through through the 10 web levels. Comments: an "erase" functionality might be nice, besides the "reset puzzle". By the end, I figured out a pattern to solving them (identify color with the least path choices, choose one and recursively solve from there) - but then again, I don't like Sudoku either. Congrats on the release, and best of luck with the game!

oftenwrong 14y ago

I only played a few levels so far, but I really enjoyed it. Excellent concept. I would probably buy it if it was available on Play. Some feedback from my experience playing the HTML5 version on a computer with a mouse (Firefox 19) and on an android smartphone (Chrome 18): - On both platforms the "LOADING" message does not go away after hitting "close" on the little instruction cloud, and the level does not load. Only after hitting the reset button (with the circular-arrow symbol) does the level load. - On my smartphone, my finger tracing can easily outpace the tile coloring, and this leads to some tiles being skipped. The animation is also choppy. Probably not an issue on the native version. - I think you should prevent diagonal tile markings since they do not work to connect the star tiles anyway. - If there was a way to stop accidental over-writing other colors due to clumsy mouse usage, that would be nice. This seems like less of a problem on a touch screen.

seanalltogether 14y ago
thanks for feedback, i think we have bugs with asset loading in the playable demo but I haven't been able to easily debug it
- oftenwrong 14y ago
  I tried the iOS version on a friend's iPad. I had none of the problems I mentioned, and it was really nice on the big screen. I am only about halfway done with the free levels, and hoping there are more special tiles like the rainbow-swirl one. Do the level packs come with more special tile types?
- city41 14y ago
  The web version did not work on Metro IE10 on a Surface Pro. It didn't recognize my touches.

dylanz 14y ago

It looks very nice! Here is some initial feedback: - Even though it's bouncing, I didn't see the "play now" arrow, and went directly for the video button. You might also want a "Play now" button in the main button list. - In the video, I had to watch quite a bit of it to even know what the game was actually about. I would have liked if you showed me actual gameplay earlier in the video. Keep it up!

justjimmy 14y ago
Same sentiments. I didn't get the game till the last 10 seconds - and up till that point, it was rather boring. But It's a beautiful looking game and when the light bulb went off of how the game is played, I will be downloading it. Perhaps edit the video so it shows more of the core gameplay (like the part in the last 10s in the video).
seanalltogether 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I think accurately portraying game mechanics is a challenge we keep try to solve. Any thought on a way to better convey how the game works?
- tripzilch 14y ago
  In the video, use onscreen text, like "connect the squares that have the same colour" (sorry I didn't play your game, but this is what I got from the video that it's about, I'm not sure how the air balloons tie in though).

astalwick 14y ago

Nice work. The playable website is fantastic. FWIW, I would have paid $0.99 up front. I bought the level pack, but it's pretty rare that a game will hook me to the point that I make it through the free levels. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't seen this post - if I'd just stumbled across the game somewhere.

enraged_camel 14y ago

Nothing happens when I click on the arrow that says "play now."

seanalltogether 14y ago
which browser are you using?
- damoncali 14y ago
  this got me too. I clicked the arrow, not what it was pointing at.
  - sic1 14y ago
    i had to refresh and all worked fine, but yes, this happened to me as well, the "cube" game play area never loaded first load. Chrome 25.0.1364.155 Either way, fun game. Great work.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  Chrome 25.0.1364.152

seivan 14y ago

Looks incredibly amazing! Quality work. This is what I say is missing from most iOS games out there. You did good. I hope it sells. I am gonna pay for it now.

t_hozumi 14y ago

Are there correct answers more than one? I could complete the Level8 without filling all spaces. I prefer only single possible answer, which fills all spaces.

scottchin 14y ago

Looks great! Congrats on the release! Did you work on this game by yourself or with other people? Did you use any existing game frameworks like Cocos2D or Unity?

quickpost 14y ago

Just FYI, google thinks your dev blog is / has spam: http://i.imgur.com/za2UXWh.png http://i.imgur.com/za2UXWh.png One a separate note - awesome game! I plan to buy it. On the web version, one thing I'd like would be able to toggle a miss clicked space back to "neutral" with a click. I'd also make the levels slightly harder before getting to level 5 - they all seemed too easy up to that point.

seanalltogether 14y ago
Yeah I can't figure out where thats coming from, I've poured over my site to find it and even resubmitted to google and they don't see that spam when i manually submit. Maybe I should just go with a hosted solution and stop trying to manage wordpress on my own.
- rachelbythebay 14y ago
  [site:craftymind.com viagra] Try that query on there. They managed to index a LOT of pages that way. Here's the thing. Your site has been compromised. Look. I'll fetch the same page with two different user-agents. One will show up as some generic curl thing and the other will look like Google's crawler. $ curl http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > ordinary $ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)" http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > googlebot So I look for the term in the first file. $ grep viagra ordinary $ ... Nothing. I do the same for the second. $ grep viagra googlebot [ ... tons and tons of garbage ... ] Your site is running something which only emits garbage when Googlebot (or something resembling it) hits it. Install a user-agent switcher in your browser and you can see it for yourself. Sorry.
  - seanalltogether 14y ago
    i ended up finding it! it looks like it was one of those backdoor wordpress hacks where they set up commands that are evaled() as base64 strings

snarfman 14y ago

Reminds me very much of Flow Free: iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-free/id526641427 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-free/id526641427 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgam... Incidentally, it would be nice if you could backtrack to remove colored path blocks if you make a mistake like accidentally dragging across a small corner. I've only tried the webapp version, so not sure if that works in the iOS one.

kdazzle 14y ago

Lots of fun! Great looking and all that, too! Except the strategy gets a little stale after the second level when you realize that at least one of the colors always has to take a really roundabout way to get to its partner.

itry 14y ago

Whats your business model?

fishercs 14y ago

just played through it and it's a pretty great game. fun and easy to pickup and play right away. so more levels?

Sumaso 14y ago

Just wanted to add my congrats! Very impressive!

webwanderings 14y ago

Nice and challenging. Is this an original idea? I don't play many such games.

tonyhillerson 14y ago

Soundtrack for the game, for your consideration and enjoyment: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack

BoppreH 14y ago

The puzzle is identical to 3D Logic: http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-of-sage http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stron... Are you sure this won't be a problem? Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332485 Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played about 10 years ago and felt it would be perfect for touch interaction. If you played it 10 years ago, it seems like a reasonable idea to clone it, but the fact that the old devs have been active may prove itself to be an issue.

seanalltogether 14y ago
The game I was referring to is hyperframe and has been available at least since 2002. http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/hyperframe.jsp http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/hyperframe.jsp, I don't know which one came first, but I can't imagine it will be a problem since we built our own unique levels.
pbhjpbhj 14y ago
That 3D Logic game worked how I expected this one too when I started. >"it[']s a clone of an old shockwave game" // Personally it doesn't look close enough to me to be a copyright infringement, game mechanics aren't copyrightable (but are patentable [depending on jurisdiction]). It wouldn't matter if the game had been released yesterday - in copyright terms - you can copy the concept of the game as long as you don't copy (or derive) your implementation. IMO the 3D Logic version is vastly superior I'd just add a "hold button" to allow the cube to be held still whilst you draw.

bluetidepro 14y ago

I loved the demo! The 10th level had me stuck for a few. How many levels does the normal game have? It may be cool to include some text that describes that. Maybe like "Features 100+ levels. Try the first 10 below" or something like that.

ronyeh 14y ago

Welcome to the App Store! I'm very impressed with what you guys have done in 6 months; it took me much longer to ship my first app. Here's a little bit of feedback: + The graphics are super polished. Great work! + The touch interaction could use some work. Sometimes, I drag and I feel it colors squares that I don't want to color. Or it colors squares that I've successfully colored already, and it's not clear how I can backtrack. Take a look at path drawing games like Scramble with Friends to see how they handle backtracking. + I understand that advertisements are ugly and you want to keep your game very slick and polished, but... you are leaving a lot of money on the table. I would make your app a Universal Binary (add iPad support) and then throw an iAds/AdMob banner ad at the bottom of the screen. Then, make it very clear that if the user buys an IAP, that you'll remove ads forever. You can keep your iPhone version ad-free. + Why isn't your app just called "Adrift"? Was it taken already? "Adrift by Tack" looks a little clumsy, or err... tacky. + From appstorerankings.net, it looks like your keywords are "3d cube connect center adrift by tack". Center comes from Game Center, and Adrift by Tack comes from your title. So it looks like you don't use many keywords. As a new app on the store, I'd add more keywords like: puzzle, flow, board, etc. And try to find more unique ones where you might rank highly. + Good luck working the press! You've already done a great job with HN. :-) Email me at {my_user_name}@gmail if you want to chat.

ronyeh 14y ago
Additionally: Since you already have a web-playable version of the game, you should have a feature where a user can share a puzzle with a friend. Once they complete a challenging puzzle, say something like "Congrats. You demolished that puzzle! Want to share this with a friend?" Then when they hit the FB/TW share icon, you can share the same exact puzzle (http://playadrift.com/?puzzle=3653 http://playadrift.com/?puzzle=3653) as a link. This will improve your virality. Also, what toolkit did you use to write the iOS game? cocos2d? Or is there some magical toolkit that allows you to render out an HTML version of your app too???!!
- seanalltogether 14y ago
  Thanks for all the feedback, it's all really good advice, We've gone back and forth on the ad thing and we're still not sold on whether to integrate them or not. The game was written in cocos2d, and I wrote the initial prototype in html5, so thats whats being used on the website. Also yeah "Adrift" was taken as an app store entry, so we had to figure out something else for the title, I agree its a bit clunky.

azharcs 14y ago

Very addicting. Amazing stuff.

flixic 14y ago

Very similar to one of my favorite flash games, 3D logic 2: http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-of-sage http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stron...

mihn 14y ago
I just wanted to say that. But game still looks nice.

digitalzombie 14y ago

loved it, all 10 levels. I wish you can undo a color so it can be neutral (grey again). But I realize you can repaint it with another color while you're in the middle of dragging, you just need to drag a diff color to the mess up paint.

vyder 14y ago
You can drag a 'clear' color over colored tiles to clear them again.

alexobenauer 14y ago

Wow - that version on your website was brilliant. I was hooked by the second puzzle; and would have happily paid for this app. You must have spent a lot of time making a web version, but I can only imagine how well that is going to pay off; I probably never would have downloaded this game otherwise (I don't download games, basically, ever). But with it, you sold me very quickly, and definitely left money on the table... edit: I would also love a shake gesture to clear the cube.

aw3c2 14y ago

You forgot about "colorblind users"! Best and easiest way to make the game accessible for people with color vision deficiencies would be to also use a unique symbol for each color and a variation of the same for the connecting tiles. Very nice presentation!

mcdoh 14y ago

Fun game! I'm colorblind, though, and on level 10 the orange and green look very similar to my eyes. The ability to adjust colors, hues, or even just the "star" icons would be a huge help.

pm90 14y ago

Very nice game! I couldn't stop myself from wasting 10 mins playing this. One minor feedback: when the tile color is yellow, the star should be colored different (because when highlighted, it is also yellow)

shloime 14y ago

Holy shit, that's addictive.

iends 14y ago

Got to level 7 without much trouble, but started to feel guilty about playing at work :) Would love to hear more about your technical stack, especially on the web side. Congrats to shipping.

maerF0x0 14y ago
maybe im not so smart, but level 7 was killer for me.

volcom 14y ago

Very cool game, love the graphics. Good luck!

AndyKelley 14y ago

I would be interested in following up on this and seeing whether this makes you enough money to sustain your company.

bpn_sasi 14y ago

Great game and well made. I am sure you guys know the little quirks with the product ( like dragging sometimes includes blocks which I dont wanna include ) but on the whole very impressive. Good way to get the brain juices flowing :)

fourmii 14y ago

Great job! Congrats on a slick product. I noticed you had a link to listen to the soundtrack. Cute music, did you guys make the music too? I'm glad people are getting onboard with HTML5 for apps and games. You should get a blog going, I'd love to hear about your trials and tribulations over the 6 months since you quit your job.

tonyhillerson 14y ago
Yup, we made the music too. YOu can hear the soundtrack here: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack

tarikozket 14y ago

Great work! My advice is just change the first screenshot at the appstore. Because it's not feel like a game at the first impression when searching the game.

RexM 14y ago

Looks very nice and polished. I downloaded your app and played it for a bit. I would have paid for it after being able to play the web version and knowing what the app was about. An IAP upgrade would be cool if you decide to put ads on it. I would upgrade in a heartbeat.

chillericed 14y ago

Love the music! First stab at basic time challenge puts me at rank #2. I think the challenge system could be something quite fun if you integrate it well.

tonyhillerson 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback! You can hear the soundtrack here: https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack

prezjordan 14y ago

Excellent choice allowing me to play the game right on your website. Now I'm going to download (and buy, does it cost money?) your game. If I couldn't play it immediately, I probably wouldn't have.

mratzloff 14y ago

Great work! I finished all 10 levels on the website--I'm assuming more are available with the app, but it's not completely clear. I linked my wife to it and she got a kick out of it, too.

makerbreaker 14y ago

As a other-than-the-occasional-nes-play non-gamer, this is addictive!

VonGuard 14y ago

Hey guys, thought I'd throw in my 2-cents as an Independent Games Festival judge, and as press. First of all, your presentation is terrific. Great art and sound. Top notch, feels like it came from a very talented team. With this game on your resume, you've got a great future ahead of yourselves. Now, the bad part: from a gameplay perspective, your game is not unique enough to win out on its own merits in any app store. If you have any money left, spend that cash on those awful, dark-alley fake review and promotion services. Take all of Ronyeh's advice, it's excellent, but you can't stop there. To succeed today in the app stores, you have to cheat, so go buy some reviews and downloads so you can raise your ranking in the store. It's a self-fulfilling cycle: higher rankings, more sales. There is an awful lot to be said for this being a complete game with a pleasing experience, but there are already a dozen games with similar gameplay in the AppStore. though yours may be the most polished, sales of games in AppStores are less about quality and more about cheating to get more sales, or having a juggernaut that's already on top, like Angry Birds. That being said, this is a perfect game to hang such cheating tactics around: it looks the part and sounds the part of a successful game, and it doesn't go the easy route of copying Angry Birds in every single interface window. Compare that to, say, Hill Climb Racing, a top ten app store game that looks awful and is infested with spyware. But I think the best advice I can give you is to add some sort of meta-layer to your game. The fundamental gameplay is interesting and often challenging in the right ways, but there's no uniqueness factor. Perhaps adding some type of incremental reward for the puzzles. Completing a puzzle without reset gets you some form of currency, which can then be spent on customizing your hot air balloon, or on some form on in-game assistance. Think Dungeon Raid. Most mobile game companies just implement the puzzle and are done with it. The real stand out games take those simple puzzle interfaces and layer complex game elements triggered by successes and failures in the puzzle game. Keep up the good work. You're obviously talented. You'll make money at this, but you can't rely solely on the press and the quality of your game. You have to game the app stores to succeed. Oh, and when it comes to press, I really don't have any good advice. Try to find some small outlets to work with because the big guys will ignore you, and do so in a mean and churlish way. It's sad to say, but the gaming press these days are mostly retarded monkeys with no idea what it actually takes to make a game. Yer not going to get to the front page of IGN, so don't waste time trying. Find some small app store review sites no one has ever heard of and be nice to them. They'll give you a bigger bang for your buck.

zeidrich 14y ago

It's a good game, it's a bit short though. I think as a simple game it's pretty easy to solve the puzzles, and while you can make it more complex by introducing a larger grid and additional colors, it will ultimately be the same problem. Adding 20 more levels at the same level of complexity would make the game seem trivial after a while. It might benefit from additional types of tiles that introduce complexity, maybe like a tile that reacts to the color placed next to it and becomes colored the same way. Maybe a tile that reacts to all the colors next to it and becomes a mix. (IE: You need a purple tile in one spot, so in order to have that tile or tile group to turn purple, you need red and blue squares next to it). Sparse use of elements like that keep the problem from being identical. Then again, maybe it's not needed. People enjoy working through books of sudoku problems.

lucian1900 14y ago

With a web demo, I'd just charge for the game if I were you.

phil 14y ago

Very cool. This reminds me of Colorbind, one of my all-time favorite iOS games, but expanded and taken 3d. I've always wished there was more to Colorbind...

aeosynth 14y ago

Reminds me vaguely of http://arv.github.com/jelly/ http://arv.github.com/jelly/.

muuck 14y ago

Very neat how this game is presented. But I played this game years ago. Back when it was still called '3D Logic' http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727 http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727

FiddlerClamp 14y ago

I suggest you try Gamezebo (http://www.gamezebo.com/ http://www.gamezebo.com/) - they review many casual games.

sylvainww 14y ago

Game looks great. Pretty neat website, I like the attention to details. Best of luck!

lttlrck 14y ago

This is great fun. However, I installed it on iOS and found what looks like a bug: http://imgur.com/toAfNs7 http://imgur.com/toAfNs7

jordan_clark 14y ago

This is great. Fantastic work.

kenshiro_o 14y ago

That's a great puzzle game. It's even more impressive as you guys made it in 6 months. I am always amazed, humbled and energized with posts and projects such as this one. Keep up the good work!

buildnship 14y ago
Yea, great job on the game!! I was past level 7 before I had to pull my self away. The game is A LOT of fun ;) I definitely see myself and people I know playing it. Best of luck in the app-store. No doubt you all will do GREAT!!!

rartichoke 14y ago

Well done. The game is strangely intuitive. I skipped the trailer and just played. It almost felt like I knew what to do just by looking at the cube. That's a huge win IMO.

asgentile 14y ago

Can you provide a code or rather just set a cookie so that when I go back to play I can start on the level I was at. Fun :D

rorrr 14y ago

It took you 6 months to develop it?

jason_slack 14y ago

It sort of remind me of FEZ...yes, I said it FEZ.

braco_alva 14y ago

How many of you are in the team? The games looks very polished, amazing you made it in just 6 months.

rglover 14y ago

Please, please, please charge me. This is way too well done to not ask for at least 99 cents. Especially if you haven't been working for 6 months...

intelliot 14y ago

Reminds me of one of my favorite puzzle games of all time, Trainyard. http://www.trainyard.ca/ http://www.trainyard.ca/ But Adrift is definitely different. Love it!

Revex 14y ago

Posts like these are a great inspiration. I hope to see an update post with information regarding to how well it/you are doing. Also, the web based demo is sweet.

NateLipscomb 14y ago

This is great. Beautiful design and gameplay. Congrats on the launch.

kanamekun 14y ago

I love this game!! Once I got past the second level, I really got the hang of it and loved the mental challenge of solving levels. One thought: I'd consider making the first few levels much easier. This article on Yoyodyne's trivia games is along those lines: "As Yoyodyne got busier, we had less and less time to write each game's questions. Finally, one day, we launched a game that had very little effort put into the questions - a rush job, as I recall. The questions were factually correct, but there was no witty writing, no twist, and the questions were really easy to answer. When the game ran, we were surprised to see that the response rate, instead of hovering around 30%, actually exceeded 60%. We had put less work into crafting the experience, and there were more players who wanted to participate. ... [u]sers wanted two things from their e-mail game experience: 1. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: Users wanted to be told that they got the answer right, and that they were winning. 2. NO INVESTMENT: Users did not want to pay for that positive reinforcement in any way. They didn't want to think, work, get up from their chair, or otherwise make any effort to get the reward." http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/04/0513.slots.html http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/04/0513.slots.html

nazgulnarsil 14y ago
I realized this when I played the currently popular 4 pics 1 word game. I was expecting clever lateral thinking using homonyms. Instead I got 4 blue pictures and the word is blue. But it pops up a U DID IT screen and gives you fake money, with the option to purchase more fake money from the app developer. People ultimately want just enough veneer on their games that they can pretend it isn't just a big you win button that showers them in confetti.

jdflorezpa 14y ago

Very nice game, enjoyed the 10 levels. I would gladly pay for a version in Android.

mratzloff 14y ago

All you guys leaving advice and comments in this thread... download the app. It's much more polished than the website version. I rated it 5 stars, added a review, and referred it to a couple friends. I want to see this game succeed. If you want to support these guys, why not do the same?

ruswick 14y ago
In my opinion, the app is not deserving of 5 stars. The mechanics are grating and difficult to use. I spent 3 minutes trying to draw a path on level 10, and every time after rounding the corner a that I did not intend to change would change. After a while, I gave up and deleted the app. It looks nice, but there are more fundamental flaws in the gameplay.

zopticity 14y ago

This is exactly like the pipe game on the Android market / Apple store.

meerita 14y ago

My girlfriend loved the game and I, that hate iphone games, am enjoying it a lot!

vyder 14y ago

This game reminds me of laying out circuits in Eagle CAD for a 1 layer PCB. Yet, somehow, I'm addicted to it already.

femto 14y ago
My feelings exactly. The same topological rules apply. I wonder what happens if you throw this game at an autorouter? :)

dmauro 14y ago

Nice work! Very polished, good puzzles. The whooshing sound when going through the menu items in the main menu was a little annoying, but otherwise there wasn't a bit I didn't like.

tnash 14y ago

Awesome fun, played all ten levels. MORE LEVELS!

stevewilhelm 14y ago

If you like this game, you'll love Colorbind http://nonverbal.ch/colorbind.html http://nonverbal.ch/colorbind.html

ehaterade 14y ago

If you are looking to increase distribution you may want to consider reducing the title of the game and moving the buttons around so that the game is well above the fold. You can then approach different game portals to host the game iframed in, but with the way it is now you won't have much luck. Take a look at Cut the Rope web version, they have built a pretty sweet web version. If you change up your webversion to be better suited to being iframed in let me know (or contact us at Kano Games) and we can iframe it for web and link to you iOS version for our mobile users. http://www.kanogames.com/ http://www.kanogames.com/

barbs 14y ago

Nice work man. I really like the style, and the soundtrack. Will be listening to that while I code today ^^. Also, any chance for an Android release?

tonyhillerson 14y ago
Yup, we'll be working on an Android version.

anon987987987 14y ago

Please make it possible to rotate the cube!

seanalltogether 14y ago

I'm not able to respond to every individual, but I want to say that we've been reading every single comment here and GREATLY appreciate the feedback, you guys have given us a lot think about in terms of trying to make this successful.

consta 14y ago

After playing the first 5 levels I would definitely pay for this game. Keep up the good work!

dsego 14y ago

Great game! I'd definitely buy it. Too bad it's not already on the mac app store, I was ready to pull the trigger. Maybe it can be a part of the next Humble Bundle.

dools 14y ago

This is too fucking addictive. pins app tab I hope I get some work done today.

weaksauce 14y ago

Your website could use a tweak or two. I would change some of the text to reflect the fact that adrift is just a demo online and the iOS version is much longer. + the website javascript to load the next level or refresh the current level doesn't work on my computer(aurora firefox on osx) + the video doesn't work that well. (volume controls don't work, the play button doesn't work, got the video to play by clicking the video background) overall it looks like a fun game but I am curious how you are going to make some money with this if it's free.

doctorstupid 14y ago

Playing this triggered a familiar sensation, and I realized that this game has strong similarities with Slitherlink, an addictive puzzle developed by Nikoli, the Japanese publisher who popularized sudoku. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitherlink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitherlink

andrewroycarter 14y ago

Really fun game, and it looks great! Awesome job!

enraged_camel 14y ago

Minor issue: if you accidentally cross the paths of the colors, it fails silently. There's no "you fail" message or anything like that given, and it's not immediately obvious that the only way to try again is to reload the level.

iends 14y ago
I didn't have this issue on chrome, you can just start dragging again and reconnect the paths.
greggman 14y ago
you just draw over the tiles with the correct color. I guess that wasn't obvious though I figured it out. You can make as many mistakes as you want. I guess a tutorial would solve that but there is no fail. Just win or give up.

fedenusy 14y ago

Flow Free: Bridges, with nicer graphics and a better soundtrack. I like it. Controls could be a bit smoother, but nice game overall. Great start.

ruswick 14y ago

There are some irksome mechanics issues, and the game is far from novel, but it is excellently implemented and aesthetically pleasing.

kranner 14y ago

You should monetize with paid hints. I've got a similar game in the App Store (I'll be polite and skip linking to it) and as of this morning, 53.8% of my total revenue has come from hint packs. To see what I mean by hints, see this HTML5 port of my game I've been doing (work in-progress): http://noisytyping.com/NCT6745/index.html http://noisytyping.com/NCT6745/index.html

z3phyr 14y ago

Great work imho !!!! One thing I may want to add - Porting the game to different platforms would be great.

jonathanjaeger 14y ago

Love it, did all 10 levels on the website (addicting). Will download!

bblough 14y ago

Very nice!

imperialdrive 14y ago

great mind game - looked and felt good to me - i did finish the 10 levels in about 10 minutes so ya, what's next? congrats on the game and thank you for sharing!

sidcool 14y ago

Congratulations. It's a brilliant work of art and technology. Good luck, you guys have a great career ahead of you. Hard work pays!

crapshoot101 14y ago

Really enjoyed it. But was I the only one who took more time on 5 than 6/7 which were less than 30 seconds? Is the difficulty out of whack?

soemarko 14y ago

Very pretty,... it does remind me of Flow Free (http://html5games.com/2012/07/flow-free/ http://html5games.com/2012/07/flow-free/ - also on iOS and Android store near you) 1. You've earned my $1 2. Please cater more of my OCD. I see you count number of turn and time... GIVE MY 3 STARSSS!!! 3. Utilise Game Center more,.. "Hey, John finish this level in 2 second with only 3 turns." Since Letterpress I actually have friends in game center.

gurpreet42 14y ago

nice game ...

blinry 14y ago

This is based on Nikoli's number game called Arukone or Numberlink: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink Here are many more for you to enjoy: http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm

pschastain 14y ago

Got to level 9, which had no solution.

neworbd 14y ago

After playing in the browser for a good five minutes and deciding to purchase, I was sad there was no Android version. :(

lambtron 14y ago

Cool game. I remember flipping through old puzzle books as a kid and playing these types of puzzles. One small thing that annoyed me was that even if i connected a path to complete a puzzle, if my finger slipped and removed another path, i would still have to go back and correct it before the puzzle is completed. I think that the puzzle should complete as soon as the final path is connected; the validation shouldn't occur after my finger is lifted from the last move. Anyway, great look and feel and overall design. Best of luck!

huhtenberg 14y ago

Please make a paid version. I have the in-app purchases disabled in the Settings, so upgrading an app like yours requires doing an app switch, then typing in Restrictions password, enabling IAP, switching back to the app (frequently needing to restart it to), making a purchase (including typing a password), then going back to Settings and re-disabling IAP. In other words it's a hassle.

vicks711 14y ago

Thai is the most idiotic game I have ever played. Bad job. Sorry to be the who is speaking the truth here. Majority so HN comments are just sugar coated. Read it long enough and one one can get diabetes. But not me I call a spade a spade.

vicks711 14y ago

Eylith 14y ago

Nice game but too easy. Less than 15 minutes for all puzzles.

cubsink 14y ago

I will buy your game, really fun and unique!

Eylith 14y ago

This game reminds me the integrated circuit creation :)

culo 14y ago

You should have created APIs on Mashape.com too

CaptchaReader 14y ago

I sent you an email to adrift@tackmobile.com , copied it from your footer, and got a Mailer Daemon error :)

erikb 14y ago

I played the SAME game before as a flash game. Even the first 5 or 6 levels are the same... Hope, that you don't get sued for that!

a1a 14y ago

Love it! I would love to see social integration as well. For example 1 on 1 matches - first one to fail a level looses. And maybe even co-ops, this requires advanced levels though. You have n-sized teams, e.g. n on n matches - the first team to fail a level looses.

queasyroberto 14y ago

as associate producer on 65 iOS games w/ $12M in revenue to date... you guys made a nice game, but it's very fringe, and it's not even super striking like swords and sworcery, which, btw, was not a big financial success. i learned the hard way by working on ~20 super fringe games that failed hard (less than $5k total revenue) during the early days of the app store. these are the games where the artists went wild and really had themselves a time and were super pleased with themselves... not a formula for success. your art is fringe, your gameplay is fringe. try finding something else not so fringe that you guys STILL love, and make another game, and then another...

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kanamekun 14y ago

I've been playing your game for a day, and really enjoyed it. I found it really gave my brain a workout. That gave me a thought around branding. The name ("Adrift") and the tagline ("A puzzle game in worlds of whimsy") both feel whimsical and fun - which is great for a game. But I wonder if focusing the branding around "brain training" might help expand your target market. Most games are fun time-wasters, and tend to appeal to people who want to have fun and/or kill time. This game has a considerably wider appeal: it can help people exercise their brains, especially older people who want to keep their minds active. This is why a lot of people do Sudoku and crossword puzzles: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-keeping-brain-active-may-help-ward-off-alzheimers/ http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-keep... I had a brain injury a decade or so ago, and the doctors told me to do certain puzzles to keep my brain active. It gave my brain a workout, and I was reminded of that feeling when I played your game. One way to expand the target market might be to eventually do an expansion set called "Adrift: Brain Island" or something? You could target PR to the demos that brain workouts could appeal to. Good luck!!

giis 14y ago

cool game :)

triplesec 14y ago

Well, I enjoyed this game. I suppose I can see how this gets tougher and tougher as it goes on. I'd buy it, after the trial. Good luck. Game dev is a precarious and chancy marketing biz as all these HN experts are telling you!

gpgpgp 14y ago

This game is a complete ripoff of 3-D Logic... http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic

ckvamme 14y ago

more levels!!

meitalvered 14y ago

I understand you all, but even getting review these days dont give you so much traction... For example, we are a small Indie (3 People) and release our game for IOS...you probably didnt hear of the game unless you are in the cocos2d community... The game is FREE and it went live on the 15th of February 2013, till today we got more than 150 reviews with an average of 4.3 and we still dont see us in the rankings.. sorry, i forgot to mention the game :) Game name is Atlantis Breaker HD link is : https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-hd/id576385319?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-hd/id576385319... by the way any suggestion and feedback would be highly appreciated. thanks.

KevinWaller 14y ago

Well done on getting this to where it is - and especially for quitting your job to follow your dreams. It's looking good! I've got an idea for a game but I'm neither a designer or a developer - any advice on how to approach Game Devs with the idea?