14 ms·

Show HN: Twenty

666 points by sossles 11y ago

tantalor 11y ago
Nice! What's the inspiration?
- sossles 11y ago
  At a basic level, it was "Money Idol Exchanger" (an old arcade game my girlfriend really wanted on her iPad) meets 2048. I have no idea where the link mechanic game from. The game needed more constraints on how pieces could be moved, and that idea just popped into my head one day.
  - cremno 11y ago
    That game also has a good soundtrack. Especially Stage A (Ryoukai Senshi Exchanger): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxgarEVSc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxgarEVSc0
ggchappell 11y ago
I like it!
hobonumber1 11y ago
Pretty addicting!
olympus 11y ago
Just tested it with my laptop. I was thinking "This is one of those games that works best with a touchscreen." Then I saw that it's available for iOS and Android and went to get it. Btw, when you search for "twenty" on Google Play this app is not the first result. Does Google Play have any SEO options to get you higher on the list?
- sossles 11y ago
  Getting downloads will help me. I'm already pretty easy to find on the iOS appstore (due to the app having more downloads), but having a common word as a name makes the initial release harder.
- ethanmad 11y ago
  You're right the app is really low on the list. Hopefully that'll improve with downloads, ratings, views, etc. Here's the app in case anyone is looking for it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.frenchguys.twenty https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.frenchguys...
the_cat_kittles 11y ago
i really love the sounds
- sossles 11y ago
  Thanks, I'm actually a little bit proud of them because the combination sound effects actually form a little chord progression all the way up to Twenty.
  - the_cat_kittles 11y ago
    thats what kept me going :)
synunlimited 11y ago
Only suggestion would be being able to turn off the sound. Very fun tho!
- sossles 11y ago
  A common request. I added that to the Android and iOS app but haven't got around to that on the web version.
Schwolop 11y ago
That was great until I discovered I was allowed to drag things out from under other things. IMHO the game is a lot more fun if you're under that constraint! Maybe call it "hard mode"...
somedangedname 11y ago
Instead of saying 'pick up tiles and drop them' in the tutorial, how about 'bump tiles into each other' or something like that. I didn't realize until halfway through the first game that you could combine tiles laterally without having to pick them up off've the stack. Great idea for a game.
- Zezima 11y ago
  It would turn into 2048 pretty quickly. Obviously the game mechanics are different, but siding two like numbed together is pretty much Threes and by extension 2048 all over.
  - hvjackson 11y ago
    I think (s)he's giving feedback about the wording of the description, not the gameplay itself.
- sossles 11y ago
  I must admit I agonised over that initial wording many times over. In the end I said "drop" because many first time players didn't realise it was gravity-oriented and that was just enough of a hint. It was somewhat by-design that there are a few "secret" mechanics to be discovered.
  - christianmann 11y ago
    See, I actually started thinking in 3 dimensions when I read that comment -- like dragging and dropping files, for instance. I didn't realize that they would block each other until a few levels in.
AlwaysBCoding 11y ago
Good concept, I hate games with timers though. You should have an option to turn it off, I like enjoying strategy games + taking my time
- sossles 11y ago
  A few people have said they are keen to play without a timer. The iOS app does have a "Zen" mode (along with a few other variations) but I'm actually thinking of building a separate game where the modes are all turn-based. The hardest thing is thinking of a good name that both associates it and distinguishes it from this game.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    I'd enjoy playing without a timer, but with the stack rising after every N moves that don't make a combination. That would force an economy of movement: how can I not only throw this block out of the way, but combine it with something so that it doesn't cause the stack to rise?
    - sossles 11y ago
      I have a prototype that does exactly that. It's fun to an extent but it needs an extra something. EDIT: What the heck, you might as well have a look at it. This prototype is older and maybe buggy but you get the idea: http://twenty.frenchguys.net/play2 http://twenty.frenchguys.net/play2
      - kissickas 11y ago
        That doesn't do exactly what GP said - only penalizing you for moves that don't make a combination. However - that game is much better, in my opinion. Thanks for letting us try it out!
      - gridspy 11y ago
        I commented earlier that I didn't like the timer. I much prefer this version. Also despite my criticism I do love the UI, polish, sound and gameplay. Kudos and well done! :)
orik 11y ago
Are you gonna put it on GitHub? I'm itching to make Twenty 48
- sossles 11y ago
  Ha! No plans for github (at this stage) but I don't mind if someone else builds on the idea.
rrrhys 11y ago
I can already sense the clones being coded up. Cool game!
- sossles 11y ago
  There has already been one, in fact (on Android). Copied my icon, the look and feel, etc. Fortunately the guy was pretty cool about it and removed it once I asked him
pazimzadeh 11y ago
The drops don't seem random: http://f.cl.ly/items/1Z232p073A40323n3o30/Screen%20Shot%202015-05-13%20at%2011.16.38%20PM.png http://f.cl.ly/items/1Z232p073A40323n3o30/Screen%20Shot%2020...
overload119 11y ago
Awesome! 1. Love the tutorial, super simple and I loved how you introduced harder concepts like linking blocks later on. 2. The objective is clear and challenging right from the get-go, as opposed to introducing levels, the game just naturally kind of gets harder. 3. After introducing the timer that's when I was like "oh shit just got real" and I felt that pressure made it more fun You think you've done a bunch of things right here. Nice work.
ethanmad 11y ago
This game is really great! I think we have the next 2048 upon us. In my few tries I can't get past 15, which makes me keep wanting to do it one more time. The increasing difficulty to get to higher numbers with the randomness of high-number drops makes the game exciting and the timer makes it frantic. I look forward to trying two-player mode. Stealing blocks from the opponent is a great mechanic! The one suggestion I can make is to give high-number blocks (15+?) something to make them stand out, similar to how 2048 indicated higher numbers. The sound effects throughout the game are great!
- sossles 11y ago
  Thanks so much, I can't tell you how good it is to hear nice things after spending so many evenings fine-tuning everything. As to your suggestion, you make a good point. It was very hard to come up with 20 distinct colours (let alone 30, as one of the iOS-only modes requires!) and maybe something extra is required.
  - girvo 11y ago
    Perhaps a tiny animation. Sparkles, the larger the number the more sparkles?
  - gokhan 11y ago
    Borders? 11 is yellow, 21 is yellow with thick border, 31 with a thicker border (or red border, or striped border etc.)
  - Intermernet 11y ago
    Adding my congratulations to the others here, especially with regards to how finely-tuned everything is. The art, sound and concept are all great, and I'm sure my problem with the difficulty is down to my lack of skill :-) Just in case you hadn't managed to get one for testing, I can confirm the game plays perfectly (and is highly addictive) on a Surface Pro 2 using the touch-screen :-)
- austenallred 11y ago
  I love how all of HN are suckers for simple math/numbers-based puzzle games
cpayne 11y ago
Great game! How did you do the cross platform? Xamarin, native or something else??
- sossles 11y ago
  It's c++ with SDL and as little platform-specific code as I can get away with. eg. low latency audio on Android was impossible using stock SDL. The web version was originally a straight recompile with emscripten but it was way too slow so it's a hybrid approach where the board engine is emscripten and the UI is rewritten with HTML/canvas.
  - magni- 11y ago
    Any plans for a Windows Phone port? :) https://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=10576&sid=2a7ec2c78eb4e5d2a9a258a9c8cd85da https://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=10576&sid=2a7ec2c7...
    - sossles 11y ago
      I've considered it, and probably will do it one day for fun just to see what the platform is like.
      - robmcm 11y ago
        Looking back would it have been easier to do the whole things in JS/HTML/CSS?
        sossles 11y ago
        Not at all! This is a mobile game and getting 60 FPS on mobile in a browser is not trivial, even with graphics as simple as these. But natively? Ridiculously easy.
        buggyend 11y ago
        The game is simple/hard and beautiful. I am just curious. What engine and development tools did you use? If I like a game, I want to know the backend tools that was used for developing.
gavanwoolery 11y ago
Clever spin on 3's/2048/etc. Prepare to be cloned!
m0dc 11y ago
This is great! What's everyone's strategy? I was able to get 20 by obsessively combining small tiles first, but just barely. The biggest problem is the rows that calcify and lock together if you don't actively try and break bonds.
- 3JPLW 11y ago
  The bonds only form with new tiles emerging from the bottom, so it's best to keep the bottom as clear as possible. Also, the timer will skip ahead to a new row if there are no immediate moves left, so it's best to maximize the number of possible moves. The best strategy I've found is to build two towers on either edge of the board. One tower is reserved for #1-9, and the other side is reserved for 10-19. I aggressively clear the bottom and break any links, and then I optimize the storage of my towers. There's only enough space for stacks 8 high, however, so sometimes I need to make a third stack in the middle (ideally with 9, 10, and 11). I've gotten as high as 20x8 on iOS this way, but it takes some luck.
  - icoder 11y ago
    Interesting! I converged to (almost) the same strategy (I just frantically keep #1-9 at one end (1 column with overshoot to a seconds or third), and #10-19 at the other and try breaking bonds asap). It got me to my first 20.
joshu 11y ago
A lot of fun.
jqm 11y ago
Awesome game. But I would suggest renaming it "16". That way I can feel better about performance.
- jqm 11y ago
  Update: actually, "17" might be a better name. This game is addictive.
  - vacri 11y ago
    I agree with "17". Sounds quite satisfying.
    - nationcrafting 11y ago
      Or 18+, for when you can't get no satisfaction.
- function_seven 11y ago
  That's not a good name, sorry. I think "15" fits it much, much better!
wenqin123 11y ago
Nice game
richerlariviere 11y ago
Works on safari on iPad
gelatocar 11y ago
I'd love to try this with the ability to 'throw' tiles around, so they maintain some velocity after letting go of them. Obviously they'd still have to snap to the grid but it would be cool to be able to chuck a tile from one side of the screen to the other.
diziet 11y ago
Looking forward seeing the app climb -- I wonder how high this will climb on category ranks? Right now it looks like you've gotten a couple of thousand of downloads on iOS (spike in russia), a couple of hundred on Android. It will be exciting to see the app explode! https://sensortower.com/ios/us/stephen-french/app/twenty/882301625 https://sensortower.com/ios/us/stephen-french/app/twenty/882...
downandout 11y ago
I really like these kinds of games where the ideal strategy is exactly the opposite of the seemingly obvious play. In my few tries it appears that the ideal strategy is to ensure that you create the lowest number of unique numbers that you can, rather than racing toward the goal of 20. If you create a few high numbers early, you are courting disaster later in the game because you won't be able to combine them. Great concept and execution!
chillingeffect 11y ago
A cool game! but for god's sake, don't play with the mouse. My wrist is killing me after about 30 minutes.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
Got to 15 on my first try. Would likely have done better with a touchscreen; it's much harder with a mouse. Ultimately, it was the introduction of locked-together blocks underneath other blocks that killed me, and in particular the fact that blocks you already had "loose" can suddenly get locked to other blocks.
- mdaniel 11y ago
  The Android version is a ton easier to play, but I feel there is something lost when trying to see the whole field of play on a tiny screen. I'll try it on my Nexus 10 and see if that's any better. I agree wholeheartedly with the other comments: this is a awesome game and well executed! Small nit: on Android apps, traditionally pressing the back button when at the "home" or top-most screen of your app will either exit, or prompt to exit. It was also extremely not obvious how to disable the sound; traditionally I would have expected that to live under the "More ... " item at the home screen. I hope these are taken merely as suggestions, and not as criticism.
motyar 11y ago
Download link doent work
dav43 11y ago
FYI Chrome, XP getting Aw Snap.
- JoshGlazebrook 11y ago
  XP may be the problem.
  - dav43 11y ago
    damn corporates.
ljk 11y ago
wow such a great game! 16 on first try thought it was gonna be easy, then noticed the timer on the top when the screen was about halfway full, definitely added another layer of excitement to the game edit: 18 on 2nd try... can't stop playing! ahem.. is there a way to disable the timer? edit: frustrating but addicting... 19 http://i.imgur.com/KW0i0rN.png http://i.imgur.com/KW0i0rN.png
- ljk 11y ago
  finally 20x2! http://i.imgur.com/ynyWqyM.png http://i.imgur.com/ynyWqyM.png looks like it's best to keep the numbers as high as possible so it's easier to combine the blocks
hardmath123 11y ago
Bug report—maybe? If you have multiple rows of tiles, you can't drag a tile from a lower row to the game area. It bumps into a tile in a higher row and refuses to move. You need to first move the ones in the higher row to move the tile in the lower row.
- arthurcolle 11y ago
  Pretty sure that's not a bug
codemonkeychris 11y ago
Awesome fun, touch works great...
overgard 11y ago
This is fun, good job
dapatil 11y ago
Fantastic job guys! This is addictive.
codybits 11y ago
I was wondering how a quick random player might fare so I made a simple one. Paste this into your inspector console (or in chrome type "javascript:" into the URL bar and paste it): function countPieces(){it=b.pieces();for(var e=0;it.current();)e++,it.next();return e}function getRandPiece(){for(var e=b.pieces(),t=Math.floor(Math.random()*countPieces()),n=0;t>n;n++)e.next();return e.current()}function stackRandPiece(){if(!b.isBusy()){if(b.isGameOver())return void clearInterval(randInterval);var e=getRandPiece();b.setTarget({x:e.pos.x+100,y:1500}),b.grab(e),window.setTimeout(function(){b.setTarget({x:200*Math.floor(7*Math.random())+100,y:1500}),window.setTimeout(function(){b.release()},15)},15)}}randInterval=window.setInterval(stackRandPiece,40); Original code here: https://gist.github.com/CodyWalker/842149b82ed363659678 https://gist.github.com/CodyWalker/842149b82ed363659678 The highest I've seen it manage is 17.
- GolfyMcG 11y ago
  If it wasn't so late I might get into it but I think this could be dramatically improved by just detecting whether a piece is currently underneath another piece. Assuming you can eliminate those as possible choices for the random select process, you would avoid the issue of iterating through a bunch of pieces that can't even be moved during the late game!
  - codybits 11y ago
    Yeah, that would probably help a lot. It is pretty dumb in its current state. That said, sometimes it can join matching tiles that are next to each other in the bottom of the pile, so that can still be useful. Maybe I'll work on it some later...
- sossles 11y ago
  That's very cool. I never imagined I'd see a bot playing Twenty.
- bottled_poe 11y ago
  This is pretty great - it scored 16 for me on the first go which is higher than my own first attempt of 14. This script also highlights my main issue with the game. It feels like the rules are not strict enough for this style of game. The real-time nature of the physics combined with the concurrent actions taken by the user results in quite loose game mechanics.
cpolis 11y ago
I loved Threes, 2048 and this is just as great - thanks! However, one thing that I dislike about this game(and something that could be changed in the next version or permutation) is that gameplay is TIME based instead of TURN based. It makes the game less about strategy and more about being quick with your mouse. It also makes the game less appealing as a background task and something to stop and come back to; ie something to do while waiting for something to cook or during television commercials.
- GolfyMcG 11y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I would also add that it's very unappealing due to the fact that I have to use a mouse/track pad at all, though clearly this was made with touch screens in mind. You add that I have to be quick about it too and I find myself struggling to remain interested.
  - omegant 11y ago
    It works perfectly in my Iphone.
- gridspy 11y ago
  Exactly. I play a game like this to relax. This game is stressful due to the timer aspect, while I love 2048 I will never play this game again. I loved it until the timer was introduced. I got to 15.
- vacri 11y ago
  The timer is the game. It's about making matches quickly, and the game would be far too easy if you got rid of the timer. You'd have to make other changes to the format instead, to make up for the lack of timer. Quarter the number of rows perhaps? but then that leaves you at the mercy of the RNG, and it sucks when you lose a game because the RNG dealt you an impossible game.
- sjtrny 11y ago
  That would make it far too easy.
cperciva 11y ago
Suggestion: Mark tiles at the bottom of the screen as being "attached" to other tiles before said other tiles come onto the screen. It's very annoying when I see a useful tile which is not attached to anything and I reach over to grab it, only to have it become attached to something in the mean time. (Especially if that tile was one I created by merging two other tiles together and so its attachment to anything else should have been broken.)
pcurve 11y ago
oh great... just when I cracked 4096... 17. I can sleep in peace now.
z3t4 11y ago
Great work! This game is good as it is, but you could try having cars/space-ships/gems or whatever instead of numbers, to give you more freedom for experimenting and maybe change the order so that there will be more fall-though. People totally love when much happens with little input. If the game where to improve, I would say you need to increase the output vs input, making more stuff happen, faster and easier.
forrestthewoods 11y ago
I'm super impressed with how well the web version works on iOS. Touch stuff like this almost never works or is garbage on mobile web. Very well done.
- sossles 11y ago
  I'm chuffed to hear you say that because it was certainly a battle to get it to work.
OmarIsmail 11y ago
Fantastic game! It really shines on mobile and you've done a phenomenal job of making sure the block sticks with your finger even with aggressive moves. One usability improvement would be to maintain the "hold" state after a block combines. So if I'm holding a 3 and bring that to another 3 all while keeping my finger held down and then continue to move my finger somewhere else I don't take the new 4 block with me. I have to raise my thumb and do a new tab and swipe. If I can just keep my thumb down then it makes the game more fluid and you can get some nice chaining/combos going. Also, if you do put in a leaderboard system then you should definitely involve time, and have the timer running when the game is in "paused" state (not background, but pressing the "pause" button deliberately). I've been "cheating" by pausing to collect my thoughts and plan out my moves. Seriously, a great game - kudos and hope it's a big success for you. That moment when you hit 20 and then the "twist" I just got a huge smile on my face :)
S4M 11y ago
It's quite fun and addictive. Slight bug: my laptop screen is a bit too small, so I can't see the time bar. Good job!
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  Same for me on a 1024x768 screen. I don't know but there might be a memory leak too - seems to be lagging my (already slow) system.
- S4M 11y ago
  One more thing: I showed that game to my 4 years old son (on the tablet), and he quite likes it!
napolux 11y ago
And clones will arrive on the store in 3, 2, 1...
oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
Love it, but the app requires access to 'Photos/Media/Files' - there's no way I'm prepared to give such access permissions to a game.
- towelguy 11y ago
  This. Why would it need access to my files?
  - sossles 11y ago
    All it does is save a screenshot so it can be shared, but unfortunately that needs to be saved to external storage (as I understand it).
viraptor 11y ago
This is really well designed, smooth and intuitive. A lot of fun. I can see that a lot of attention was given to the details. I'll be addicted for a while... (the best strategy I found so far is to use move everything into 3 columns (left, centre, right) as soon as new pieces arrive, only then start merging... top score of 18 at the moment)
- icoder 11y ago
  I finally got to twenty when I switched to a >10 left, <10 right strategy. Could have been coincidence, could have been the strategy. It's time to get some work done so I'm not gonna figure that out :)
Vilkku 11y ago
I was unable to get it to work in Firefox or Chrome (even tried disabling extensions on both), but it seems to work okay in IE. I was unsure if it was even meant to be played with a mouse at first.
- Crystalin 11y ago
  Same here. There is no animation request so the game is not refreshing and so not playable :(
  - sossles 11y ago
    Try the app? It's free anyway.
hyperpallium 11y ago
good game! hope you get valuable feedback and make a mint. 17. because of later pieces joining together in 3's, it seems it might be impossible to reach 20? (do you ensure there's a soln?) (android version) i found the touch becoming unresponsive on the edges, in later stages. pr because i'm getting frantic, and using a crappy phone. but if this could be improved (eg larger hit area on the edges - or zoom to cover whole screen), it would be worth it. apart from the feeling of frustration, the gameplay problem is you lose much time repeating the movement x2 or x3 times, which is crucial to avoid locking joined pieces and large surface area towards the end. PS would be better if it didn't require any permissions at al. it just seems to be storing twenty.jpg - necessary. also "throwing" blocks with momentum as another comment said would be cool, and wouldn't undermine gameplay.
- sossles 11y ago
  I'm not sure what the issue with touch at the edges might be - perhaps it thinks you're making an System-level gesture? I didn't get what the other comment meant by throwing, but it just clicked when you said it. Thanks for the idea, I'll look into it.
amelius 11y ago
I'm wondering why playing this game doesn't feel like work.
vladharbuz 11y ago
I understand how people can find this fun, but not how they can find it "just as good" as Threes!. The graphics are a blatant ripoff, albeit of a lower quality, and the game mechanic is simply way less inventive. Threes! had attention to detail — in the mechanics, in the visuals, and especially in the music. These ripoffs have none of that. I can't help but wonder whether we are promoting the tradition of cheap, carelessly made mobile games as opposed to the finely-crafted products. This is why many developers have started to steer clear of the mobile market. (I don't mean to ruin everyone's fun, just commenting on the larger scheme of things)
- rl3 11y ago
  For starters, Twenty is free and I can play it in the browser on my desktop. Its graphics are, in my opinion, better than Threes!. Why that should matter though is beyond me, since the gameplay is quite different. I also fail to see why elegant simplicity is somehow a bad thing in this case. Maybe you're new here, but games featured on Show HN are usually side projects and don't necessarily have studio-level production values.
- Grue3 11y ago
  This is sarcasm, right? The gameplay isn't anything like Threes, and you are reusing their whiny blogpost about 2048 almost word for word.
daemonk 11y ago
Great game. I like the incremental discoveries of new obstacles (linked blocks for example) or new mechanisms (lateral movement to combine numbers).
ianstallings 11y ago
Wow that's insidiously addictive. Good job!
DanBC 11y ago
I freaking love this. I'm pretty bad at it. I especially like the fact that I can play the game on the website and then have an iAP to give you some money. So I paid the iAP.
- sossles 11y ago
  Thanks, appreciated.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
DreamPlotter 11y ago
Fun game, got to 20 x2 :)
MichaelCrawford 11y ago
(I haven't read TFA but I gather it has to do with javascript.) Javascript is wildly popular these days, many make the reasonable claim that it is the world's most-popular programming language. Lots of people say it's so much fun. I first learned a very modest bit of javascript a few years ago, I learn more when I need it, more recently I got about halfway through O'Reilly's "Learning Javascript" but am now stopped dead because I regard it as so tedious and dull. Mind you I am not by any means a language zealot. If you enjoy javascript then more power to you. But I myself would rather chew my own foot off than actually get paid to write javascript code. Unfortunately I am concerned I may not have much choice. Is there way you can convince me that javascript can actually be fun and interesting to me? What I regard as fun is sweating over how to reduce cache misses in my iOS conway's game of life implementation, Warp Life. I once write an AES hard drive encryptor that ran entirely onboard the Oxford OXFW911 Firewire/IDE bridge chip. It had a 49 MHz ARM7TDMI CPU, 64 kB of 16-bit flash with a five-cycle read time, and 1800 bytes of 32-bit ram with a one cycle read time. FireWire Encrypt was a tough project but I had a grand old time working on it. My gripe with javascript is that it is simply not possible for me to use it to solve the problems that interest me.
mpermar 11y ago
Congrats. You're going to be famous. 5* on app store.
bane 11y ago
This apparently taps some kind of cleaning up OCD button I didn't know I had. I kept shouting "stop moving up!" as I approached 12, then 13 and so on. Way more hooked on this than 2048.
lamosty 11y ago
16 points guys :)
fiatjaf 11y ago
I don't get, it seems everybody does the same thing, the only thing that can be done. Where is the strategy?
jhonnycano 11y ago
First 2048, now this!!!! nooooooooooo
serve_yay 11y ago
This game is SO good. Great job.
conradfr 11y ago
Cool game. Somehow I got to 19 and 20 on my first couple of try with a mouse but I'm stuck at 17 on mobile. Does anybody remembers Crack attack ? Still the best in my opinion. http://www.aluminumangel.org/attack/ http://www.aluminumangel.org/attack/
johlindenbaum 11y ago
Pause button? Please!
silentfish 11y ago
Obligatory "Why didn't I think of that!" Cool game!
Michie 11y ago
For android, change the color of the yellow for number four, five, eight. I cannot see it well. Either make the number fonts darker (contrast the light color with dark colored fonts so it will be more visible) or change the color to something darker like blue, violet or orange. Nice game.

Show HN: Twenty

666 points by sossles 11y ago

tantalor 11y ago

Nice! What's the inspiration?

sossles 11y ago
At a basic level, it was "Money Idol Exchanger" (an old arcade game my girlfriend really wanted on her iPad) meets 2048. I have no idea where the link mechanic game from. The game needed more constraints on how pieces could be moved, and that idea just popped into my head one day.
- cremno 11y ago
  That game also has a good soundtrack. Especially Stage A (Ryoukai Senshi Exchanger): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxgarEVSc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxgarEVSc0

ggchappell 11y ago

I like it!

hobonumber1 11y ago

Pretty addicting!

olympus 11y ago

Just tested it with my laptop. I was thinking "This is one of those games that works best with a touchscreen." Then I saw that it's available for iOS and Android and went to get it. Btw, when you search for "twenty" on Google Play this app is not the first result. Does Google Play have any SEO options to get you higher on the list?

sossles 11y ago
Getting downloads will help me. I'm already pretty easy to find on the iOS appstore (due to the app having more downloads), but having a common word as a name makes the initial release harder.
ethanmad 11y ago
You're right the app is really low on the list. Hopefully that'll improve with downloads, ratings, views, etc. Here's the app in case anyone is looking for it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.frenchguys.twenty https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.frenchguys...

the_cat_kittles 11y ago

i really love the sounds

sossles 11y ago
Thanks, I'm actually a little bit proud of them because the combination sound effects actually form a little chord progression all the way up to Twenty.
- the_cat_kittles 11y ago
  thats what kept me going :)

synunlimited 11y ago

Only suggestion would be being able to turn off the sound. Very fun tho!

sossles 11y ago
A common request. I added that to the Android and iOS app but haven't got around to that on the web version.

Schwolop 11y ago

That was great until I discovered I was allowed to drag things out from under other things. IMHO the game is a lot more fun if you're under that constraint! Maybe call it "hard mode"...

somedangedname 11y ago

Instead of saying 'pick up tiles and drop them' in the tutorial, how about 'bump tiles into each other' or something like that. I didn't realize until halfway through the first game that you could combine tiles laterally without having to pick them up off've the stack. Great idea for a game.

Zezima 11y ago
It would turn into 2048 pretty quickly. Obviously the game mechanics are different, but siding two like numbed together is pretty much Threes and by extension 2048 all over.
- hvjackson 11y ago
  I think (s)he's giving feedback about the wording of the description, not the gameplay itself.
sossles 11y ago
I must admit I agonised over that initial wording many times over. In the end I said "drop" because many first time players didn't realise it was gravity-oriented and that was just enough of a hint. It was somewhat by-design that there are a few "secret" mechanics to be discovered.
- christianmann 11y ago
  See, I actually started thinking in 3 dimensions when I read that comment -- like dragging and dropping files, for instance. I didn't realize that they would block each other until a few levels in.

AlwaysBCoding 11y ago

Good concept, I hate games with timers though. You should have an option to turn it off, I like enjoying strategy games + taking my time

sossles 11y ago
A few people have said they are keen to play without a timer. The iOS app does have a "Zen" mode (along with a few other variations) but I'm actually thinking of building a separate game where the modes are all turn-based. The hardest thing is thinking of a good name that both associates it and distinguishes it from this game.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  I'd enjoy playing without a timer, but with the stack rising after every N moves that don't make a combination. That would force an economy of movement: how can I not only throw this block out of the way, but combine it with something so that it doesn't cause the stack to rise?
  - sossles 11y ago
    I have a prototype that does exactly that. It's fun to an extent but it needs an extra something. EDIT: What the heck, you might as well have a look at it. This prototype is older and maybe buggy but you get the idea: http://twenty.frenchguys.net/play2 http://twenty.frenchguys.net/play2
    - kissickas 11y ago
      That doesn't do exactly what GP said - only penalizing you for moves that don't make a combination. However - that game is much better, in my opinion. Thanks for letting us try it out!
    - gridspy 11y ago
      I commented earlier that I didn't like the timer. I much prefer this version. Also despite my criticism I do love the UI, polish, sound and gameplay. Kudos and well done! :)

orik 11y ago

Are you gonna put it on GitHub? I'm itching to make Twenty 48

sossles 11y ago
Ha! No plans for github (at this stage) but I don't mind if someone else builds on the idea.

rrrhys 11y ago

I can already sense the clones being coded up. Cool game!

sossles 11y ago
There has already been one, in fact (on Android). Copied my icon, the look and feel, etc. Fortunately the guy was pretty cool about it and removed it once I asked him

pazimzadeh 11y ago

The drops don't seem random: http://f.cl.ly/items/1Z232p073A40323n3o30/Screen%20Shot%202015-05-13%20at%2011.16.38%20PM.png http://f.cl.ly/items/1Z232p073A40323n3o30/Screen%20Shot%2020...

overload119 11y ago

Awesome! 1. Love the tutorial, super simple and I loved how you introduced harder concepts like linking blocks later on. 2. The objective is clear and challenging right from the get-go, as opposed to introducing levels, the game just naturally kind of gets harder. 3. After introducing the timer that's when I was like "oh shit just got real" and I felt that pressure made it more fun You think you've done a bunch of things right here. Nice work.

ethanmad 11y ago

This game is really great! I think we have the next 2048 upon us. In my few tries I can't get past 15, which makes me keep wanting to do it one more time. The increasing difficulty to get to higher numbers with the randomness of high-number drops makes the game exciting and the timer makes it frantic. I look forward to trying two-player mode. Stealing blocks from the opponent is a great mechanic! The one suggestion I can make is to give high-number blocks (15+?) something to make them stand out, similar to how 2048 indicated higher numbers. The sound effects throughout the game are great!

sossles 11y ago
Thanks so much, I can't tell you how good it is to hear nice things after spending so many evenings fine-tuning everything. As to your suggestion, you make a good point. It was very hard to come up with 20 distinct colours (let alone 30, as one of the iOS-only modes requires!) and maybe something extra is required.
- girvo 11y ago
  Perhaps a tiny animation. Sparkles, the larger the number the more sparkles?
- gokhan 11y ago
  Borders? 11 is yellow, 21 is yellow with thick border, 31 with a thicker border (or red border, or striped border etc.)
- Intermernet 11y ago
  Adding my congratulations to the others here, especially with regards to how finely-tuned everything is. The art, sound and concept are all great, and I'm sure my problem with the difficulty is down to my lack of skill :-) Just in case you hadn't managed to get one for testing, I can confirm the game plays perfectly (and is highly addictive) on a Surface Pro 2 using the touch-screen :-)
austenallred 11y ago
I love how all of HN are suckers for simple math/numbers-based puzzle games

cpayne 11y ago

Great game! How did you do the cross platform? Xamarin, native or something else??

sossles 11y ago
It's c++ with SDL and as little platform-specific code as I can get away with. eg. low latency audio on Android was impossible using stock SDL. The web version was originally a straight recompile with emscripten but it was way too slow so it's a hybrid approach where the board engine is emscripten and the UI is rewritten with HTML/canvas.
- magni- 11y ago
  Any plans for a Windows Phone port? :) https://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=10576&sid=2a7ec2c78eb4e5d2a9a258a9c8cd85da https://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=10576&sid=2a7ec2c7...
  - sossles 11y ago
    I've considered it, and probably will do it one day for fun just to see what the platform is like.
    - robmcm 11y ago
      Looking back would it have been easier to do the whole things in JS/HTML/CSS?
      - sossles 11y ago
        Not at all! This is a mobile game and getting 60 FPS on mobile in a browser is not trivial, even with graphics as simple as these. But natively? Ridiculously easy.
        buggyend 11y ago
        The game is simple/hard and beautiful. I am just curious. What engine and development tools did you use? If I like a game, I want to know the backend tools that was used for developing.

gavanwoolery 11y ago

Clever spin on 3's/2048/etc. Prepare to be cloned!

m0dc 11y ago

This is great! What's everyone's strategy? I was able to get 20 by obsessively combining small tiles first, but just barely. The biggest problem is the rows that calcify and lock together if you don't actively try and break bonds.

3JPLW 11y ago
The bonds only form with new tiles emerging from the bottom, so it's best to keep the bottom as clear as possible. Also, the timer will skip ahead to a new row if there are no immediate moves left, so it's best to maximize the number of possible moves. The best strategy I've found is to build two towers on either edge of the board. One tower is reserved for #1-9, and the other side is reserved for 10-19. I aggressively clear the bottom and break any links, and then I optimize the storage of my towers. There's only enough space for stacks 8 high, however, so sometimes I need to make a third stack in the middle (ideally with 9, 10, and 11). I've gotten as high as 20x8 on iOS this way, but it takes some luck.
- icoder 11y ago
  Interesting! I converged to (almost) the same strategy (I just frantically keep #1-9 at one end (1 column with overshoot to a seconds or third), and #10-19 at the other and try breaking bonds asap). It got me to my first 20.

joshu 11y ago

A lot of fun.

jqm 11y ago

Awesome game. But I would suggest renaming it "16". That way I can feel better about performance.

jqm 11y ago
Update: actually, "17" might be a better name. This game is addictive.
- vacri 11y ago
  I agree with "17". Sounds quite satisfying.
  - nationcrafting 11y ago
    Or 18+, for when you can't get no satisfaction.
function_seven 11y ago
That's not a good name, sorry. I think "15" fits it much, much better!

wenqin123 11y ago

Nice game

richerlariviere 11y ago

Works on safari on iPad

gelatocar 11y ago

I'd love to try this with the ability to 'throw' tiles around, so they maintain some velocity after letting go of them. Obviously they'd still have to snap to the grid but it would be cool to be able to chuck a tile from one side of the screen to the other.

diziet 11y ago

Looking forward seeing the app climb -- I wonder how high this will climb on category ranks? Right now it looks like you've gotten a couple of thousand of downloads on iOS (spike in russia), a couple of hundred on Android. It will be exciting to see the app explode! https://sensortower.com/ios/us/stephen-french/app/twenty/882301625 https://sensortower.com/ios/us/stephen-french/app/twenty/882...

downandout 11y ago

I really like these kinds of games where the ideal strategy is exactly the opposite of the seemingly obvious play. In my few tries it appears that the ideal strategy is to ensure that you create the lowest number of unique numbers that you can, rather than racing toward the goal of 20. If you create a few high numbers early, you are courting disaster later in the game because you won't be able to combine them. Great concept and execution!

chillingeffect 11y ago

A cool game! but for god's sake, don't play with the mouse. My wrist is killing me after about 30 minutes.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

Got to 15 on my first try. Would likely have done better with a touchscreen; it's much harder with a mouse. Ultimately, it was the introduction of locked-together blocks underneath other blocks that killed me, and in particular the fact that blocks you already had "loose" can suddenly get locked to other blocks.

mdaniel 11y ago
The Android version is a ton easier to play, but I feel there is something lost when trying to see the whole field of play on a tiny screen. I'll try it on my Nexus 10 and see if that's any better. I agree wholeheartedly with the other comments: this is a awesome game and well executed! Small nit: on Android apps, traditionally pressing the back button when at the "home" or top-most screen of your app will either exit, or prompt to exit. It was also extremely not obvious how to disable the sound; traditionally I would have expected that to live under the "More ... " item at the home screen. I hope these are taken merely as suggestions, and not as criticism.

motyar 11y ago

Download link doent work

dav43 11y ago

FYI Chrome, XP getting Aw Snap.

JoshGlazebrook 11y ago
XP may be the problem.
- dav43 11y ago
  damn corporates.

ljk 11y ago

wow such a great game! 16 on first try thought it was gonna be easy, then noticed the timer on the top when the screen was about halfway full, definitely added another layer of excitement to the game edit: 18 on 2nd try... can't stop playing! ahem.. is there a way to disable the timer? edit: frustrating but addicting... 19 http://i.imgur.com/KW0i0rN.png http://i.imgur.com/KW0i0rN.png

ljk 11y ago
finally 20x2! http://i.imgur.com/ynyWqyM.png http://i.imgur.com/ynyWqyM.png looks like it's best to keep the numbers as high as possible so it's easier to combine the blocks

hardmath123 11y ago

Bug report—maybe? If you have multiple rows of tiles, you can't drag a tile from a lower row to the game area. It bumps into a tile in a higher row and refuses to move. You need to first move the ones in the higher row to move the tile in the lower row.

arthurcolle 11y ago
Pretty sure that's not a bug

codemonkeychris 11y ago

Awesome fun, touch works great...

overgard 11y ago

This is fun, good job

dapatil 11y ago

Fantastic job guys! This is addictive.

codybits 11y ago

I was wondering how a quick random player might fare so I made a simple one. Paste this into your inspector console (or in chrome type "javascript:" into the URL bar and paste it): function countPieces(){it=b.pieces();for(var e=0;it.current();)e++,it.next();return e}function getRandPiece(){for(var e=b.pieces(),t=Math.floor(Math.random()*countPieces()),n=0;t>n;n++)e.next();return e.current()}function stackRandPiece(){if(!b.isBusy()){if(b.isGameOver())return void clearInterval(randInterval);var e=getRandPiece();b.setTarget({x:e.pos.x+100,y:1500}),b.grab(e),window.setTimeout(function(){b.setTarget({x:200*Math.floor(7*Math.random())+100,y:1500}),window.setTimeout(function(){b.release()},15)},15)}}randInterval=window.setInterval(stackRandPiece,40); Original code here: https://gist.github.com/CodyWalker/842149b82ed363659678 https://gist.github.com/CodyWalker/842149b82ed363659678 The highest I've seen it manage is 17.

GolfyMcG 11y ago
If it wasn't so late I might get into it but I think this could be dramatically improved by just detecting whether a piece is currently underneath another piece. Assuming you can eliminate those as possible choices for the random select process, you would avoid the issue of iterating through a bunch of pieces that can't even be moved during the late game!
- codybits 11y ago
  Yeah, that would probably help a lot. It is pretty dumb in its current state. That said, sometimes it can join matching tiles that are next to each other in the bottom of the pile, so that can still be useful. Maybe I'll work on it some later...
sossles 11y ago
That's very cool. I never imagined I'd see a bot playing Twenty.
bottled_poe 11y ago
This is pretty great - it scored 16 for me on the first go which is higher than my own first attempt of 14. This script also highlights my main issue with the game. It feels like the rules are not strict enough for this style of game. The real-time nature of the physics combined with the concurrent actions taken by the user results in quite loose game mechanics.

cpolis 11y ago

I loved Threes, 2048 and this is just as great - thanks! However, one thing that I dislike about this game(and something that could be changed in the next version or permutation) is that gameplay is TIME based instead of TURN based. It makes the game less about strategy and more about being quick with your mouse. It also makes the game less appealing as a background task and something to stop and come back to; ie something to do while waiting for something to cook or during television commercials.

GolfyMcG 11y ago
Couldn't agree more. I would also add that it's very unappealing due to the fact that I have to use a mouse/track pad at all, though clearly this was made with touch screens in mind. You add that I have to be quick about it too and I find myself struggling to remain interested.
- omegant 11y ago
  It works perfectly in my Iphone.
gridspy 11y ago
Exactly. I play a game like this to relax. This game is stressful due to the timer aspect, while I love 2048 I will never play this game again. I loved it until the timer was introduced. I got to 15.
vacri 11y ago
The timer is the game. It's about making matches quickly, and the game would be far too easy if you got rid of the timer. You'd have to make other changes to the format instead, to make up for the lack of timer. Quarter the number of rows perhaps? but then that leaves you at the mercy of the RNG, and it sucks when you lose a game because the RNG dealt you an impossible game.
sjtrny 11y ago
That would make it far too easy.

cperciva 11y ago

Suggestion: Mark tiles at the bottom of the screen as being "attached" to other tiles before said other tiles come onto the screen. It's very annoying when I see a useful tile which is not attached to anything and I reach over to grab it, only to have it become attached to something in the mean time. (Especially if that tile was one I created by merging two other tiles together and so its attachment to anything else should have been broken.)

pcurve 11y ago

oh great... just when I cracked 4096... 17. I can sleep in peace now.

z3t4 11y ago

Great work! This game is good as it is, but you could try having cars/space-ships/gems or whatever instead of numbers, to give you more freedom for experimenting and maybe change the order so that there will be more fall-though. People totally love when much happens with little input. If the game where to improve, I would say you need to increase the output vs input, making more stuff happen, faster and easier.

forrestthewoods 11y ago

I'm super impressed with how well the web version works on iOS. Touch stuff like this almost never works or is garbage on mobile web. Very well done.

sossles 11y ago
I'm chuffed to hear you say that because it was certainly a battle to get it to work.

OmarIsmail 11y ago

Fantastic game! It really shines on mobile and you've done a phenomenal job of making sure the block sticks with your finger even with aggressive moves. One usability improvement would be to maintain the "hold" state after a block combines. So if I'm holding a 3 and bring that to another 3 all while keeping my finger held down and then continue to move my finger somewhere else I don't take the new 4 block with me. I have to raise my thumb and do a new tab and swipe. If I can just keep my thumb down then it makes the game more fluid and you can get some nice chaining/combos going. Also, if you do put in a leaderboard system then you should definitely involve time, and have the timer running when the game is in "paused" state (not background, but pressing the "pause" button deliberately). I've been "cheating" by pausing to collect my thoughts and plan out my moves. Seriously, a great game - kudos and hope it's a big success for you. That moment when you hit 20 and then the "twist" I just got a huge smile on my face :)

S4M 11y ago

It's quite fun and addictive. Slight bug: my laptop screen is a bit too small, so I can't see the time bar. Good job!

pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Same for me on a 1024x768 screen. I don't know but there might be a memory leak too - seems to be lagging my (already slow) system.
S4M 11y ago
One more thing: I showed that game to my 4 years old son (on the tablet), and he quite likes it!

napolux 11y ago

And clones will arrive on the store in 3, 2, 1...

oneeyedpigeon 11y ago

Love it, but the app requires access to 'Photos/Media/Files' - there's no way I'm prepared to give such access permissions to a game.

towelguy 11y ago
This. Why would it need access to my files?
- sossles 11y ago
  All it does is save a screenshot so it can be shared, but unfortunately that needs to be saved to external storage (as I understand it).

viraptor 11y ago

This is really well designed, smooth and intuitive. A lot of fun. I can see that a lot of attention was given to the details. I'll be addicted for a while... (the best strategy I found so far is to use move everything into 3 columns (left, centre, right) as soon as new pieces arrive, only then start merging... top score of 18 at the moment)

icoder 11y ago
I finally got to twenty when I switched to a >10 left, <10 right strategy. Could have been coincidence, could have been the strategy. It's time to get some work done so I'm not gonna figure that out :)

Vilkku 11y ago

I was unable to get it to work in Firefox or Chrome (even tried disabling extensions on both), but it seems to work okay in IE. I was unsure if it was even meant to be played with a mouse at first.

Crystalin 11y ago
Same here. There is no animation request so the game is not refreshing and so not playable :(
- sossles 11y ago
  Try the app? It's free anyway.

hyperpallium 11y ago

good game! hope you get valuable feedback and make a mint. 17. because of later pieces joining together in 3's, it seems it might be impossible to reach 20? (do you ensure there's a soln?) (android version) i found the touch becoming unresponsive on the edges, in later stages. pr because i'm getting frantic, and using a crappy phone. but if this could be improved (eg larger hit area on the edges - or zoom to cover whole screen), it would be worth it. apart from the feeling of frustration, the gameplay problem is you lose much time repeating the movement x2 or x3 times, which is crucial to avoid locking joined pieces and large surface area towards the end. PS would be better if it didn't require any permissions at al. it just seems to be storing twenty.jpg - necessary. also "throwing" blocks with momentum as another comment said would be cool, and wouldn't undermine gameplay.

sossles 11y ago
I'm not sure what the issue with touch at the edges might be - perhaps it thinks you're making an System-level gesture? I didn't get what the other comment meant by throwing, but it just clicked when you said it. Thanks for the idea, I'll look into it.

amelius 11y ago

I'm wondering why playing this game doesn't feel like work.

vladharbuz 11y ago

I understand how people can find this fun, but not how they can find it "just as good" as Threes!. The graphics are a blatant ripoff, albeit of a lower quality, and the game mechanic is simply way less inventive. Threes! had attention to detail — in the mechanics, in the visuals, and especially in the music. These ripoffs have none of that. I can't help but wonder whether we are promoting the tradition of cheap, carelessly made mobile games as opposed to the finely-crafted products. This is why many developers have started to steer clear of the mobile market. (I don't mean to ruin everyone's fun, just commenting on the larger scheme of things)

rl3 11y ago
For starters, Twenty is free and I can play it in the browser on my desktop. Its graphics are, in my opinion, better than Threes!. Why that should matter though is beyond me, since the gameplay is quite different. I also fail to see why elegant simplicity is somehow a bad thing in this case. Maybe you're new here, but games featured on Show HN are usually side projects and don't necessarily have studio-level production values.
Grue3 11y ago
This is sarcasm, right? The gameplay isn't anything like Threes, and you are reusing their whiny blogpost about 2048 almost word for word.

daemonk 11y ago

Great game. I like the incremental discoveries of new obstacles (linked blocks for example) or new mechanisms (lateral movement to combine numbers).

ianstallings 11y ago

Wow that's insidiously addictive. Good job!

DanBC 11y ago

I freaking love this. I'm pretty bad at it. I especially like the fact that I can play the game on the website and then have an iAP to give you some money. So I paid the iAP.

sossles 11y ago
Thanks, appreciated.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

DreamPlotter 11y ago

Fun game, got to 20 x2 :)

MichaelCrawford 11y ago

(I haven't read TFA but I gather it has to do with javascript.) Javascript is wildly popular these days, many make the reasonable claim that it is the world's most-popular programming language. Lots of people say it's so much fun. I first learned a very modest bit of javascript a few years ago, I learn more when I need it, more recently I got about halfway through O'Reilly's "Learning Javascript" but am now stopped dead because I regard it as so tedious and dull. Mind you I am not by any means a language zealot. If you enjoy javascript then more power to you. But I myself would rather chew my own foot off than actually get paid to write javascript code. Unfortunately I am concerned I may not have much choice. Is there way you can convince me that javascript can actually be fun and interesting to me? What I regard as fun is sweating over how to reduce cache misses in my iOS conway's game of life implementation, Warp Life. I once write an AES hard drive encryptor that ran entirely onboard the Oxford OXFW911 Firewire/IDE bridge chip. It had a 49 MHz ARM7TDMI CPU, 64 kB of 16-bit flash with a five-cycle read time, and 1800 bytes of 32-bit ram with a one cycle read time. FireWire Encrypt was a tough project but I had a grand old time working on it. My gripe with javascript is that it is simply not possible for me to use it to solve the problems that interest me.

mpermar 11y ago

Congrats. You're going to be famous. 5* on app store.

bane 11y ago

This apparently taps some kind of cleaning up OCD button I didn't know I had. I kept shouting "stop moving up!" as I approached 12, then 13 and so on. Way more hooked on this than 2048.

lamosty 11y ago

16 points guys :)

fiatjaf 11y ago

I don't get, it seems everybody does the same thing, the only thing that can be done. Where is the strategy?

jhonnycano 11y ago

First 2048, now this!!!! nooooooooooo

serve_yay 11y ago

This game is SO good. Great job.

conradfr 11y ago

Cool game. Somehow I got to 19 and 20 on my first couple of try with a mouse but I'm stuck at 17 on mobile. Does anybody remembers Crack attack ? Still the best in my opinion. http://www.aluminumangel.org/attack/ http://www.aluminumangel.org/attack/

johlindenbaum 11y ago

Pause button? Please!

silentfish 11y ago

Obligatory "Why didn't I think of that!" Cool game!

Michie 11y ago

For android, change the color of the yellow for number four, five, eight. I cannot see it well. Either make the number fonts darker (contrast the light color with dark colored fonts so it will be more visible) or change the color to something darker like blue, violet or orange. Nice game.