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

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

#31

Post by kranner »

avalaunch wrote: post #28
kranner wrote: post #26

There seems to be a problem with the 'unlimited' mode. See https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png If you can look at the left-most column, you'll see that the game ended because that column overflowed; however, no 3-block of the same colour was available in that column and its neighbour (and so forth), so eventually I had no possibility of being able to reduce that column and save the game. I'd consid…

Some tweaking could definitely be done, especially on unlimited. That being said, there shouldn't always be a 3-block combo to clear. If there were, the game would be too easy and would likely go on forever. Instead, the challenge is to be patient and think ahead. Ex. If I clear these 3 blocks now, how will it line up the others? Will it create more clearable blocks or less? But even when you think ahead and play as…

I hadn't thought of that: perhaps I'd cleared blocks before that I could have used for the left columns later.

How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?

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

#32

Post by avalaunch »

kranner wrote: post #31
avalaunch wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some tweaking could definitely be done, especially on unlimited. That being said, there shouldn't always be a 3-block combo to clear. If there were, the game would be too easy and would likely go on forever. Instead, the challenge is to be patient and think ahead. Ex. If I clear these 3 blocks now, how will it line up the others? Will it create more clearable blocks or less? But even when you think ahead and play as…

I hadn't thought of that: perhaps I'd cleared blocks before that I could have used for the left columns later. How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?

Yeah, but that might change in the future.

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

#33

Post by flexxaeon »

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

Two hours later, and officially being hooked on Trifecta, I had to come back to at least upvote. Glad I read the story this time. Thank you for sharing and thanks for the game!

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

#34

Post by avalaunch »

flexxaeon wrote: post #33

I didn't read the story at first (tl;dr) I just scrolled down to the bottom to see what the game looked like. Blocks game , so I rushed to try it out. Two hours later, and officially being hooked on Trifecta, I had to come back to at least upvote. Glad I read the story this time. Thank you for sharing and thanks for the game!

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it.

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

#36

Post by weisser »

avalaunch wrote: post #29
weisser wrote: post #25

I really enjoy this game. I love a new take on the classic block game. Lumines is a personal favorite. There is no music in this game and that would be fine if you could listen to iTunes or Spotify while playing it but that currently doesn't seem to work. Any plans on adding this feature? The gameplay does not need to "sync" to the music in any way, it's just that I would love to be able to listen to music in the bac…

Thank you, and yeah, I think music of some sort will be added in the future. I don't know if we'll add in our own tracks, allow you to select from your own library, or both. But we will almost certainly add music sometime in the near future.

I think it's much harder to make music that will appeal to everyone that plays the game. If you get the music wrong it can be a detriment instead of a positive so that's why I suggest allowing players to use iTunes/Spotify.

If you do want to have your own music I have a good friend who specializes in audio for interactive media. He mostly works on games and would probably be very interested in this project. My email is in my profile if you'd like to discuss this more.

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

#37

Post by avalaunch »

ScottWhigham wrote: post #35

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

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

Going forward, we have two choices: we can still change the game's name or we can do a hard marketing push to get our game to be the first result for Trifecta. So far the latter has been our game plan. When Trifecta Blocks Challenge first launched, it was 14/14 for the term Trifecta. It's now 6/14 so it's definitely on the rise.

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

#38

Post by avalaunch »

weisser wrote: post #36
avalaunch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, and yeah, I think music of some sort will be added in the future. I don't know if we'll add in our own tracks, allow you to select from your own library, or both. But we will almost certainly add music sometime in the near future.

I think it's much harder to make music that will appeal to everyone that plays the game. If you get the music wrong it can be a detriment instead of a positive so that's why I suggest allowing players to use iTunes/Spotify. If you do want to have your own music I have a good friend who specializes in audio for interactive media. He mostly works on games and would probably be very interested in this project. My email…

I'll talk to Ran and see how she wants to proceed regarding music. That ties in closely with design which was more her than me.
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