Show HN: My first iOS app, a modern MUD client for iPhone and iPad

[novum]

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. Fortunately a friendly MUDRammer[0] appears to lend aid! http://appstore.com/mudrammeramodernmudclient

MUDs are online multiplayer text-based games. There are thousands, set in fantasy, medieval, Sci-Fi, absurdist, and many other worlds.

MUDRammer is a modern MUD client focused on speed, readability, and flexibility. It stays connected in the background[1], syncs your settings with iCloud[2], has themes and font size control, plus Triggers, Aliases, Gags, and more! More about MUDRammer: http://splinesoft.net/

MUDRammer is on sale through February 15 for only $1.99 (or your local equivalent).

Behold, iTunes redemption codes!

  7HMHALPHA3TP
  EE69KAF4HNK4
  FHYW7K9TJYEX
  L3AN74H7PRTF
  LF3T3MNRAX7K

[0] The name "MUDRammer" is an alias of one of my more enthusiastic Dutch mudder acquaintances.

[1] Up to a murky iOS maximum duration for background connections. I post a local notification after 8 minutes in the background assuming the limit is ~10 minutes, but I've also seen background sessions restored successfully after 6+ hours idle.

[2] Syncs only key-value preferences. I couldn't get iCloud sync to work reliably with Core Data.

[novum]

Clickable:

http://appstore.com/mudrammeramodernmudclient

http://splinesoft.net/

I'm hard at work on 1.0.1. I'd like to do gesture-based movement (e.g. diagonal swipe up and left to go northwest) in a manner that doesn't interfere with scrolling. It's interesting how terminal-style apps straddle the line between keyboard and touch input.

Thanks for looking, HN.

[tagabek → novum]

It looks like you've found a niche that works for you. I would be really interested in seeing a follow up blog post on the statistics (downloads, sales, usage metrics) of MUDRammer.

Used FHYW7K9TJYEX.

[rszrama]

Works great! Went ahead and bought it for some MUDding I've been into lately. Turns out I already play AU on the list, too. How 'bout that! : )

[novum → rszrama]

Thanks! I wanted to include some of the more popular MUDs, but not so many as to be overwhelming for newbies. 1.0.1 is already with Apple and I've got some really exciting gesture-based movement coming up in 1.1. Reviews are always appreciated - in 1.0.1 I removed the review nag-dialog. :)

[rszrama → novum]

Gesture-based movement would be very interesting. Using the app also got me to thinking about common interactions using links - i.e. click a monster's name to attack it, an item's name to pick it up, etc. That could take some doing, though - how could the client distinguish between an object vs. mob, for example.

Might be interesting to be able to hide room descriptions and tap to expand them somehow. I don't typically use them in-game anyways, and on the app it's even more in the way.