

Please review Numbrosia puzzle iPhone/iPod touch app (it is free for a limited time) - amichail

Not sure what I can improve:<p>http://www.numbrosia.com<p>http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312424712&#38;mt=8&#38;uo=6
======
mtinkerhess
A few points:

I'm trying to play this on my iPod without wifi. Touching "Puzzles" from the
main menu left the application hanging on "Syncing with server..." -- I have
to quit the app, start over and figure out to disable server sync.

Then, when I go to "Puzzles" only one shows up -- is this because more need to
be downloaded from the server?

I tried playing the puzzle before going through the tutorial. I managed to
figure out the controls through trial and error, but the incrementing and
decrementing by performing consecutive taps in a particular direction is
awkward / unintuitive. No simpler control scheme jumps to mind though.

When I complete the puzzle the options are "Try Again" and "Scorecard". I
don't want either of those -- what I want is "Next puzzle".

It's hard to tell from playing only one level, but the emphasis on achieving a
high score seems a little misguided -- IMHO the process of solving a puzzle
for the first time should be the "meat" of the game -- beating a high score
should be extra value / replay value.

Brainstorming: Because the moves are all reversible, it seems like it would be
trivial to procedurally generate an unlimited number of levels of gradually
increasing difficulty -- start with a blank slate of zeroes and transform the
level from there by a certain number of moves (like a Rubick's Cube).

In any case the levels should come built into the app -- I'm left wondering
why there seems to be only level available. If I had paid money for this app I
would be disappointed for that reason alone.

At this point I'm not sure the best way to spend your time is by improving
this app -- maybe take what you've learned from this and apply it to your next
project.

My advice would be to focus on simplicity of user interface -- that means
controls as well as game logic. One of the pitfalls of my first app
(<http://www.itrioapp.com>) was that for people who weren't already familiar
with the game Set they had to figure out the game based on the examples I gave
them, which didn't seem too hard for me but ended up being an impediment for a
lot of people.

All else being equal the iPhone is a casual platform, so people expect a very
shallow learning curve and immediate satisfaction -- ideally you should be
able to stick the first level in front of any idiot and have them enjoy the
game right away. The upside is you don't have to provide an engaging
experience that lasts for terribly long -- 5 or 10 minutes is generally fine.

Hope this didn't come across as terribly critical -- I do like some of the
things you've done with dialog boxes, animations etc., but it sounds like
you're asking for constructive criticism.

~~~
amichail
It comes with 1000 puzzles even if you don't have an internet connection. (In
fact, it even comes with a snapshot of the world records.) It should not hang
on the sync. Which OS version are you using? Which ipod touch model?

As for why there is no "Next Puzzle", this is intentionally done so that you
would look frequently at your scores. Solving lots of puzzles is easy. That's
not where the challenge lies.

~~~
mtinkerhess
I'm on the 2nd generation Touch with OS 2.2. Here's what I think the problem
was: I was on wifi shortly before I tried out Numbrosia so my iPod thought it
was online. I can reproduce this at home by turning off my wifi. It goes to
the "Syncing with server..." screen for a full minute before deciding it's
timed out, during which time it's non-responsive. I didn't let it go for the
full minute before; I assumed it was hanging. I would have preferred that the
app was responsive during that time -- touching would being up a "Cancel"
option or something.

I've also figured out that "Solve new puzzle" on the high scores menu is a
button. In retrospect that should have been obvious but at the time my
attention was focused on the "Tap row to redo puzzle" instruction -- I
expected a list of levels to choose from. I guess you can write that one off
to user error.

I've played through a few more levels. The controls, which were awkward at
first, are becoming more intuitive. You're right, solving lots of puzzles is
easy once you get the hang of it, and the challenge lies in trying to match
the world record score. My preference would be that the levels get more
difficult to complete as you progress. I'm just brainstorming here -- maybe
the player could only have a certain number of moves to complete the level in?
That's kind of what it boils down to anyway, trying to match the world record.
Aside from that I don't know how much more difficult the levels can get
without changing something fundamental to the game mechanics.

I'd say the game looks complete and polished as it is. The puzzle space is a
crowded one where users are hesitant to learn a new set of rules unless they
know it's going to pay off with rewarding gameplay -- and they often won't
know the gameplay will be rewarding until they've tried the game. What I've
been trying to do myself is to produce app after app rather than work on
revising an app after it's out -- I've found I improve the quality of my
output more rapidly by starting new projects from scratch rather than
improving on already-finished projects. I look forward to seeing what you do
next!

