

Show HN: My first iPhone game – after 18 months of work - benolds
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/got-light/id900957568?mt=8

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pistoriusp
I see that it's published by "www.makegameswith.us," so I'm presuming that you
participated in the course?

Do you share revenue with them? If so is the course discounted if you choose
to do so?

Or do you assume some level of revenue share and general publicity?

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benolds
I developed the prototype of this game at MIT in January 2013, where
MakeGamesWithUs was helping to teach a one month course / competition on iOS
game development. After the course, they offered for me to publish the game
with them in exchange for revenue sharing. It's come full circle, because now
I'm working for MakeGamesWithUs as an instructor for their summer academy
course. The course isn't discounted if you choose to publish with them, but
they can provide their SDK, art, design advice, and help with publicity.

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brianchu
Awesome. I remember giving you a coin for my vote at the MIT demo day 1.5
years ago, and was pretty disappointed when I didn't see it released
afterwards. Really happy to see it now!

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benolds
Wow, it means a lot to me that you still remember the game from back then -
thanks! :)

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prawn
I'm not 100% on the art/polish, but I really like the idea; I think it's good
enough to warrant a bit more attention on the design side.

Very cool concept and I can imagine kids and adults alike being able to get
something from it. Going to download it now. Best of luck with it!

Update: Downloaded and played it. Definitely needs polish but the basic
mechanics are good. With a bit more gamification of the progress through
levels, I could see this being an excellent little game for a kid especially.

Red and green making yellow might confuse children though whose mixing
experience with paints would have them expect brown?

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benolds
Thanks for all the feedback and advice! I do appreciate everything everyone
has to say about the game, and plan on incorporating ideas in a future update.
I've given the color mixing a lot of thought, and I agree it can be
unintuitive the first time you encounter it, but I think the additive color
model is core to the gameplay. Perhaps my nerdy love of science is misleading
me from what the average player would enjoy, but I'm trying to simulate the
way light really does mix - because, well, it's a game about light. Perhaps I
could add the option to play with a more traditional color mixing scheme?

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prawn
I think keep it as is, but use it as an opportunity to explain the difference,
perhaps? I imagine this would be great for scientifically-minded kids to learn
from.

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benolds
I actually do explain the difference if you explore deep enough into the app
(maybe it's too difficult to find) - if you click on the color reference
button in the gameplay so that the color palette pops up, there's a button at
the bottom called "Learn more about colors" that brings you to a multi-page
explanation on the additive vs subtractive color models.

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dangero
Kind of off topic, but that award wreath you put on the screenshot does
wonders for sales from what I've seen. It's instant credibility almost
regardless of what the award was.

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asperous
Movie marketers agree:

(Not satire)

[http://elipunto.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/her-
poster.jpg](http://elipunto.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/her-poster.jpg)

~~~
gkoberger
To be fair, that was intentional – the juxtaposition of all the accolades
makes the main character seem extra alone and sad.

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_random_
Great game, just releasing something is already a great achievement. But why
planets in space and not magic orbs in a dungeon? I expect some orbital
movement and gravitational pull :).

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m3mnoch
personally, i think this is a good call on his part. abstract planets are more
"casual friendly" than magic in a dungeon. especially as a guy who's seen
first-hand several neat games with sword and sorcery theming meet grisley,
limited-market death by attrition.

~~~
dm2
Agreed. IMO:

Dungeons, trolls, wizards, magic: No thanks.

Planets, space, advanced technologies: Awesome!

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vermooten
Great, very nice idea. You should be proud and not pay much attention to the
negative vibes that some people are putting out. They have their own issues to
deal with.

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benolds
Thank you! Before I released the game I started prepping myself for the
inevitable negative reactions, but it can be hard not to take things
personally. I appreciate your kind words :)

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vermooten
It's a very interesting concept too, I haven't played anything like it before.

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chasing
Very similar to Illume, which came out last year and was recently showcased at
Sonar+D:
[http://sonar.es/en/2014/prg/sm/illume_164](http://sonar.es/en/2014/prg/sm/illume_164)

Was that an inspiration?

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benolds
No, it seems that Illume was released on Oct 22, 2013, more than ten months
after I started development of my game. For reference, my game had already won
a competition at MIT in February 2013; I wasn't aware of Illume until now.

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fataliss
While the concept and dynamics are looking pretty great so far, I really have
a hard time with the design/art! Like the level selection screen design looks
really "amateur". White halo with cyan lines in between is probably the worst
part for me :P

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arodceo
Did you learn iOS at college? Was it your first programming language you
learned? I like concept of the game (downloaded it). Pretty good for your
first game (even though it took 1.5 yrs).

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benolds
Thanks! I taught myself to code in high school, mostly by messing around with
little Flash game experiments with Actionscript. In my senior year of high
school I taught myself Objective-C and built an iPad app for a summer
internship ([https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/north-star-smart-stars-
surve...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/north-star-smart-stars-
survey/id553016515?mt=8)). I didn't learn iOS _game_ programming specifically
until college, where I participated in a one-month class/competition that
taught the Cocos2d game engine.

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arodceo
That's awesome. Is there an email I could reach you at? Any tips for beginner?
I'm very interested in learning ios.

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orta
I played this till level 20, enjoyed it. Tried to buy it but the app crashes
when you hit the buy button on iOS8 betas.

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benolds
uh oh! Thanks for letting me know - I wasn't able to test it on iOS8 - I'll
check it out and try to fix it ASAP.

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chrisBob
Don't worry too much. The beta releases often contain bugs themselves, and
there is a good chance it is not a problem with your app. If you have a chance
to test it then you should, but bugs in a beta often get cleaned up by apple
with no changes required on your part.

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benolds
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks :)

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graedus
Nicely done! Good idea and execution, congrats.

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benolds
Thank you! That means a lot :)

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funkyy
18 months is kind a long. As a game developer I suggest you jumping on some
easier platform like GameMaker or Construct 2 and just learn from vast
tutorials available.

The game is very nice and I like the gameplay - it is engaging. Good luck with
sales!

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benolds
Thanks for the feedback! I agree 18 months is a very long time to be working
on a project. A lot of the time was spent on level design, and I did learn so
very much while developing it that I think it was worth the time put into it,
even if sales don't turn out to be great. Next time I make a game it should go
much, much more smoothly, though :)

