
Show HN: 6 months ago I quit my job to pursue indie dev. Here is our first game - seanalltogether
http://www.playadrift.com
======
ronyeh
Welcome to the App Store! I'm very impressed with what you guys have done in 6
months; it took me much longer to ship my first app.

Here's a little bit of feedback:

\+ The graphics are super polished. Great work!

\+ The touch interaction could use some work. Sometimes, I drag and I feel it
colors squares that I don't want to color. Or it colors squares that I've
successfully colored already, and it's not clear how I can backtrack. Take a
look at path drawing games like Scramble with Friends to see how they handle
backtracking.

\+ I understand that advertisements are ugly and you want to keep your game
very slick and polished, but... you are leaving a lot of money on the table. I
would make your app a Universal Binary (add iPad support) and then throw an
iAds/AdMob banner ad at the bottom of the screen. Then, make it very clear
that if the user buys an IAP, that you'll remove ads forever. You can keep
your iPhone version ad-free.

\+ Why isn't your app just called "Adrift"? Was it taken already? "Adrift by
Tack" looks a little clumsy, or err... tacky.

\+ From appstorerankings.net, it looks like your keywords are "3d cube connect
center adrift by tack". Center comes from Game Center, and Adrift by Tack
comes from your title. So it looks like you don't use many keywords. As a new
app on the store, I'd add more keywords like: puzzle, flow, board, etc. And
try to find more unique ones where you might rank highly.

\+ Good luck working the press! You've already done a great job with HN. :-)

Email me at {my_user_name}@gmail if you want to chat.

~~~
ronyeh
Additionally: Since you already have a web-playable version of the game, you
should have a feature where a user can share a puzzle with a friend.

Once they complete a challenging puzzle, say something like "Congrats. You
demolished that puzzle! Want to share this with a friend?" Then when they hit
the FB/TW share icon, you can share the same exact puzzle
(<http://playadrift.com/?puzzle=3653>) as a link. This will improve your
virality.

Also, what toolkit did you use to write the iOS game? cocos2d? Or is there
some magical toolkit that allows you to render out an HTML version of your app
too???!!

~~~
seanalltogether
Thanks for all the feedback, it's all really good advice, We've gone back and
forth on the ad thing and we're still not sold on whether to integrate them or
not. The game was written in cocos2d, and I wrote the initial prototype in
html5, so thats whats being used on the website. Also yeah "Adrift" was taken
as an app store entry, so we had to figure out something else for the title, I
agree its a bit clunky.

~~~
ronyeh
Yeah, I didn't include ads for my first year either. Now, my model going
forward will always be: Free + iAds/AdMob + IAP to get more content and remove
the ads.

There are people who can never pay you (kids whose parents have disabled IAP).
There are people who would have been happy to pay you after 20 levels, but got
distracted by a new SuperCell game and never came back to your game. You want
to monetize every user, even if it's for 1 cent. Or if you don't monetize
them, you want them to tell their friends about your app, to improve your app
virality.

I understand if you don't want to bombard your users with IAP and ads, but
monetization is truly important. It allows your company to survive. Without
it, you might have to go get a job someday, and this will prevent us all from
enjoying your awesome games.

Also, it's not clear that there are more level packs if you swipe
horizontally. Maybe if you add the three little dots (page indicators) at the
bottom? Or maybe arrows that you can tap to change the page? I know this all
looks ugly, but sometimes you have to be explicit. There are lots of users who
need a bit of guidance to navigate your app.

~~~
pcl
_Also, it's not clear that there are more level packs if you swipe
horizontally. Maybe if you add the three little dots (page indicators) at the
bottom? Or maybe arrows that you can tap to change the page? I know this all
looks ugly, but sometimes you have to be explicit. There are lots of users who
need a bit of guidance to navigate your app._

I had a hard time figuring this out too.

------
seanalltogether
I wanted to share this with you guys because it's taken around 3 years of
reading HN to really convince myself to quit my job and build my a business
with my friends

~~~
damoncali
You should charge for it.

~~~
exch
He/she probably can't. The concept is not new. Here's a flash version of the
same game. it is a few years old.

[1]: <http://www.addictinggames.com/puzzle-games/3dlogic2.jsp>

~~~
alanctgardner2
Who says you need completely novel gameplay mechanics to charge money for an
app? Surely more polish, hand-built levels and an app are sufficient. Whether
OP would make more on ads or IAP remains to be seen, though. An IAP to get
more levels would be a good way to hook users.

~~~
ruswick
The overwhelming majority of app users would not pay a cent for any app, much
less a game.

Free sells.

------
kanamekun
I love this game!! Once I got past the second level, I really got the hang of
it and loved the mental challenge of solving levels.

One thought: I'd consider making the first few levels much easier. This
article on Yoyodyne's trivia games is along those lines:

"As Yoyodyne got busier, we had less and less time to write each game's
questions. Finally, one day, we launched a game that had very little effort
put into the questions - a rush job, as I recall. The questions were factually
correct, but there was no witty writing, no twist, and the questions were
really easy to answer.

When the game ran, we were surprised to see that the response rate, instead of
hovering around 30%, actually exceeded 60%. We had put less work into crafting
the experience, and there were more players who wanted to participate. ...
[u]sers wanted two things from their e-mail game experience:

1\. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: Users wanted to be told that they got the answer
right, and that they were winning.

2\. NO INVESTMENT: Users did not want to pay for that positive reinforcement
in any way. They didn't want to think, work, get up from their chair, or
otherwise make any effort to get the reward."

<http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/04/0513.slots.html>

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I realized this when I played the currently popular 4 pics 1 word game. I was
expecting clever lateral thinking using homonyms. Instead I got 4 blue
pictures and the word is blue. But it pops up a U DID IT screen and gives you
fake money, with the option to purchase more fake money from the app
developer.

People ultimately want just enough veneer on their games that they can pretend
it isn't just a big _you win_ button that showers them in confetti.

------
HyprMusic
Great work. The fact you can play it straight away on the website is great,
I'm not really a games player but I quickly got hooked.

Out of interest, do you make the levels by hand, or do you have a script to
generate them? Would be interesting to know the rules for a valid level
against an impossible level.

~~~
seanalltogether
We made the levels by hand, writing a script to generate and validate levels
is still an interesting math problem I would love to tackle if i had the time,
its just very difficult from the limited attempt I made.

~~~
sbochins
I really like your landing page. Do you know of any other game devs that have
a playable demo on their landing page or did you come up with the idea
yourself?

~~~
seanalltogether
Honestly, it was just because I built the initial prototype in html5 and the
level builder is also html based, since the effort to make a simple 10 level
demo was so low we decided to throw it in.

------
BoppreH
The puzzle is identical to 3D Logic:
[http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stron...](http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-
of-sage)

Are you sure this won't be a problem?

Edit:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332485>

    
    
      Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played
      about 10 years ago and felt it would be perfect for
      touch interaction.
    

If you played it 10 years ago, it seems like a reasonable idea to clone it,
but the fact that the old devs have been active may prove itself to be an
issue.

~~~
seanalltogether
The game I was referring to is hyperframe and has been available at least
since 2002. <http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/hyperframe.jsp>, I don't
know which one came first, but I can't imagine it will be a problem since we
built our own unique levels.

------
VonGuard
Hey guys, thought I'd throw in my 2-cents as an Independent Games Festival
judge, and as press.

First of all, your presentation is terrific. Great art and sound. Top notch,
feels like it came from a very talented team. With this game on your resume,
you've got a great future ahead of yourselves.

Now, the bad part: from a gameplay perspective, your game is not unique enough
to win out on its own merits in any app store. If you have any money left,
spend that cash on those awful, dark-alley fake review and promotion services.
Take all of Ronyeh's advice, it's excellent, but you can't stop there. To
succeed today in the app stores, you have to cheat, so go buy some reviews and
downloads so you can raise your ranking in the store. It's a self-fulfilling
cycle: higher rankings, more sales.

There is an awful lot to be said for this being a complete game with a
pleasing experience, but there are already a dozen games with similar gameplay
in the AppStore. though yours may be the most polished, sales of games in
AppStores are less about quality and more about cheating to get more sales, or
having a juggernaut that's already on top, like Angry Birds.

That being said, this is a perfect game to hang such cheating tactics around:
it looks the part and sounds the part of a successful game, and it doesn't go
the easy route of copying Angry Birds in every single interface window.
Compare that to, say, Hill Climb Racing, a top ten app store game that looks
awful and is infested with spyware.

But I think the best advice I can give you is to add some sort of meta-layer
to your game. The fundamental gameplay is interesting and often challenging in
the right ways, but there's no uniqueness factor. Perhaps adding some type of
incremental reward for the puzzles. Completing a puzzle without reset gets you
some form of currency, which can then be spent on customizing your hot air
balloon, or on some form on in-game assistance. Think Dungeon Raid. Most
mobile game companies just implement the puzzle and are done with it. The real
stand out games take those simple puzzle interfaces and layer complex game
elements triggered by successes and failures in the puzzle game.

Keep up the good work. You're obviously talented. You'll make money at this,
but you can't rely solely on the press and the quality of your game. You have
to game the app stores to succeed.

Oh, and when it comes to press, I really don't have any good advice. Try to
find some small outlets to work with because the big guys will ignore you, and
do so in a mean and churlish way. It's sad to say, but the gaming press these
days are mostly retarded monkeys with no idea what it actually takes to make a
game. Yer not going to get to the front page of IGN, so don't waste time
trying. Find some small app store review sites no one has ever heard of and be
nice to them. They'll give you a bigger bang for your buck.

~~~
phil
This is disturbingly cynical advice. If you stand by it, why not attach your
real name to it? If not, why put it in public?

And by the way, you're recommending buying fake reviews. Here's a better
tactic (and one that's guaranteed not to get you kicked out of the app store):
get your launch announcement to the top slot on a popular discussion site, and
get the real people there to leave real reviews instead. Which, if you're
reading this and want to help these guys, is probably the best thing you can
do.

~~~
VonGuard
Hey, look at the top ten apps on both app stores, then come back here and try
not to be cynical about anyone's chanced of succeeding there. I've seen
numbers on sales in the app stores. If yer not in the top 25, you might as
well not even be in the app store, from a meaningful revenue perspective.
There are very few exceptions, as far as I know. One possible one would be any
app that's $20. Those probably make money, despite low sales numbers.

It's entirely possible to succeed using only honest, community focused
methods. But yer competing with a huge pack of other guys who don't use those
methods, and have a significant advantage because of it. This isn't hugs and
puppies. This is business.

~~~
phil
I have for years. Believe me, the idea that the app store is a positive
feedback loop and you have to clear the inital hurdle to get anywhere is not
news to me.

But the advice you're giving here is roughly equivalent to telling a young
cyclist in their first pro race, "hey, listen buddy. If you want to succeed,
you've got to dope. Everybody's doing it. There's no other way."

~~~
ruswick
Except, that analogy is true: purportedly, doping is really pervasive in pro-
cycling and is basically necessitated to be anywhere near competitive. The
same is true of the app store.

It's not optimal, but it's the status quo that tens of thousands of developers
face: you can't win if you don't employ dubious means.

~~~
lambda
By the way, pro cycling had pretty much managed to kick its doping habit.
You've seen all of the scandals over the past few years because they got more
serious about cracking down on it, and once a few of the top pros were caught,
they pointed the finger at the others. I think that most people believe that
the last few Tours have been clean.

~~~
honzzz
>> I think that most people believe that the last few Tours have been clean.

I used to race (although not on very high level), I know the environment and I
would bet my balls that last few Tours have NOT been clean.

~~~
triplesec
Hey I'm interested in this. How are they not clean now? Times are down by
about 6% from Armstrong's heyday. I do want to understand your thinking as
there may be something I' missing. I'm sure there are dopers, but AFAIK the
leading teams are largely much much better now (look at Team SKY)

~~~
honzzz
Where did you get that 6% and was that reliable source? And even if that
number is somehow "correct" (each Tour is different and it is not possible to
just numerically compare them) it does not mean the cycling is now clean, it
does not even mean it's cleaner... there are too many factors that can
influence this.

My opinion is this: cycling may be a bit cleaner in a sense that maybe doping
is not as widespread as it used to be and maybe the effect of doping is more
limited because they need to be more careful. But I don't believe cycling is
clean now. There are new drugs that are undetectable and mentality has not
changed. I believe this is more realistic:
[http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/italian-judge-says-doping-
is...](http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/italian-judge-says-doping-is-still-a-
problem-in-cycling)

And about SKY team - I have no proof and it's nothing more than just my guess
but I don't believe they are clean either. Remember last TdF? They totally
ruled, they controlled the whole race. My cycling intuition tells me this is
not natural. They certainly compete against some (I would say many) riders who
are not clean (some of them even got caught, like Frank Schleck) and they were
not even competing on the same level - they were superior. I don't believe it
is possible without doping. The fact that they claim otherwise on every
occasion means nothing to me - I have seen this too many times.

My guess - and I realize it's nothing more than guess - is that if in 2030
they use their new methods to test today's samples they will find out that
there is some substance that is undetectable today.

I would love to be proven wrong on this - I love cycling.

~~~
triplesec
I was wrong... it's 10% down according the source I was remembering:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18921784> and the 6 was from the power
ratio of the top riders now down to around 6W/Kg.

Read more of the in-depth articles about Sky. Their training methods are
hugely different, and came from the GB track cycling programme which has taken
the world championships and Olympics by storm over the past decade. They're
open about what it is, and unlike with others, it's only the performance which
makes anyone wonder. Look at the figures, and remember, they're still 10%
slower than Armstrong! What they are using is demonstrable physiological
science and feedback: a manifestation of the benefits of the Quantified Self
approach!

~~~
honzzz
That article is interesting - it made me reconsider my opinion a bit. I
certainly can be wrong about SKY team. I would have respect for them even if
they were not clean because I have enough experience with cycling to be able
to imagine how hard you have to work to get through any grand tour even if you
are not clean. But if they are... good for them.

------
dylanz
It looks very nice! Here is some initial feedback:

\- Even though it's bouncing, I didn't see the "play now" arrow, and went
directly for the video button. You might also want a "Play now" button in the
main button list.

\- In the video, I had to watch quite a bit of it to even know what the game
was actually about. I would have liked if you showed me actual gameplay
earlier in the video.

Keep it up!

~~~
seanalltogether
Thanks for the feedback, I think accurately portraying game mechanics is a
challenge we keep try to solve. Any thought on a way to better convey how the
game works?

~~~
tripzilch
In the video, use onscreen text, like "connect the squares that have the same
colour" (sorry I didn't play your game, but this is what I got from the video
that it's about, I'm not sure how the air balloons tie in though).

------
prawks
Question: how essential do you think it was for you to quit your job to create
this game? How much longer would it have taken you had you developed it on the
side/weekends?

I'm in no way trying to argue your decision, I'm genuinely curious how much
work it was to create a game like this. Also, how much of the conceptual work
for this game had you done prior to leaving your job?

~~~
seanalltogether
I would say pretty essential, but that's really because of my personality.
I've started and stopped more projects then I can count over the past ten
years while holding a steady job. Without saving up money and leaving my job,
I'd probably have a half finished game sitting in my projects folder right
now.

~~~
prawks
Thanks! It's a very fun game; it really gets me hooked in terms of difficulty
around level 12-14.

------
flixic
Very similar to one of my favorite flash games, 3D logic 2:
[http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stron...](http://www.kongregate.com/games/alexmatveev/3d-logic-2-stronghold-
of-sage)

~~~
mihn
I just wanted to say that. But game still looks nice.

------
snarfman
Reminds me very much of Flow Free: iOS: <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flow-
free/id526641427> Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgam...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow)

Incidentally, it would be nice if you could backtrack to remove colored path
blocks if you make a mistake like accidentally dragging across a small corner.
I've only tried the webapp version, so not sure if that works in the iOS one.

------
iamwil
Pretty great work with all the little touches. How were you able to write both
the web version as well as the iOS versions? Did you have two different code
bases, or did you use something like Phonegap or trigger.io?

Were you in game dev before you quit to do this?

And would there be a possibility of rotating the cube?

~~~
kayoone
Id like to know this too, do you use some kind of JS wrapper for iOS ?

~~~
tonyhillerson
Nope, Web is all custom, iOS is all native, but the data format for the levels
is shared.

~~~
socialist_coder
Why spend time writing a web version when it's not really going to help with
sales?

~~~
tonyhillerson
Actually the time spent writing the web version was small, and it was as a way
to prove the idea and (in a limited way) crowdsource level design.

------
weaksauce
Your website could use a tweak or two. I would change some of the text to
reflect the fact that adrift is just a demo online and the iOS version is much
longer.

\+ the website javascript to load the next level or refresh the current level
doesn't work on my computer(aurora firefox on osx)

\+ the video doesn't work that well. (volume controls don't work, the play
button doesn't work, got the video to play by clicking the video background)

overall it looks like a fun game but I am curious how you are going to make
some money with this if it's free.

------
bluetidepro
I loved the demo! The 10th level had me stuck for a few. How many levels does
the normal game have? It may be cool to include some text that describes that.
Maybe like "Features 100+ levels. Try the first 10 below" or something like
that.

------
Scene_Cast2
Just finished my first play-through through the 10 web levels. Comments: an
"erase" functionality might be nice, besides the "reset puzzle". By the end, I
figured out a pattern to solving them (identify color with the least path
choices, choose one and recursively solve from there) - but then again, I
don't like Sudoku either.

Congrats on the release, and best of luck with the game!

------
pm90
Very nice game! I couldn't stop myself from wasting 10 mins playing this.

One minor feedback: when the tile color is yellow, the star should be colored
different (because when highlighted, it is also yellow)

------
oftenwrong
I only played a few levels so far, but I really enjoyed it. Excellent concept.
I would probably buy it if it was available on Play.

Some feedback from my experience playing the HTML5 version on a computer with
a mouse (Firefox 19) and on an android smartphone (Chrome 18):

\- On both platforms the "LOADING" message does not go away after hitting
"close" on the little instruction cloud, and the level does not load. Only
after hitting the reset button (with the circular-arrow symbol) does the level
load.

\- On my smartphone, my finger tracing can easily outpace the tile coloring,
and this leads to some tiles being skipped. The animation is also choppy.
Probably not an issue on the native version.

\- I think you should prevent diagonal tile markings since they do not work to
connect the star tiles anyway.

\- If there was a way to stop accidental over-writing other colors due to
clumsy mouse usage, that would be nice. This seems like less of a problem on a
touch screen.

~~~
seanalltogether
thanks for feedback, i think we have bugs with asset loading in the playable
demo but I haven't been able to easily debug it

~~~
oftenwrong
I tried the iOS version on a friend's iPad. I had none of the problems I
mentioned, and it was really nice on the big screen. I am only about halfway
done with the free levels, and hoping there are more special tiles like the
rainbow-swirl one. Do the level packs come with more special tile types?

------
whileonebegin
Nice game. Please post any monetary results, once you have some data. I
thought making serious money from a game in the app store today is very
difficult.

------
lost_name
How much would you say you knew about your game before you quit your job? By
which I mean, had you sort of started on it before leaving?

------
arasmussen
For the web based version, I might save the last color they clicked on and
then use that when they click on a white square because I've found the game a
little harder to play with that feature missing on a laptop with a trackpad.

------
obviouslygreen
Definitely well-conceived and fun! As others have said, very well done on the
web-based version. It's too bad it's not on the Play store, though, any plans
for an Android version?

[edit: Asked and answered below. As an Android user (and obviously this is
anecdotal but it's all I've got), I spend more money on in-game purchases --
reasonable ones, not FarmCityWhatever insanity -- than I do purchasing them
outright. For something like this, level packs seem like a good IAP.]

------
danielhughes
Well done. I love that you allow users to try out the game on your site first.
I wasn't initially inclined to download the app, but after trying the game I
was hooked.

~~~
ctdonath
Ditto. Was "meh" on yet another free trial, but one easy click "hey why not"
and 10 levels later I'm downloading it, and figuring if addictive enough a
buck for more levels is cheap.

~~~
seanalltogether
It's actually really good to know that spending the time to make an online
demo was worth the effort.

------
soemarko
Very pretty,... it does remind me of Flow Free
(<http://html5games.com/2012/07/flow-free/> \- also on iOS and Android store
near you)

1\. You've earned my $1 2\. Please cater more of my OCD. I see you count
number of turn and time... GIVE MY 3 STARSSS!!! 3\. Utilise Game Center
more,.. "Hey, John finish this level in 2 second with only 3 turns." Since
Letterpress I actually have friends in game center.

------
kanamekun
I've been playing your game for a day, and really enjoyed it. I found it
really gave my brain a workout.

That gave me a thought around branding. The name ("Adrift") and the tagline
("A puzzle game in worlds of whimsy") both feel whimsical and fun - which is
great for a game. But I wonder if focusing the branding around "brain
training" might help expand your target market.

Most games are fun time-wasters, and tend to appeal to people who want to have
fun and/or kill time. This game has a considerably wider appeal: it can help
people exercise their brains, especially older people who want to keep their
minds active. This is why a lot of people do Sudoku and crossword puzzles:
[http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-
keep...](http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/24/use-it-or-lose-it-keeping-
brain-active-may-help-ward-off-alzheimers/)

I had a brain injury a decade or so ago, and the doctors told me to do certain
puzzles to keep my brain active. It gave my brain a workout, and I was
reminded of that feeling when I played your game.

One way to expand the target market might be to eventually do an expansion set
called "Adrift: Brain Island" or something? You could target PR to the demos
that brain workouts could appeal to.

Good luck!!

------
quickpost
Just FYI, google thinks your dev blog is / has spam:

<http://i.imgur.com/za2UXWh.png>

One a separate note - awesome game! I plan to buy it. On the web version, one
thing I'd like would be able to toggle a miss clicked space back to "neutral"
with a click. I'd also make the levels slightly harder before getting to level
5 - they all seemed too easy up to that point.

~~~
seanalltogether
Yeah I can't figure out where thats coming from, I've poured over my site to
find it and even resubmitted to google and they don't see that spam when i
manually submit. Maybe I should just go with a hosted solution and stop trying
to manage wordpress on my own.

~~~
rachelbythebay
[site:craftymind.com viagra]

Try that query on there. They managed to index a LOT of pages that way.

Here's the thing. Your site has been compromised. Look. I'll fetch the same
page with two different user-agents. One will show up as some generic curl
thing and the other will look like Google's crawler.

    
    
        $ curl http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > ordinary
    
        $ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)" http://www.craftymind.com/factory/guimark3/video/flash_720p_high.html > googlebot
    

So I look for the term in the first file.

    
    
        $ grep viagra ordinary
        $
    

... Nothing.

I do the same for the second.

    
    
        $ grep viagra googlebot
        [ ... tons and tons of garbage ... ]
    

Your site is running something which only emits garbage when Googlebot (or
something resembling it) hits it. Install a user-agent switcher in your
browser and you can see it for yourself.

Sorry.

~~~
seanalltogether
i ended up finding it! it looks like it was one of those backdoor wordpress
hacks where they set up commands that are evaled() as base64 strings

------
kranner
You should monetize with paid hints. I've got a similar game in the App Store
(I'll be polite and skip linking to it) and as of this morning, 53.8% of my
total revenue has come from hint packs.

To see what I mean by hints, see this HTML5 port of my game I've been doing
(work in-progress): <http://noisytyping.com/NCT6745/index.html>

------
zeidrich
It's a good game, it's a bit short though. I think as a simple game it's
pretty easy to solve the puzzles, and while you can make it more complex by
introducing a larger grid and additional colors, it will ultimately be the
same problem. Adding 20 more levels at the same level of complexity would make
the game seem trivial after a while.

It might benefit from additional types of tiles that introduce complexity,
maybe like a tile that reacts to the color placed next to it and becomes
colored the same way. Maybe a tile that reacts to all the colors next to it
and becomes a mix. (IE: You need a purple tile in one spot, so in order to
have that tile or tile group to turn purple, you need red and blue squares
next to it). Sparse use of elements like that keep the problem from being
identical.

Then again, maybe it's not needed. People enjoy working through books of
sudoku problems.

------
km3k
I really like the look of this. Any plans for an Android version?

~~~
seanalltogether
absolutely, its probably our highest priority for the next month or so, we
focused on just iOS for release since we have a small team.

~~~
yaddayadda
Please post an update to HN when you release the Android version.

------
astalwick
Nice work. The playable website is fantastic.

FWIW, I would have paid $0.99 up front. I bought the level pack, but it's
pretty rare that a game will hook me to the point that I make it through the
free levels. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't seen this post -
if I'd just stumbled across the game somewhere.

------
nkozyra
The game is definitely polished and nice.

How do you intend (or do you intend) to ramp up revenue to match your previous
salary?

------
mratzloff
All you guys leaving advice and comments in this thread... download the app.
It's much more polished than the website version.

I rated it 5 stars, added a review, and referred it to a couple friends. I
want to see this game succeed. If you want to support these guys, why not do
the same?

~~~
ruswick
In my opinion, the app is not deserving of 5 stars. The mechanics are grating
and difficult to use. I spent 3 minutes trying to draw a path on level 10, and
every time after rounding the corner a that I did not intend to change would
change. After a while, I gave up and deleted the app. It looks nice, but there
are more fundamental flaws in the gameplay.

------
muuck
Very neat how this game is presented. But I played this game years ago. Back
when it was still called '3D Logic' <http://www.i-am-
bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727>

------
Swizec
This is a really awesome game! Great work!

Just one thing, the web version seems kinda blurry. Even on a non-retina 5+
year old LCD.

Just checked and it's even blurrier on a retina ... the website itself is
super crisp, but the textures in the game area itself kind of aren't.

------
aqme28
What is your monetization strategy if you have one? Ads? Free now but paid in
the future?

~~~
seanalltogether
For now the strategy is to avoid ads on iOS and sell in-game level packs,
however I'm not sure how well that model works on android, I'd love to know if
anyone has thoughts on that, it seems most people just do ad driven games on
android

~~~
jhdevos
There are so many free things on Android that it's hard to get myself to try
paid for games. The exception is games that I get to know through some other
source, like your excellent web page with live demo.

I'd pay for this game on android, but paid level pack would also work for me.

------
aw3c2
You forgot about "colorblind users"! Best and easiest way to make the game
accessible for people with color vision deficiencies would be to also use a
unique symbol for each color and a variation of the same for the connecting
tiles.

Very nice presentation!

------
meitalvered
I understand you all, but even getting review these days dont give you so much
traction... For example, we are a small Indie (3 People) and release our game
for IOS...you probably didnt hear of the game unless you are in the cocos2d
community...

The game is FREE and it went live on the 15th of February 2013, till today we
got more than 150 reviews with an average of 4.3 and we still dont see us in
the rankings..

sorry, i forgot to mention the game :)

Game name is Atlantis Breaker HD link is :
[https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-
hd/id576385319...](https://itunes.apple.com/app/atlantis-breaker-
hd/id576385319?mt=8)

by the way any suggestion and feedback would be highly appreciated.

thanks.

------
bornon5
I'm impressed with your take on the level list. It's so nice to see something
more than a grid of colored, numbered boxes. It may be a simple puzzle game,
but approaches like that make it feel like an adventure.

The game is beautiful, too. Wonderful job!

------
ehaterade
If you are looking to increase distribution you may want to consider reducing
the title of the game and moving the buttons around so that the game is well
above the fold. You can then approach different game portals to host the game
iframed in, but with the way it is now you won't have much luck.

Take a look at Cut the Rope web version, they have built a pretty sweet web
version.

If you change up your webversion to be better suited to being iframed in let
me know (or contact us at Kano Games) and we can iframe it for web and link to
you iOS version for our mobile users.

<http://www.kanogames.com/>

------
tonyhillerson
Soundtrack for the game, for your consideration and enjoyment:
<https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack>

------
kenshiro_o
That's a great puzzle game. It's even more impressive as you guys made it in 6
months. I am always amazed, humbled and energized with posts and projects such
as this one. Keep up the good work!

~~~
buildnship
Yea, great job on the game!! I was past level 7 before I ___had_ __to pull my
self away.

The game is A LOT of fun ;) I definitely see myself and people I know playing
it. Best of luck in the app-store. No doubt you all will do GREAT!!!

------
Scene_Cast2
Not to detract from the fun of the game, but I get a strong feeling that this
is probably a very studied problem in topology - and that thought keeps on
nagging me to write a solver script :)

~~~
seanalltogether
Yes in fact I've spent the past 6 months thinking about whether i could build
a level generator that can verify and solve the levels too. The way I see it,
with a simple 5x5x5 cube with 5 colors on it, the number of possible
combinations to check is 75^5, which might take awhile to brute force, so
there needs to be a intelligent way to map lines.

~~~
lkozma
I think solving any of these can be reduced to a max-flow problem, and thus it
is efficiently solvable.

~~~
seanalltogether
Many of the levels have been designed so that if you follow the path of least
resistance to solve them, you will always be left with one line that wont
connect. Thats the true puzzle part of the game, and that's the aspect that
makes me think it's difficult to solve without resorting to brute force.

~~~
lkozma
I think you are right, it's harder than I thought.

The problem can in fact be modeled with a graph in which you need to find
vertex-disjoint paths between pairs of vertices (s1,t1), (s2,t2), and so on,
but this problem seems not to be reducible to max-flow, instead it is NP-hard.

------
mcdoh
Fun game! I'm colorblind, though, and on level 10 the orange and green look
very similar to my eyes. The ability to adjust colors, hues, or even just the
"star" icons would be a huge help.

------
lambtron
Cool game. I remember flipping through old puzzle books as a kid and playing
these types of puzzles.

One small thing that annoyed me was that even if i connected a path to
complete a puzzle, if my finger slipped and removed another path, i would
still have to go back and correct it before the puzzle is completed. I think
that the puzzle should complete as soon as the final path is connected; the
validation shouldn't occur after my finger is lifted from the last move.

Anyway, great look and feel and overall design. Best of luck!

------
alexobenauer
Wow - that version on your website was brilliant. I was hooked by the second
puzzle; and would have happily paid for this app. You must have spent a lot of
time making a web version, but I can only imagine how well that is going to
pay off; I probably never would have downloaded this game otherwise (I don't
download games, basically, ever). But with it, you sold me very quickly, and
definitely left money on the table...

edit: I would also love a shake gesture to clear the cube.

------
rartichoke
Well done. The game is strangely intuitive. I skipped the trailer and just
played. It almost felt like I knew what to do just by looking at the cube.

That's a huge win IMO.

------
fedenusy
Flow Free: Bridges, with nicer graphics and a better soundtrack. I like it.
Controls could be a bit smoother, but nice game overall. Great start.

------
lttlrck
This is great fun. However, I installed it on iOS and found what looks like a
bug:

<http://imgur.com/toAfNs7>

------
FiddlerClamp
I suggest you try Gamezebo (<http://www.gamezebo.com/>) - they review many
casual games.

------
huhtenberg
Please make a paid version.

I have the in-app purchases disabled in the Settings, so upgrading an app like
yours requires doing an app switch, then typing in Restrictions password,
enabling IAP, switching back to the app (frequently needing to restart it to),
making a purchase (including typing a password), then going back to Settings
and re-disabling IAP. In other words it's a hassle.

------
erikb
I played the SAME game before as a flash game. Even the first 5 or 6 levels
are the same... Hope, that you don't get sued for that!

------
blinry
This is based on Nikoli's number game called Arukone or Numberlink:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink>

Here are many more for you to enjoy:
<http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm>

------
Jemaclus
I've played this game before (well, not this one, but the same game by a
different company). Very enjoyable and your UI looks better than the other.
The question I have is: how does one go about creating a puzzle game? I've
always wondered. It seems like a lot of work to make something that's
difficult-but-solvable.

~~~
seanalltogether
Yeah, its a clone of an old shockwave game I played about 10 years ago and
felt it would be perfect for touch interaction. For this puzzle game
specifically, I found that starting with the solution and working my backwards
was actually the best way to build levels. I'm not sure if that holds true for
other puzzle games.

~~~
clebio
Interesting. I kept wanting to rotate the cube in your game. Nice to see it in
the 3d-logic game the other commenter mentions. Do you plan to add that?

------
doctorstupid
Playing this triggered a familiar sensation, and I realized that this game has
strong similarities with Slitherlink, an addictive puzzle developed by Nikoli,
the Japanese publisher who popularized sudoku.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitherlink>

------
AndyKelley
I would be interested in following up on this and seeing whether this makes
you enough money to sustain your company.

------
fourmii
Great job! Congrats on a slick product. I noticed you had a link to listen to
the soundtrack. Cute music, did you guys make the music too?

I'm glad people are getting onboard with HTML5 for apps and games. You should
get a blog going, I'd love to hear about your trials and tribulations over the
6 months since you quit your job.

~~~
tonyhillerson
Yup, we made the music too. YOu can hear the soundtrack here:
<https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack>

------
lanna
Very neat, looks much better than Flow. Congrats. You should charge at least
$0.99 for it, no need to be free.

------
shawnc
Great game! Played to level 5 on your site, heading to download it onto iPhone
now, for more playage later.

Without having looked yet, what is your revenue model, if there is one? Is the
plan to release this for free, build an audience, a name, get feedback and all
that - to go bigger later with a new game?

------
RexM
Looks very nice and polished. I downloaded your app and played it for a bit. I
would have paid for it after being able to play the web version and knowing
what the app was about. An IAP upgrade would be cool if you decide to put ads
on it. I would upgrade in a heartbeat.

------
a1a
Love it! I would love to see social integration as well. For example 1 on 1
matches - first one to fail a level looses. And maybe even co-ops, this
requires advanced levels though. You have n-sized teams, e.g. n on n matches -
the first team to fail a level looses.

------
alexvr
It's simple and elegant. I might have to grab it on my iPhone. And as others
have said, it's a great idea to offer it online to give prospective users a
taste of the game. Now I can see if it's challenging enough to be worth my
time :P

------
seanalltogether
I'm not able to respond to every individual, but I want to say that we've been
reading every single comment here and GREATLY appreciate the feedback, you
guys have given us a lot think about in terms of trying to make this
successful.

------
bpn_sasi
Great game and well made. I am sure you guys know the little quirks with the
product ( like dragging sometimes includes blocks which I dont wanna include )
but on the whole very impressive. Good way to get the brain juices flowing :)

------
enraged_camel
Minor issue: if you accidentally cross the paths of the colors, it fails
silently. There's no "you fail" message or anything like that given, and it's
not immediately obvious that the only way to try again is to reload the level.

~~~
greggman
you just draw over the tiles with the correct color. I guess that wasn't
obvious though I figured it out. You can make as many mistakes as you want. I
guess a tutorial would solve that but there is no fail. Just win or give up.

------
triplesec
Well, I enjoyed this game. I suppose I can see how this gets tougher and
tougher as it goes on. I'd buy it, after the trial. Good luck. Game dev is a
precarious and chancy marketing biz as all these HN experts are telling you!

------
queasyroberto
as associate producer on 65 iOS games w/ $12M in revenue to date...

you guys made a nice game, but it's very fringe, and it's not even super
striking like swords and sworcery, which, btw, was not a big financial
success.

i learned the hard way by working on ~20 super fringe games that failed hard
(less than $5k total revenue) during the early days of the app store. these
are the games where the artists went wild and really had themselves a time and
were super pleased with themselves... not a formula for success.

your art is fringe, your gameplay is fringe.

try finding something else not so fringe that you guys STILL love, and make
another game, and then another...

------
kdazzle
Lots of fun! Great looking and all that, too! Except the strategy gets a
little stale after the second level when you realize that at least one of the
colors always has to take a really roundabout way to get to its partner.

------
shloime
Holy shit, that's addictive.

------
prezjordan
Excellent choice allowing me to play the game right on your website. Now I'm
going to download (and buy, does it cost money?) your game. If I couldn't play
it immediately, I probably wouldn't have.

------
intelliot
Reminds me of one of my favorite puzzle games of all time, Trainyard.
<http://www.trainyard.ca/> But Adrift is definitely different. Love it!

------
fitzpasd
Fantastic, reminds me of one of my favorite mobile games - FreeFlow.

I'd rather if my move didn't get set until I stop holding down the cursor (may
be different on the mobile version, don't have an iPhone).

------
frontsideair
Awesome little game. How do you plan on making money, if I may ask? I really
like the design language, very "flat" and modern looking. I'd like to see more
games taking this approach.

------
dmauro
Nice work! Very polished, good puzzles. The whooshing sound when going through
the menu items in the main menu was a little annoying, but otherwise there
wasn't a bit I didn't like.

------
mratzloff
Great work! I finished all 10 levels on the website--I'm assuming more are
available with the app, but it's not completely clear.

I linked my wife to it and she got a kick out of it, too.

------
dsego
Great game! I'd definitely buy it. Too bad it's not already on the mac app
store, I was ready to pull the trigger. Maybe it can be a part of the next
Humble Bundle.

------
Revex
Posts like these are a great inspiration. I hope to see an update post with
information regarding to how well it/you are doing. Also, the web based demo
is sweet.

------
gpgpgp
This game is a complete ripoff of 3-D Logic...

<http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMatveev/3d-logic>

------
lucian1900
With a web demo, I'd just charge for the game if I were you.

------
luxstyle
Interesting game. I downloaded it and will rate. Good luck!

------
t_hozumi
Are there correct answers more than one? I could complete the Level8 without
filling all spaces. I prefer only single possible answer, which fills all
spaces.

------
tarikozket
Great work! My advice is just change the first screenshot at the appstore.
Because it's not feel like a game at the first impression when searching the
game.

------
rglover
Please, please, please charge me. This is way too well done to not ask for _at
least_ 99 cents. Especially if you haven't been working for 6 months...

------
iends
Got to level 7 without much trouble, but started to feel guilty about playing
at work :)

Would love to hear more about your technical stack, especially on the web
side.

Congrats to shipping.

~~~
maerF0x0
maybe im not so smart, but level 7 was killer for me.

------
barbs
Nice work man. I really like the style, and the soundtrack. Will be listening
to that while I code today ^^. Also, any chance for an Android release?

~~~
tonyhillerson
Yup, we'll be working on an Android version.

------
stevewilhelm
If you like this game, you'll love Colorbind
<http://nonverbal.ch/colorbind.html>

------
unfamiliar
Great stuff.

* The cube could do with some lighting hints

* Some visual clues on the menu would be helpful. I didn't know how to get past the tutorial besides randomly swiping.

------
crapshoot101
Really enjoyed it. But was I the only one who took more time on 5 than 6/7
which were less than 30 seconds? Is the difficulty out of whack?

------
phil
Very cool.

This reminds me of Colorbind, one of my all-time favorite iOS games, but
expanded and taken 3d. I've always wished there was more to Colorbind...

------
bsaul
Reminds me of bit of "colorbind" and "flow" iphone games. it's really cool to
see how small changes to a game makes it interesting again.

------
sidcool
Congratulations. It's a brilliant work of art and technology. Good luck, you
guys have a great career ahead of you. Hard work pays!

------
ruswick
There are some irksome mechanics issues, and the game is far from novel, but
it is excellently implemented and aesthetically pleasing.

------
scottchin
Looks great! Congrats on the release!

Did you work on this game by yourself or with other people?

Did you use any existing game frameworks like Cocos2D or Unity?

------
asgentile
Can you provide a code or rather just set a cookie so that when I go back to
play I can start on the level I was at. Fun :D

------
volcom
Very cool game, love the graphics. Good luck!

------
neworbd
After playing in the browser for a good five minutes and deciding to purchase,
I was sad there was no Android version. :(

------
chillericed
Love the music!

First stab at basic time challenge puts me at rank #2.

I think the challenge system could be something quite fun if you integrate it
well.

~~~
tonyhillerson
Thanks for the feedback! You can hear the soundtrack here:
<https://soundcloud.com/tackmobile/sets/adrift-soundtrack>

------
vyder
This game reminds me of laying out circuits in Eagle CAD for a 1 layer PCB.
Yet, somehow, I'm addicted to it already.

~~~
femto
My feelings exactly. The same topological rules apply. I wonder what happens
if you throw this game at an autorouter? :)

------
aeosynth
Reminds me vaguely of <http://arv.github.com/jelly/>.

------
CaptchaReader
I sent you an email to adrift@tackmobile.com , copied it from your footer, and
got a Mailer Daemon error :)

------
slajax
So much great feedback. Now I REALLY wanna see it but it crashes flash for me
on latest chrome osx. Bummer.

------
braco_alva
How many of you are in the team? The games looks very polished, amazing you
made it in just 6 months.

------
consta
After playing the first 5 levels I would definitely pay for this game. Keep up
the good work!

------
z3phyr
Great work imho !!!!

One thing I may want to add - Porting the game to different platforms would be
great.

------
sylvainww
Game looks great. Pretty neat website, I like the attention to details. Best
of luck!

------
jdflorezpa
Very nice game, enjoyed the 10 levels. I would gladly pay for a version in
Android.

------
meerita
My girlfriend loved the game and I, that hate iphone games, am enjoying it a
lot!

------
digitalzombie
loved it, all 10 levels.

I wish you can undo a color so it can be neutral (grey again). But I realize
you can repaint it with another color while you're in the middle of dragging,
you just need to drag a diff color to the mess up paint.

~~~
vyder
You can drag a 'clear' color over colored tiles to clear them again.

------
webwanderings
Nice and challenging. Is this an original idea? I don't play many such games.

------
knes
I did the first few level on the website and I think they are a bit too easy

~~~
nicksergeant
Did you keep going? They get more challenging.

~~~
precisioncoder
The later ones are more challenging, it's pretty fun =)

------
zopticity
This is exactly like the pipe game on the Android market / Apple store.

------
NateLipscomb
This is great. Beautiful design and gameplay. Congrats on the launch.

------
jonathanjaeger
Love it, did all 10 levels on the website (addicting). Will download!

------
makerbreaker
As a other-than-the-occasional-nes-play non-gamer, this is addictive!

------
cacois
Neat idea, but FYI the web version doesn't seem to work in Chrome.

~~~
robertfw
Experiencing this as well

edit: It seems that on reload, things are working fine, there is some
glitchyness with the intro help text not always disappearing

------
enraged_camel
Nothing happens when I click on the arrow that says "play now."

~~~
seanalltogether
which browser are you using?

~~~
damoncali
this got me too. I clicked the arrow, not what it was pointing at.

~~~
sic1
i had to refresh and all worked fine, but yes, this happened to me as well,
the "cube" game play area never loaded first load. Chrome 25.0.1364.155

Either way, fun game. Great work.

------
Eylith
Nice game but too easy. Less than 15 minutes for all puzzles.

------
imperialdrive
great mind game - looked and felt good to me - i did finish the 10 levels in
about 10 minutes so ya, what's next? congrats on the game and thank you for
sharing!

------
mariocesar
Beautiful, If you include a puzzle editor would be awesome

------
Eylith
This game reminds me the integrated circuit creation :)

------
MrUnderhill
Very nice. Happy to see it work in Opera too - thanks!

------
andrewroycarter
Really fun game, and it looks great! Awesome job!

------
dools
This is too fucking addictive.

 _pins app tab_

I hope I get some work done today.

------
jason_slack
It sort of remind me of FEZ...yes, I said it FEZ.

------
tnash
Awesome fun, played all ten levels. MORE LEVELS!

------
anon987987987
Please make it possible to rotate the cube!

------
fishercs
just played through it and it's a pretty great game. fun and easy to pickup
and play right away. so more levels?

------
gilesvangruisen
Awesome! Very fun and a good challenge.

~~~
skhamkar
Great work! The UX/Design is really great.

------
pschastain
Got to level 9, which had no solution.

------
jordan_clark
This is great. Fantastic work.

------
azharcs
Very addicting. Amazing stuff.

------
Sumaso
Just wanted to add my congrats!

Very impressive!

------
n00b101
I like this game, good idea!

------
itry
Whats your business model?

------
vinayan3
Level 5 is super hard

------
AdamTReineke
Only 10 levels?

------
bblough
Very nice!

------
ckvamme
more levels!!

------
gurpreet42
nice game ...

------
giis
cool game :)

------
seivan
Looks incredibly amazing! Quality work. This is what I say is missing from
most iOS games out there.

You did good. I hope it sells. I am gonna pay for it now.

------
ebbv
Well done. Visually pleasing, engaging and entertaining.

Just grabbed it for my phone for free but I would have easily paid $0.99 for
it. :)

------
culo
You should have created APIs on Mashape.com too

------
rorrr
It took you 6 months to develop it?

