

Ask HN: How Can We Make Our iPhone Game More Enjoyable? - nategraves

So, my friend and I just released our first iPhone application.  The app, called Green Wars, is basically a remake of the old game Drug Wars (aka Dope Wars).  You can find the app by searching in the app store or you can find screenshots and a link to it in the App Store http://www.orangatank.com/greenwars.  The game is free and doesn't have any ads.<p>We've had an interesting time developing the app (filled with all kinds of Apple hoops to jump through). Now the application has been accepted and we're trying to figure out what to do next.  We've got the original gameplay pretty well nailed, but now we're just twiddling our thumbs wondering what to do next.  We don't know which direction to take things from here.  So Hacker News,  we're turning to you for some inspiration.  What would you like to see come next?  Any suggestions for new features or gameplay options?<p>While we're okay with you telling us that the game sucks, we're hoping for some constructive feedback.
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cubicle67
I'm not familiar with the original, and so I have no idea what this game is
about or how it works. The screenshots and the description don't help at all
either. Instead, they make it look like some sort of budgeting app.

Suggestion - Make me want to play it. Include a small description of the
gameplay and have the screenshots reflect this. At the moment I'd give it a
quick look and a wtf!? and then move on.

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chris11
I haven't played this game, but it just looks like a variant of drug wars.
Drug Wars pretty much about trading stock (drugs) in the market. You travel
around New York and buy and sell different drugs. Sometimes you get busted,
and the prices of drugs wildly fluctuate. It's been around for awhile. I first
saw it in high school on a TI 83. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugwars>

So it just looks like they replaced drugs with energy efficient objects like
recycled paper and hybrid cars.

I'd recommend that you replace the free version with a trial version. Unless
this is a beta version and you are expecting users to test your product.

And I agree that the game could have a better description of the gameplay.

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tmadsen
I don't know the game you're trying to remake, so I would like some info on
how to play it (in the app). So far I bought some shopping bags, but I can't
see how that helps me (I might be stupid though).

Otherwise nice interface, I like the travel screen :) Unfortunately I don't
know what I gain from travelling.

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nategraves
Points well taken. We need to make it clear what the objective of the game is.
In this case, the point is to gain as much credibility and cash as you can in
the amount of time you have to play. So, you buy products at low prices (say
$1-$5 for reusable shopping bags) and then sell at higher prices ($10-$15 for
the same bags). The simplicity of the game actually offers a fair amount of
strategy (e.g. when to take out a loan, when to sell at a loss to take
advantage of better prices, etc.)

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dtap
I played the original game through many classes in middle school. As long as
you don't have big dreams, maybe play it as an updated version of the old
game. If the old game got 1000s of kids to play when the only way to transfer
games was cables, you should be able to get some good traction.

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harpastum
I think the major draw of Dope Wars (at least for me in high school) was a
combination of two things: the general scarcity (and low quality) of
calculator games, and the need to appear studious in class. As neither of
these conditions is present for iPhones, I'm not sure how much success this
will have.

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nategraves
Heh, both good points. Maybe you'd be able to pass off that you're hard at
work composing an email on your iPhone?

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teej
Are you familiar with the similiar apps on Facebook (Mob Wars, Mafia Wars,
etc)? I'd love to draw a lesson from them, but if you're not too familiar with
it, my advice might not be helpful.

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nategraves
I've played a couple of those. I think one thing we'd like to incorporate at
some point is the ability to apply some of the items for a particular purpose.
If you can do that, then we could also introduce an option to trade with other
users, because there would be a changing, real-life demand for in-game
products.

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nategraves
So, it sounds like a better description would be very helpful. We are adding
some in-game instructions, but would it also be helpful to have some basic
instructions in the description?

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silencio
aww i'm sad. i was working on a dope wars clone for iPhone :( are you guys
open source or just free as in beer?

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nategraves
We're free as in beer, but we'd be happy to open up our code for some
improvements!

