

Introducing Trifecta, the first iPhone game to come out of the App Academy - avalaunch
http://krisallenfields.tumblr.com/post/37597373847/trifecta-blocks-challenge

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1123581321
The game is enjoyable; thanks for making it. Would you please change to using
system-mutable sound that doesn't play when the phone is set to vibrate?
You're using the un-mutable sound that is supposed to be for alarms, video and
things like that.

From the Human Interface Guidelines[1]:

 _Users switch their devices to silent when they want to [...]_

 _\- Avoid hearing sounds that are the byproducts of user actions, such as
keyboard or other feedback sounds, incidental sounds, or app startup sounds_

 _\- Avoid hearing game sounds that are not essential to using the game, such
as incidental sounds and soundtracks_

[1]
[http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexp...](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/TechnologyUsage/TechnologyUsage.html)
("Sounds")

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avalaunch
Ah. Good tip. We'll look into it and try to provide a fix in the first
upgrade. For now you can press the mute button in the upper left hand of the
screen. Your sound preference will be saved in the user defaults so you should
only ever have to mute the game once.

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minikomi
Congrats!

I think The dialog after finishing a game would be better as "title screen"
and "play again" directly on the buttons, or "play again?" should be more
prominent.

Another thought: a lot of puzzle games have a way to "chain", which mastering
is the most addictive element.

Wihout that element, this game has a little of the problem that randomly
tapping is no less effective than playing "properly"... Good puzzle games are
really tough to make, given that they rely on a sweet spot between
entertaining and frustrating. Good luck!

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avalaunch
Awesome suggestions. Thank you!

Randomly tapping won't get you very far actually. You get time bonuses for
clearing more than 6 blocks at once. You really need to play patiently to keep
the game going. Score bonuses are also a lot better when you clear a lot of
blocks at once so again it pays to play strategically.

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weisser
I really enjoy this game. I love a new take on the classic block game. Lumines
is a personal favorite.

There is no music in this game and that would be fine if you could listen to
iTunes or Spotify while playing it but that currently doesn't seem to work.
Any plans on adding this feature? The gameplay does not need to "sync" to the
music in any way, it's just that I would love to be able to listen to music in
the background.

Once again, very well done. It's a visually appealing, fun game. I also like
the animation on the info page.

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avalaunch
Thank you, and yeah, I think music of some sort will be added in the future. I
don't know if we'll add in our own tracks, allow you to select from your own
library, or both. But we will almost certainly add music sometime in the near
future.

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weisser
I think it's much harder to make music that will appeal to everyone that plays
the game. If you get the music wrong it can be a detriment instead of a
positive so that's why I suggest allowing players to use iTunes/Spotify.

If you do want to have your own music I have a good friend who specializes in
audio for interactive media. He mostly works on games and would probably be
very interested in this project. My email is in my profile if you'd like to
discuss this more.

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avalaunch
I'll talk to Ran and see how she wants to proceed regarding music. That ties
in closely with design which was more her than me.

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jyap
Nice gameplay and story.

I found your earnings online which I found interesting. I'm thinking your
poker career might resemble that of many other professional poker players:
<http://www.pokerpages.com/player-profile/kris-fields.htm>

But data that isn't including the cost of buy ins to events.

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avalaunch
Thank you! You're probably right. My poker career is a bit of a bell curve
with the center being of the curve being the year before the UIGEA.

That's a good link but it leaves out a lot of information, like how many
tournaments I entered but didn't cash in as well as online earnings. And it
doesn't include the tournaments in the Bahamas where I had a great run.

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sgrove
Ahk, it's free? After reading the post, I expected the app to be a way to
bring in additional income. What's the motive behind making it free?

Good story by the way, way to push yourself to accomplish things.

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avalaunch
It's more of a resume builder than anything else. The more downloads it gets,
the better it'll sound to prospective employees and potential clients. If it
did "take off", we'd then look at a way to monetize it - perhaps with an in
app upgrade to a new game play type.

And thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post.

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sonabinu
nice way of going about it ... hope your career rocks !!! good luck!

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avalaunch
thanks!

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kranner
There seems to be a problem with the 'unlimited' mode. See
<https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsg7xio42olllwr/trifecta.png>

If you can look at the left-most column, you'll see that the game ended
because that column overflowed; however, no 3-block of the same colour was
available in that column and its neighbour (and so forth), so eventually I had
no possibility of being able to reduce that column and save the game. I'd
consider that a level-generation problem. What do you think?

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avalaunch
Some tweaking could definitely be done, especially on unlimited. That being
said, there shouldn't always be a 3-block combo to clear. If there were, the
game would be too easy and would likely go on forever. Instead, the challenge
is to be patient and think ahead. Ex. If I clear these 3 blocks now, how will
it line up the others? Will it create more clearable blocks or less?

But even when you think ahead and play as strategic as possible, I think the
unlimited mode is probably a bit too hard right now.

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kranner
I hadn't thought of that: perhaps I'd cleared blocks before that I could have
used for the left columns later.

How do you choose which colour block to insert next? Uniformly random?

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avalaunch
Yeah, but that might change in the future.

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flexxaeon
I didn't read the story at first (tl;dr) I just scrolled down to the bottom to
see what the game looked like. _Blocks game_ , so I rushed to try it out.

Two hours later, and officially being hooked on Trifecta, I had to come back
to at least upvote. Glad I read the story this time. Thank you for sharing and
thanks for the game!

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avalaunch
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it.

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kranner
Good job! I love the simulation in the credits screen.

What's the pixel font? One of the '04b' series?

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rtao
thanks kranner! yes the font is '04b03' in fact :)

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kranner
Excellent. I recognized it because I use '04b03b' in my own iPhone game
'Alphabet Connection: Arukone' :)

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avalaunch
Oh cool. We'll have to check it out.

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ScottWhigham
You might want to do something to help users find you in the App Store more
easily. I searched for "Trifecta" and was shown the game Trifecta. You were
the sixth result, behind betting and other games. Just FYI!

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avalaunch
In retrospect, we probably should have changed our name to something else
entirely. I wonder how many people have accidentally downloaded the wrong game
already.

Going forward, we have two choices: we can still change the game's name or we
can do a hard marketing push to get our game to be the first result for
Trifecta. So far the latter has been our game plan. When Trifecta Blocks
Challenge first launched, it was 14/14 for the term Trifecta. It's now 6/14 so
it's definitely on the rise.

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avalaunch
Direct link to the game: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-
challenge/id...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trifecta-blocks-
challenge/id584109240?ls=1&mt=8)

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donjo
Is there any gameplay footage available? I don't have an iOS device handy.

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avalaunch
There is no video footage as of right now. You can see a screen shot here:

<http://www.randklabs.com/trifecta/>

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mattzitzmann
You should check out Kamcord: <http://kamcord.com>. It allows your users to
record and share a video of their gameplay. If you have any questions, just
get in touch with me: matt@kamcord.com

Thanks!

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avalaunch
Ah, cool. I'll check it out. Thanks!

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xcubic
Great story! :)

