
Show HN: I built an Android game - grantland
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.kiip.skeemo
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SCdF
Gorgeous. It's one of the few games I've seen (Gyro[0] being another one) that
truly look at home on Android.

[0]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.submachine....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.submachine.gyro&feature=search_result)

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guelo
Not sure what you're talking about. Is it that the primary colors make you
think of Google and therefore Android?

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Lukeas14
It matches Android's new design guide
(<http://developer.android.com/design/index.html>) extremely well. Most games
get a pass on adhering to styling guidelines because, well, they're games. The
colors, fonts, iconography and layout are all in line with what the design
guide emphasizes.

~~~
SCdF
Yeah, what Lukeas said. They more fit the OS style, whereas cutesy games feel
more at home on iOS.

Bonus: An example of a game that feels written to fit in with Windows Phone:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgam...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow)

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yitchelle
Simple concept and excellent design. Just read the blog
(<http://blog.kiip.me/>), it seems that making puzzles and games does not seem
to seem to be core to kiip.me?

Can you share the decision to create this app? Was it a showcase on an app
being integrated into the kiip reward system?

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grantland
This game concept was actually one of the games that inspired Kiip. Two of our
Co-founders, Amadeus and Courtney, had created it for iOS under the name of
Skeemo before Kiip and wanted to reward users who got high scores. We since
re-branded it as 7x7 and it became our testing platform for our SDK as well as
to showcase our reward system on iOS.

I've been wanting to create 7x7 for Android for a while to be a reliable
testing platform for our SDK as well as to showcase our reward system on
Android. I finally had some free cycles recently and made it.

If anyone is wondering why it looks completely different than the iOS version,
it's because they let me (an Android engineer) do the design all on my own too
:P

7x7 iOS: <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/7x7/id423677957?mt=8>

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tikhonj
I really like your design for it: very simple and elegant.

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ch0wn
This feels very polished. Fantastic work. How did you implement this? Is this
done using RenderScript and standard layout elements or some OpenGL/gaming
library?

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grantland
Thanks! I actually made everything with regular Android View elements and used
Animator for all the animations.

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habosa
Wow could you please consider open sourcing it or posting a small tutorial?
I'd love to learn how to do something this beautiful without a game engine.

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grantland
I won't be open sourcing it, but I might consider writing a small tutorial at
some point.

For now, you could dig into the Android source code to learn how to modify
drawing, layout and touch events of Views and ViewGroups. Here's also a good
post on Animator: [http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-
in-...](http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-in-
honeycomb.html)

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spangborn
Subtle design influences from Letterpress, looks like.

I don't have an Android device so I can't say more than that, but it looks
nice!

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wingerlang
I had the same thoughts.

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LTheobald
It looks very much like Letterpress to me. I assumed they were both built
using the same framework. Although the developer's comments seem to indicate
otherwise.

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Jare
Letterpress on iOS was custom OpenGL [1], this one is native Android UI

[1] [http://www.macstories.net/featured/a-conversation-with-
loren...](http://www.macstories.net/featured/a-conversation-with-loren-
brichter/)

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anirudhjoshi
Awesome game! Only thing left to improve is to make a tutorial just like
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.submachine....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.submachine.gyro&feature=search_result)
\- instead of a list of instructions :)

I've also just made my first android game as well called Plasma Tennis - a
Real Time Fluid Dynamics Game for Android:

Show HN link: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148664>

Play Store link:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labs.quant...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labs.quantitative.plasmatennis)

I'd love to get some feedback as well :)

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hkmurakami
Back in 5th grade art class, our class put some dyes in a water basin, then
"printed" the swirl patterns onto a paper by placing said paper on top of the
water surface.

I remember being quite fascinated by the patterns on the paper, and also the
swirls that were made when adding food coloring to water. I definitely would
have loved this kind of game back then (and even now of course), so maybe
there's some merit to re-skinning the game for a younger audience :)

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cocoflunchy
Too bad it's not compatible with Android 2.3.3... looked fun !

~~~
gbaygon
What cellphone do you have?, i just played in my Motorola Defy, modded with
CM10. Great game btw.

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cocoflunchy
I have a Defy too, but with CM7. Is CM10 working well on yours ? And can you
tell me where to find it ?

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gbaygon
CM10 works flawlessly for me, i use the Quarx build with 2ndboot (custom
kernel), you can use this FAQ that will guide you in the entire process:
<http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1795647>

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cocoflunchy
Awesome, I installed it today and everything is good so far... thanks!

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Off
Great game, very polished, but it looks like there's some kind of graphic
glitch. After clearing 3 or 4 blocks, the top left Menu/Back button/area
starts changing colors. Here's a screenshot: <http://ompldr.org/vaGF3bA>

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oscarhong
It seems like an indicator of the current progress of the stage.

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antrix
I thought of it as a glitch too.. till I made enough progress in the game to
find that it was a progress bar. Would be better if it started from the right
of the 'up' button and not from the very edge of the screen.

~~~
grantland
Yeah we noticed some people didn't get it right away. We tried a few designs
and this one was the best D:

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MojoJolo
Waaaait. It's made by Kiip? But Kiip is a rewards network, right? (Based on
their Twitter, <https://twitter.com/kiip>) I don't know they are into creating
games too.

Oh well, will download and try it. I like their founder, Brian Wong.

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bryn
Lovely little game, and nicely designed, but as someone with red-green colour
blindness I'm having a really frustrating time distinguishing between the
green and orange squares. It'd be a lot easier if you increased the
contrast/luminescence between the two colours.

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grantland
I'm planning on adding a color blind mode in the future that does something
like this, hold tight!

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braco_alva
Great design, very simple yet entertaining. If I may ask, how much time did
you spend making it?

~~~
grantland
Thanks! This was done over the span of 2 months of on and off development.

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imslavko
Nice game! Reminds me old times playing Lines[0] on Windows 95 on my aunt's
computer

[0]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Lines>

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Falling3
Really great design and a nice face lift to a classic game. My only complaint
is no local high score board - or at least tracking of the top score.

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grantland
Thanks! High scores will be in a future release, I promise!

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heyadam
Love how smooth and minimal the design is. Great work.

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RaSoJo
I downloaded it shortly before an office party....And i spent the entire party
playing the game. It is real neat!!!

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tzury
I get:Your device is not compatible with this version. I have a Samsung Galaxy
of previous generation.

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grantland
Sorry, it's 4.0+ at the moment. I'm hoping to open it up to 2.3+ in the
future!

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ychung
This is the best game I've played on Android. Just wish that I could get more
Kiip rewards in it...

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harsh2327
This is not compatible with Ginger Bread... you will loose lots of potential
downloaders.

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illyism
I'm sure there is a reason for this. But it indeed is something OP may want to
consider. Gingerbread is almost 50% market share.

Source: <http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html>

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obviouslygreen
As simple as the graphics are, I'd wonder whether it couldn't have been done
another way. You're definitely right, not targeting 2.3+ is kind of a big
deal.

The game is very decent, though; runs very well on the Nexus 7, solid
gameplay, nice mechanics.

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olegbl
Looks like a great game! Any plans for a windows phone version? ;)

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kdude63
This looks great. Now I just need an android to play it on. :c

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bahman2000
It's like a quieter version of candy crush, awesome!

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nasir
This is an interesting well designed app. Congrats

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guelo
The advertising "rewards" are a bit much.

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deadfall
I love you, grantland.

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grantland
<3

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wafflus
its pretty

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stefantalpalaru
Are you 6 years old, autistic or female?

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scapa
can you open source this?

