Hey HN, I’m the solo dev of FuseCells (logic grid puzzle for iOS).
A previous Show HN gave me a nice spike, and I’m trying to decide what to prioritize next.
App Store Connect (roughly 6 weeks):
~10.4K impressions
~3.1K product page views
~813 downloads
~10% conversion
~$137 Proceeds, ~$2.8 per paying user
~2.65 sessions per active device
If this were your app, what would you focus on first:
1. onboarding/tutorial clarity,
2. retention loops (daily challenge, streaks, reminders),
3. store page experiments (PPO/A-B),
4. monetization/pricing?
Would love any blunt advice / heuristics / benchmarks.
Technical notes on Daily Challenge + Leaderboards (Game Center):
Daily Challenge is a deterministic puzzle-of-the-day: I rotate a fixed daily level (or seed → level index) on a UTC-day boundary, so everyone plays the same puzzle worldwide.
For leaderboards I’m using Apple Game Center (GKLeaderboard). Score is based on a simple, transparent metric (e.g. moves/steps/time) and the puzzle rules are deterministic (no RNG), so runs are comparable.
Implementation details:
- A compact level encoding (grid size + constraints) → fast load + consistent replay
- Local validation of moves + completion (no “guessing” solutions)
- A lightweight caching layer so the daily puzzle loads instantly and works well even with spotty connectivity
- If you’re curious, I can share how I estimate difficulty using a solver step-count and how I prevent daily challenge “desync” across time zones/devices.
Happy to answer any questions about Game Center setup / leaderboard scoring / daily rotation strategy.
This is exactly the feeling I was aiming for.
FuseCells was designed around quiet progress rather than competition — small visual confirmations that you’re improving, even if no one else is watching.
It’s interesting how little it takes (a light, a completed grid) to trigger that “just one more” mindset.
About a week ago I released a small handcrafted logic puzzle game on iOS, mostly as an experiment in puzzle design.
So far, a bit over 1,000 people have tried it, with ~350 daily active players, which was more than I expected for a niche logic game without ads or paid promotion.
A few observations that surprised me:
– Handcrafted levels seem to keep engagement higher than I anticipated. Players tend to retry difficult levels multiple times instead of churning.
– Difficulty spikes are noticed immediately. Even small inconsistencies in rules cause frustration.
– Many players prefer deterministic puzzles with no guessing, even if they are harder.
I originally designed the game as a personal challenge: could I scale a clean, deterministic rule set to thousands of puzzles without procedural generation?
I’m curious how others here think about puzzle difficulty, fairness, and player retention in logic-heavy games.
Good point! what I meant is that the engine is lightweight and runs well even on older hardware.
And yes, I’m working on Android and a Web version so more people can try it.
App Store Connect (roughly 6 weeks): ~10.4K impressions ~3.1K product page views ~813 downloads ~10% conversion ~$137 Proceeds, ~$2.8 per paying user ~2.65 sessions per active device
If this were your app, what would you focus on first: 1. onboarding/tutorial clarity, 2. retention loops (daily challenge, streaks, reminders), 3. store page experiments (PPO/A-B), 4. monetization/pricing?
Would love any blunt advice / heuristics / benchmarks.