Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by jobvandervoort on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @07:02AM
(#8556113)
Looks great. The name got me thinking about App discovery however.
I search for 'Balls' and got many hits, most irrelevant and uninteresting.
Then I searched for the exact title of your app and got about 13k hits. None of the first 100 which was your app. I downloaded it through iTunes eventually.
That makes me wonder: how do you promote (iOS) app discovery? There are plenty of analytics startups for this, but is anyone trying to improve this process?
edit: Searched around for curated app websites / stores. There are some, but lack in depth and quality. I'm starting my own.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by kolinko on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @08:21AM
(#8556334)
yeah, the search kinda sucks. for app discovery there's xyo.net and there used to be chomp.com - the latter one was bought by Apple, but it might be worth for you to review their story.
now, on the developer's side there are also dedicated tools for app store seo - for finding good phrases and keywords to use for positioning, and for tracking your position. That's AppCodes.com . you might also want to check out some of my slides here: slideshare.net/kolinko . we've outlined the search basics over there.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by keesj on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @08:24AM
(#8556350)
Interesting to see so many people having problems finding the app. What's wrong with clicking the 'App Store' button and downloading it from iTunes? You can configure your iPhone to then automatically download it.
Serious question. I'm sure you all have some good reasons to not use iTunes and wanting to download it from your phone. Curious to hear what those reasons are.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by cpwright on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:02AM
(#8556498)
Why would I want iTunes on my computer? I installed it only after losing and finding my phone to restore the phone; and it is annoying. It always pops up music whenever I plug my phone into charge. It also did some nonsense Outlook integration.
I never buy media through iTunes, I always use Amazon; so iTunes provides little, if any value on an ongoing basis.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by calvin_c on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:14AM
(#8556546)
I use iTunes as my primary media collection, between iTunes Radio, Movies and TV I buy or rent, and even drop in videos from other sources so that I can AirPlay to my AppleTV. I don't sync my iPhone, but I use Automatic Downloading for music and videos, which is very convenient. This works because I can listen to those songs or watch those movies on my Mac or my iOS devices, so it's worthwhile to have it in my library. That is not the case with iOS apps, which take up space on my SSD and offer no functionality. So yeah, I usually resort to texting myself links to Apps to avoid downloading them from iTunes.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by keesj on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:46AM
(#8556679)
Fair enough. Never considered the disk space it occupies. Would be nice if the automatic downloading would work without downloading the app. (i.e. "Send to iPhone")
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by calvin_c on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @12:37PM
(#8557830)
It works that way for videos. If I purchase a movie from iTunes it gives me the options to download it or not. The movie is available to stream (actually watch while it downloads, but the difference is indistinguishable) from other devices, so a similar option to avoid downloading the app into iTunes and get badges for updates would be nice.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by calvin_c on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @05:34PM
(#8559475)
Certainly, but my problem is that they then take up space on my computer and will put up a badge for app updates. I can guarantee that those apps will never be synced to a device.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by obviouslygreen on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @08:57AM
(#8556480)
There's nothing wrong with that for people who choose to use it that way. But it kills discoverability (well, more accurately, there is no discoverability) for people who may hear about it without being given the direct link to this particular site or the page itself and attempt to search for it, only to find... they're not really sure what.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by keesj on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:48AM
(#8556691)
Valid point on worth-of-mouth. Since the app is relatively new, it might take a while for it to rank. (Not sure that's how the App Store works, but can imagine the more downloads/reviews the higher it will rank for its keywords)
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by shubhamjain on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:23AM
(#8556591)
Stuff like this blows my mind - such simplicity and yet great elegance and feel. Although, as a programmer you are always surrounded by stuff which you feel is amazing and far beyond your capability but you still have an impression that you can still do the same, given you put an equivalent amount of work and passion.
However, designing something like this, seems like an innate ability of very creative people. I find myself far away, imagining something alike and putting it together.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by muxxa on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @07:20AM
(#8556162)
Well executed, original, emergent and possibly highly addictive!
I imagine you'd get the rotational equivalent of Tetris Syndrome after playing this for too long!
The gravity mechanism is cool and the number of colors appears to be about right.
Tweaks:
- I reached a point where the circle was almost full and then I got a lucky cascade whereby most of the circle was cleared. Unfortunately this must have levelled-me-up as the difficulty (speed and frequency of ball entry) suddenly increased and it was game over pretty soon. Maybe you could implement a limit on the maximum rate of increase of difficulty, so that it eventually reaches the same level of hardness, but at a slower rate.
- I had no inkling of what the 'special' balls did, I imagine they cause something of a cascade. Could you implement a 'slow-mo' effect when they explode, whereby the action is paused and it can become clear what the hell is going on. This would also give welcome breathing room as the action can be quite unrelenting.
- add a cascading popping, bubble wrap effect (sound + appearance) to the balls for some additional addictiveness
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by ivanpashenko on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @07:50AM
(#8556254)
Nice feedback, thanks a lot!
Special balls are bombs. When you burst set of balls with a bomb it explode all balls of the same color on a stage. Slow-mo indeed could help with the explanation. I'll think about it.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by chrisBob on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @08:31AM
(#8556369)
Balls has an interesting game play that I haven't seen before. The physics work very well.
My only issue is that there is no option to remove the sound and haptic feedback. I know a lot of people think the sound is an important part of a game, but I probably won't play again until there is an option to turn that off.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by bliti on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:40AM
(#8556649)
Very nice twist on the Bust a Move[0] gameplay. It reminds me of something that the creator of flappy bird said about how he looks to develop games that can be played with one hand while waiting. The name, though, is not very good. Given that "Balls" is a generic word that is hard to search for and it can also be interpreted as inappropriate.
How hard was it to learn Swift without much programming experience? I've had more than a little trouble figuring it out, mainly due to the cryptic error codes, but also because I just want to write Objective-C or use NSString or type @{} when I should be using String and [:] and all that.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by axx on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @07:55AM
(#8556265)
Wow, great game! I can image this being a hit on the app store. Sometimes the rotation feels a little awkward, but with a bit more polish this could be a huge hit.
I also think, that it's getting too hard too fast. You should tweak the "difficulty curve" a little bit :)
BUT, it's _really_ hard to find. I had to search for your company to have a chance. (German App Store) Renaming it could be a wise decision.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by ivanpashenko on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @09:09AM
(#8556526)
Thanks!
When the rotation feels awkward?
I see the issue with a search in the App Store, but I have no clue why this is happening. It shows the name in search suggestions, but when I'm clicking on it, there is no my app in the results. Any idea why?
Worddata has lots of great articles about ASO. There are tools out there that show you if your chosen keywords are highly competitive and should be replaced with less popular keywords so you have a chance at showing in search results.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by newtquestgames on Wednesday November 05, 2014 @11:46AM
(#8562694)
Possibly because your title contains popular keywords so your game is still in a large list. Balls Falls or Balls Blitz might do better. From what I've read so far about ASO I think it's all about individual keywords not phrases.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by pimlottc on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @02:44PM
(#8558616)
Looks neat but please don't forget about colorblind people. Adding additional distinguishing features like textures, patterns, borders, etc will make the colors easier to distiguish for all users.
Re:Show HN: Balls – Game I’ve made while I was learning Swift
by goshx on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @12:05PM
(#8557591)
That's very nice! I am in the process of learning it as well.
When the balls "disappear", do you simply set them as alpha = 0 or actually remove them from the view?
I search for 'Balls' and got many hits, most irrelevant and uninteresting.
Then I searched for the exact title of your app and got about 13k hits. None of the first 100 which was your app. I downloaded it through iTunes eventually.
That makes me wonder: how do you promote (iOS) app discovery? There are plenty of analytics startups for this, but is anyone trying to improve this process?
edit: Searched around for curated app websites / stores. There are some, but lack in depth and quality. I'm starting my own.
now, on the developer's side there are also dedicated tools for app store seo - for finding good phrases and keywords to use for positioning, and for tracking your position. That's AppCodes.com . you might also want to check out some of my slides here: slideshare.net/kolinko . we've outlined the search basics over there.
Serious question. I'm sure you all have some good reasons to not use iTunes and wanting to download it from your phone. Curious to hear what those reasons are.
I never buy media through iTunes, I always use Amazon; so iTunes provides little, if any value on an ongoing basis.
It seems pretty basic. When I type the exact name of a product on Amazon, I expect it to come up right away. And it does!
This is exactly what came to my mind, as i added more terms to the search, to whittle down the results.
Add me to your list (email in profile). :)
Love the game! Great job.
However, designing something like this, seems like an innate ability of very creative people. I find myself far away, imagining something alike and putting it together.
Do you use only UIKit components (like UIView with UIKitDynamics) or are you using SpriteKit/Coco2D?
I'm impressed with the quality of your app/game, I'll be even more impressed if you don't use any game related libraries.
I imagine you'd get the rotational equivalent of Tetris Syndrome after playing this for too long!
The gravity mechanism is cool and the number of colors appears to be about right.
Tweaks:
- I reached a point where the circle was almost full and then I got a lucky cascade whereby most of the circle was cleared. Unfortunately this must have levelled-me-up as the difficulty (speed and frequency of ball entry) suddenly increased and it was game over pretty soon. Maybe you could implement a limit on the maximum rate of increase of difficulty, so that it eventually reaches the same level of hardness, but at a slower rate.
- I had no inkling of what the 'special' balls did, I imagine they cause something of a cascade. Could you implement a 'slow-mo' effect when they explode, whereby the action is paused and it can become clear what the hell is going on. This would also give welcome breathing room as the action can be quite unrelenting.
- add a cascading popping, bubble wrap effect (sound + appearance) to the balls for some additional addictiveness
Special balls are bombs. When you burst set of balls with a bomb it explode all balls of the same color on a stage. Slow-mo indeed could help with the explanation. I'll think about it.
My only issue is that there is no option to remove the sound and haptic feedback. I know a lot of people think the sound is an important part of a game, but I probably won't play again until there is an option to turn that off.
[0]http://www.neo-geo.com/reviews/neo-reviews/bust-a-move/bust-...
How hard was it to learn Swift without much programming experience? I've had more than a little trouble figuring it out, mainly due to the cryptic error codes, but also because I just want to write Objective-C or use NSString or type @{} when I should be using String and [:] and all that.
Is it open source?
I also think, that it's getting too hard too fast. You should tweak the "difficulty curve" a little bit :)
BUT, it's _really_ hard to find. I had to search for your company to have a chance. (German App Store) Renaming it could be a wise decision.
When the rotation feels awkward?
I see the issue with a search in the App Store, but I have no clue why this is happening. It shows the name in search suggestions, but when I'm clicking on it, there is no my app in the results. Any idea why?
Worddata has lots of great articles about ASO. There are tools out there that show you if your chosen keywords are highly competitive and should be replaced with less popular keywords so you have a chance at showing in search results.
P.S. Nice game!
Disclosure: My site
tinyurl.com/colorassign
http://www.h4labs.com/dev/ios/swift.html
I think this is probably the best place to start.
http://www.raywenderlich.com
http://www.LearnSwift.tips
[1]: http://stackoverflow.com/q/24001778