Monthly Archives: December 2008

Figuring out the AppStore with Poker Stacks.

Well, its 10 days later and I still am trying to play this AppStore game. I just submitted the first new update that I mentioned which addresses a couple of the main suggestions I have heard. The main problem that I’ve noticed is that you simply need to understand the 4 rules of gameplay to fully catch on and completely enjoy the game. This is also true on games that have caught on like Trism. I did stress this in the AppStore description but now I decided to make the help instructions show the first time you play the game. I also made the help 3 pages so it has bigger text and has a page for poker hand cheats.

I added to the game a new ‘speed’ game mode as that was the favorite part of the game by some of the beta testers who reached it (about level 9 in the regular game). I also added a ‘Hard’ difficulty as the early levels are just not a strain with the amount of time you have once you have played it quite a bit. And finally a pause button is now available on the game play screen and the hand selecting and sliding was improved.

 I also submitted a ‘Lite’ version that removes the new settings for difficulty and game mode and only allows 3 levels. We’ll see if having a ‘trial’ type program really does spark sales. I am a firm believer in Trial versions, so I guess in following the AppStore rules, this is how they want to handle it.

 I had submitted the game to numerous review sites and did get a couple really good reviews but none of the game specific sites decided to cover it(yet?).  In fairness there are a TON of big ‘name’ games coming out right now, though less so right when it came out. At this point it appears that unless you had already built up the hype and are a ‘version 2’, or your developer is a big name like Atari or ngmoco, or your game is 3d, well you don’t quite get as much of a nod… Somewhat understandable, but it does make it hard to get any kind of ‘internet buzz’. I have done promotion code giveaways and google ads and other promotions, and have good reviews from customers who did purchase it. So… hopefully with my new upcoming submissions and the Lite version and more promoting I can turn this thing up.    

And the one true way to get more sales on the AppStore is to get sales. Make the Top100 list and your golden. Swim up there with all the good releases coming out and you’ve done something.  And with Apple controlling the prime ad and feature spots in AppStore and those mostly reserved for the same big names, its hard to figure out the real tricks.

 It definitely is a different game…

Poker Stacks behind the scenes.

Well our first original game for iPhone and iPod Touch was released this weekend and we are very excited about it. It actually was a title that we had planned for Windows Mobile, but the initial designs for the gameplay just never seemed right so it was backburnered. Well Thursday night November 13th I couldnt sleep so started thinking about the game again and came up with a couple ideas that were inspired from a friend of mine’s game Alpha and a few other games from iPhone I had tried. Most of the game mechanics just seemed to make sense so I wrote them down and the next day, I was working on getting the engine up and running and the tiles needed to give it a try using the game engine for Tri-Peaks. I changed a few little mechanic things in the Alpha during initial play testing, and turns out it is SUPER FUN…

 

 Because of some really interesting discussions I have had with some users I will go into my design philosophy, which I do bounce off multiple people in the process… Basically, I want this game to appeal to Casual Puzzle game fans. They are my first priority, not people who love poker, though it will appeal to them too!  But really you dont need to be good at poker, you just need to know and be comfortable with the poker hands in order to play, and we can teach you those.

So the look and feel and game play of Poker Stacks was designed for:

  • Keeping Casual game lovers in mind. Bright colors, nice clean graphics, and some neat animations(with a few more coming in updates) but nothing that you really feel you have to wait for, or that are distracting to get in the way of gameplay.
  • Easy processing. This game can start out a little overwhelming to begin with. But then if you have to stare at a tile and read it like a playing card that is going to cause brain fatigue real fast. This way it uses the Standard 4 color deck colors and lets you actually process the suit based mainly only on the color. Like Gems. 
  • Its all about game play. It offers some neat strategy moves and things based on the current rules that you really only figure out as you play it more.. But you can pick it up, and just start swapping and matching Pairs right off the bat.

A little more on development. This game was brought to life between Nov. 14th and Dec. 1st. The only reason this was possible is because I had the existing framework from my other iPhone games and existing code and ideas from the Windows Mobile design and my other poker games.  I was able to plug in a Poker Hand and Deck C++ class, re-design the tiles to the new size and the backdrop, use the title screen, help screen, timer bar, persistance, sound, high score system, and everything right out of my engine. It was fun!!

 But… I want to build onto this game so I am promoting it very heavily so that if it actually doing well I can allocate more time to it. I have many ideas for its future, and I know I have a fun game, but I do realize that right now the AppStore is kind of a mess, so it may get passed over and ignored . I’m working hard so that doesn’t happen and am committed to making the game better. So help me out and if you like the game tell your friends or the web about it, give me a good review, send me suggestions… Whatever you can…

I am currently working on an update that will fix a bug or two and show the instructions, probably in a better format, the first time you play the game. I also have plans on getting a pause button in, and possibly a couple other game modes and redesigning the engine for easier navigation. I do plan on doing Online High scores and a few other things soon as well… But I guess I shouldn’t give it all away…

Enjoy…

 

Oh, and Im definitely not against bringing it to Windows Mobile and Desktop… So if it proves popular…

December Now…

Hi.

  Just wanted to apologize to everyone who tried to access our site in the last couple weeks. I notified my host(Yahoo) that my site was down on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and well, it just finally came back up almost 2 weeks later. I still havent confirmed if it was a script or a Hacker attack, but they said I was getting way too much traffic so something was going on and the server automatically shut down. Im sorry, but that should then be one of the first things you look at when diagnosing and get it back up sooner! Anyway, it was  a little ridiculious how it was handled…But hopefully Im back for good now…  Thank you to all who showed concern for Birdsoft when finding the site down…

  As you can see by the site Ive been busy, and continue to be busy.. Poker Stacks for iPhone released yesterday, and I plan to do another blog entry on the design and development process for it and what’s planned. I also had released Metal Euchre for iPhone a few weeks ago. I just finished up and released a ListWatch update that changes the interface including giving it the WM5+ 2 button menus, and I lowered the price on it down to $4.95. Ill be trying to do that kind of thing to give some exceptional value at lower price points on the WM side(Metal Euchre for WM is also only $4.95). 

Now Im trying to promote Poker Stacks and doing a tiny update to it, as well as working on Extreme Text and Extreme Agenda updates. So, Im super busy…

Thanks and Happy Holidays…

 

Birdsoft