We just finished building an app called Slice to Unlock for OSX. We are actually really worried that the concept is so far fetched that users simply will have a hard time digesting the functionality. As developers we always dream about creating that great new idea that is going to make us extremely wealthy and famous. In the real world new ideas usually are a real tough sell in any marketplace. If any market can digest new shiny concepts it has to be the app stores and the instant audience they provide. Not having to knock on doors with your concept is definitely an added bonus that makes bringing the new to life a lot easier. New ideas still need to be simple. This statement is what makes finding the new so hard. Others are capable of thinking and inventing the obvious. Simple concepts usually create a crowded arena of ideas that have already been implemented in respect to the same subject matter. Finding the new is just the first step in a long process of getting a concept and its' purpose understood. Maybe aquarium,fireplace, wallpaper, mirror and flashlight apps are the better way to go even though Apple is reluctant to to approve them now.
??? new creative idea? slice to unlock..??? here are a few more.. free of charge , maybe the million seller is with them squeeze to unlock rotate to unlock pinch to unlock guess to unlock voodoo to unlock shake to unlock push to unlock dance to unlock stroke to unlock unlock to unlock open to unlock some of thoose concepts may be too shiny and missunderstood by potential customers but ..well.. uff..
Thanks Mr.Ugly your list will really help. You missed Fold to Unlock we have that built for IOS already. We will build it for OSX now. The great thing is while you are moaning and being sarcastic we are building, planning, scheming, making money, having fun and moving forward on many fronts. I always love how you judge everything straight off the cuff with absolutely no knowledge of what was involved for example to build Slice to Unlock. It was a bitch to build. The end result is hidden behind a simple interface. Believe me it didn't take two days to build as you always presume.
so what.. it did not take 2 days..? yes so.. most apps take alot longer.. then of course fold to unlock is not even genuine idea of yourself.. like you bragged about.. so no cookies for this..? and of course its not on the list because you already "made" it.. still no cookie of course are are allowed to earn your money the way you want.. but you yourself pull the bad light onto you more than once.. for me this thread did not make much sense.. there needs to be a point ? a core value that can be discussed.. but i did not see one.. then of course its always nice to chit chat with you because our design philosphies cant be more different i am really looking forward to see you guys evolve and do better stuff.. maybe something usefull next time and no fake gimick apps.. if you get your million i hope you share the money with your poor indians.. cheers mate and good luck creating the biggest series of "unlock" products!
if i had to make a discussion from this thread it would be that your apps lack character, while its all very good for the game to be functional and play well people as a whole judge a book by its cover. if we take a large portion of your catalogue, say the dice section and compare them you can see that they all follow the same drab colour schemes and interface. adding a theme doesn't change the core mechanics or gameplay it just sets it apart from the competition. jungles, ocean, wildwest, medieval, anything is better than nothing. Triple Town under the bonnet is a complicated match-3, in its prototypes there would of been only placeholders, perhaps different shapes. I firmly believe that if it didn't have such a bizarre and different premise than the rest of the bunch then people wouldn't of bothered with it. aesthetics brought the masses to play, good gameplay keeps them playing. The Video below might seem obvious but alot of developers skip what i think is a very important selling point of a game, the polish. as an end note i would avoid naming an app 'X to unlock' buyers often get discouraged with certain words, word association counts for alot with IAP clouding out the market.
Are you kidding me?? Absolutely not true! You could totally apply a ton of those 'juicing' examples in the video to your number puzzles and turn it into a very exciting experience! I see no difference between a number puzzle app and a word puzzle app when it comes to potential for making it exciting, and look at all the creativity and "juiciness" that you see in the more popular word puzzle apps! Particles, explosions, shaking, bouncing, wiggling, squishing... give it a cute character that watches your movements and cheers you on (look at Wooga's games for an example of this). Give it a story that unlocks as you play, maybe a cute creature is trying to become the puzzle champion or something so he can get the girl... Str8ts Adventure, Super Str8ts, Str8ts quest... the possibilities are endless! If you can't make a number puzzle interesting, then you need to look at the basics of game design philosophy and play more games to educate yourself on what is possible! p.s. I don't understand, I'm sure you have your reasons but... You were able to impress the Sharks with your Str8ts idea, why aren't you pursuing it more as a brand on iOS?
well i agree with waffle here.. there is alot one can do if one is willing to.. but then of course you are limited to your own creativity.. and there lies the problem.. would you offer a big collection of rather "bland" tools, where most of them are not even unique in any way? use the same function and repackage them as something new? write fake reviews across your hole product line? there is a difference between game developer on this board who strive for something better and for devs who create "generica" to cash in as much money as fast as possible.. mass over quality.. real creativity is alot of work
Are you guys kidding? I am working on endless concepts from creating eye care for the poor to new concepts for batteries. As for all the bells and whistles for Standalone puzzles we prefer the concept to speak louder than the noise made by flashing lights and sound effects. My latest word game Letterlicious will be going live shortly. Zero juices just you and the letters. No need for noise. Anyways "Slice to Unlock" just went live http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slice-to-unlock/id538395596?mt=12 It was a lot of work. No idea why Mr Ugly always presumes our apps are so easy to build.
I dont believe Mr Ugly was saying that at all. You guys really need to think outside the box and create longer and more exciting games, or in your case, apps with greater functional purpose. That will help you get more income and also more respect as a developer from others in the industry. If you continue to release the quality of apps that you have released in the past, you will never break out of the spiral
I agree we can do better and we are now working closer towards Apples parameters. For Utility style Apps it is a very different Ball game, We find less is more. If you can hide the entire functionality of an app behind a super simple UI your chances of success especially on the Mac are a lot higher. At the moment judging by the customer feedback we are dealing with daily the "new" Apple user (an absolute army) are baby boomers that have finally switched over to Mac. So the conflict for a mac developer is to service die hard mac experts and newbies at the same time. It is very tough.
