At a basic level, it was "Money Idol Exchanger" (an old arcade game my girlfriend really wanted on her iPad) meets 2048.
I have no idea where the link mechanic game from. The game needed more constraints on how pieces could be moved, and that idea just popped into my head one day.
Just tested it with my laptop. I was thinking "This is one of those games that works best with a touchscreen." Then I saw that it's available for iOS and Android and went to get it. Btw, when you search for "twenty" on Google Play this app is not the first result. Does Google Play have any SEO options to get you higher on the list?
Getting downloads will help me. I'm already pretty easy to find on the iOS appstore (due to the app having more downloads), but having a common word as a name makes the initial release harder.
Thanks, I'm actually a little bit proud of them because the combination sound effects actually form a little chord progression all the way up to Twenty.
That was great until I discovered I was allowed to drag things out from under other things. IMHO the game is a lot more fun if you're under that constraint! Maybe call it "hard mode"...
It would turn into 2048 pretty quickly. Obviously the game mechanics are different, but siding two like numbed together is pretty much Threes and by extension 2048 all over.
I must admit I agonised over that initial wording many times over. In the end I said "drop" because many first time players didn't realise it was gravity-oriented and that was just enough of a hint.
It was somewhat by-design that there are a few "secret" mechanics to be discovered.
See, I actually started thinking in 3 dimensions when I read that comment -- like dragging and dropping files, for instance. I didn't realize that they would block each other until a few levels in.
A few people have said they are keen to play without a timer. The iOS app does have a "Zen" mode (along with a few other variations) but I'm actually thinking of building a separate game where the modes are all turn-based. The hardest thing is thinking of a good name that both associates it and distinguishes it from this game.
I'd enjoy playing without a timer, but with the stack rising after every N moves that don't make a combination. That would force an economy of movement: how can I not only throw this block out of the way, but combine it with something so that it doesn't cause the stack to rise?
First of all it's a really great game! I spend a couple of hours today and finally reached 20!!! HOORAY!
Regarding the name maybe try TwentyRun for time mode and TwentyCalm/Fun for the Zen mode?
Seconded. I like to play simple games in short intervals of spare time, like when I'm waiting for a bus. 2048 was perfect for this purpose. Play for 30 seconds, get distracted, pick up 6 hours later and play for another minute or two.
There has already been one, in fact (on Android). Copied my icon, the look and feel, etc. Fortunately the guy was pretty cool about it and removed it once I asked him
1. Love the tutorial, super simple and I loved how you introduced harder concepts like linking blocks later on.
2. The objective is clear and challenging right from the get-go, as opposed to introducing levels, the game just naturally kind of gets harder.
3. After introducing the timer that's when I was like "oh shit just got real" and I felt that pressure made it more fun
You think you've done a bunch of things right here. Nice work.
This game is really great! I think we have the next 2048 upon us. In my few tries I can't get past 15, which makes me keep wanting to do it one more time.
The increasing difficulty to get to higher numbers with the randomness of high-number drops makes the game exciting and the timer makes it frantic.
I look forward to trying two-player mode. Stealing blocks from the opponent is a great mechanic!
The one suggestion I can make is to give high-number blocks (15+?) something to make them stand out, similar to how 2048 indicated higher numbers. The sound effects throughout the game are great!
Thanks so much, I can't tell you how good it is to hear nice things after spending so many evenings fine-tuning everything.
As to your suggestion, you make a good point. It was very hard to come up with 20 distinct colours (let alone 30, as one of the iOS-only modes requires!) and maybe something extra is required.
Adding my congratulations to the others here, especially with regards to how finely-tuned everything is. The art, sound and concept are all great, and I'm sure my problem with the difficulty is down to my lack of skill :-)
Just in case you hadn't managed to get one for testing, I can confirm the game plays perfectly (and is highly addictive) on a Surface Pro 2 using the touch-screen :-)
I don't think that's fair. It's a fun time waster, similar to 2048. I didn't enjoy 2048 very much, but others loved it and it boomed. This game has the potential to perform very well, too, in my opinion. I'm almost certain it'll go viral in the coming days.
I probably won't play solo that much and I'll probably only play the multiplayer a few times. I'm not too into mobile games or small games. Regardless, I think it's a winner.
It's c++ with SDL and as little platform-specific code as I can get away with. eg. low latency audio on Android was impossible using stock SDL.
The web version was originally a straight recompile with emscripten but it was way too slow so it's a hybrid approach where the board engine is emscripten and the UI is rewritten with HTML/canvas.
Not at all! This is a mobile game and getting 60 FPS on mobile in a browser is not trivial, even with graphics as simple as these. But natively? Ridiculously easy.
I was able to get 20 by obsessively combining small tiles first, but just barely. The biggest problem is the rows that calcify and lock together if you don't actively try and break bonds.
The bonds only form with new tiles emerging from the bottom, so it's best to keep the bottom as clear as possible. Also, the timer will skip ahead to a new row if there are no immediate moves left, so it's best to maximize the number of possible moves.
The best strategy I've found is to build two towers on either edge of the board. One tower is reserved for #1-9, and the other side is reserved for 10-19. I aggressively clear the bottom and break any links, and then I optimize the storage of my towers. There's only enough space for stacks 8 high, however, so sometimes I need to make a third stack in the middle (ideally with 9, 10, and 11). I've gotten as high as 20x8 on iOS this way, but it takes some luck.
Interesting! I converged to (almost) the same strategy (I just frantically keep #1-9 at one end (1 column with overshoot to a seconds or third), and #10-19 at the other and try breaking bonds asap). It got me to my first 20.
I'd love to try this with the ability to 'throw' tiles around, so they maintain some velocity after letting go of them. Obviously they'd still have to snap to the grid but it would be cool to be able to chuck a tile from one side of the screen to the other.
Looking forward seeing the app climb -- I wonder how high this will climb on category ranks? Right now it looks like you've gotten a couple of thousand of downloads on iOS (spike in russia), a couple of hundred on Android. It will be exciting to see the app explode!
I really like these kinds of games where the ideal strategy is exactly the opposite of the seemingly obvious play. In my few tries it appears that the ideal strategy is to ensure that you create the lowest number of unique numbers that you can, rather than racing toward the goal of 20. If you create a few high numbers early, you are courting disaster later in the game because you won't be able to combine them.
169 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 220 ms ] threadI have no idea where the link mechanic game from. The game needed more constraints on how pieces could be moved, and that idea just popped into my head one day.
I didn't realize until halfway through the first game that you could combine tiles laterally without having to pick them up off've the stack.
Great idea for a game.
It was somewhat by-design that there are a few "secret" mechanics to be discovered.
EDIT: What the heck, you might as well have a look at it. This prototype is older and maybe buggy but you get the idea:
http://twenty.frenchguys.net/play2
However - that game is much better, in my opinion. Thanks for letting us try it out!
Kudos and well done! :)
Cool game!
1. Love the tutorial, super simple and I loved how you introduced harder concepts like linking blocks later on. 2. The objective is clear and challenging right from the get-go, as opposed to introducing levels, the game just naturally kind of gets harder. 3. After introducing the timer that's when I was like "oh shit just got real" and I felt that pressure made it more fun
You think you've done a bunch of things right here. Nice work.
The increasing difficulty to get to higher numbers with the randomness of high-number drops makes the game exciting and the timer makes it frantic.
I look forward to trying two-player mode. Stealing blocks from the opponent is a great mechanic!
The one suggestion I can make is to give high-number blocks (15+?) something to make them stand out, similar to how 2048 indicated higher numbers. The sound effects throughout the game are great!
As to your suggestion, you make a good point. It was very hard to come up with 20 distinct colours (let alone 30, as one of the iOS-only modes requires!) and maybe something extra is required.
Just in case you hadn't managed to get one for testing, I can confirm the game plays perfectly (and is highly addictive) on a Surface Pro 2 using the touch-screen :-)
I probably won't play solo that much and I'll probably only play the multiplayer a few times. I'm not too into mobile games or small games. Regardless, I think it's a winner.
The web version was originally a straight recompile with emscripten but it was way too slow so it's a hybrid approach where the board engine is emscripten and the UI is rewritten with HTML/canvas.
I am just curious. What engine and development tools did you use? If I like a game, I want to know the backend tools that was used for developing.
I was able to get 20 by obsessively combining small tiles first, but just barely. The biggest problem is the rows that calcify and lock together if you don't actively try and break bonds.
The best strategy I've found is to build two towers on either edge of the board. One tower is reserved for #1-9, and the other side is reserved for 10-19. I aggressively clear the bottom and break any links, and then I optimize the storage of my towers. There's only enough space for stacks 8 high, however, so sometimes I need to make a third stack in the middle (ideally with 9, 10, and 11). I've gotten as high as 20x8 on iOS this way, but it takes some luck.
But I would suggest renaming it "16". That way I can feel better about performance.
This game is addictive.
https://sensortower.com/ios/us/stephen-french/app/twenty/882...
Great concept and execution!