We are pleased to announce our first major iOS app, Sudoku Touch. You may be asking, what makes this Sudoku special so here are 3 points:
1. It has the simplest and most intuitive interface of any Sudoku application on any platform incorporating advanced handwriting recognition and gestures. To enter an answer it's as simple as selecting the cell and drawing a number on the screen. It can't be easier!
2. It has a beautiful design with Retina graphics on iPhone and iPad and an extremely high attention to detail. Basically, every other Sudoku on iOS looks like they were designed on the back of a napkin when compared to it. We hope you find it as eye pleasing as we do.
3. You're supporting eSports. The app is a tiny 99c, a third the cost of a cup of coffee, but unlike coffee after the first use it won't have disappeared. In fact, if you're careful, you can use it for an entire lifetime!
So please, spread the word about our great little app by tweeting, Facebooking or emailing so that people young and old can experience the way Sudoku is meant to be played. We promise they won't be disappointed. Thanks in advance!
By the way, Shiny Things is a new sub-brand of The Little App Factory that is exclusively making mobile apps.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
Yeah I understand this point, there is so much content in Google play right now it's rediculous... But yeah, sadly I can't contribute to this other than mentioning about it to a few friends etc. as I don't have an iPhone/iPad myself. I wish you the best of luck anyways!
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
Yeah I understand this point, there is so much content in Google play right now it's rediculous... But yeah, sadly I can't contribute to this other than mentioning about it to a few friends etc. as I don't have an iPhone/iPad myself. I wish you the best of luck anyways!
I'd love to have this myself, but alas, I only have a terrible Android phone Looks amazing though, great job on it! Sudoku is one of the most fun timewasters I know of.
On May 28 2012 07:33 KristofferAG wrote: I'd love to have this myself, but alas, I only have a terrible Android phone Looks amazing though, great job on it! Sudoku is one of the most fun timewasters I know of.
Yeah sudoku is great, and this having the difficulty level 'evil' I think it would actually prove to be a challenge. But my android is not terrible, HTC phones are awesomesauce Edit: need to add that back when I was 5 in kindergarten I used to teach the other kids basic adding and substracting stuff so yeah, evil sounds like a challenge
This looks awesome! I have been waiting a long time for a good sudoku app, and now I get to support TL. And it even has iPad compatibility. I will buy this as soon as possible!
I'm loving the app so far. It's an intuitive system that I can't believe hasn't been done before. As a huge Sudoku fan, you've made my day much better (and my wallet a little lighter)! Excellent work!
Good job with the app. This is exactly what I was looking for. Not the dumb "Okay, hit the square. Then his the number. Wait, you forgot to select pencil. Okay you clicked on an app add while trying to hit pencil. Cancel back to the game. Hit pencil right this time. Select number. Okay next square"
Kid you not, this was my last sudoku app. This one is much better. Thanks! (And I donated some writing to another so I feel a special connection haha)
On May 28 2012 07:25 Heosat wrote: We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
Say what? Tens of thousands of dollars for someting so simple? I've hacked up a sudoku "app" in pure javascript in around 20 minutes before that can even solve the puzzles for you...
On May 28 2012 07:25 Heosat wrote: We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
Say what? Tens of thousands of dollars for someting so simple? I've hacked up a sudoku "app" in pure javascript in around 20 minutes before that can even solve the puzzles for you...
If you can port our app to Android in 20 mins, including the graphics, please let me know and I'll hire you immediately.
I've done the calculations and buying test devices alone would cost thousands of dollars, not to mention the time of an engineer and designer to get everything working properly.
I really like this! It's misread my numbers a few times but to be fair I was being messy about it. I'd like a few more tileset options though, the default feels a little dark on my screen brightness setting. I feel like the tiles need to be lighter for the darker numbers to show up more clearly.
On May 29 2012 05:43 taliana wrote: I really like this! It's misread my numbers a few times but to be fair I was being messy about it. I'd like a few more tileset options though, the default feels a little dark on my screen brightness setting. I feel like the tiles need to be lighter for the darker numbers to show up more clearly.
Thanks for the purchase and your feedback! We are going to improve the contrast of the dark numbers in the next release.
On May 29 2012 06:45 Heosat wrote: Thanks for the purchase and your feedback! We are going to improve the contrast of the dark numbers in the next release.
Great :D Looking forward to that then! Love the difficulty levels too by the way
On May 29 2012 08:02 hkf wrote: How is this supporting esports
you paid for an ad on tl, I get it.
I really don't think you get it. Liquid would not be where it is today without TLAF.
OOOH maybe make it more obvious that it's a TLAF product them, maybe logo at the top?
it looks pretty neat but unforturnately I has android
Yeah, I had to read the comments before I caught that; I had skimmed over it. A big logo would be far more effective, otherwise it just looks like a paid sponsorship ad, not a sponsor ad.
Would support if you had on Android, but I understand the cost problem :/
I don't really like Sudoku, and almost never buy apps for my ipad especially not game, but I'm considering buying it to support teamliquid. I wanted to buy TLAF products before but I unfortunately don't have a use for their products.
On May 29 2012 17:03 RoyalCheese wrote: Quite cool. What algorithm you guys using for the number detection - K-nearest neighbour? If you don't mind answering, of course
I don't know the specific method (we use a few) but I'll ask the primary developer for some more information tomorrow!
I am not a big fan of iPhones, but i may have to give in to apple in order to support TL, gonna have to wait for nov. though; phone contracts are always an issue :/.
Definitely love the way it looks though really wish i could try it out.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
We are developers too and don't belive that it is such expensive. Don't belive other developers, try to develop crossplatform. Android is making money too. You can try Amazon Appstore, because it is more viable. Also applications generate traffic, so you always can make free version on Android to bring people to your game.
Use crossplatform frameworks(like Unity3D or Corona for 2D).
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
We are developers too and don't belive that it is such expensive. Don't belive other developers, try to develop crossplatform. Android is making money too. You can try Amazon Appstore, because it is more viable. Also applications generate traffic, so you always can make free version on Android to bring people to your game.
Use crossplatform frameworks(like Unity3D or Corona for 2D).
Saying to not believe other developers is like ignoring potentially useful feedback about something you're not completely sure you want to invest time and money into. When making business decisions, you can't just blindly go "well screw what other people say. lets just do it" because I'd love to see how long you could last with that mentality to producing programs for new or unexplored platforms for your business.
Y Android is a waste of time cause they dont allow producers to spy poeple out so easy. You always have to sign that you want a app tracking you. So you cant sell personal data to companys as you can simply do with iphone apps....cause you were never asked if a iphone app is allowed to track and then sell your personal information. So I understand that so many are not interested in producing apps for android.
To who do you send my personal data if I would use this app? What does it Track?
For those of you that have bought it, don't forget to rate it in the app store!
I used to not bother rating apps, but after I got a job at a game developer for a little while, I was really surprised to discover how much a good iTunes rating can help the sales and support of a game/company. It's definitely worth the 30 seconds it takes you to rate the app to support TLAF and TL!
Oh wow, I just realized now that I have an iphone I can buy TLAF products. Always had an android before, and was sad I couldn't spend money on the stuff made by the people who support my favorite website.
I also like sudoku so it is a win win. Thanks guys!
Bought it yesterday. Evil mode is so mfking evil LOL. I guess my math skills aren't good enough. Managed to only get 4 stars on medium -_-... must conquer and get 5 stars. Was very fun to play. I'd recommend it to ppl esp at just 99 cents.
On May 30 2012 01:27 tadL wrote: Y Android is a waste of time cause they dont allow producers to spy poeple out so easy. You always have to sign that you want a app tracking you. So you cant sell personal data to companys as you can simply do with iphone apps....cause you were never asked if a iphone app is allowed to track and then sell your personal information. So I understand that so many are not interested in producing apps for android.
To who do you send my personal data if I would use this app? What does it Track?
On iOS apps cannot track anything without permission from the user so I'm not quite sure what you're on about.
We collect no personal information from our users. In fact, I don't even know who my users are, unlike on Android where I can see names, email addresses and other details.
I don't do sudokus really but for eSports and TL in particular I'll buy just about anything :D The app seems really intuitive - I'll definatly look out for more of your apps in the future!
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
We are developers too and don't belive that it is such expensive. Don't belive other developers, try to develop crossplatform. Android is making money too. You can try Amazon Appstore, because it is more viable. Also applications generate traffic, so you always can make free version on Android to bring people to your game.
Use crossplatform frameworks(like Unity3D or Corona for 2D).
Saying to not believe other developers is like ignoring potentially useful feedback about something you're not completely sure you want to invest time and money into. When making business decisions, you can't just blindly go "well screw what other people say. lets just do it" because I'd love to see how long you could last with that mentality to producing programs for new or unexplored platforms for your business.
We are working with iOS and Android and both platforms making money for us.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
We are developers too and don't belive that it is such expensive. Don't belive other developers, try to develop crossplatform. Android is making money too. You can try Amazon Appstore, because it is more viable. Also applications generate traffic, so you always can make free version on Android to bring people to your game.
Use crossplatform frameworks(like Unity3D or Corona for 2D).
Saying to not believe other developers is like ignoring potentially useful feedback about something you're not completely sure you want to invest time and money into. When making business decisions, you can't just blindly go "well screw what other people say. lets just do it" because I'd love to see how long you could last with that mentality to producing programs for new or unexplored platforms for your business.
We are working with iOS and Android and both platforms making money for us.
I note you're in the Ukraine. What's the average hourly cost of a designer and engineer in your country? I do believe we have a significant disadvantage in terms of labour costs.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
We are developers too and don't belive that it is such expensive. Don't belive other developers, try to develop crossplatform. Android is making money too. You can try Amazon Appstore, because it is more viable. Also applications generate traffic, so you always can make free version on Android to bring people to your game.
Use crossplatform frameworks(like Unity3D or Corona for 2D).
Saying to not believe other developers is like ignoring potentially useful feedback about something you're not completely sure you want to invest time and money into. When making business decisions, you can't just blindly go "well screw what other people say. lets just do it" because I'd love to see how long you could last with that mentality to producing programs for new or unexplored platforms for your business.
We are working with iOS and Android and both platforms making money for us.
I note you're in the Ukraine. What's the average hourly cost of a designer and engineer in your country? I do believe we have a significant disadvantage in terms of labour costs.
You could always outsource...
We've found that when doing creative work that out-sourcing often ends up costing us a similar amount of money whilst taking 2-3x longer on communication. There is no magic bullet when it comes to this field but from experience doing everything in-house where we can discuss things in person and do group QA provides the best results.
After all, our goal is to produce great products that delight our customers and make their lives easier, not to slap products across multiple platforms.
On a side note, I'm glad Kilgort mentioned Corona. Now, I have to decide if it's worth the time to become proficient in Objective C or just stick to C# via Monotouch and Lua via Corona. Especially since Objective C feels like a major regression in the expressiveness of a modern OO language...
On a side note bought the app and it's really well done. I'm surprised at how well you guys did the number input, was expecting it to be somewhat unreliable but it's actually very good.
I would get this because I love sudoku, but saddly I only have a crappy non-smart phone I will definitely tell all my relatives/friends who like sudoku to pick it up though.
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
then people without a clue spoke. on android you make money with google ads and just maybe offer a paid version without ads additonally. just put in in the menu or somewhere people wont get annoyed and no one will care. when your app hits a few hundred thousand dls, which quite many soduku apps on adroid already achieved and yours might be one of the best, you would make a shitload of money without your customers ever paying money. welcome to the world of google.
Bought the app and will definitely be recommending it to some friends that are in to a lot of Zynga apps. The future online play will definitely hook them :D
I mentioned the display of the red numbers to you on twitter and have since paid more attention to the star rating at the end, as well as the affect of bad moves on the time clock.
Now I'm trying to 5-star on easy and failing, haha
On May 28 2012 07:22 Cokefreak wrote: Make an Android version please
We won't be.
We just attended a conference where several developers who had ported their apps to Android spoke. Every single one of them said do not port your apps to Android as it is a waste of time. One of the developers was a very large company as well! We just can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars porting a program if there will be no sales.
then people without a clue spoke. on android you make money with google ads and just maybe offer a paid version without ads additonally. just put in in the menu or somewhere people wont get annoyed and no one will care. when your app hits a few hundred thousand dls, which quite many soduku apps on adroid already achieved and yours might be one of the best, you would make a shitload of money without your customers ever paying money. welcome to the world of google.
Maybe they didn't have a clue, but one of the people speaking was from Doubletwist, one of the largest Android developers.
Bought it the day I saw the post, love using it! Literally the easiest to use electronic Sudoku application I have ever seen!
Posted in the review too for iPhone. The only minor thing was the texture on the starting numbers makes them not rise above the board and poor contrast when my brightness level is low. The numbers I slot in have excellent contrast so it isn't so bad.
I don't like the game much (get bored quick) but I bought it for some reason (*w00t* eSports) and have been playing non-stop for the last couple days. Intuitive and smooth, this app is a great value (you should probably charge a dollar more).
On June 03 2012 02:38 Danglars wrote: Bought it the day I saw the post, love using it! Literally the easiest to use electronic Sudoku application I have ever seen!
Posted in the review too for iPhone. The only minor thing was the texture on the starting numbers makes them not rise above the board and poor contrast when my brightness level is low. The numbers I slot in have excellent contrast so it isn't so bad.
Thanks for the review.
We will be adjusting the contrast of starting numbers vs. the board in an upcoming update. We made a mistake of trusting the contrast on the iPad (it's fine) without checking it out properly on the iPhone where the backlight and screen warmth are different. Oops!
On June 04 2012 01:07 -orb- wrote: Too bad no android version.
Who uses iOS still? Honestly iPhones and iPads are such garbage... can't stand Apple these days
Would love to support esports and TL's sponsors but oh well.
Sucks to see some big developer shoo others away from Android porting (probably for less comptetition) when you could be making a lot more money
The person making the recommendation had no financial incentive to shoo away developers.
Oh I thought you had said it was one of the biggest android developers.
Do you know how much it would cost TLAF to port the app? I'm assuming it must be much more than I would expect considering I would wager more people use android on TL than iOS and there is a ton of missed potential revenue
Really I'm just upset because I really want this app I love sudoku and there are never any well designed versions of it. Plus I want to support TL! :'(
On June 04 2012 01:07 -orb- wrote: Too bad no android version.
Who uses iOS still? Honestly iPhones and iPads are such garbage... can't stand Apple these days
Would love to support esports and TL's sponsors but oh well.
Sucks to see some big developer shoo others away from Android porting (probably for less comptetition) when you could be making a lot more money
The person making the recommendation had no financial incentive to shoo away developers.
Oh I thought you had said it was one of the biggest android developers.
Do you know how much it would cost TLAF to port the app? I'm assuming it must be much more than I would expect considering I would wager more people use android on TL than iOS and there is a ton of missed potential revenue
Really I'm just upset because I really want this app I love sudoku and there are never any well designed versions of it. Plus I want to support TL! :'(
He was an employee at Doubletwist so whilst he might have had bonus compensation, there was no other reason for him to scare people away. If it was the owner then yeah, I'd suggest you might have been right!
These are my estimates for cost. Keep in mind that we've never written an Android app before and don't do things half-heartedly so it would probably take longer than I expect. All figures are in AUD (roughly equal to USD).
- Engineering - $12k - would need to find a Java engineer as all my engineers are busy - Graphic work - $15k - as I understand it, porting the interface is the single most costly part of this endeavour - Test devices - $6k - We would want a decent set of test devices (12-20) ranging from a Galaxy Nexus to a cheap low-end phone. Fortunately I have a galaxy nexus but when you include the Galaxy SIII, SII, HTC One X, etc. the prices start to add up.
So my rough estimate is $33k and that doesn't include my time in hiring a new employee and managing the project. I'm also not sure if it's possible to port our handwriting engine over as it uses some iOS only gesture APIs. It might turn out to be a much larger problem than I anticipate.
I like it, but I have a few issues. I feel like they might be just bad handwriting, but it happens even when I'm careful A) 3 and 8 are often confused B) 7 and 9 are often confused C) 2 and 7 are often confused D) 7 and 8 are sometimes confused E) 2 and 3 are often confused F) 2 and 8 are often confused G) 4 and 9 are often confused with so many errors it's gotta be me
Something I'd like to see which should be much easier than fixing my handwriting: with Show Incorrect on, correct entries remove the number from notes within the block, but not the row or column.
Also, an option of starting with all the boxes set to notes would be amazing for evil
tofucake, with that many errors it's defintely you, but I do have to say that the app does seem pretty touchy when it comes to how people write the numbers. Mine doesn't seem to like the way I write my 5s, it often confuses it with 6, 8, 3 and 9 (wtf?!), but it's easily fixed by me just not being quite as sloppy.
Would it be possible at all to have some kind of handwriting calibration in the app, where you write the numbers and then select what they are (maybe the app asks you "is this __" and you select if its right or wrong)? Or would that be too much time and coding or just not possible? Just a thought :3
On June 06 2012 20:01 taliana wrote: tofucake, with that many errors it's defintely you, but I do have to say that the app does seem pretty touchy when it comes to how people write the numbers. Mine doesn't seem to like the way I write my 5s, it often confuses it with 6, 8, 3 and 9 (wtf?!), but it's easily fixed by me just not being quite as sloppy.
Would it be possible at all to have some kind of handwriting calibration in the app, where you write the numbers and then select what they are (maybe the app asks you "is this __" and you select if its right or wrong)? Or would that be too much time and coding or just not possible? Just a thought :3
5 is something we are putting a huge amount of attention to. Do you write it in two parts with the bottom half being completed followed up by the horizontal "top hat"? If so, that's the same way I write and we are working to improve that.
We want to avoid handwriting calibration as it should "just work". If we can't master handwriting properly within the next 6 months (it has been 12 months in development) then we will incorporate some calibration.
I write 5s in one stroke and I have no problems with it (generally, sometimes it's read as an 8 but that's when I'm being sloppy). My biggest issue today was trying to make a 3 and I successfully managed a 4, 9, 2, 7, and 8 before I got the 3 to work :\
On June 07 2012 12:12 tofucake wrote: I write 5s in one stroke and I have no problems with it (generally, sometimes it's read as an 8 but that's when I'm being sloppy). My biggest issue today was trying to make a 3 and I successfully managed a 4, 9, 2, 7, and 8 before I got the 3 to work :\
3 has our highest failure rate of around 6% so we feel your pain. However, an update that will be coming out in ~2 weeks has improved that failure rate to around 3%. We will continue to work on it!
On June 07 2012 11:33 Heosat wrote: 5 is something we are putting a huge amount of attention to. Do you write it in two parts with the bottom half being completed followed up by the horizontal "top hat"? If so, that's the same way I write and we are working to improve that.
I write it in one stroke, starting from the top. If I write it a little slower then it seems to pick it up more easily. Really everything i'm running into is easily fixed by me writing slower, bigger, or just plain neater. It's so handy to be able to just write the numbers! I love it.
Yes Evil is easy. The algorithm makes it symmetric which typically gives 3-4 free solves, basically. My average time on evil is 7-8 minutes or something. It's still harder than the easier difficulties though.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JmqhJ.png)
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