"Quick Math is an educational dream for kids, math crack for adults." - The Next Web
Math is boring, right? When we set out to make Sakura Quick Math that's what we thought, but once you add the challenge of trying to get the fastest time in the world, it becomes very interesting. We combined the handwriting engine that TL users helped to build with a slick interface and Game Center to create a fast paced math challenge. Check out the video to understand it further:
In our office we love playing Beginner Addition (10 is the largest answer you need to write) and the average time that people take to complete it is 13 seconds. However, here's the gauntlet: the current world record is 10 seconds for 20 questions. Can anyone beat that? I think it can be done.
If the app piques your interest we'd love if you could tell your siblings, cousins, other family members and friends who might have children in the 6-11 age range. Ultimately we built the app for them and your support will assist us in making a bridgehead in the education market. Don't forget that you can send it as a gift!
It costs 99c and it's available on the App Store right now for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch:
edit2: Bought it, pleasantly surprised But it doesn't like my 4s. I have to draw a four like this "4" instead of my up-side-down chair, it doesn't seem to recognize it.
Say hello to your first 5* review on the Australian app store. Plans to add more modes and stuff? Powers? Basic trig? There's more math you can do quickly :D
EDIT: man this thing really hates my 8s sometimes.
On September 27 2012 15:22 Ruscour wrote: Say hello to your first 5* review on the Australian app store. Plans to add more modes and stuff? Powers? Basic trig? There's more math you can do quickly :D
EDIT: man this thing really hates my 8s sometimes.
Thanks for your review!
Your 8s? That sucks. Next version we will have a "report my numbers" feature so we can see how you are drawing them. Would you mind reporting your 8?
We are looking at more items to add but first we need to make sure the handwriting is working really well.
Best I could get was 11 seconds. Dunno if its because my handwriting sucks or not (though they look totally legible to me, if not a little scruffy) but it hates my 4s and 5s to no end. Particularly the 5s.
On September 27 2012 21:55 robhoward wrote: Best I could get was 11 seconds. Dunno if its because my handwriting sucks or not (though they look totally legible to me, if not a little scruffy) but it hates my 4s and 5s to no end. Particularly the 5s.
It didn't like my 4s either, then I let my dad try it, and it didn't like probably 15/20 of his 5s
As simple as they are, I still love killing time on these games. Wish you guys could port it to Android because you'd have one more customer over here.
On September 28 2012 06:37 Nerv3 wrote: Love the design and idea of the game, however the main problem is the hand writing recognition, especially my 5s and 9s
How do you write your 5s? In two strokes?
And with your 9 do you write it with a curved lower portion?
On September 28 2012 06:15 absolutionsc wrote: Yeah, not sure why you would have no plans for Android when Android has the biggest market share right now...
Bummer. I would have paid a dollar in a heartbeat =(
Market share isn't really a metric to base app development on. Instead there are a few key factors at play:
1. Creating an app on Android with the same quality and design costs more money. 2. Each download on Google Play earns less than the respective download on the App Store. 3. There are less overall downloads on Google Play.
Finally, as this is an education app, we have to look heavily at the tablet market and there is only one tablet, the iPad.
I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, but then again I am much cooler than the majority of people
Edit: other comments made sense, thanks! But still just a note that me (and certainly about a million other people) would probably buy this on Android!
On September 28 2012 06:51 absolutionsc wrote: I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, but then again I am much cooler than the majority of people
Edit: other comments made sense, thanks! But still just a note that me (and certainly about a million other people) would probably buy this on Android!
Sadly the Nexus 7, whilst a good device, is an abomination to develop for due to the weird pixel density of the screen.
On September 28 2012 06:51 absolutionsc wrote: I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, but then again I am much cooler than the majority of people
Edit: other comments made sense, thanks! But still just a note that me (and certainly about a million other people) would probably buy this on Android!
Sadly the Nexus 7, whilst a good device, is an abomination to develop for due to the weird pixel density of the screen.
Man I'm glad I'm not a developer. Out of curiosity why is hard to develop for the screen? I thought you developed for a resolution rather than a pixel density? Are you talking about the aspect ratio?
On September 28 2012 06:51 absolutionsc wrote: I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, but then again I am much cooler than the majority of people
Edit: other comments made sense, thanks! But still just a note that me (and certainly about a million other people) would probably buy this on Android!
Sadly the Nexus 7, whilst a good device, is an abomination to develop for due to the weird pixel density of the screen.
Man I'm glad I'm not a developer. Out of curiosity why is hard to develop for the screen? I thought you developed for a resolution rather than a pixel density? Are you talking about the aspect ratio?
All designers start out designing at 72 ppi so they can cover all screens. Once the design is complete, you need to scale it appropriately for each device. As an example, going from the base design to a retina display on the iPhone 5 means you double the number of pixels, which is great because all edges, etc. line up. It's simple.
For the Galaxy S2, you need to multiply by 1.5x, which is ok, but it means every 3rd pixel needs attention because it may be in the wrong place. The Kindle Fire is a bit harder again, it goes to 1.66x, so again other pixels need attention.
The Nexus 7 bizarrely uses ~1.27x, which is an old format from Cathode Ray TVs. It basically means that you need to pay attention to the location of every pixel otherwise lines end up a blurry mess. It is the only device on the market with this strange format.
On September 28 2012 06:37 Nerv3 wrote: Love the design and idea of the game, however the main problem is the hand writing recognition, especially my 5s and 9s
How do you write your 5s? In two strokes?
And with your 9 do you write it with a curved lower portion?
Yeah I write the 5s in two strokes, the first stroke being the vertical line and the curve, the second stroke the horizontal line from left to right.
The 9s I do write with a curved lower portion. I start drawing in the top right, then draw a circle counter-clockwise and as I get to the top right again I draw the bottom with a curve after the vertical line, all in one stroke.
On September 28 2012 06:51 absolutionsc wrote: I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7, but then again I am much cooler than the majority of people
Edit: other comments made sense, thanks! But still just a note that me (and certainly about a million other people) would probably buy this on Android!
Sadly the Nexus 7, whilst a good device, is an abomination to develop for due to the weird pixel density of the screen.
Man I'm glad I'm not a developer. Out of curiosity why is hard to develop for the screen? I thought you developed for a resolution rather than a pixel density? Are you talking about the aspect ratio?
All designers start out designing at 72 ppi so they can cover all screens. Once the design is complete, you need to scale it appropriately for each device. As an example, going from the base design to a retina display on the iPhone 5 means you double the number of pixels, which is great because all edges, etc. line up. It's simple.
For the Galaxy S2, you need to multiply by 1.5x, which is ok, but it means every 3rd pixel needs attention because it may be in the wrong place. The Kindle Fire is a bit harder again, it goes to 1.66x, so again other pixels need attention.
The Nexus 7 bizarrely uses ~1.27x, which is an old format from Cathode Ray TVs. It basically means that you need to pay attention to the location of every pixel otherwise lines end up a blurry mess. It is the only device on the market with this strange format.
Even Apple isn't immune to this type of thing because of their wacky resolution differences between iPhone and iPad, things sometimes need tweaking to get positions that look nice on both devices. But overall it's MUCH MUCH less of a headache than developing for Android. God Android is a headache.
That challenge is unreal, I can do 20 questions in 13 seconds but I can't seem to cut to 12 seconds. Great app though, i'm addicted to beginner addition lol.
I don't have any apple products, so it looks like I can't test it myself. Shame :/ But from what I saw in the videos that were posted, it really looks good. Lovely to see someone putting emphasis into clear and simple UI istead of a massive clusterfuck of .. things.
Good luck with the app, I hope you get plenty of sales :3
It's pretty cool that you guys managed to make a math app that is fun, competitive and actually develops a useful skill. Undoubtedly, i'll seem like a nerd playing this but it's by far worth it!
On September 28 2012 06:37 Nerv3 wrote: Love the design and idea of the game, however the main problem is the hand writing recognition, especially my 5s and 9s
How do you write your 5s? In two strokes?
And with your 9 do you write it with a curved lower portion?
I know the question wasn't directed at me, but I do my 5s in 1 stroke, and still doesn't seem happy. It seems more satisfied when I just draw an S (but of course, even then it doesn't always work).
For the last one (+, -, x, /) on advanced the best I've got was 32 seconds. 12 seconds for beginners + Fun stuff
On September 28 2012 06:37 Nerv3 wrote: Love the design and idea of the game, however the main problem is the hand writing recognition, especially my 5s and 9s
How do you write your 5s? In two strokes?
And with your 9 do you write it with a curved lower portion?
Yeah I write the 5s in two strokes, the first stroke being the vertical line and the curve, the second stroke the horizontal line from left to right.
The 9s I do write with a curved lower portion. I start drawing in the top right, then draw a circle counter-clockwise and as I get to the top right again I draw the bottom with a curve after the vertical line, all in one stroke.
Thanks for the description! We found a stupid bug which we will be releasing a fix for this week. It should improve both numbers.
On September 28 2012 06:37 Nerv3 wrote: Love the design and idea of the game, however the main problem is the hand writing recognition, especially my 5s and 9s
How do you write your 5s? In two strokes?
And with your 9 do you write it with a curved lower portion?
I know the question wasn't directed at me, but I do my 5s in 1 stroke, and still doesn't seem happy. It seems more satisfied when I just draw an S (but of course, even then it doesn't always work).
For the last one (+, -, x, /) on advanced the best I've got was 32 seconds. 12 seconds for beginners + Fun stuff
Thanks for the feedback. We should release a fix soon for the 5, it was totally our bad.
I really don't wanna advertise for competition here or anything, but anyone seeking an Android app that is similar should check out "Math Workout". It's very similar (from looks, I don't have an iPhone for comparison purposes) just doesn't use handwriting.
Apologies if this is against the rules or offends TLAF (you guys are awesome), but with their intentions to not develop for Android I figure it's safe.
Annnnnd there goes 30 minutes of my working time. I love this app~ It's so.. challenging in a non-challenging way. One thing I'd like to note is that numbers with curves tend to mess more frequently, zero especially. But it's okay! I now that I suck at this :c
That's funny, I saw that this app (or I guess the company that developed it) had sponsored Daring Fireball, and meant to check out this game because I think it might be good for my daughter to practice her math this way, and didn't even realize TLAF developed it. That clinches it. I'll buy it tomorrow. :-)
Just wondering why TLAF isn't mentioned. The name further confuses things, as I first thought Sakura was the company, then I saw it was Shiny Things, and only now did I find out it's TLAF...
On October 03 2012 15:24 aNDRoM wrote: That's funny, I saw that this app (or I guess the company that developed it) had sponsored Daring Fireball, and meant to check out this game because I think it might be good for my daughter to practice her math this way, and didn't even realize TLAF developed it. That clinches it. I'll buy it tomorrow. :-)
Just wondering why TLAF isn't mentioned. The name further confuses things, as I first thought Sakura was the company, then I saw it was Shiny Things, and only now did I find out it's TLAF...
It's our sub-brand, Shiny Things, that released it.
We are also confused by our branding right now so we are going to fix it.
EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/qB4xb.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/9t4Fk.jpg)
I just switched over to an S3
