Category: Portfolio Ninja fingers

Even grandpa?

I just checked in on my sales statistics tool to see if a mention in one of Swedens larger tech magazines had boosted downloads for Ninja Fingers in any way and stumbled on something nice in the form of a user review.

We’re not getting a lot of App Store reviews, just a few, so I read them all to see what you all think about the game. The latest review said: “So much fun for all the family. Even grandpa could not stop playing. We love it, thank you!”.

And… Pause.

It just warms my heart. I haven’t always been sure of why I want to make games, but this is it. I just found the best motivation of all. Of course it’s lovely to work with something creative and free, but when someone responds to something that you’ve created from scratch with joy, it just warms your heart.

Your response sums up exactly why this game came into creation. I wanted something simple, where the game mechanics are self explanatory, and where you can play people at all skill levels with high replay value. I was basically aiming for the whole family. I think I nailed it.

So, thank you too, the iPad gamer who wrote this, and tell granpa I said hi!

/Andreas

Poll: what rating will Ninja Fingers get in the App Store?

Do you think you have a good sense of what games will or will not be bestsellers on App Store? Let’s see if you can predict the future!


Based on the blog posts you’ve seen here on www.codeandme.se, what rating do you think our app Ninja Fingers will get when it is released on the App Store?

This is one of our first test in predicting reviews on App Store so I would greatly appreciate if you help spreading this poll to your friends as well. Just copy the URL at the top and paste into whatever social media your friends use: facebook, twitter, email, skype, or maybe reddit.

Thanks!

Oh, sound effects

We couldn’t really afford to hire a pro sound designer, but plan to do so as soon as the game starts selling.

In the meanwhile, I asked my family to help out. This is all the direction they got: “You’re a ninja. You’re really small. Go!”

Critique

Last night we attended a meetup with a lot of Gothenburg’s indie developers. We had just finished Ninja Fingers a few hours earlier and brought it in for critique and advice.

Here’s some of the things that came up during testing.

Good

  • The game just starts, there’s no “play” button.

Bad

  • The input is not sensitive enough, players thought they pressed a marker when they actually missed.
  • Ties are not explained well enough.

Suggestions

  • Add a score function for those who want to make it really competative.
  • Change the timer function to start when the one players reaches all their markers, not when a new round starts. This way good players can stress out opponents.
  • More cowbell!