Hi Everyone, Last week there was some renewed interest in Tripletters on these forums, and we got our hands on some extra promo codes that I thought might interest you guys. I have about 10 promo codes to give away, PM me on these forums is you would like one. As usual, all we ask is that you give your feedback here about what you like about the game, and if there is anything you think we can do to improve it. If you really like the game we'd really enjoy it if you left an iTunes review for us! https://userpub.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZUserPublishing.woa/wa/addUserReview?id=341991697&type=Purple+Software Thanks! ~the Portable Zoo team www.portablezoo.com Here is some info about the game if you missed it the first time around: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introducing Tripletters™, a fun word game for the iPhone. Give Tripletters a spin and challenge your luck and your word-making skills. There's no timer - you earn diamonds and wager them on your word-making skills. Spin the letter wheel to get three letters, and then try to make five words containing all three. If you use a lucky letter, you get extra diamonds! Stuck? You can always spin again, as long as you have enough diamonds to spin the wheel. What level will you reach - beginning? impressive? jamming? or even higher?? If you liked Letter Bug, you'll find Tripletters just as much fun, with no time pressure. Try it out! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A little about Portable Zoo: Portable Zoo Inc is a Santa Clara based game development studio focused on iPhone, casual games and social network gaming. A collective of experienced game industry veterans, from companies like Lucas Arts, THQ and EA. The Portable Zoo mission statement is to bring the highest quality, addictiveness and fun factor to a new generation of players via iPhone, iPod Touch and casual gaming sites.
From what I've played some things: -It is a score game, so why not Open Feint integration? -I don't like that there's no bonus on making words bigger than 5 letters, as the multiplier doesnt go higher than 5 -I've supposedly unlocked achievements, but where do I see them to see what I did to unlock them and what needs to be done to unlock others? Other than that really nice game EDIT: Actually, I don't really know how that diamond multiplier works, but a bigger word should help in some way..
Thank you for the code! I'll be back with impressions after I've had a chance to play it (syncing right now...)
I'm still on my first couple of games, but so far it seems fun. I've had a little trouble figuring out the scoring. It doesn't seem like the instructions properly address all of the possibilities. I think the bottom line is that I only need to come up with 5 words per puzzle, right? And words of 5 letters (or more) are best, but there is no additional bonus for words longer than 5 letters? What's the advantage to betting more than the minimum? A couple of other comments... -I was given a combination that is impossible to spell any words "VHH". I couldn't think of any words, so I looked it up on the internet. From what I can tell, there aren't any words in the English language that use those three letters. It seems to me that the wheel shouldn't give that sort of puzzle, unless there's an element to the game that I'm missing. (Again, better instructions would help here.) -At one point during my first game, I was down to 2 diamonds, so I couldn't spin for new letters. I was stuck with the letters "VHH". I didn't know what to do. The game didn't tell me "Game Over" and the instructions didn't really seem to help. Ultimately, I just ended up starting a new game. I would think that a "You're a loser!" message would be helpful in that situation. -Also, I just tried to spell the word "COMPARTMENTALIZE" and the game didn't recognize it. Last I checked, it's a word, and a damn good one, too.
LOL! But yes, some existing words arent there. Waging more makes you get more diamonds per word and per bonus (Yellow letters) so it is good if you're luck. VHH... did you try Hoverish? lol...
Hi everyone, Wow, really insightful feedback. Thank you all so much. I've tried to answer some of your questions, and explain things that are unclear. Some of your comments show me that features you want are in the game, but that there are some UI design decisions we made that may not be clear. So thank you for being honest about the game, with this information we can improve user experiences! Good question! It's something we considered, but based on when we needed to get the game out, we just didn't have time to integrate this. It's something we will definitely do in the future if we have the resources. The multiplier is actually related to how much you wager. A multiple of 1 if you wager 10 diamonds, a multiple of 2 if you wager 20, and so forth. 50 is the max wager. Maybe this isn't clear enough in the game. The more you bet, the more diamonds you get back for each word, each lucky gold letter spun, and each extra lucky gold letter used in a word. Touch the info button (a little i in the lower left corner of the screen) and you can see all the awards, how you got them, and post about them on Facebook if you want. Also, it will tell you what's new since you last visited. It does actually. It adds points to your score in the upper right, which is completely separate from your diamonds. The longer the word the more points you get, the more points you have the more levels you progress. Each level you get an award (aka: achievement). It's actually impossible to spin a combination of letters that doesn't have at least 5 words in our dictionary. The dictionary we use is the Official Scrabble Dictionary. Which is widely used in other word games. That is a good word! It's not in the Scrabble dictionary though, even "compartment" isn't in the Scrabble dictionary. I'll look into why and see if I can find an answer. Thanks for this feedback. We did struggle a lot with when and how the game over condition worked. We did what we thought best, but it's good to know it's not all that clear. We can go back and see if we can improve this. Thank you! ~Portable Zoo
Hmm...well, I guess I'll have to try to figure out how many words can be made with the letters VHH, then. Ah, OK, well, that explains it then. A standard Scrabble board is only 15 letters wide. Compartmentalize is 16 letters long, so it's not possible in Scrabble, although it's a word. You may want to clarify this somewhere. Thanks for responding.
Got my promo code. Loaded it. Played about 15 minutes. Really digging it - I love word games almost as much as I love physics games. I've only had 2 or 3 legitimate words not recognized, but I have no issue with that. A dictionary has to have some limit, and some more esoteric or uncommon words may not make the cut. Damn fun game. I'll get an appstore review up after I play a little more and have a good feel for the game.
I'm still struggling with the relationship of the diamonds and the points. Why both? If I get down to single-digit diamonds then the game is over, right? Thus, the object is to score as many points as possible before you run out of diamonds??? Assuming no "gold letters", what can I do to get more diamonds during a round? Example: I bet 20 and get 2 diamonds per word, plus a bonus of 2 x 2 = 4 (I think) for making five words. That's a return of 14 on my bet of 20. Basically, I always "lose" on my bet if there are no gold letters. Am I missing something?
I had a lot of trouble with this at first as well. However, I think there was a problem with the mulitplier, so diamonds were not being totalled properly. There was an update recently that seems to have addressed this problem. I just played for the first time since the update. I started with 43 diamonds. I wagered 40 diamonds and I got two gold letters. When I was done with the puzzle, I ended up with 127 diamonds and my score went up a ton. So, I think the wagering piece is working now. Have you tried playing since the update? It seems to make more sense now. Edit: Although, after playing a second round, I'm not so sure things are still making sense to me. After earning the 127 diamonds, I wagered 50 diamonds on my second spin. I completed 5 words (all with 5X multiplier) and I got my 5 word bonus. But, even after all of that, I ended up with 112 diamonds. So, in this example, I lost diamonds. This doesn't make sense. A bigger wager should result in a bigger reward, no?
I think I know where the bug is. If you exit the program and return then it will save your progress. Almost. It often loses the gold letters. The result is that you lose your 5X multiplier (for wagering 50 diamonds.) An experiment showed that I kept my gold letters if I simply exited and went right back into the program. If I ran a different app and then went back into Tripletters then any gold letters became regular letters.
