Sunday, August 2, 2015

Exploring the Tap Hypothesis with libGDX

The Tap Hypothesis

Mobile platform users want simple easy to play games that do not require large amounts of time.

Testing The Tap Hypothesis with libGDX

Due to the viral nature of Android games like Flappy Bird and Don't Tap The White Tile I set out to see why they are so well received and attempt to replicate their success. I know that this is not an easy task, but I thought at best  Fish Fry would be a viral success, at worst I got to play with libGDX and learn a few new tricks.

I looked at the popular games and came up with 3 common elements.

  1. They all have a simple user interface, the user either taps or swipes the screen. Nothing complicated, just tap or swipe. 
  2. They are easy to play and as the player's score goes up the difficulty increases.
  3. One "round" of play is usually under five minutes.
So I attempted to replicate these elements in my game. Here is a quick demo:

To play the player simply waits for the clouds to flash then taps the screen. (Element number 1 check!)

Every 5 points the time from the flash to when the lightening strikes decreases by 25 milliseconds. (Two down one to go)

And last but not least each round of play is usually pretty short. 1 to 2 minutes max, I have trouble getting higher than 31 as a score.

Results?

I will have to get back to you, I just posted the game last night (8/1/2015), but if you have any comments on the testing hypothesis I would love to hear them!!

Update

As of 9/1/2015 I have had 28 downloads, with more than 50% retention. Still hoping it goes viral, but not yet.