New Release: Spell Gems (iOS version)

Getting Started Announcements
#1

Spell Gems is released worldwide to Apple App Store today. 

iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spell-gems/id638326629?mt=8

Website:

http://www.lavamind.com/games/spellgems/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e4SLH2H1Vzg

It is available for FREE.  I hope you can try it out and let me know what you think.

Cheers, 

Naomi

#2

Very nice Naomi

#3

Congrats on the release!

I downloaded it and played for 'bout an hour. It’s pretty fun! :smiley:
I’m not a huge fan of word style games, however I thought your game put an interesting twist on what I consider to be a mundane genre of games, and turned it into a pretty fun and challenging game.
It did take me a few rounds before I got used to how the user is able to backtrack on his currently selected letters to form even larger words… I think that’s just 'cause I’m a bit slow. :wink:

Like I said, I only played it for about an hour so this is in no way a complete review… just my initial thoughts.
Everything had clean look to it (graphics, transitions etc…) and decent …interactive-ness? lol :wink:

Only a couple things I would have liked to see added/be different -

  • 1. When you go to swap a letter, I would like the ability to drag the window that is displaying the optional letters.
    I would often go to swap but forget what was around the letter I wanted to change, which caused me to choose a letter that I might otherwise not have chosen.
     
  • 2. There were a few times when the ‘board’ if you will, had very few options - for creating words - and I would have liked an option to completely swap-out or shuffle all of the gems/letters.

All-'n-all good great job, and I wish you the best of luck with your game! :smiley:

-Saer

P.S. Just a thought… but maybe you could have a mode (or just an extra way for the user to earn points) that is objective-based.
Say you have the word “DOG” and the letters “D” and “O” are blue but the letter “G” is red, now when the user connects those letters to form the word “DOG” the “G” would turn blue since the majority of the letters used had blue as their gem-color.
If the player manages to change the entire board to one color then you could award them extra points, power-ups or something like that. :slight_smile:
 

#4

Thank you, Rob.

Thank you, Saer.  I appreciate your detailed feedback.  Great to hear the game kept you going about an hour even though you are not big on word games.  I’ve noted your thoughts on enabling the window to move (for swap powerup) and adding shuffle feature/powerup… and the additional objective-based mode.  Good stuff.

Thanks again!

Naomi

#5

Hi Naomi,

Nice game! I gave it a spin…good graphics, nice twist on game play! It took me a little to wrap my head around the “strategy” in the game. Nice to see the hard work pay off I bet!

A few questions:

How has the vungle ads worked out for you so far? (I know this was recently released so it may be too early to tell)

How long did your apple approval process take for this app?

How did you make the game trailer…very nice!

Best of luck with the game. I hope it brings you much success.

-Rick

#6

Thank you, Rick @FunnyDev.  Spell Gems requires different strategy from Jackpot Words (another word game I released earlier) – I guess that’s a piece of puzzle for players to figure out.

A1:  I added vungle to Jackpot Words too.  The version with vungle has been out for a couple of months now, and it did very well for me – better than any other ads.  That said, I’m happy with chartboost too.

A2:  It didn’t take long for apple to approve it.  But then… I had v1.0 (which I didn’t release to any stores) approved by apple back in first week of September.  The v1.0 also didn’t take very long, though – perhaps less than 2 weeks.

A3:  I used Screenium to make the trailer.  I hear nice things about Screenflow too.

Thanks again.

Naomi

#7

Very nice Naomi

#8

Congrats on the release!

I downloaded it and played for 'bout an hour. It’s pretty fun! :smiley:
I’m not a huge fan of word style games, however I thought your game put an interesting twist on what I consider to be a mundane genre of games, and turned it into a pretty fun and challenging game.
It did take me a few rounds before I got used to how the user is able to backtrack on his currently selected letters to form even larger words… I think that’s just 'cause I’m a bit slow. :wink:

Like I said, I only played it for about an hour so this is in no way a complete review… just my initial thoughts.
Everything had clean look to it (graphics, transitions etc…) and decent …interactive-ness? lol :wink:

Only a couple things I would have liked to see added/be different -

  • 1. When you go to swap a letter, I would like the ability to drag the window that is displaying the optional letters.
    I would often go to swap but forget what was around the letter I wanted to change, which caused me to choose a letter that I might otherwise not have chosen.
     
  • 2. There were a few times when the ‘board’ if you will, had very few options - for creating words - and I would have liked an option to completely swap-out or shuffle all of the gems/letters.

All-'n-all good great job, and I wish you the best of luck with your game! :smiley:

-Saer

P.S. Just a thought… but maybe you could have a mode (or just an extra way for the user to earn points) that is objective-based.
Say you have the word “DOG” and the letters “D” and “O” are blue but the letter “G” is red, now when the user connects those letters to form the word “DOG” the “G” would turn blue since the majority of the letters used had blue as their gem-color.
If the player manages to change the entire board to one color then you could award them extra points, power-ups or something like that. :slight_smile:
 

#9

Thank you, Rob.

Thank you, Saer.  I appreciate your detailed feedback.  Great to hear the game kept you going about an hour even though you are not big on word games.  I’ve noted your thoughts on enabling the window to move (for swap powerup) and adding shuffle feature/powerup… and the additional objective-based mode.  Good stuff.

Thanks again!

Naomi

#10

Hi Naomi,

Nice game! I gave it a spin…good graphics, nice twist on game play! It took me a little to wrap my head around the “strategy” in the game. Nice to see the hard work pay off I bet!

A few questions:

How has the vungle ads worked out for you so far? (I know this was recently released so it may be too early to tell)

How long did your apple approval process take for this app?

How did you make the game trailer…very nice!

Best of luck with the game. I hope it brings you much success.

-Rick

#11

Thank you, Rick @FunnyDev.  Spell Gems requires different strategy from Jackpot Words (another word game I released earlier) – I guess that’s a piece of puzzle for players to figure out.

A1:  I added vungle to Jackpot Words too.  The version with vungle has been out for a couple of months now, and it did very well for me – better than any other ads.  That said, I’m happy with chartboost too.

A2:  It didn’t take long for apple to approve it.  But then… I had v1.0 (which I didn’t release to any stores) approved by apple back in first week of September.  The v1.0 also didn’t take very long, though – perhaps less than 2 weeks.

A3:  I used Screenium to make the trailer.  I hear nice things about Screenflow too.

Thanks again.

Naomi