Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
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I'm excited to announce that I'm implementing a (fully authorized) version of Mü for the iPhone!
Some of the features:
* Supports 4,5 and 6 player games.
* Challenging computer opponents with multiple skill settings
* Linked play with up to 6 human players over Bluetooth.
* Detailed stats tracking.
* Fully automated score card.
* Support for English and German and possibly other languages. (I'm looking for volunteers to help with other languages. Let me know if you're interested.)
The game is currently in final beta testing.
See my blog for screen shots and more details! http://hfog.blogspot.com/2009/11/perhaps-worlds-worst-kept-s...
I haven't decided on pricing yet and I'm interested in opinions on what I should charge. What do you think?
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
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iPod Touch, too, I presume?
If so, you are my hero. I've got my iPod Touch winging its way to me by mail right now. This would pretty much instantly become my #1 app. Well, this or Croke, we'll let them fight it out.
So, who's going to adapt Tichu to the iPod? Big Two is not close-enough!
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Yes. iPod Touch too.
I'd love to see Tichu done as well. I've even considered doing it myself but right now this is enough to keep me busy. To quote Homer Simpson: "Who knows what tomorrow may bring?"
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Justin
United States
Creve Coeur
MO
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My $0.02: I've played the game only once, and thought it was just okay. I'd throw a buck at it for a revisit, and I think low initial pricing to seed interest by sales rank and word of mouth isn't a bad plan. If it were more expensive I'd probably just wait to play it again in person before buying.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
-
I am afraid to tell you how much I'm willing to pay; it feels kinda like telling a used car dealer how much you're willing to spend.
Suffice it to say, I would pay more than I've paid for any app so far.
It'd really be gambling on the AI though. This would exclusively be used in me-vs-the-pod mode (likely 5 player, me and AIx4). And its staying power / my satisfaction would depend on my continuing to have fun with it. Which means NO CHEATING and NO PREDECIDED GANGUP AGAINST THE HUMAN. The AI players should treat one another the exact same way they treat me. I've seen too many electronic card games where each individual AI player is focussed primarily on defeating the human, and regularly give their other AI 'opponents' a free ride.
I am very happy with First Water's "Big Two" app. Unlike every Big Two app I've played on PC, its opponents actually play against one another as well as against you!
I still want Tichu, tho. 
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Mark:
I think you'll be quite satisfied with the AI. At the normal setting it doesn't cheat and it treats you just like any other player. It's also difficult enough to keep the game challenging. I win on average one out of every three or four games. At the very hardest setting the game does cheat (it knows what cards everybody holds) so if you really want a challenge you can go that route but there are several other settings to choose from and I state it very clearly in the included documentation so nobody can cry foul.
 Just for you I'm thinking of pricing it at $50. (Just kidding.)
Steve
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Thought I'd post a quick followup to let you know that THE GAME IS AVAILABLE NOW!
Go to http://mu.housefullofgames.com for information and a download link.
Mü is a tier 3 app which means that in the US it's priced at $2.99.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
-
Fantastic. I'll be downloading it as soon as I get my iPod Touch to my home network (in approx 2 hours).
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Lindsay Scholle
Australia
St Ives
NSW
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FYI: You'll also need version 3 of the iPhone/iTouch OS. I just purchased and discovered it wouldn't work on my version 2. I'll think about whether I want to pay another €3.99 to upgrade my OS. This is the only thing I've wanted that need v3 to run.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
-
Bought, paid for, playing now. It is tremendous. Fantastic work.
I'm not sure about the Vice's ability to make a face-saving trump call. Just saw a game where dealer bid 8-black, second player played 6-9 black, then two other players each played one small black card before all pass.
The dealer-now-vice bids black. So the chief bids no trump and proceeds to romp on a bid with a huge premium bonus. I'd think most real players facing that situation would vice-call 8s as undertrump, even if that was his only 8. Make the chief call the colour and the lower premium, and hold the boss trump when he does.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
-
I've got so much to learn about what to expect the AI to do. Bid of three zeroes set to be chief, and green 9-1 showing from who stands to be vice. So both neighbors (myself being one) of the three-zeroes chief-to-be show a zero; I also show green eight. So I'm showing two of the top seven trumps (he's showing three of them and two other players - the vice and the other neighbor - are each showing one). The call goes as expected, vice calls green, chief calls zeroes... and the Chief then goes on to name the OTHER player - the one who showed nothing of any consequence at all, not one of the other zero-holders - as his partner.
I'm guessing there's a huge premium on picking a cross-table partner rather than an adjacent one? Because based on what was showing, I can't imagine a reason other than preferential position why he'd partner with someone who showed garbage over someone who showed two big trumps.
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
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Sometimes it's just about how confident the AI is that he can make his bid. And sometimes the stars align just so and weird things happen.
Without going into too much detail about how the AI works, the game looks at a certain number of random hands to decide who would be the best partner. Unknown cards are randomly assigned to each player and the game basically says to itself, "if the hands are thus, can I make this bid if I choose that partner?" That process is repeated a number of times and the partner that comes up looking best is chosen. Most of the time it will do what you would expect. Sometimes it won't. There are some other factors involved as well but that's the most important one.
A lot also depends on the difficulty settings.
It's not perfect but I think it plays surprisingly well, particularly for being on such a small device.
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Sorry Lindsay,
I probably should have mentioned that on the support page. It is mentioned in the app store but I suppose it's easy to miss there.
The Bluetooth support is the major reason that it requires v3.
Update: it's now mentioned on the support page as well.
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Lindsay Scholle
Australia
St Ives
NSW
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SteveBl wrote: Sorry Lindsay,
I probably should have mentioned that on the support page. It is mentioned in the app store but I suppose it's easy to miss there.
The Bluetooth support is the major reason that it requires v3.
Update: it's now mentioned on the support page as well.
No worries, I guess I missed it on the store, but I wasn't really looking for it either. I'd be happier if the extra money was going to you. Thanks for bringing one of my favourite games to the iTouch. It'll certainly give me something fun to do on the bus. I'll spring for the upgrade in the hope you bring us some more great games to play on the platform. Is Tichu next?
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
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Scholle wrote: Is Tichu next?
I find it interesting how Mü and Tichu always seem to be mentioned in the same breath over and over again! I shouldn't be surprised at that. They're certainly my two favorite card games.
I would love to do a version of Tichu. For the moment I think I need to take a bit of a breather but if I were to do another card game, Tichu would certainly be high on my list of choices.
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
-
DO WANT TICHU.
Especially if it has all the bells and whistles this Mu app has.
BTW, I have now seen the "Vice calling Chief's longest showing suit as trump, allowing chief to call no-trump and dominate" four times. For the next revision, I strongly suggest that the code for evaluating the best Vice-trump call (better) take into account what the Chief is showing, and only under incredibly rare circumstances should the Vice call what appears to the the colour the Chief was bidding.
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
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thatmarkguy wrote: I have now seen the "Vice calling Chief's longest showing suit as trump, allowing chief to call no-trump and dominate" four times.
As you guys find issues like this one, rather than post them here, where I normally don't check all that often, please send me email (steve at housefullofgames.com) and tell me what you've observed. I'll compile your observations and try to use them to further improve the AI for the next update.
I played the heck out of this thing trying to find issues like this but you can never do enough testing and everybody plays a little differently. Also, I'm sure there are better Mü players out there than I. There are bound to be things that I didn't notice.
Thanks!
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
One more thing: If you downloaded it, please rate it on iTunes (particularly if you like it ). That helps improve its visibility in the app store.
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
If any of you are interested in reading about some of the challenges I faced making this game, and some of the reasoning behind some of the design decisions I made, there's an article on my blog that you might find interesting.
http://hfog.blogspot.com/2010/01/bringing-mu-to-iphone.html
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Steve Blanding
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Just thought I'd mention that a new version of Mu has been submitted which (among other things) greatly decreases the chances of the vice choosing a trump that might be beneficial to the chief.
Thanks for bringing the issue to my attention! Thanks to you, the game is now just a little bit better.
I'd expect the update to work its way through Apple's bureaucracy within the next day or so.
If you want to know the complete list of changes, the list is posted on my blog:
http://hfog.blogspot.com/2010/02/mu-version-11-coming-soon.h...
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