All discussion relevant to Countdown that is not too spoilerific. New members: come here first to introduce yourself. We don't bite, or at least rarely.
I've been absolutely blown away by how popular the app has been since I released it. Yesterday alone there were almost 9000 rounds of Countdown played on the app which I find quite remarkable.
Philip A wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 11:37 am
Very neat design, easy, educational (the sub-maxes for the letters really help) and a lot of fun. Great app. Thank you.
Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 7:47 pm
This is superb - great work Jack and everyone else involved.
Thank you very much for the feedback Phil and Martin. If you have the time, please could you leave a review/rating for the app? It's super important to get as many positive reviews as possible to help make the app stand out among the others.
Fantastic app.
Everything comes to those who wait.
I think I asked about someone creating an app when smart phones were in their infancy.
I think if you provided a pro version you could make a tidy sum
Thanks for all the positive feedback regarding the new Countdown Android App. You can now update to the latest version for a new feature!
When you submit a game to the leaderboard, you can now generate a link to share which will open that game in the app (provided they are also on the latest version). Share it with somebody who doesn't have the app and it will automatically direct them to the install page.
Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:53 pm
Fantastic app.
Everything comes to those who wait.
I think I asked about someone creating an app when smart phones were in their infancy.
I think if you provided a pro version you could make a tidy sum
Thanks! The plan is to eventually add extra functionality for subscribers and see how that goes. The core of the app will remain free and largely similar to what is out now (but ad supported).
I haven't had much practice with the ODO dictionary yet; I reckon someone with a bit more experience would have smashed this game - three 9s I haven't heard of but with common letters: http://jackhurst.co.uk/countdowngame?QX2Og4
Adam Gillard wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:42 pm
I haven't had much practice with the ODO dictionary yet; I reckon someone with a bit more experience would have smashed this game - three 9s I haven't heard of but with common letters: http://jackhurst.co.uk/countdowngame?QX2Og4
A couple of milestones:
The 10000th high score was submitted to the leaderboard about 3 weeks ago.
We're at 895000 rounds of countdown played on the app, so I imagine we'll hit the big old 1 million in about a fortnight!
I've also been working hard on the daily challenge feature in my spare time. I can't put an exact date on when it will be ready, but it's coming together nicely, so keep your eyes peeled.
Given those stats only count games that have been uploaded to the leaderboards, I imagine the actual number of games played must be huge. I must have played hundreds of games offline, especially when I was travelling or without access to internet, and many more half-finished ones when playing with a spare moment waiting for a bus etc.
Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Apr 16, 2022 12:00 pm
Ads are annoying though! Can we have the option to pay a couple of quid to get rid of them please?
It should be a maximum of one ad per game? Whilst I get that this is annoying, it's still way less often most other apps with ads would show them?
But yes I totally get your point. It's a bit rubbish that there isn't an option to remove ads even if you are willing to pay. Rest assured this is something high on the to do list
Today the daily challenge feature is going to be released, so keep your eyes peeled for an update becoming available in the play store!
Each day everybody plays the same challenge, and after you complete the challenge there is a leaderboard where you can view how many points and what words everybody else got.
Had a thought about letters rounds the other day - it might be more realistic (note, not necessarily better!) if the letters didn't disappear when you used them - at the moment it's impossible to declare a word with 2 Rs when you've actually got two Ts and two Ss!
JackHurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 2:08 pm
Today the daily challenge feature is going to be released, so keep your eyes peeled for an update becoming available in the play store!
Each day everybody plays the same challenge, and after you complete the challenge there is a leaderboard where you can view how many points and what words everybody else got.
Fiona T wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 2:34 pm
Had a thought about letters rounds the other day - it might be more realistic (note, not necessarily better!) if the letters didn't disappear when you used them - at the moment it's impossible to declare a word with 2 Rs when you've actually got two Ts and two Ss!
Yes it's impossible to declare a word not available in the selection. This is by design
Polite suggestion for future updates: invalid answers should not be spelled out on the letters board. Users may not necessarily notice their word is not in the dictionary as indicated by the script, especially if their eyesight/attention to detail is compromised. Invalid words crossd out in the game table is a clear indicator though. Enjoy the daily challenge, and the ability to disable the timer increases accessibility.
Philip A wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:52 pm
Polite suggestion for future updates: invalid answers should not be spelled out on the letters board. Users may not necessarily notice their word is not in the dictionary as indicated by the script, especially if their eyesight/attention to detail is compromised. Invalid words crossd out in the game table is a clear indicator though. Enjoy the daily challenge, and the ability to disable the timer increases accessibility.
Thanks Philip. Yes that's a good suggestion. I'll look into making it happen
In the Daily Duel thing, how come the three people tied in first place are marked as being 1st 2nd and 3rd?
Is the time taken to solve shit taken into consideration to split ties?
In the Daily Duel thing, how come the three people tied in first place are marked as being 1st 2nd and 3rd?
Is the time taken to solve shit taken into consideration to split ties?
Ties should be displayed as equal. It's an oversize from me that the app doesn't do this now. I'll fix it for you in the next release, thanks for pointing this out
In the Daily Duel thing, how come the three people tied in first place are marked as being 1st 2nd and 3rd?
Is the time taken to solve shit taken into consideration to split ties?
This is now fixed. Players on tied scores are given an equal ranking on all leaderboards. Scores on all scoreboards are ranked by score descending and then timestamp ascending. So if Bob gets 33/33 on the challenge at 00:01 and Craig gets 33/33 on the challenge at 00:02, then both will have a number 1 next to their name, and Bobs score will be displayed at the top, followed by Craig.
Just got another CD fan onto the App with this rant:-
"That phone App is less than a year old... and made by CD champ Jack Hurst. It is really really good. Dictionary bang up to date, letters distribution and shuffling v realistic compared with the TV show. No other app is as good (aside from Apto ofc... that is the place where champions are made)"
Her reply:-
"Yes I'm using it now, I like it a lot, thanks for all the info, I think I prefer this to Apterous but I'll give Apterous a go on my laptop tomorrow."
If trying to share or promote this app, what is the best direct link to use.
Also... what I don't get with phone apps, is - can it be played on a computer?
(The whole Android vs Apple incompatibility is just irritating. I wonder how far they like the incompatibility to extend?)
At some point I'll make a landing page for the app and it should make the whole process of sharing/ promoting the app look a bit more professional.
L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 7:30 pm
Also... what I don't get with phone apps, is - can it be played on a computer?
(The whole Android vs Apple incompatibility is just irritating. I wonder how far they like the incompatibility to extend?)
If you really wanted to play it on a computer you could try something like Bluestacks https://www.bluestacks.com/bluestacks-5.html
The problem with these kind of things is that they tend to be error prone regardless of what app you are trying to use. The users then think the issue is with the app when it's not... its like if you had just invented Snooker and you had a perfect Snooker table to show it off to your friends on, but the snooker table was inside a boat sailing through a storm in choppy waters.
I have the app installed on my Chromebook. Whilst it isn't touchscreen, it works perfectly well, though obviously doesn't quite have the flexibility that playing on a phone/tablet has.
Version 1.49 of the app will be rolling out to your devices over the coming days. Make sure you are up to date by the 8th, because on the 8th there will be some special daily challenges to celebrate it being the 100th day of daily challenges.
As always, if you are enjoying the app, consider leaving a 5* review on Google Play
JackHurst wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:01 pm
We might be over 200 now. I'll do a bit of digging later. Are there any other stats people want to know?
I have a few in mind.
Fastest conundrum solve?
Person who's declared the most nines?
How many nines have been declared on the app overall?
Who's won the most Daily Challenges?
OOC how are the rounds produced for the daily challenges? I played a 15R the other day, didn't save it into the high score leaderboards, then the next day's challenge was LNCLNC and the first of those 3 rounds were the last 3 rounds from my 15R. Don't worry, I still missed the numbers one...
Actually... speaking of the daily duel thing,
how come on Thursday there were zillions of 'em that all related to the number 100 somehow?
Were you celebrating a milestone?
L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑Sun Sep 11, 2022 4:14 pm
Actually... speaking of the daily duel thing,
how come on Thursday there were zillions of 'em that all related to the number 100 somehow?
Were you celebrating a milestone?
JackHurst wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:03 pm
Make sure you are up to date by the 8th, because on the 8th there will be some special daily challenges to celebrate it being the 100th day of daily challenges.
It looks like the backend has decided to take a holiday at the exact same time as me going on holiday. This means I won't be able to investigate and fix it until Friday when I have computer access again.
Until then you will still be able to play games as usual, but the following will probably not work:
- Viewing leaderboards
- Submitting high scores
- Daily challenge
Apologies for the inconvenience. There couldn't have been a more inconvenient time for something to break...
It's now fixed thanks to a bit of help from a close friend.
Functionality is fully back with leaderboards and daily challenge operational again.
There is some data loss and scoreboards have been reset. I will attempt to restore the historical data later this week. Until then it's a good chance to get yourselves to the top of the leaderboards!
Big thank you, Jack. Also I'm very much enjoying the new challenges; not gonna spoil anything to anyone who hasn't seen them but definitely take a looksie.
Neil A Collins wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:02 am
Been getting some dodgy game ads recently. (now is when Jack tells me they're based on cookies...)
Interesting. I don't specify exactly which ads appear, but I do have some control over blocking specific things. Feel free to direct message me more details or a screenshot.
Neil A Collins wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:02 am
Been getting some dodgy game ads recently. (now is when Jack tells me they're based on cookies...)
Interesting. I don't specify exactly which ads appear, but I do have some control over blocking specific things. Feel free to direct message me more details or a screenshot.
Neil sends picture of "Hot lesbian lovers" ad.
Jack requests higher resolution picture to aid his investigations...
Neil A Collins wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:02 am
Been getting some dodgy game ads recently. (now is when Jack tells me they're based on cookies...)
Interesting. I don't specify exactly which ads appear, but I do have some control over blocking specific things. Feel free to direct message me more details or a screenshot.
Neil sends picture of "Hot lesbian lovers" ad.
Jack requests higher resolution picture to aid his investigations...
I downloaded the app and i've had no ads. It's probably Neil's porno that's hacked it
Downloaded the app yesterday! I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts here:
- On the whole, smooth and easy to use. I've played a good number of games on it and the interface is intuitive. It'll be my go-to when I want to knock out some practice games.
- If there's a way to undo one step on the numbers interface, I haven't found it. I sometimes find myself wanting to enter a solution like 3*100 - 4*5 and I forget that tapping the buttons in that order will evaluate LTR rather than as BODMAS - which is fine, but I would like a way to go back a couple of steps after finding myself on 1480 rather than starting from scratch.
- The lovely animation for the letters being drawn doesn't happen for the final letter of each round, and it's a bit jarring to have the final letter suddenly appear out of nowhere.
One thing I'd really like to see is achievements - I'd find that really fun. For example, you could earn achievements for obvious things like hitting score milestones, or for a max game, or for a sub-X conundrum solve, or for a numbers solution that goes into 5 digits or whatever. But you could also add some silly ones like "declare at least one max starting with each letter of the alphabet" or "declare the same word twice in one game".
The only feedback I'd have is to make the format of the daily challenge a bit clearer before you start it - quite often I'll start, realise I don't have time for 15 rounds, and have to abandon it. Like today's - should I know what a "115 challenge" is?
Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:40 am
Downloaded the app yesterday! I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts here:...
Thanks for the feedback.
- An undo button on the numbers screen is the most commonly requested feature and high on my list. I will most likely end up redoing whole numbers screen at some point
- Letter Animations: Good spot. That's a long standing bug. It would be nice to fix it, but in relative terms it's quite low down on the list at the moment
- Achievements: Yes this would be a good idea. Something I have in mind for the future.
Steve Hyde wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:43 am
The only feedback I'd have is to make the format of the daily challenge a bit clearer before you start it - quite often I'll start, realise I don't have time for 15 rounds, and have to abandon it. Like today's - should I know what a "115 challenge" is?
You've found a bug. As Sam says, it is indeed the 115th day of challenges, however this should not be the text displayed in the challenge preview screen. This is one I can tidy up in 2 minutes, so probably by the time you read this post it will be fixed.
Steve Hyde wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:43 am
The only feedback I'd have is to make the format of the daily challenge a bit clearer before you start it - quite often I'll start, realise I don't have time for 15 rounds, and have to abandon it. Like today's - should I know what a "115 challenge" is?
You've found a bug. As Sam says, it is indeed the 115th day of challenges, however this should not be the text displayed in the challenge preview screen. This is one I can tidy up in 2 minutes, so probably by the time you read this post it will be fixed.
I've just completed restoring the historic data. Unfortunately we have lost all games occurring between 5pm 20th August until 11am 19th September, but everything else should be fine. If you see any further issues please get in touch.
My estimate is that over that period of data loss, we had:
Approx 7200 regular high scores submitted
Approx 1800 challenge submissions
We currently have roughly 34000 games in the DB, so without the data loss it would have been up at 43000. This means losing the data for that period has lost around 20% of the games! On a positive note if 20% of games happened in that recent 1 month period, it shows that the app is growing in popularity with high levels of engagement.
I will spend some time investigating better ways of doing back ups, so that hopefully next time there's an outage, we don't lose as much data.
Version 1.53 will be rolling out to devices over the next couple of days. This update contains the most requested feature: Pay to remove ads!
Up to now the app has been entirely free with a small number of adverts generating a trickle of income. I'm interested to see how it will go giving the players an option to remove adverts. If things go well I'll keep working on further improvements to the game.
