The game uses your phone’s Haptics in order to play a rhythm of “Tiks” (haptic vibrations). The user then has to try and recreate the timing of the rhythm they just felt by tapping it anywhere on the screen. It sounds easy, but getting the timing right is tricky, and so it usually takes a couple tries before your able to get it right.
The inspiration for the game came from wanting something to do in a really boring presentation. It would have been disrespectful to look at my phone, but I also needed a distraction. I typically hold my phone in these kinds of scenarios, and fiddle with the case, when it occurred to me: what if there was a game I could play just holding the phone anywhere (under a desk, in my pocket, to the side, etc.). Sometime later Tik! was born :)
I would love your feedback on it. The game is paid, but if someone would like a promo code to try it please let me know below. Link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6720712299
(To redeem, click on your profile icon, go to “Redeem Gift Card or Code” and enter the code. Each promo code is one time use only, so to anyone else reading this please ask for one in a new comment if you would like one!)
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However, I also really have to wonder: "I needed a distraction" - smartphones have apparently conditioned us to consider boredom absolutely intolerable. I'm note sure that's a good thing.
Think about all those times before you had a phone that you would read the ingredients to hand soap while on the toilet!
>humans have disliked boredom since forever.
Maybe I'm unusual, but if I go too many days without spending a significant fraction of my time doing things I dislike, then my mental health starts to decline. Specifically, I start to lack motivation and drive with the result that I spend less time pursuing and more time procrastinating (or resting when I don't need rest).
(Doing something risky works just as well as doing something painful or uncomfortable in keeping me out of this particular bad mental place. It doesn't have to be a risk of something terrible happening: it only needs to feel not totally safe in some juicy way, not to be objectively dangerous.)
Also, I wish I knew what I just wrote when I was still a young man.
I also see this as something nice for someone who is already conditioned to be super stimulated. Instead of scrolling instagram for example, this could be nice since at least you don't get the typical level of stimulation and eye strain..
It is also a lot less stimulating than something like social media since it has no sound / screen. :)
I am happy that writing haptic or game brings it up though!
Here is ur code! Promo: WJJAYWH6KTEK
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Where can I sign up for notification of a future Android (specifically Kindle Fire [Kids+]) release?
Maybe it works best by giving you a few bars of a tune and you make the percussion up to fit?
Whatever, I think there's something there.
It would be possible to use the touch screen for multiple inputs split into large regions, multiple fingers, etc.
If I ever release Tik! on android in the future I will reply back on ur comment again here ;)
I think it would be nice to have some UI when you first open the app, so you can at least learn how to play it. It's kind of hard to figure out what you're doing wrong when you tap and what success should look like.
Also, are there any difficulty levels? It feels like the very first sequence is kind of hard.
From what you are saying, I am assuming you bought the app (if so thank you!). When you first open the app (and every time after you completely close it from the background), there is a "?" at the top right. If you click it, it has a guided tutorial that explains in detail how the game works.
Please let me know if you have any other questions though and I can answer them here. If you are struggling a lot with a specific sequence, just close the app completely and re-launch it and the sequence will change.
I tried to set it at a difficulty that would not be too hard or easy. If it is consistently too hard though please let me know and I will make changes :)
But this worries me a little bit: "I also needed a distraction" - is it really a good idea to treat our brains this way? Why do we need distractions all the time? Why is boredom so intolerable? Also, you can simply just think about stuff, you don't have to feed your compulsion loop.
Thinking about stuff is also a distraction. And for some people there’s nothing to solve, really, as they’re okay where they’re at in life.
That’s why I feel like you’re projecting a bit; it’s not intolerable, it’s just… nothing. So if you have no other option, why not play a game?
I’m currently not in the camp of “nothing to think about” - I could sit for hours and do nothing except think. But there were (and will be) times in my life where that would not feel good - I wanted experiences!
That's the question though, do you not have any other options? Things that are more gratifying and contribute to your development than some brain-dead game?
When you take everything from the brain, and sit silently, it starts to remember. Oh, the plants, the presentation I'm going to give, financials for the month, remaining tasks at the office, etc. Maybe some worse issues which bother you but you try to ignore.
Escaping into some distraction from these uncomfortable thoughts is always marketed as the norm, the way it should be, but it's not. One should prioritize mental discipline over fidgeting and dopamine hits, IMHO.
I know not every problem in life have a solution, and battling with some problems is hard. But running away from any and every problem is not the solution.
Congrats on the release. :)
However, sometimes when we are stuck in a boring situation, it's less about being meaningfully free and more about feeling stuck with nothing to do.
In this kind of a senario, Tik! would be a better option and less stimulating than something like instagram for example, since although your mind is busy, it's not overstimulating your brain with information.
Just my thoughts on the topic, please let me know if you agree or have anything to add on :)
In many ways ADHD isn't so much a disease as an incompatibility with modern office life. It isn't "healthy" for most people to sit in an office all day, but ADHD-like people, it is a very real struggle. One mitigation is distracting a part of your brain with some activity while doing something else. There is nothing at all wrong with this.
You might as well be saying writing with your left hand is unhealthy and recommending exercises to force yourself to write with the "correct" hand.
I don't see where the commenter mentioned morality. Where do you see this?
It is not immoral in the slightest for anyone, and especially if you have ADHD. In fact if this is something someone could use to help with their ADHD that would be incredible. I was just saying that I get where the original comment is coming from as well.
Hope this clears things up!
It’s like telling someone with depression/anxiety to “get over it”.
This game is basically a digital fidget—it doesn't actually prevent you from being there in the meeting, but it does provide the little bit of background simulation that some people legitimately need in order to stay sane working a desk job.
(No affiliation)
/s
https://www.amazon.com/Wenqik-Cushion-Vibrator-Pressure-Acti...
That's enough wtf for me, I'll leave the Internet for a while.
This notebook was filled with cartoons and illustrations representing what occurred during the meeting and it looked like I was diligently taking notes. Definitely helped me focus and stay tuned-in to what was going on in the meeting.
90% of people who claim adhd, add, autism, ocd, ptsd or other 'neurodivergence' these days either self-diagnose, or let themselves be conditioned to think this by feedback from other people and their arm-chair diagnoses. This is a damaging state of mind. Either get professional evaluation or free your mind and learn to be still. You can't imagine how much time and effective use of that time you can get from simply learning to do nothing without being bothered by it.
Diagnosing these things is _very difficult and takes a lot of time_ even for a professional with tons of experience. For some people, they need multiple different professionals to evaluate them over a period of (many) years before a somewhat accurate diagnosis is yielded depending on the ailment!
[1] https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-happiness-lab-with-dr-la...
But sometimes it is worth it to want to have somme fun and not be bored, and in those kinds of scenarios Tik! can help!
It is also a good alternative to staring at a screen since it is not as stimulating, so it can be used at a time where someone would normally scroll instagram for example if the user wants to use it like that.
1. Use “you’re“, not “your”, for “you are”. It is wrong in the first “screen” image in your App Store listing.
2. Use an ellipsis — three dots, “…”, never two dots. This is in two images in your listing.
Feedback: it's pretty difficult even at the first level. As a distraction, even just easy 2-3 beat patters might be good to start with. So having difficulty levels would be great.
Maybe the difficulty comes from the strength of the haptic engine, but not sure how to easily change that (somewhere in Settings app I'm sure).
That is really nice feedback. The main thing that impacts the difficulty is how off the user's taps can be from the exact timing, and I tried to set it at a level that is not too easy/hard - but that is good feedback and will definitely look into it!
Till then, I would suggest tapping along to the haptics as they occur just to get a feel for the timing. After a couple of tries it should get easier..
Thanks again for trying it out!
For example, I like to take time off with no music or phone and just walk around sometimes and choose to be mindful, but other times I have already had a long day and don't want to be mored more..
Let me know your thoughts too though..
Have you looked at the resulting file to see what uses up the space? Perhaps it can be reduced further?
It is quite fun, I like rhythm games.
To all the people replying why i asked for a promo code: They offered it in the first place, so why can't i ask for it?
Am I the only one that can’t help seeing irony here? Search for a constant attention and distraction may not lead to a better mental condition, if not making worse as subsequents boring times will be even more boring.
Here’s some alternatives some phoneless can engage while staring at a speaker:
- imagine another life for the speaker
- mentally check your grocery list
- build inner abs, perineum and other hidden muscles
- wank yourself from a hidden hole in you pocket
- think what where the outcome and what you could have done differently in previous social interactions
- my favorite : deeply concentrate on all noises, voices sounds that does not come from the speaker itself.
Also congratulations, AFAIK this is a novel game ideas. Being bored leaded here to creativity.
right in the opening post.
Hyperbolic top level comments with phrasing like "the number of people" to make it sound large and extreme and calling it "appalling" when the author is offering promo codes in their post and people are subsequently requesting them is the actual bad behavior here.
For this first version, I have entered the beat patterns myself. Each beat patten has 5-8 beats, spaced out to be faster / slower / different rhythms with each pattern taking no more than about 2 seconds to play out.
This is just version 1 though, so there is obviously scope for more! :)
Thanks for ur interest too :)
The usual : improve a sense by shutting down another?
Anyway, it's fun!
Thanks for downloading the app!! :)
Suggestions: - have an option to add 4 constant interval tiks at the beginning to help setup the base rhythm - hold down the small white dot to return to menu so you can see progress without exiting - have a way to visualize a rhythm similar to the example or skip it (maybe two finger hold?) if you are stuck - some rhythms feel to have slightly uneven tempo. Is the duration of the tick taken into consideration when generating the tempo?
Interesting game overall. Well done
- increase tolerance to slightly off taps, and gradually increase the number of ticks (not sure you already do this but right now it’s too hard win many times in a row)
- tik of the day mode. A long tick that challenges people who can win it in fewest trials
Also thank you so so much for the in depth feedback! I get what you mean about the game being pretty hard starting out - I was trying to balance between too hard and too easy but it seems I landed a little bit on the harder side - which is something I can fix!
Your ideas about adding a constant interval to the start, holding the white dot to return to the menu (love this one!), and seeing progress without closing the app are great! I will definitely take everything you said into account for future updates!
The timing of the Tiks is intentionally off to make the game a bit harder and add variety. I think the main thing that impacts how hard it is should be the tolerance of how close ur taps have to be to the Tiks, which is something. I can change to make easier, at least till the user gets around 40-50 correct or something.
I love the Tik of the day mode idea and is something I had written too to implement later on. Seriously all your feedback is amazing, thanks so much!! :)
Interval tiks would add "noise" to a game that has very limited output. How would I know if those tiks are the interval or the pattern?
I don't think I've ever gotten two correct in a row, but the fun of the gameplay comes from slowly learning the rhythm over a few tries. It's not entirely unlike Celeste or Super Meat Boy, where you learn the level over multiple attempts.
I'm worried that I would trigger any sort of menu accidentally. Two fingers might work but if I'm walking or something and gripping the phone in weird ways...
I will say that while walking home this afternoon, there was one pattern I got stuck on. Every other pattern, I was able to get past after a reasonable number of tries, but this one just seemed impossible and I had to quit and re-open the app. So I agree there either needs to be some way to skip patterns, or the pattern generation needs to be tweaked to avoid super hard outliers.
Edit: Fwiw, my stats are: 116 total attempts, 20 correct, 2 max in a row.
Triggering the menu by accident is a valid concern as well.
I will try and think of creative ways to balance all of this and make the end experiance even better. I appreciate your feedback!
I will try and think of a way to fix this. If you have any ideas please do let me know! Thanks for this comment!
(assuming the length is the issue, and this name isn't already used)
There is a help section if you click the ? at the top right of the screen when you first open the app (to see it again just close the app from the background and the re-open it, and you will see it again) It has a full tutorial explaining everything well
Thank you so much for downloading the app too! I have seen other comments about it being too hard too and thats something I will try to fix in an update! :)
I hope this helps! Once again visiting the help screen (?) at the top right when you launch the app after closing it from the background will give a in depth tutorial. Happy playing!!
Thank you for pointing that out! I guess I should have checked for typos and will fix that soon!
You did it again. Sorry you're on apple.
I suppose I don't really buy the premise put forth from either direction; I don't buy that it's possible to be present while doing something else (for me anyway) AND I don't buy that this is gonna be immersive. I'm not stating these things as claims; this is just my reaction to the app store copy.
I did buy it and love it though. What really works for me is as a way to hang out with my kid when she's doing her own thing. I want to be available to be present at a moment's notice.
I tried to make the copy a little intentionally attention grabbing; The idea isn't honestly to be completely present in what is in front of you and on the app, but to use the app as a distraction since it takes your mind off of something in front of you (which is why I used the word immersive)
I am super happy to know that you love the app. If there is anything specific about my copy and marketing though that you think I could change to present it better please let me know.
Thanks!
I don't have an iPhone, but could you also play this with the screen off by tapping on the volume buttons instead?
Using volume buttons could be neat, something to keep in mind! Thx
(To redeem, click on your profile icon, go to “Redeem Gift Card or Code” and enter the code. Each promo code is one time use only, so to anyone else reading this please ask for one in a new comment if you would like one!)
(To redeem, click on your profile icon, go to “Redeem Gift Card or Code” and enter the code. Each promo code is one time use only, so to anyone else reading this please ask for one in a new comment if you would like one!)
(To redeem, click on your profile icon, go to “Redeem Gift Card or Code” and enter the code. Each promo code is one time use only, so to anyone else reading this please ask for one in a new comment if you would like one!)
I am just a web dev so I don’t think I have the skills to make it. Just leaving the idea here in case someone wants to build it
It might be possible to do this as a PWA, using https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Acceleromet...
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_A...
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Vibration_A...
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Sensor_APIs
I also really agree that Haptics can be used in super unique ways for people with disabilities like blindness, since you are not dependent on visuals. Even for Tik! I tired to add some accessibility labels and support, but the possibilities are truly endless!
like: tap---tap-tap-tap----tap
but I guess that is part of challenge
Would be cool with an "easy" mode for
Fix spelling such as “re-ceate” :-D
But this is double super dooper and ad.
(To redeem, click on your profile icon, go to “Redeem Gift Card or Code” and enter the code. Each promo code is one time use only, so to anyone else reading this please ask for one in a new comment if you would like one!)
I am really happy you like the app!! The only issue with tapping on the outside of the phone would be how the phone could detect it (not sure if the gyroscope or something could be accurate enough). Someone had suggested volume buttons so maybe that is an option to explore.
Thank you for your feedback though and for sharing it! I appreciate it! :)
Despite how fun this game might be, it's bad for your health.
Just put your phone down and be bored, use your imagination, think, exist in the present.
Edit. OK--found it in Games-->Casual-->Top paid games. strange I couldn't find it in a general search?
Eg, I'd like to be able to pick a tempo and sit down and work on different 6/8 rhymns. I assume this could be a causal way to get better at music.
The pixel should give minimal feedback surely - just communicate success / failure?
There is a haptic with success or failure, its just that if someone "fails" then it replays the sequence so they learn where they messed up.
Thank you!
