You can get some success with different angles but it looks to me like the accelerometer input quality is best when its held relatively flat.

I had a quick play with the version i'd downloaded and like the idea. I've written a similar app a long time ago, wasn't that successful with that one.

A few points, if you're interested.

i) i find the FOV makes it very hard to know exactly that i'm going to hit or miss the ball as its around halfway from reaching me. Have you experimented with a narrower FOV to see if this helps? Perhaps more feedback about the current velocity of the ball could also help, some kind of effect projecting ahead of the ball showing where its heading.

ii) I find the controls taking time to move the paddle makes it quite hard to judge where i should be holding the phone to make the paddle reach the ball, it also restricts the speed you can move, which after a number of bounces means its very very difficult to get into position even if you know exactly where its going to end up when it reaches you. It feels to me like it'd would work better for me if the tilt directly mapped to the position of the paddle, rather than the paddle taking time to get to where you're telling it to go. You'll know then that if you hold the phone at a particular angle the paddle will go to the same location every time, as such muscle memory will kick in and you'll feel more capable of making the paddle be in the right place at the right time. This will require a big increase in sensitivity, but that'll help with the final point anyway.

iii) I find the amount of tilt needed makes it hard to sometimes see the screen with it turned roughly the maximum amount.

Good stuff though. Congrats on getting a game in the store.

Still, the accelerometer is a great input device, and I want to keep using it in future games.

Just to point out that these games don't let you calibrate the setting for the dead-zone because it can only work when held horizontally. Its just a fact that accelerometers have to be used in this manner. Think about it, they detect accelerations, so unless you are vigourously shaking it they dont detect it at all. As such to offer the kind of control that these games use in two dimensions it has to rely on the acceleration from gravity, which is only pulling downwards. This is why the phone has to be flat as tilting it left/right, and up/down will all be able to be detected as the amount of gravity inline with the device changes as you tilt. If you however hold the phone vertically as if you were lying in bed then up/down tilt will still pick up changes in gravity affecting the phone but left and right tilt is now perpendicular to gravity, and as such its NOT detectable.

Explained simply, held flat its just like moving a ball on a tray by tilting it in all directions. Holding it vertically however and you can change the speed that something would fall down the phone by making it more or less steep but gravity will do nothing for something that can only move horizontally.

I think it may actually predate Curveball. I created my own Flash version in 2003 that wasn't very well known, because I never published it on any major sites. It had converging walls, and a lot of features that will hopefully make it into 3-D Vector Pong. Its an evolving work, that will hopefully have some lasting power.

On a side note, v 1.2 is right around the corner, and its an update I think everyone will be very pleased with. So stay tuned.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/curveball

Can't wait to try this one.