Universal Flipflop Solitaire (By Zach Gage)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by Boardumb, Nov 9, 2017.

  1. SpeckledJim

    SpeckledJim Member

    Apr 25, 2012
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    #21 SpeckledJim, Nov 12, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2017
    The update that added landscape is completely broken, at least on iPad3. Rotate to landscape, and all you see is roughly the bottom left corner of the view scaled up to fit the whole screen. This does not correct on rotating back to portrait.
     
  2. stfj

    stfj Well-Known Member

    Sep 18, 2009
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    @SpeckledJim - sorry about that. in general, the iPad 3 isn't supported. It runs too slowly :(

    @bobish - the 99% solve rate holds through 4 suit, but 5 suit is more like 60% i think
     
  3. Great game! Really fun.

    I was experiencing the frequent crashes also on an iPhone 6 running iOS 10. (Though I kept playing, shows how fun the game is) After playing today with the new update (looked like there was an update) haven't had a crash yet.

    Anyway, really enjoying it, good work.
     
  4. idaveharris

    idaveharris Well-Known Member

    Feb 13, 2013
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    Weird bug in latest update my wins are higher than plays (see attached).
     

    Attached Files:

  5. shfrost

    shfrost Well-Known Member

    Apr 9, 2010
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    Wish the cards would scale for iPad Pro. Lots of empty (wasted) space.
    Excellent game!
     
  6. SpeckledJim

    SpeckledJim Member

    Apr 25, 2012
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    Well it was definitely too slow before the update once the screen filled with cards. Lots of odd jittering with the cards easing into place. But that seemed to be fixed with the update.
     
  7. stfj

    stfj Well-Known Member

    Sep 18, 2009
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    @speckledJim - I reduced the resolution to try and make it better on iPad3, but I still find it pretty brutal to play compared to what it's supposed to feel like

    @shfrost - i put a lot of work into making the cards the right shape to fit perfectly onto the iphone. to redo it for the ipad in a nice way without just spacing the piles out I would have to make the cards wider (the real limiting factor is how many you can stack vertically), and i think they look worse wider. I suppose I could shuffle the whole interface around but that feels a bit weird. Do you have any thoughts on specifically what kind of layout you were hoping for?

    @idaveharris - fixed in the next update (though it'll maintain your stats.. you'd have to go through the tutorial again to really fix it)

    @rossmanbrothers - sorry about the crashes! I am working on trying to figure out exactly what is going on. I have one theory that I fixed in the upcoming update, but we'll see if that solves the issue
     
  8. Jerutix

    Jerutix Well-Known Member

    Nov 3, 2009
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    In case you need a quote for the app description, my wife says that "Flipflop Solitaire is great to play while breastfeeding." Hope that doesn't gross anyone out. She loves it. :D
     
  9. Gambler

    Gambler Well-Known Member

    Mar 10, 2014
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    Hate to be the negative Nelly here but dunno - Loved Sage Solitaire but I can't really get into this game. For me it's just the same as Spider Solitaire (which I played like a maniac years ago) - Not much of a novelty factor and the only "twist" - that you can connect cards in desecending or ascending order - isn't really enough to keep myself invested.

    No offense, I understand why people enjoy this and Zach Gage is an amazing dev no matter what. But gotta say Flipflop is one of my least favorite games by him so far,
     
  10. Gambler

    Gambler Well-Known Member

    Mar 10, 2014
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    #30 Gambler, Nov 14, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2017
    Issue with this slogan: Only appeals to female demographic aged ~18 - 40. What's with the men, the older people and the children? Doesn't anybody ever think about the children?? :confused:

    :p
     
  11. MulDeR

    MulDeR Well-Known Member

    May 22, 2017
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    Great game! Relaxing and fun. I will buy the IAP to unlock the full game. Love card games and this one is awesome.
     
  12. MulDeR

    MulDeR Well-Known Member

    May 22, 2017
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    Any chance to increase the ambient audio? I've put it to the maximum and I barely hear it.
    Also, maybe add some more, like forest, jungle... :D
     
  13. No worries! It looks like that first update fixed it, no crashes since then. Amazing game, I'm addicted. Best time on the four suit mode is 2:40, not sure if I can beat that.
     
  14. sweetdiss

    sweetdiss Well-Known Member

    Jun 15, 2009
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    Can I get some tips on 2+ suits? I do okay in the first mode, but as soon as there's an extra suit added to the mix I get stuck. I've had a few successful 2 suit games, but it kinda melts my brain and I can't imagine how people do with 5.
     
  15. Jerutix

    Jerutix Well-Known Member

    Nov 3, 2009
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    Remember that you can build up and down (I know that sounds obvious, but I forget mid game sometimes), so a 7898765676 could be a stack.

    That can also be a way to uncover new cards - sometimes you need to move a whole stack "backwards" on to a new stack to get at what's on the base.

    I've yet to play 5 suits, but I've won 4 suits a few times. I like it best.
     
  16. stfj

    stfj Well-Known Member

    Sep 18, 2009
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    @jerutix haha i am glad it's helping your wife out!

    @gambler sorry it's not for you! thats okay I think :)

    @mulder thanks for the support! I'm not sure there's too much I can do about bumping up the audio. I recorded it myself on a binaural microphone I have, and the level it's at is the sensitivity of the mic. I'd have to get a more sensitive one to improve it, which, who knows, maybe down the line i'll do :) Try giving headphones a shot, the audio is actually designed to be heard in headphones anyhow. If you close your eyes it's like you're there

    @rossmanbrothers i'm glad it's working better!
     
  17. Guise

    Guise Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2009
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    Another sharper from one of my favorite game designers. Though I know there have already been a few updates, I do have one suggestion/request: a way to replay the tutorial would be nice. Keep up the great work, Zach!
     
  18. sweetdiss

    sweetdiss Well-Known Member

    Jun 15, 2009
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    Definitely getting the hang of this now. I was really having trouble with the 2 suits mode at first, but I think I read the dev say something about "untying" or "untangling" the stacks of cards that really set my brain in the right direction (although I can't find that comment in this thread... maybe I made it up?). Not being afraid to use Undo a lot (or restarting) when I get stuck is helpful, too.

    I don't think I'm ready for 3+ suits quite yet, but I'm having a lot of fun with 1 and 2 so far!
     
  19. stfj

    stfj Well-Known Member

    Sep 18, 2009
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    #39 stfj, Dec 6, 2018
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
    [​IMG]

    Flipflop Solitaire got a big update today!

    Numbered decks are something I'd always planned to get into Flipflop, and I'm so excited that they're finally launching!

    Each numbered deck is a unique, solvable flipflop solitaire deal that's identical for all players.
    So for example, Two suit deck #3 for you and your best friend are the same exact deal.

    You can play each deck as many times as you want, and there are over 1,000 decks available for each mode!

    It was quite an adventure to make this mode — I had to take a 99.9% solvable game and make it 100% solvable.

    This is a pretty interesting problem because Flipflop is extremely difficult to write an AI for due to all the branching and backwards branching. With a solvability testing AI out of the question I had to come up with another strategy.

    First, I manually designed an unsolvable deal (ignore the markings on these cards, they were for a failed prototype of something else):
    [​IMG]
    Then I worked with that deal to try and infer what kinds of rules for deck generation would make it solvable. Ultimately, I did work out a few, and the process taught me a lot about the inner workings of the game — and how rare unsolvable games really are (they are unbelievably rare).

    Making rules that only toss 100% unsolvable decks is incredibly difficult, but fortunately not required. Since my objective here was just to make sure players never get an unsolvable deck, it's okay if a few extra solvable decks get tossed out along the way.

    Once I had my rules in place, to test them I set my deck shuffler to try to generate impossible decks — then I'd try to solve them. This helped me narrow my restrictions down from throwing out 1 in 1,000 shuffles all the way to throwing out 1 in 10,000,000 shuffles. Even then, when I did finally get a "unsolvable" deck after hours of computer-shuffles, I managed to solve it! I think throwing out a false positive over a few hundred million shuffles is okay though :)

    Going through this process taught me two things:

    1- It's incredible that I actually encountered an unsolvable deck during beta testing (it's what led to the 99.9% solvable figure)
    2- It turns out due to some adjustment already in the game, 5-Suit deals have always been solvable. In fact, 5-Suit is the only deal that has always been 100% solvable (now after this update, they're all 100% solvable)

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy Numbered Decks!
     
    slewis7 likes this.

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