Smiles HD SMILES HD is all new and redesigned for the iPad. It's based on SMILES, the award winning strategic puzzle and arcade ma… $3.99 Buy Now Watch Media DetailsSMILES HD is all new and redesigned for the iPad. It's based on SMILES, the award winning strategic puzzle and arcade matching-game.SMILES reinvents the matching-game with an innovative gameplay mechanic, and rejuvenates the genre with TWO UNIQUE GAMES! It's designed for players of all skill levels, with interesting new play styles to discover and grow in to. SMILES also doesn't pressure you in to making a move! Play at your own pace."SMILES DROP" does away with slow gesture-based controls, and introduces the "TOUCH SWAP"; An easier, faster, and better way to play on a touch screen. Make matches to score points, and DON'T WAIT! Touch your next match RIGHT AWAY, and chain together HUGE combos and high scores! Break rocks and ice by DROPPING them, and either turn the iPad, or use the on screen buttons to SPIN the board."SMILES ZEN" takes the "TOUCH SWAP" mechanic, and combines it with the best of patience games like Solitaire and Mahjong. The result is a game that's both thought provoking and engaging. Light up the board to win.SMILES HD features plenty of game modes, statistics, achievements, themes, and a full soundtrack!SMILES HD: The matching-game reinvented.FEATURES:- Two great games (SMILES DROP, and SMILES ZEN)- Uniquely designed for both novice and skilled players alike- 14 game modes including AVALANCHE, MATCH CHALLENGE, and DROP+- 3 themes including Adorable Vegetables, Cheerful Weather, and Colorful Blocks- High Scores and Statistics- Over 150 Achievements to unlock- Upbeat soundtrack with encouraging sound design- Play in ANY orientation Information Seller: Genre:Arcade, Puzzle Release:Apr 01, 2010 Updated:Nov 30, -0001 Version: Size:0.0 TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating: (2) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal - - - - - Hey, Just thought I'd mention I'll be releasing an iPad version of Smiles. I brought some pictures too. If you're unfamiliar with Smiles, you can check out the iPhone trailer at the website: http://www.smiles-game.com Smiles HD is based on Smiles, but will include several changes to suit the iPad. The biggest change that players of the original should notice is the playfield. iPhone Smiles uses a larger 8x9 playfield, and you would physically rotate the iPhone to change the way things fell. Smiles HD will actually use a smaller 8x8 playfield, and have buttons on screen for rotating. You'll still be able to physically rotate the iPad to change the fall direction (or play tall or wide if you like), but it wont be required. Comfortably grip the iPad in one hand, and tap matches with the other. Also, due to the smaller playfield, games are shorter now. One of the bigger complaints (or rather, confusing points) of the original is that an Easy or Long Play game would always last a really long time. I don't have any fancy statistics to back this up, but roughly speaking an average Long Play game would take me 30+ minutes in iPhone Smiles, and now takes me 20+ minutes. I think this is an improvement, but I will be leaving iPhone Smiles as-is for those that prefer the original way. Also as the name suggests, Smiles HD will feature higher resolution graphics. After all, the iPad has more resolution, so I may as well use it. There's numerous other changes to the game as well. The differences between Drop and Drop+ should make a lot more sense now (Drop+ is now the "ice cracks in 4" modes). It's something I wanted to fix in the original iPhone version, but would break a lot of things. It's the kind of change that had to wait for a clean slate like an iPad version. That's all I can think of at the moment. Now for some screenshots. Click for high resolution. EDIT: Early shots removed. Here are some final shots. Click for full size: - - - - EDIT: Gameplay videos. Trailer coming soon. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Random_Guy Well-Known Member Apr 6, 2009 8,418 0 0 Australia, mate! #2 Random_Guy, Jan 29, 2010 Looks very interesting, I must admit. I am yet to own the iPhone version though. zero144 Well-Known Member Mar 10, 2009 271 0 16 Sydney, Australia #3 zero144, Jan 29, 2010 Out of interest, When Devs release their games as optimed iPad versions will we have to purchase them again? Mew2468 Well-Known Member Oct 20, 2008 1,652 5 0 Vancouver, BC #4 Mew2468, Jan 29, 2010 Whoa, I was just going to suggest this; this looks amazing! Nobody knows for sure yet. ultimo Well-Known Member May 5, 2009 3,840 1 38 #5 ultimo, Jan 29, 2010 Am in LOVE with this game on my iPod touch.... The BEST thing tht U did was add that rotational button so tht we do not have to turn the whole thing around For PpL who don't like it, read ma sig steamrollerstudios Well-Known Member Apr 17, 2009 103 1 0 #6 steamrollerstudios, Jan 29, 2010 From what I understand yes. The developer has no say over this as the iPad versions will be seperate from the iPhone versions. You'll still be able to play the original version on the iPad it just won't look as nice PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #7 PoV, Jan 29, 2010 For the most part, yes. Smiles is one of several iPhone apps that fall under 10 Megabytes in size. This means it can actually be downloaded over the 3G cellular network, as Apple and the Carriers imposes this restriction on us. Files larger than that need to be downloaded either by iTunes or over Wifi. Smiles HD has larger art files in it, meaning it breaks that 10 MB limit. A piece of art that is 2x the detail takes up 4x the space. The final size of Smiles HD is somewhere around 20-25 MB. So for one, I just couldn't fit it in 10 MB. And because it's a separate version, it gives us a chance to make changes or improvements to original game, plus optimize it for the iPad experience. I think most players will appreciate what's changed. I'm glad you like that. That's right. The iPhone originals should all still work. So if you prefer the old way and don't mind pixel scaling, or just don't feel like spending money on the same game again, you don't have to. slashandburn Active Member Oct 10, 2009 32 0 0 Birmingham, Al #8 slashandburn, Jan 30, 2010 Actually the size limit is just for downloading and that only applies over the carriers network, but Apple stated that later down the line you will be able to make Hybrid/Universal binaries that will be able to run on Phone + Pad in the same file. Personally I think i'm going to have to port my TD game to iPad as a seperate game initially, unless apple releases the universal build first, but will universal binaries still be 2.2.x compatible, because I would hate to leave the 2.x crowd behind. bgribin Well-Known Member Mar 7, 2009 355 0 0 Seattle, WA #9 bgribin, Mar 19, 2010 I loved Smiles on the iPhone so I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out! PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #10 PoV, Mar 22, 2010 A couple "in development" shots. I've done some extra detailing and touch-ups to the HD artwork, and added an extra layer to the background effect in Drop. I'm shooting for Apple's deadline. Back to that. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #11 LordGek, Mar 22, 2010 Sorry if already mentioned, but what will this be sold for as it isn't going to be considered a free upgrade to the iPhone version? PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #12 PoV, Mar 22, 2010 Yeah, I guess I haven't mentioned this yet. Smiles HD will launch at $4.99, but it will eventually make it's way up to $6.99. Probably by the summer. PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #13 PoV, Mar 23, 2010 Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel After seeing the pictures, most people don't realize Smiles is also a serious arcade puzzle game. Here's a quick look at a typical round of me playing Drop at the "Normal" difficulty. HerbertKornfeld Well-Known Member Oct 13, 2008 141 1 18 #14 HerbertKornfeld, Mar 23, 2010 Good video, but... That’s a good video, in that it shows how frantic a game can get. But it fails to demonstrate a couple of the best features. First of all, I love the sound design as it is. When you’re stringing together a long combination, the ever increasing pitch helps you to know, without looking, how well you’re doing. And it adds to the excitement. If it’s really high pitched and I can’t find something right away to continue my combo, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety that makes the game great. Second of all, I love the fact that you can rotate the field. This helps out a lot in high-level play, and it’s essential when going for large combinations. I know that the default settings don’t require you to actually rotate the device anymore, and that this is now tied to a button. But you don’t do this at all in the video. For your next demo, I'd love to see how it works. I’m not convinced that this is better than actually rotating, but on something like the iPad, it’s probably the way to go. At least the option is still there to use actual rotation. Here’s a couple of other things I'd like to see. With the iPad version coming as a second app, I'll be losing all of my statistics. It would be nice if there was a way to transfer them over. This might also tie into a larger request, which is that you use either Plus+ or OpenFeint. That way, we’d have competitive leaderboards, and we’d have saved highscores. And speaking of statistics, it might be nice if scores were tied to whether or not you’re using actual rotation or if you’re using buttons. I think that the buttons might make things easier, and this might skew the current scores. And finally, I’m glad to hear of your successes with Smiles on the PC side of things, but that seems like a horrible way to play. With a mouse? No thank you. Looking forward to this version, though. PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #15 PoV, Mar 23, 2010 Last edited: Mar 23, 2010 Agreed. For the actual trailer I'll definitely need sound. Just an unfortunate limitation of my development machine doesn't let me capture audio (yet). For sure. This video was made to demonstrate exactly what you said, that a game can be frantic (despite the cutesy art style). I didn't want too much waiting around, since I often think about my rock breaking tactics. In the final trailer I'll be sure to do a little bit of everything (physical and button rotation). There's actually another really big change that sadly doesn't make syncing scores practical. The game actually has a smaller playfield (8x8 instead of 9x8). As a result, it's actually easier to get a higher scores on the iPhone version. Also, games in the iPad occasionally end sooner now. So unfortunately, the stats just wont mesh with each-other anymore (hence the distinct version difference). I'm in the process of re-balancing the achievements to suit the change. Leaderboards are the #1 requested item. They wont make iPad launch, but it is something I want to see in the game too. Several friends and I are doing some private beta testing right now, and a shared score table would be reaaaally useful. I've been reluctant of much of the iPhone social solutions since they're iPhone (and iPad) only. I may just cave-in one day, but I think it'd be nice if iPad players could challenge players on the PC, the Mac, or ever other weird and wacky phones. It's just unfortunate, for the statistical reasons mentioned above, iPhone players will be all alone. Also, I'd really hate to break everyone's existing stats and high score lists, switching the iPhone version to the 8x8 playfield. Haha, totally. The game is far nicer on a touch screen. Something funny, due to the PC stuff, I've actually got pretty good at playing on one of those laptop touch pads. Right now that's the ultimate in crippling play (at least until I add D-Pad controls). HerbertKornfeld Well-Known Member Oct 13, 2008 141 1 18 #16 HerbertKornfeld, Mar 23, 2010 Cave. It’s not realistic to compete with other devices. Sure, the game may be the same. But do you really think that somebody playing with a mouse or a trackpad on the PC has even the slightest chance to compete with somebody on a touchscreen device? No way. The leader boards should be tied to each individual device. If you have it with all devices, it will unfairly skew toward the touchscreen devices anyway. Coral Well-Known Member Sep 29, 2008 537 0 0 #17 Coral, Mar 23, 2010 I'm really glad you are working on leader boards. At this point I think the best bet would be to use one of the established methods like Openfeint. I don't know all that that entails but it would definitely lead to increased exposure through the service itself. If I was getting an iPad I would definitely purchase this. It remains my favorite match-3 ever. colorsound Well-Known Member May 15, 2009 1,054 0 0 Video Game Developer / Photographer / Graphic Arti Detroit, MI #18 colorsound, Mar 23, 2010 Hey PoV This has always been one of my favorites, since day one - and I have close to 1600 full games. Where is the music in the video coming from? Can that be added to the iPod version? It's awesome! Thanks BTW - iPad version looks great! HerbertKornfeld Well-Known Member Oct 13, 2008 141 1 18 #19 HerbertKornfeld, Mar 24, 2010 Rereading one of your older threads, I came across this: Any chance that thisll be making its way into the iPad version? This seems like a better way to rotate than the dedicated buttons. It would also allow you to keep the UI clean and remove the rotate buttons. And speaking of removing these buttons, I hope that theyll disappear if you enable the feature to rotate with the accelerometer. And touching on the fact that youve slimmed down the playfield to 8x8, is this due to the buttons? Could the classic style 9x8 grid return if the buttons are disabled? PoV Well-Known Member Oct 10, 2008 349 2 0 London, Ontario, Canada #20 PoV, Mar 24, 2010 It's one of a few songs I licensed for promoting the game. I don't think I'll have time to get them in for iPad launch, but I'll be looking in to adding that and a few more songs soon. I'm not sure if that's a typo or not, but they probably wont make it in to the iPod/iPhone version. I'm trying to keep the file size there small, and the music would push it over the limits. Possibly! Apple added a gesture detection feature which may do all the work for me, but it's something I'll want to personally test to see if it's right. So in other words, this wont make launch. Yes, it was slimmed down because of the buttons. If the board is going to rotate at all (either via buttons or a gesture), mathematically it's better if it's square. Heh, I realize you'd like more of a connection between the iPhone and iPad version. The thing is, I've barely covered half the stuff that's changed. Many of the game modes have new names too (newer names than that video even). I realize not everyone will like the changes I'm making, but I'm hoping the majority do. Also the iPhone version will still continue to work on iPad if you prefer the old ways. Speaking of buttons and turning, here's a few new shots showing how the UI adapts to the game modes and orientations. Notably, the buttons are gone in Zen, to fit the screen better. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Password: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
Out of interest, When Devs release their games as optimed iPad versions will we have to purchase them again?
Am in LOVE with this game on my iPod touch.... The BEST thing tht U did was add that rotational button so tht we do not have to turn the whole thing around For PpL who don't like it, read ma sig
From what I understand yes. The developer has no say over this as the iPad versions will be seperate from the iPhone versions. You'll still be able to play the original version on the iPad it just won't look as nice
For the most part, yes. Smiles is one of several iPhone apps that fall under 10 Megabytes in size. This means it can actually be downloaded over the 3G cellular network, as Apple and the Carriers imposes this restriction on us. Files larger than that need to be downloaded either by iTunes or over Wifi. Smiles HD has larger art files in it, meaning it breaks that 10 MB limit. A piece of art that is 2x the detail takes up 4x the space. The final size of Smiles HD is somewhere around 20-25 MB. So for one, I just couldn't fit it in 10 MB. And because it's a separate version, it gives us a chance to make changes or improvements to original game, plus optimize it for the iPad experience. I think most players will appreciate what's changed. I'm glad you like that. That's right. The iPhone originals should all still work. So if you prefer the old way and don't mind pixel scaling, or just don't feel like spending money on the same game again, you don't have to.
Actually the size limit is just for downloading and that only applies over the carriers network, but Apple stated that later down the line you will be able to make Hybrid/Universal binaries that will be able to run on Phone + Pad in the same file. Personally I think i'm going to have to port my TD game to iPad as a seperate game initially, unless apple releases the universal build first, but will universal binaries still be 2.2.x compatible, because I would hate to leave the 2.x crowd behind.
A couple "in development" shots. I've done some extra detailing and touch-ups to the HD artwork, and added an extra layer to the background effect in Drop. I'm shooting for Apple's deadline. Back to that.
Sorry if already mentioned, but what will this be sold for as it isn't going to be considered a free upgrade to the iPhone version?
Yeah, I guess I haven't mentioned this yet. Smiles HD will launch at $4.99, but it will eventually make it's way up to $6.99. Probably by the summer.
Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel After seeing the pictures, most people don't realize Smiles is also a serious arcade puzzle game. Here's a quick look at a typical round of me playing Drop at the "Normal" difficulty.
Good video, but... That’s a good video, in that it shows how frantic a game can get. But it fails to demonstrate a couple of the best features. First of all, I love the sound design as it is. When you’re stringing together a long combination, the ever increasing pitch helps you to know, without looking, how well you’re doing. And it adds to the excitement. If it’s really high pitched and I can’t find something right away to continue my combo, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety that makes the game great. Second of all, I love the fact that you can rotate the field. This helps out a lot in high-level play, and it’s essential when going for large combinations. I know that the default settings don’t require you to actually rotate the device anymore, and that this is now tied to a button. But you don’t do this at all in the video. For your next demo, I'd love to see how it works. I’m not convinced that this is better than actually rotating, but on something like the iPad, it’s probably the way to go. At least the option is still there to use actual rotation. Here’s a couple of other things I'd like to see. With the iPad version coming as a second app, I'll be losing all of my statistics. It would be nice if there was a way to transfer them over. This might also tie into a larger request, which is that you use either Plus+ or OpenFeint. That way, we’d have competitive leaderboards, and we’d have saved highscores. And speaking of statistics, it might be nice if scores were tied to whether or not you’re using actual rotation or if you’re using buttons. I think that the buttons might make things easier, and this might skew the current scores. And finally, I’m glad to hear of your successes with Smiles on the PC side of things, but that seems like a horrible way to play. With a mouse? No thank you. Looking forward to this version, though.
Agreed. For the actual trailer I'll definitely need sound. Just an unfortunate limitation of my development machine doesn't let me capture audio (yet). For sure. This video was made to demonstrate exactly what you said, that a game can be frantic (despite the cutesy art style). I didn't want too much waiting around, since I often think about my rock breaking tactics. In the final trailer I'll be sure to do a little bit of everything (physical and button rotation). There's actually another really big change that sadly doesn't make syncing scores practical. The game actually has a smaller playfield (8x8 instead of 9x8). As a result, it's actually easier to get a higher scores on the iPhone version. Also, games in the iPad occasionally end sooner now. So unfortunately, the stats just wont mesh with each-other anymore (hence the distinct version difference). I'm in the process of re-balancing the achievements to suit the change. Leaderboards are the #1 requested item. They wont make iPad launch, but it is something I want to see in the game too. Several friends and I are doing some private beta testing right now, and a shared score table would be reaaaally useful. I've been reluctant of much of the iPhone social solutions since they're iPhone (and iPad) only. I may just cave-in one day, but I think it'd be nice if iPad players could challenge players on the PC, the Mac, or ever other weird and wacky phones. It's just unfortunate, for the statistical reasons mentioned above, iPhone players will be all alone. Also, I'd really hate to break everyone's existing stats and high score lists, switching the iPhone version to the 8x8 playfield. Haha, totally. The game is far nicer on a touch screen. Something funny, due to the PC stuff, I've actually got pretty good at playing on one of those laptop touch pads. Right now that's the ultimate in crippling play (at least until I add D-Pad controls).
Cave. It’s not realistic to compete with other devices. Sure, the game may be the same. But do you really think that somebody playing with a mouse or a trackpad on the PC has even the slightest chance to compete with somebody on a touchscreen device? No way. The leader boards should be tied to each individual device. If you have it with all devices, it will unfairly skew toward the touchscreen devices anyway.
I'm really glad you are working on leader boards. At this point I think the best bet would be to use one of the established methods like Openfeint. I don't know all that that entails but it would definitely lead to increased exposure through the service itself. If I was getting an iPad I would definitely purchase this. It remains my favorite match-3 ever.
Hey PoV This has always been one of my favorites, since day one - and I have close to 1600 full games. Where is the music in the video coming from? Can that be added to the iPod version? It's awesome! Thanks BTW - iPad version looks great!
Rereading one of your older threads, I came across this: Any chance that thisll be making its way into the iPad version? This seems like a better way to rotate than the dedicated buttons. It would also allow you to keep the UI clean and remove the rotate buttons. And speaking of removing these buttons, I hope that theyll disappear if you enable the feature to rotate with the accelerometer. And touching on the fact that youve slimmed down the playfield to 8x8, is this due to the buttons? Could the classic style 9x8 grid return if the buttons are disabled?
It's one of a few songs I licensed for promoting the game. I don't think I'll have time to get them in for iPad launch, but I'll be looking in to adding that and a few more songs soon. I'm not sure if that's a typo or not, but they probably wont make it in to the iPod/iPhone version. I'm trying to keep the file size there small, and the music would push it over the limits. Possibly! Apple added a gesture detection feature which may do all the work for me, but it's something I'll want to personally test to see if it's right. So in other words, this wont make launch. Yes, it was slimmed down because of the buttons. If the board is going to rotate at all (either via buttons or a gesture), mathematically it's better if it's square. Heh, I realize you'd like more of a connection between the iPhone and iPad version. The thing is, I've barely covered half the stuff that's changed. Many of the game modes have new names too (newer names than that video even). I realize not everyone will like the changes I'm making, but I'm hoping the majority do. Also the iPhone version will still continue to work on iPad if you prefer the old ways. Speaking of buttons and turning, here's a few new shots showing how the UI adapts to the game modes and orientations. Notably, the buttons are gone in Zen, to fit the screen better.
