#thursdayplay Milkmaid of the Milky Way

Milkmaid of the Milky Way is a classic puzzle adventure game by solo developer Mattis Folkstead created with Unity. The story is very interesting. In the game, you are playing Ruth, a young woman living alone on a remote farm in a faraway fjord in 1920’s Norway, trying to save her cows from aliens. All the dialogue is written in rhyme, and the story has a certain melancholy to the whole affair, about time passing and losing loved ones.

The scenes in this game is beautiful. It’s a curious mixture between low-resolution, old-school pixel art, but with some surprisingly detailed backgrounds and scenery. To solve the puzzles, you need to explore all the scenes, tap on different characters and listen to their stories, and collect key items to help you go through certain area.

The soundtrack is also amazing. They fit with the story and change constantly when the story goes on. Playing through the whole story took me about two hours, and it was an amazing experience. I would recommend it to anyone who loves adventure games and interested in sci-fi.

Some screenshots:

 

#thursdayplays – .Pause.

I want to talk about an game app that is somewhat different from others. It is developed by ustwo, the studio who created Monument Valley, and PauseAble. It is said to “bring ancient Tai Chi and mindfulness practice” to the users. In spite of its efficiency in bringing “mindfulness” to whoever plays the app, Pause does a great job in terms of simplifying UI and UX, and create an concentration on what it claims to do.

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The starting page is very simple, with only two options: to start the game, or to go into the setting.

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Setting page has limited options for users to adjust, which helps the user to avoid spending too much time on studying this part. With corresponding text, each option shows clear sign of how to adjust, and how much could it be adjusted.

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The gaming part is pretty clear as well. The only thing that the user has to do is to follow the hold his or her finger on the screen, and follow the dot. Corresponding instruction would appear besides the dot to help users to navigate through the initial stage. When the user passes the initial stage, he or she will be given more control to the dot. However, reminding text would appear on the top of the screen to instruct the user about their movements. The text is clear enough for users to notice, yet not overpowering the design of the game. With a fluid motion design, as well as an elegant color palette, the user would definitely be able to enjoy the process.

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When the user finishes the game, a summary would appear on the screen, along with the exact option to re-start the game again.

Overall, I think the best part about this game is its simplified UI and UX, to allow the users enjoy a rather relaxing process while playing it. And the elegant and beautiful design of its graphics gives me another reason to keep playing it.

Capptivate.co

Capptivate.co is originally a website for collecting kinetic iOS UI/UX elements that was launched in June 2013. The author Alli Dryer, together with developer Claude Sutterlin, successfully turned the website to an app in January this year. The app allows users to check short animations showcasing delightful UI/UX design. They are catagorized by patterns and components. You can also view them chronologically. I find it a great asset for interaction designers.

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Shadowmatic

Shadowmatic is an intriguing puzzle game which gives abstract-shaped 3D objects in a spotlight. Players rotate the objects in different directions to match the silhouette to a certain shape. It is full of exploration because there is no indication of what the final shape looks like in the beginning. However, there are five dots at the bottom of the view which tell how close you are to the final shape. If it took so long and a player still cannot figure it out, there are four hints available for each level to be redeemed by hints-points.

Apart from beautiful interface, graphics and immersive background music, I am mostly amazed by how imaginative the shapes of abstract 3D objects can be, compared to their silhouettes. This is the major aspect that makes me think Shadowmatic can compete with The Monument Valley.

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ThursdayPlay-2048

Recently, I just fell in love with this app. Because of numbahs design designed from Samir and Joo-Hee, I started to pay attention on math game. The rule of the game is very simple. You swipe numbered tiles back and forth, combining like numbers — two 2 tiles make a 4, two 4 tiles make an 8, and so on — until you reach the final goal of a 2048 tile.

Here is the website version: http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/

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#thursdayplays: Triposo World Travel Guide

As the name of the app suggests, this is a travel guide app, and a very very useful one! I just discovered it today and wanted to share it with everyone.

Triposo World Travel Guide is available for both Android and iOS, and it has information packages for a whole list of countries all around the world. You can download those individual country packages on your phone so that you can view them offline. (The size is fairly large, but this is still useful since you may or may not have internet connection while traveling.) I downloaded Chile for example here.

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What I really like about this app among all the other travel guide apps is how it presents information. The layout is very clean and simple, which makes navigation super easy. The app offers background information about the country, such as its history, culture, safety tips, etc. Plus it has a useful phrase book for non-English-speaking countries.

My most favorite part is the exchange rate calculator, like you can see on the bottom of this screenshot. I’m sure this exchange rate calculator would come in extremely handy if I were traveling abroad.

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Similar to this app, TripAdvisor City Guide also works offline, and it has a lot of useful information for travelers. In fact, I feel like TripAdvisor might have more information than Triposo. But personally, I like Triposo better, because I have trouble navigating through the lists and blocks of texts in TripAdvisor. Triposo lists out information as well, but oftentimes it is accompanied by pictures, which I prefer. The tag-like system in Triposo also helps me learn more at a glance.

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One thing that Triposo lacks compared to TripAdvisor City Guide is the rating/ranking system for restaurants and other tourist destinations. It does have some sort of ranking system but I’m not sure where it’s getting that information from. The ratings and rankings in TripAdvisor are super helpful, so it would be nice if Triposo could somehow bring in those features (but without cluttering the layout).

Overall, Triposo seems like a well-designed app that offers useful information for a lot of different cities and countries around the world. I really want to travel now so that I can use this app!