Company Announces $30,000 Prize For Solving iPhone Game 85
dlpasco writes "Puzzllotto. The game, styled after titles such as Myst and Zork, will be available in the iPhone App Store later this week for $4.99. 10% of the sales revenue from the game will go to the Madagascar Fauna Group. At this point, only US citizens may participate in the contest but it has been stated that UL wishes to make future events world wide. 'Even though Puzzllotto represents a significant investment of engineering and legal resources, the company refuses to apply for patents on any invention. Instead, the company hopes to share its investment with other developers through its fundware.info site, while the company's ten employees hope Puzzllotto will raise enough money to capitalize bigger dreams.'" This could also be seen as a test for greed, since the prize money will only start at $1,000 and will grow by $1,000 each day for 30 days, at which point, if no one has solved it, the entire pot will be donated to charity.
Link omitted (Score:5, Informative)
What's required to play (Score:1, Informative)
(a) Purchase the Puzzllottoâ Game. ($4.99) Puzzllottoâ is available for purchase
online at the Apple® App Store**. Puzzllottoâ may only be played on
the iPhoneâ or iPod® Touch devices.** If you donâ(TM)t have either device,
you cannot play the Game or participate in the Contest.
(b) Play Puzzllottoâ. Puzzllottoâ is an interactive logic-based game which
is set in the jungles of Madagascar. The rules, fundamentals of Game play,
Game format and overall objective of the Game have been intentionally
omitted by Sponsor (i.e., the developer of the Game). The Game does not
tell you how to play or how to win: the challenge of the Game is for
the player to figure these things out for him/herself. In order to solve
the Game puzzle, the player must deduce and determine the Gameâ(TM)s
2
2
format and what is required of him/her to successfully advance through all
levels of the Game notwithstanding the presence of certain obstacles.
Puzzllottoâ may be played as long as the device used for Game play (i.e.,
iPhoneâ or iPod® Touch**) is active for the Game. But, once the Game
ceases to be active on the device regardless whether the device is used for
another, different application (e.g., an incoming telephone call on
iPhoneâ; watching a movie on iPod® Touch**) or has been shut off or is
being recharged, the Game will automatically end and will be reset to the
start screen; and, in such event, all previous Game play will be lost. Partial
Game plays cannot be stored or saved by the player. The first player to
solve the Game puzzle by successfully advancing through all Game
levels and to thereafter communicate that he/she has done so (by
following the procedure set forth in the Game, such procedure being
made a part of these Official Rules and incorporated herein by
reference) wins the prize subject to verification by Judges (see Â5
below).
Programatically solvable? (Score:4, Informative)
Giving money to puzzle solvers has happened before. See for instance The Eternity Puzzle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_puzzle).
It'd be great if the product's home page said something about the rules of game, because then we could geek out and try to solve it programatically (if possible). It says "Puzzle" on the tin, but is it like playing Zelda or is it like the push-the-ice-blocks-around puzzle in Snowpeak Ruins from Zelda [roughly comparable to a small instance of Sokoban]?
Also, interesting, if this _is_ easy to solve programatically, we'd all be playing a big instance of something like the centipede game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_game).
Clearly you don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
While in one month the company may not recover the cost of the prize, the possibility of generating enough of sales to earn a quarter of a million dollars is there.
Why do I mention $250,000? Because that's how much Steve Demeter's puzzle game Trism earned between 11 July and 18 September [twitter.com].
This mentioned [daringfireball.net] by John Gruber on the very day.
My best guess is that if this prize money get the company many downloads, the company may easily make back it's money in the first week.