Seeing there have been some iPhone games announced here, I thought I'd plug mine as well..

Last night, Apple approved the iOS-version (a complete rewrite, actually) of my Android-game Jewels into the App Store. I had to call it iJewels, as there was already an app named "JEWELS" there (my fault for picking such an unoriginal name for the XNA-version back in 2007 ).

It's a simple yet highly polished match-3 puzzler, similar to the original Bewejeled and the Russian game Shariki. The iPhone version is greatly improved over the Android-version (which in turn was an improvement over the PC-version), so I suggest to try it out even if you had tried the Android-version. It works fine in iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd gen, and around 60 FPS on the 3GS and 4. And it is free (but with ads in the main menu, removable through an In App Purchase).

Here is the iTunes link for more information: iJewels on the App Store
(should you want to get the Android-version, click here.)

So, thanks for the interest and feel free to try the game, and even review it if you've got the time! Thanks!

I don't have an I-thing nor an Android.

Darn! I guess you could try the original XNA-version then, although the mobile versions have evolved beyond the old PC-version.. It does have bloom and water shaders which are not on the mobile versions!

5 million downloads on android? Impressive. Is that an exact number or an estimate?

It is the statistic taken from the Android Market publisher account page, currently it's 5.8 million. I'm not sure how accurate it is and if it counts updates as installs as well (probably does).

It will be impossible to reach that with the iOS-version, as the games on the App Store are much higher quality, but doesn't really matter. I got lucky with the Android-version, there was apparently a niche for a free match-3 game.

Nice. 5 million+ is a big deal. The game looks nice and polished. I'm going to download and try later.

Another game for my Android phone to try out.

Maybe I'll have my dad and sister try out the iPhone version to help with the download stats there.

What sort of money are you making off of the ads? Enough to live off of, or just a few pennies every so often? (Or somewhere in between?)

If I don't forget about it come evening, I'll give it a try.

I tried it. The game is nice and well done, but the concept is boring as boring can be.

Thanks, that'd be nice.

Enough to live off of at the moment, but it's not exactly the most reliable source of income on the long run. I'll have to keep making games, but luckily that has been my hobby for pretty damn long so I don't mind..

Heheh, thanks Matthew! I know the game is simple, but remember I made the XNA-version back in 2007 to learn XNA and C#, then when I got Android-phone I ported it to Android to learn that platform a bit (improved the game a lot as well, especially after it turned out to be popular there). And now I wanted to try programming for the iOS and ported the game over (well, rewrote 95% of it actually), improving it again..

Lots of people have requested for power ups, etc. but I kinda like the game as it is, very simple. Obviously if I ever do a sequel or deluxe version or something I will improve the game play and make it more interesting, but that's a different story entirely.

No way, my friend was playing this earlier today in class

Allegro.cc members have some guess stars ^^

the game looks very good, congratulations!

and you are on #101 top free games, very nice!

Thanks guys! I'm at #18 of all apps/games here in Finland right now, but for other App Stores the ranking is not that high. I'm hoping to make the top-ten (at least in Finland!)..

Just tried it. For presentation, this gets top marks. It's great. I love the music too. Everything works together. And even though it's not an original idea, I had fun playing it. I've never heard of score loop though. I didn't sign up. Honestly, I probably wouldn't sign up to any score service except Game Center. I don't want another 50 logins like I have for web sites. Overall, very nice!

Left you a review on the Canadian App Store.

Thanks a lot Trent! That's precisely the reaction I was aiming for; I tried to polish the game in a lot of places, something I've never really done in my past games. For example, I hate coding menus. Hate them. Still, this time I spent some time animating them a bit. All those little things add up, and I'm glad many people notice that. Anyway, as to not get all sappy here...

You don't actually have to sign up for Scoreloop, just provide a profile name (the email is not required) to replace the server assigned "player_123456" name. Have to agree the terms of use though, but other than that there is no registration needed.

Btw, it's currently #2 in Finnish App Store, yay! Duke Nukem is the first at the moment. Soon, soon...

My dad and I had found the music annoying.

He did like the fact the game saves so you don't have to sit down and play it all day.

I enjoy it. Simple to jump in and jump out, just the way I like my mobile games. Very polished. Good job.