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THNDR Games AMA - Club Bitcoin: Solitaire♣️
11.6k sats \ 44 comments \ @THNDRGAMES 22 Sep 2022 bitcoin
Team THNDR here to talk about all things bitcoin gaming. We just released our newest game, Club Bitcoin: Solitaire♣️! It's the classic Solitaire, but sexier than ever before. And with bitcoin.
🚀We hit lucky #21 in the App Store in card games, which is a BIG deal.
We believe easy, familiar, and fun mobile games are the perfect tool to spearhead mass bitcoin adoption. Club Bitcoin: Solitaire♣️ is the perfect game to do this.
🎮You can get the game here: https://bitcoin-solitaire.sng.link/Dx606/3fw1x/8sw3
The team (you can find us here: thndr.games/team) will be here throughout the day to answer any questions you may have about: - Bitcoin gaming - THNDR - Bitcoin: Solitaire♣️ - Any thing else!
LFG!!!!!!!!!!
Website: thndr.games Twitter: twitter.com/thndrgames
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362 sats \ 1 reply \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
Desiree, checking in! Excited to answer any questions here!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael 24 Sep 2022
👋
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @heliodorm 3 Feb 2023 freebie
How is the score calculated?
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lux 22 Sep 2022
Do you plan to implement login with Lightning?
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61 sats \ 3 replies \ @Zordon 22 Sep 2022
Being up front - I'm a bit of a skeptic as I've seen other games like this before that promise all the $ but end up spamming and pimping you out to the world...
How does this business model work? Are you collecting user data and selling it out on the market?
The iOS store says the following data is used to track you: Purchases, Identifiers, and usage data - can you break down what each of those look like? Specifically is this 'in game purchases?' Are you identifying me as a real life person or just A/S/L?
The iOS store also says you collect the following data linked to you: Purchases, Identifiers, usage data, diagnostics - again can you break down what this means? How is this info different then the data used to track me?
According to your website each game earns you 'tickets' and then "Each ticket you collect is an entry into the daily prize draw. The more tickets that you collect, the more chances you have to win the bitcoin jackpot. All prize draw participants will win free bitcoin! (and some will hit the Jackpot!)" How many winners are there a day? Do you give you give out smaller sats to users for winning? How are they informed that they won?
Really not trying to be abrasive but rather understand how playing games = bitcoins.
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72 sats \ 2 replies \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
We appreciate the skepticism! So thank you for your questions, and do not apologize at all! Hopefully this will answer some of your questions:
  • Right now we generate revenue through AdRev, in app purchases, and sponsorships (we have a couple other projects in the works, but those will be released in the future). We share a part of this revenue with our users via the prize pools.
  • We are not collecting and selling user data. We require authenticated login to prevent bots and cheat. As you can imagine, giving away anything free brings about an incredible amount of them. We are working on new ways for users to play the games anonymously while still being able to win bitcoin.
  • Currently we have daily raffles / prize draws as the reward mechanic. You pick up or win tickets in the games. Those tickets are then automatically entered in a daily prize draw. In the past we have enabled the sats to we picked up and won directly in the games. However, an overwhelming majority of our users prefer the randomness introduced by the prize draw. We are always open to future experimentation with prize mechanics.
  • We reward around 15k winners per day. If the player opted in to the push notification they will get an alert when they win. Otherwise the player can check in the game to see if they have one.
Hope this helps! Happy to answer anything else :)
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zordon 22 Sep 2022
Hey thank you for the answers! It really helps me understand how it all works! You are very correct that when you give something away for free you get a lot of them!
Have you considered moving more to a V4V model like Fountain?
If you are awarding 15k winners a day about how many customers do you have?
Thank you again for helping me understand this - Z
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @THNDRGAMES OP 22 Sep 2022
Number of users is something we can't share publicly.
Re V4V - Technically it is kind of V4V because our users generate value via AdRev and then we provide value back with prizes ;P. We believe good games stem from the pure joy of play. Adding in real-world value should just be icing on the cake. Not the sole reason people want to play (which I think it what is happening in the broader p2e ecosystem). To me V4V would require users to create value in the game, which is work, which strips the games of their intended reason - joy of play.
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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @ken 22 Sep 2022
First comes the THNDR Then comes the ⚡ If you don't hodl bitcoin Its going to be frightening!
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
10 sats for your poem, good sir hat tip
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @ThrillerX_ 22 Sep 2022
Hi THNDR thanks for doing this SN AMA.
Could you give us a little info on why you chose a card game as your first App Store game?
Also how do you see yourselves differentiating from other lightning game companies in the space?
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111 sats \ 0 replies \ @jackeveritt 22 Sep 2022 freebie
Hey! It's actually our 5th game on the App Store :)
Our first was a hyper causal called Bitcoin Bounce where you jump along a blockchain and try and get a high score based on how long you survive. We decided to release this card game to appeal to a wider audience!
Right now one key differentiator is we run our own node and there for send payments peer to peer without a middle man.
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20 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rafal_Gawel 22 Sep 2022
Rafał here! I am one of the developers who built this game, happy to answer anything!
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @gd 22 Sep 2022
Hey Rafał! Thanks for joining in!
In your opinion, what was the most interesting challenge you got to tackle when building the game?
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40 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rafal_Gawel 22 Sep 2022
Hey gd!
Undoubtedly, the most interesting challenge was the implementation of the hint system. You wouldn't believe me how complex this problem is! Solitaire is a game that is easy to start, but really hard to master - sometimes to unlock a card you must move cards back and forth from the "foundation" (piles in the upper left corner of the board). It makes lots of combinations, that are really hard for a computer to explore!
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11 sats \ 1 reply \ @gd 22 Sep 2022
That's awesome, great job for cracking it!
Was that a tree search based solution?
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51 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rafal_Gawel 22 Sep 2022
No, after a few tries, we decided to use a heuristic algorithm. Basically it's looking through all possible moves and checks which moves are getting us closer to solving the deck.
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20 sats \ 3 replies \ @kr 22 Sep 2022
Congrats on the big launch, is this the highest ranking THNDR Games has seen in the App Store?
If so, what do you attribute the strong reception to?
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123 sats \ 2 replies \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
Yes! Club Bitcoin: Solitaire♣️ is the highest ranking so far. There are a few reasons why I think it has been so successful so far:
  1. It's a familiar and fun game. People already know how to play, it's a classic, so there isn't much of a learning curve when it comes to getting started.
  2. The past quarter the team has been picking apart our past four games and learning what worked and what didn't. This game has been optimized in every areas - the UX, ad placement, prize draws, etc. This is not only a great bitcoin game, it is a great game by itself.
  3. The design is visually appealing and very slick. The UX is crisp af and the responsiveness and the animations feel amazing and natural.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 22 Sep 2022
Nice, what were some of the biggest learnings that came from previous games?
Specifically interested in how you think about allocating prizes among players… feels like Lightning companies are going through lots of experiments in this area.
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123 sats \ 0 replies \ @timedwrds 22 Sep 2022 freebie
Our goal is to propagate Bitcoin, so our main goal is that virtually every player receives their first Bitcoin at the first session.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @gms 22 Sep 2022
I download it and I liked it, I loved the super intuitive menu (mom approves it) My cell phone is old and works great.
Do you plan to launch a version of Sudoku Thndr?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
Cannot confirm or deny ;P
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10 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 22 Sep 2022
Nice work ! I don't have (yet) questions for you, but I wanted to let you know: I shared massively this latest Solitaire launch to all my friends that I know they love playing games and they have kids. And some of them are still nocoiners :) Will see how they are onboarding.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @timedwrds 22 Sep 2022 freebie
Hi DarthCoin, this is Tim, Game Tech Lead here at THNDR.
Thank you so much for sharing our new game with your family and friends! It's one of our missions here at THNDR to bring bitcoin to the world. We actively try and find new ways to onboard as many nocoiners as we can, and make it as easy as possible to transition them to bitcoiners. It's such an exciting time!
Please, if you have any followup questions let us know here, or you can often find us in our Discord.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
Thank you so much!!! You have no idea how much we appreciate it :)
Did you use your referral links so you can stack even more sats? If not, check it out here:
https://www.thndr.games/referrals
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 22 Sep 2022
I love games, I was many years a passionate gamer. But with age (I am 50+) my eyes are not anymore what were before. So playing games on mobile or desktop it hurts me. I try to limit my computer use with several breaks now (trying to help as many nocoiners I can with my guides and support).
So no, unfortunately I cannot play Thunder games, I really wish I could. But hey, I have many friends with kids and they enjoy Thunder!
This is the way!
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @koty 22 Sep 2022
Great Darth!! This is why we made this Solitaire for! Happy to see this message from you. Let us know how the onboarding goes.
¡Abrazos, hombre!
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @AdamL 22 Sep 2022 freebie
Hey this is Adam. I am in charge of data analysis at THNDR. Happy to try and answer your questions :P
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1 sat \ 7 replies \ @lightning_memes 22 Sep 2022
Who is the coolest person at THNDR?
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @koty 22 Sep 2022
Definitely Koty😎
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rafal_Gawel 22 Sep 2022
Cat != person, sorry Koty!
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2 sats \ 1 reply \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
OOOO burn @koty!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @koty 22 Sep 2022
This is a serious HR violation. Company Pet efforts matter.
Writing my complaint.
I'm complaininggggg.
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1 sat \ 1 reply \ @dickerson_des 22 Sep 2022
1st: Desiree Last: Jack
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @THNDRGAMES OP 22 Sep 2022
WARNING! This is an HR violation.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @timedwrds 22 Sep 2022 freebie
Factors include who can come up with the best meme, and varies day-to-day
1 sat \ 1 reply \ @satup 22 Sep 2022
no ads please, it’s not Sharism nor value4value
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @koty 22 Sep 2022
For the moment, we get the revenue from ads and then we convert the fiat into sats for prizes. We are already working in new ways of monetization to improve the THNDR experience, I also hate ads. It's a process, we'll change the game.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 31 Aug 2023
God
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @takaponka 25 Sep 2022
I'm on Calyxos and logged with Twitter, but app crash systematically "SafetyNet failed". Do you know if the app needs google services somehow ?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael 24 Sep 2022
I don’t really understand how the ticket mechanics work. I get tickets from playing games and then those get converted(?) to sats … sometimes? Is it a lottery system? From the marketing around THNDR, I had assumed that I’d be earning sats as I played (presumably funded by the in game ads) but I’ve played a couple of your games and there’s the ticket layer that just hasn’t clicked for me yet. Would love some help understanding what’s going on :)
Thanks!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 23 Sep 2022
Question- How can I sign up for an account without using Twitter or Google? I'm using the android app
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @koty 22 Sep 2022
Hi, this is Koty! Community Manager at THNDR Games. Let me know if you have a question or wanna say something noice, I'll meow back.
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