Thank you for your comment and the kind words!
The app sounds great; making using of the haptic feedback is an inspired idea. I’m not too familiar with the capabilities of the Apple Watch, can you do something like: double tap to add a point to a counter (i.e. harm) and triple tap to get the current value of the counter (via pulses)?
That Marsaglia article sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Marsaglia link! It really offers some valuable insights into the nature of “true” randomness and highlights how well-thought-out solutions like yours can achieve “good enough” randomness for gaming purposes.
Thanks for the suggestions on the app! Adding functionality to track things like harm could definitely be useful, though I agree that harm is typically easy to track with fingers. The main challenge I see is that there aren’t many intuitive ways to interact with the watch screen without looking at it, especially since the current UX requires the full screen for touch input.
I’m considering using the digital crown (the side wheel on the watch) as a potential solution. Here’s what I’m thinking:
• Rotate clockwise: Add harm
• Rotate counterclockwise: Remove harm
After each rotation, the app could provide haptic feedback to indicate the current harm count, similar to the random number haptics. Once the harm count reaches 5, the watch could deliver a stronger buzz to signal the limit.
I’ll need to explore the feasibility of this, but it seems like a promising approach. What do you think?
Just went on and implemented the idea you suggested, using the digital crown.
The interaction feels smooth, and the functionality is almost exactly what I envisioned. There’s still a bit of tweaking needed for the haptic feedback to make it just right, but overall, it’s coming together nicely.
I recorded a quick video of the app running in the simulator. Keep in mind that the digital crown interaction is a bit finicky in the simulator because I’m using the mouse scroll wheel—on the actual device, the sensitivity and feel are much better. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t capture the sound or haptics, which really add to the experience, but it should still give you a good idea of how it’s working.
https://a.dropoverapp.com/cloud/download/2074a242-5cdc-480a-98b3-eacfd78cbb76/0b...
