It has come to my attention that this blog's post cronology is backwards from the convention.
The blog post order has been reversed to better adhear to such standards.
Thanks for keeping up with us on this adventure!
As I looked into it, the bonus game was the only major addition to the game in recent time.
That is...Until today!
There is now a fully fledged High Score initial enter screen. Each of the four game modes has a Highscore table asociated with it, so as to not taint harder game modes with scores achieved in easier game modes.
Mr. Lee and I had the idea to give the player a break every so often from tile matching with a nice bonus level that requries less brain power.
We wanted to have various types of bonus levels, and had some different ideas ranging from obscured mazes where characters collected items to a low-stakes cube face matching game. Eventually we settled on a single bonus level minigame that used the same mechanics as the base game. This saved us from having to write a whole new engine just for the bonus games. This also saved us a great amount of development time troubleshooting a new engine, which was especially helpful since the base game still has a few quirks that haven't been resolved.
The final bonus game we settled on was the main grid cut into a maze. The player has to collect special bonus pickups without falling out of the maze. In early bonus levels some of the gaps are back-filled making it easier to collect all the items without falling off. Collecting 10 bonus pickups will grant the player a new life or a bunch of points, depending on operator settings. The amount of pickups collected persists between bonus levels, which means if you only collect 7 on one bonus level, you only have to collect 3 on the next bonus level. But if you collect more, they will contribute to the following level. In the example, if you collect 6 on the next level, you will get a new life and have 3 left over for the next!
It's been too long since I posted anything on here. So to catch up to date anyone still reading, I will make separate posts for each new developement that has happened since my last post.
starting with...
Another day, another- Um, 3 months.
Progress has been a little slow, if you couldn't tell. However, some little improvements that are big deals have come through!
In the last post I made a list of things that needed to be added after observation during MGC and C2E2.
I'm happy to report that three have been checked off!
Now only three of these features remain to be implimented.
However, numerous other ideas that only exist in Mr. Lee's and my heads will need to also get implimented and tested.
Start tiles are now indicated with holes drilled in the middle of them.
Don't worry! We didn't forget about the colorblind gamers.
When players try a tile and it doesn't match, oftentimes the tile gets set right next to the Puxxle.
This can lead to many "Junk" tiles surrounding the Puxxle, convoluting it's location.
Some players were struggling to find the Puxxle amongst the mess, so it was suggested to ephasize the Puxxle when it's surrounded by a lot of tiles.
This has been resolved with a Puxxle highlighter that shows whenever a player is flying on a tile.
Lastly, an easy mode has been developed that locks tile rotation and limits the tiles on the grid to make it easier for beginners to pickup the matching mechanic before attempting to learn the rotating strategies.
Now we're down to just:
-And whatever else Mr. Lee and I come up with!
See you again in the future!
I have finally had time to get this post up after three busy weekends.
The first weekend in April, we had a successful time at Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Thank you to all the friendly folks that stopped by to play X%Pert at Jeff Lee's, Tom Malinowski's, and my table in artist alley.
I returned to a full week of day-job work, and then was off the following weekend to C2E2, in Chicago Illinois.
Thank you to all the wonderful friends who tried X%Pert at Jeff Lee's and my table in Galloping Ghost Arcade's booth. Also, a very big thank you to Galloping Ghost Arcade for letting us tag along and use some space in their booth, and a thank you to the gracious hard workers there who helped us haul and setup some of our display.
The third weekend was Easter weekend, so I was occupied with church services and family all weekend.
At both events, when asked about improvements, most people who played X%Pert thought the game was pretty good, and couldn't think of anything it needed. But watching people play provided valuable unspoken feedback.
After some instruction on the first level, everybody was able to understand how the tile matching works. However, it was interesting to see that certain people picked up the mechanics intuitively right away. There seems to be a certain brain type X%Pert's puxxling caters to. Perhaps there's a study to be done there.
A few things I will be looking to add to X%Pert are:
Thanks for reading!