Whoops, I somhow thought that it was two player competitive.
Can't comment much on it as it is, though.

Last edited by Wheri (2007-08-24 09:05:27)

heh.. good question!

On the website in the download section, "If you get an error saying the software is not configured correctly, you probably need to run one of the vcredist_*.exe installers first. Which one you should install depends on your operating system; for a 32-bit OS run vcredist_x86.exe, for a 64-bit OS run vcredist_x64.exe."

thanks for trying it out kryg

Yeah, it isnt very hard right now at all. We are going to have to really consider how many points you score upon removing blocks (the score basicly dictates how fast new blocks drop)
Apart from increaseing the drop rate have you got any suggestions on how to make it harder as time progress?

Guess I might as well explain the game in some more details so you can give more feedback on it if you want

The version on the website right now only features only one play mode. The final version will feature at least 4.
Free play: the one that is in the game now
mission mode: complete different kinds of missions, ie, remove X amount of blocks in Y seconds, or create X amount of chains in Y seconds... these are just bad examples, but in our design doc I think there are details on more then 10 missions
Skin mode: Similar to free play. However once you reach a specific score the skin (background and the blocks) changes to a new skin which is then unlocked for use in free play
Chain limit mode: Create X number of chains in Y number of seconds

Except from mission mode these are actually already coded (have been for a while) and will be selecteable from the game menu in the next version that is put on the website. Hopefully this will help move the game away from the clickfest that you point out it very easily turns into

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Hm wait, upon re-reading your post kryg I am not sure you played it with the thought of 'chains' in your head? If you remove 4 blocks of one color, which then leads to an other group of 4 blocks being removed your made a chain which provides a lot higher score then simply connecting 4 blocks
I guess we should make this gameplay element more clear

That is a very very good point actually!! I will suggest this to the rest of the team (and try my best to make them agree with this idea!)

We do have some 'special' blocks implemented right now, perhaps the spawing of these should be saved (or increased) untill later levels to provide the player with more reason to keep playing.

Thanks a lot for the feedback kryg!

actually you can drag move a block. Simply click on a block and drag the mouse in either direction to move it multiple steps.

But thanks for pointing it out, shows that it isnt a feature that users figure out by themselves

Nothing quite beats a clock ticking down while you try to play a game imo

But thats an other pretty interesting suggestion, I will forward it as well! I guess its a question of how much focus we want to have on the chain creation vs making people stressed

Thanks for the idea! Do keep it coming!

Time-based and block-removal-based difficulty increases wouldn't differ so much in the end. After all, the player has to get rid of a certain amount of blocks in a certain amount of time in order to keep the game going. So it doesn't really matter which system you use. Basing it on block removal might make it a little quicker to get to the tough levels for good players, so it might be a good choice.

No, more like two separate playfields. When a player removes some blocks from his field, some "penalty" blocks fall to his enemy's field. If he makes a successful chain, even more blocks drop. "Penalty" blocks can only be removed when a normal block is removed next to them or after they stay for over 5 seconds.
Something like that's more or less standard practice with such games. Gotta get original now, it's pretty used.

For one playing field, I imagine something like this. There are blocks assigned to each of the players. The point is to remove your opponent's blocks by removing normal blocks next to them, while keeping yours safe. Freedom must be somehow limited here, for example with a turn-based mode or only being able to move blocks adjacent to your ones, or a recharging energy bar (You can only make so much moves until you have to wait and recharge). In any case, you can't move opponent's blocks.

Now that I think of it, there it actually a lot of possibilities. I'm somewhat sure many of them aren't playable or fun, but still worth a try.

For one, an award for cleaning the whole screen once. It can be made harder by requiring a minumum of n colors in play prior to the cleaning.
Another, similar one: cleaning the screen completely after it was almost filled (Up to 90%?).
Or an award for removing several sets of blocks with only a minimal delay. No more than 200 millisecs between two sets.

Off to test the new version.

Added: the blur and particles are pretty nice, if somewhat extreme. One minor thing: sometimes new blocks fall down onto blocks of the same color and remove them. It's not exactly a bad thing, but it certainly can thwart long combo setups. And it looks weird if it happens with starting blocks.

What about a puzzle mode, where you have a set "map" and have to arrange the blocks so that they all are removed? Or all of a certain colour are removed. Or some special blocks (Like "penalty" blocks I mentioned in an earlier post). Or something else like that. From your earlier description, mission mode's different.

Last edited by Wheri (2007-08-31 01:11:03)