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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsPuzzle Sweeper - Now available
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Electric Fruit
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« on: May 14, 2015, 05:01:05 AM »

Puzzle Sweeper has just been released, grab your copy from the links below, thanks to everyone who helped and cheered me along the way  Beer!

App Store ; https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puzzle-sweeper/id990608916?ls=1&mt=8

Google Play Store  ; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.electricfruit.tomb



Hi everybody

I have been trying to finish this game off for a while now and I'm hoping starting a Devlog and posting something everyday will help keep me motivated through to the end.

The game is called Puzzle Sweeper and will be available for iOS, Android, PC and Mac sometime pretty soon.

I'm calling it a Minesweeper-like as the idea came from trying to mash together Minesweeper and a dungeon crawler, the game was initially pretty complicated but I have shed a lot of features lately in pursuit of a more streamlined gameplay and finally getting the damed thing finished.  

The object of Puzzle Sweeper is to identify all the rooms and find the exit to the dungeon.

Here is a screen shot of a Puzzle Sweeper board



As you can see the game plays a lot like Minesweeper but instead of just mines the board contains traps, keys, chests and a dungeon exit, all of which must be found to escape the dungeon. The numbers on the green blocks behave just like the numbers do in minesweeper and indicate what is in the surrounding squares, red for a trap, yellow for a key, blue for a chest and orange for the dungeon exit. Traps must be disarmed by double tapping them and you need to find the keys to open both the chest and the exit. To get 100% on a board you need to disarm all the traps and escape with the treasure.

The game is almost done and I'm hoping devloging my progress will help keep me motivated through the last few hurdles and get this thing out the door.

Just for the heck of it heres another screenshot

« Last Edit: July 16, 2015, 01:11:36 AM by Electric Fruit » Logged

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MereMonkey
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« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2015, 06:27:44 AM »

This looks pleasing to the eye!
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2015, 06:11:36 AM »

Day 2 of trying to get this thing finished.

Spent most of my time working on the UI, adding buttons and such to the difficulty and game over screens.

I also made a video of one of my playthroughs.



Thanks MereMonkey.
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« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2015, 06:37:22 AM »

Seems like a really cool concept, but I can't quite get my head around how it will actually play.

Any chance you could do some kind of gameplay explanation video? Looks like something I'd definitely be interested in.

Only other thing I'd say is that I like the overall style, it's got that nice, gentle, pleasing Threes kind of look, but I'm not digging the icons. The pixel styles with different sized pixels don't seem to match the rest of the look - might be better with cleaner, vector style icons?

Good luck getting it done, I hope the devlop helps!
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« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2015, 02:37:38 PM »

This is something I really like. A good retake on an old game, Minesweeper. The art style looks awesome, the only thing I would change is the pixelart icons for other ones inspired more by the general theme (vector art as and said).
Another point is that I want to see it working, what are the mechanics and everything, because it looks pretty fun and addicting.
Replayabilitiy is the main problem in mobile games, and it seems already solved by the random generation, but have you thinked of other features to add? For example, a "challenge mode", where each level is more and more difficult, and your score is based on the number of levels you passed.
Keep working on it, and don't forget to keep us updated!
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2015, 05:59:01 AM »

Hey and, hey Kamikaze thanks for checking out the game and for the kind words.

I know exactly what you mean about the Icons, they have been bothering me for a while but I managed to  convince myself that they didn't look too out of place. Both of you pointing it out made me realise I was wrong so I spent today working on some new ones that hopefully fit the aesthetic of the game a bit better and I'm pretty happy with the way they came out;



The game plays a lot like minesweeper but to complete a board instead of having to uncover all the mines you have to find a room with a key and then a single exit room. In place of the mines it has "trap rooms" that must be disarmed and as a added optional challenge you also have to find a room with a chest and open it with another key. This does all sound confusing (I hope it sounds more confusing than it is to play) and I've had a bit of trouble condensing the instructions down in to a succinct tutorial but I think I've managed to get something I'm happy with and tomorrow I will try and turn it in to a .gif to give everybody a better idea of how it plays.

So far the devlog is working well, the thought of having to post some kind of progress each day is really making me prioritise the work load and just get on with it rather than spending hours deliberating what I should do next, can't believe I didn't do this ages ago.

 
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2015, 08:39:51 AM »

Finally got round to adding Puzzle Sweeper to Indie DB and updating my website

Also uploaded a gameplay and tutorial video to youtube.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/puzzle-sweeper

http://electric-fruit.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCioEPx5Zqqrp4jU0PuNDMvQ
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« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2015, 04:08:55 PM »

On the screen explaining trap rooms, you've got a typo. "Loose" should be "Lose"  Gentleman
Oh actually you used the word "loose" a bunch of times. Still should be "lose" Tongue
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2015, 08:12:33 AM »

Hi Octopus

Good catch, damn that's embarrassing, I feel like such a looser  Facepalm

Thanks for the heads up
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2015, 09:05:31 AM »

Working on a new game over animation today, think I'm heading in the right direction but not quite there yet




If anybody has any tips on producing better .gifs I would love to hear them  Shrug
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #10 on: May 27, 2015, 07:33:05 AM »

Finally got around to making a Lets Play style video of Puzzle Sweeper;



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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #11 on: May 28, 2015, 02:24:05 AM »

Hi Everybody

I'am currently looking for beta testers for Puzzle Sweeper.

I'm looking for a few people to play the game for 10-15 mins and fill in a short questionnaire, the whole thing should take no more than 20 mins of your time and in exchange I'am offering a free copy of the game once it is released (on a platform of your choice - iOS, Android, PC or Mac) and my eternal gratitude, I would also be happy to beta test one of your games should you have one.

The game is designed for touch screen devices but to make things easier I have decided to use a flash version for the testing, so no devices are required.

Thanks

John

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« Reply #12 on: May 28, 2015, 02:28:59 AM »

I'd love to test your game : )
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« Reply #13 on: May 28, 2015, 02:46:18 AM »

Count me in! I have nothing to do when I travel to work so I could help you by testing it 15-20min/day. My platform is Android.
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« Reply #14 on: May 28, 2015, 03:31:18 AM »

I'll do it.
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Kamikaze
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« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2015, 05:49:05 AM »

I f you need one more tester, I'd love to help you!
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Octopus Tophat
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« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2015, 10:55:52 AM »

I'll test it!

*cough* I did help you find typos! *cough*
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2015, 01:31:19 AM »

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far   Toast Left

I will be emailing out the invitations early next week, if your address was visible on your profile I have added it to the list, if not I have sent you a message asking you to send me your details.

There are still a few spaces left if anybody is interested
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« Reply #18 on: June 01, 2015, 01:59:06 AM »

I'm interested.

iOS or PC.
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Electric Fruit
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« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2015, 06:12:07 AM »

Spent the weekend finalising stuff for the beta test and finally got the invitations sent out this morning, thank you to everybody who got in touch, keep an eye on your inbox.

This is the first time I have really tested a game outside of showing it to friends and family and so far it has been pretty simple. Here is a brief summary of what I did;

- Advertise on several boards and twitter looking for people to test the game, I decided to offer a free copy of the game in exchange for taking part in the hope that it would boost the numbers. So far I have 15 people taking part and one guy from twitter who is interested in doing a preview of the game on his Youtube Chanel.

- I decided to use a version of the game hosted on my website, this lowered the barrier for entry to the beta and meant I didn't have to mess around with TestFlight or with getting people to download an .apk.

- I used Surveymonkey.com to host the feedback survey. You get a 10 question survey and 100 responses for free and using their editor I was able to build the survey in an hour or so. The 10 question limit turned out to be a good thing as it made me a lot more selective about what questions to use.

- I thought having a professional looking invitation to the beta would look good so I used a Wordpress plugin called Mail Poet to put it together. It came with a wysiwyg editor for the actual news letter and a plugin to control the mailing list, both were easy to use and again it only took me an hour or so to put something together.
 
- I posted a preview of the survey and the invite on twitter in anybody is interested https://twitter.com/ElectricFruit1/status/604625046078922754

- Now I just have to sit back a wait for the responses




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