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[PatchesTheWright]

Equivalents v0.3 -- Block and Burn

Link to the game - Version 0.3 (23/07/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E



Update summary

• Added black pieces and new skill: Block;
• Added orange pieces and new effect: Burn;
• Added 18 puzzles.

More update details check the last post.



Hello guys! How are you?

I bring here my new project of a minimalist 2D puzzle. The game contains some elements of mathematical calculations and a bit of strategy in which you should position your pieces on the board and combine them until there is no piece left.

How to play

Each level the player starts with some numbered pieces of a certain color, being blue, red, green or yellow, from 1 to 9.



The player must distribute all of them on the board before starting by combining other pieces. When finished, press the Start button to solve the puzzle.

To distribute the pieces click and drag them to an empty tile.



Basic moves

To move a piece the player must select it and click on the square with the corresponding color to slide in the desired direction. Remember that each piece can only be moved once.



To deselect, use the right click or click on any corner of the screen.

Combining

To combine a piece, it must be within movement range of the selected piece. When combining it can automatically active a skill with / without effect, which will be indicated with a balloon above the piece.



Skills

 Party: When combining pieces with same color, theirs values will be added.



 Battle: If a piece is combined with a different color, value between them is subtracted, the piece with highest value prevails.



Effects

Effects are like buffs or nerfs that gain when combining, depending on the situation different effects are applied.

Impulse: When a piece is combined, it can be moved again.



Petrify: Combining with a gray piece, it can not be moved again regardless of the value or order.



Any feedback, suggestions or criticism will always be welcome. Thanks for you attention!


Link to the game - Version 0.3 (23/07/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E

[jbarrios]

Hey PatchesTheWright,


I played your game.  I recorded my game and my thoughts:

[PatchesTheWright]

Dude, I can not believe you made a video about your gameplay, this helps a lot when it comes to improving the game. I am immensely grateful.

In your gameplay I could see difficulty you had in distributing the tokens, it must be because why the game is requiring an almost precise position to drop it.

At 6:00 you discovered a bug, the token was to move again when combined with another token, but for some reason the game did not update it and remained stationary.

On the next week i will update with new stuffs and more stages, thank you!

[PatchesTheWright]

New version v0.1 available!

New art: Replaced tokens for medieval fantasy pieces.



Undo and Redo System: Player can now redo and undo their movement.



Combination preview: When the player selects a piece, will be displayed a balloon above the others piece inside their movement range.



Skills & Effects: Combining mechanics were simplified as skills and effects. They are automatically activated when combining any piece. I did this to facilitate the understanding of the mechanics within the game, the player can see his description by hovering over their icons.




Fixes:

• Improved drag and drop system;
• Fixed bug when combining piece with differents colors that sometimes not give extra movement;
• Now players can make theirs movements by clicking on yellow square;
• Added a little tutorial in-game on the first puzzle;
• Reformed some puzzles to adapt the new system and tutorial;
• Added more 4 puzzles;

Link to the game - New version v0.1 (06/21/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E

[diegzumillo]

I'm really enjoying the puzzle so far. I didn't play all levels yet because this kind of gameplay doesn't lend itself well for continuous playtime, you know? it gets overwhelming. I usually play short bursts on the toilet lol.

But anyway, it looks solid so far. Disregarding obvious alpha bugs. Like, the tutorial froze because I didn't do what it wanted. I imagine all pieces behave the same way, with the different icon as a visual indication of its number. Any intentions of having different moving pieces, like chess? That would be cool, as long as they're introduced slowly, one by one, of course.

BTW, if you're interested in tweaking the design to offer a different experience, check out Hoplite (android and ios). It's a puzzle game with some very simple progression elements that give the game a different appeal. I emphasized the word different because that's what it is, not better or worse. Hey, look at me, I'm so infected by feature creep I'm infecting other devs!

[John_Stanford]

I really liked this. It's satisfying to me that the simple math is so apparent in the puzzle mechanic--it made me immediately begin to think about how I should be processing or simplifying the puzzle in my head, which I think sets the game up well to add twists as the player progresses. Hopefully that wording makes some sense. lol

I believe the petrify mechanic is suffering a bug at the moment: I was able to clear every petrify puzzle by leaving only petrified pieces on the board. I would be a bit confused if the petrify mechanic was working as intended, as it actually simplifies the puzzles, which are already quite simple (understandably, since they are early levels) without something to throw off the balance of total piece values when you can arbitrarily combine and re-move pieces. I'd be very excited to see more of the petrify mechanic and possibly more colors or other twists on the base concept.

I did feel a bit of trepidation about placing my pieces down because of the play button--it's kind of silly of me, but needing to totally reset the puzzle (and wipe my pieces from the board) in order to try out an opening move or two made me want to play out the moves in my head rather than just interacting with the game. It might be nice if you could back up to the beginning and "unlock" placed pieces (maybe with some visual differentiation for placed vs. non-placed pieces) to be able to experiment more easily.

Anyway, I'm really excited to try more in future updates!

[PatchesTheWright]

I'm really enjoying the puzzle so far. I didn't play all levels yet because this kind of gameplay doesn't lend itself well for continuous playtime, you know? it gets overwhelming. I usually play short bursts on the toilet lol.

But anyway, it looks solid so far. Disregarding obvious alpha bugs. Like, the tutorial froze because I didn't do what it wanted. I imagine all pieces behave the same way, with the different icon as a visual indication of its number. Any intentions of having different moving pieces, like chess? That would be cool, as long as they're introduced slowly, one by one, of course.

BTW, if you're interested in tweaking the design to offer a different experience, check out Hoplite (android and ios). It's a puzzle game with some very simple progression elements that give the game a different appeal. I emphasized the word different because that's what it is, not better or worse. Hey, look at me, I'm so infected by feature creep I'm infecting other devs!

Man I don't have noticed about gameplay being overwhelming until you spoke. This even makes sense, because some people did not play until the end of demo, I think because game is very complex and this makes the players think a lot before positioning your pieces on the board. Thank you for opening my eyes.

While I was doing the pieces art, I had already in my mind this possibility of having some individual effects or movements too, but I'm still thinking about it.

Hoplite... Well I was currently thinking about how to make the progression of the game without it leaving too scary, so I'm sure I'll check it out. Thank you!

[PatchesTheWright]

I really liked this. It's satisfying to me that the simple math is so apparent in the puzzle mechanic--it made me immediately begin to think about how I should be processing or simplifying the puzzle in my head, which I think sets the game up well to add twists as the player progresses. Hopefully that wording makes some sense. lol

I believe the petrify mechanic is suffering a bug at the moment: I was able to clear every petrify puzzle by leaving only petrified pieces on the board. I would be a bit confused if the petrify mechanic was working as intended, as it actually simplifies the puzzles, which are already quite simple (understandably, since they are early levels) without something to throw off the balance of total piece values when you can arbitrarily combine and re-move pieces. I'd be very excited to see more of the petrify mechanic and possibly more colors or other twists on the base concept.

I did feel a bit of trepidation about placing my pieces down because of the play button--it's kind of silly of me, but needing to totally reset the puzzle (and wipe my pieces from the board) in order to try out an opening move or two made me want to play out the moves in my head rather than just interacting with the game. It might be nice if you could back up to the beginning and "unlock" placed pieces (maybe with some visual differentiation for placed vs. non-placed pieces) to be able to experiment more easily.

Anyway, I'm really excited to try more in future updates!

Thanks a lot John! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.

Actually the petrification mechanic is currently having a lot of bugs, you can even place any piece on the petrifying piece before click "Play". Petrify have two effects, besides immobilizing your pieces it also convert positive results to negative, so to make it zero you need combine with exact value. The game still lacks explanation on this detail so it's normal to be confusing, I'm sorry for this, I'll fix them soon.

If the board becomes larger it can be very discouraging for the player to remember your last placed pieces after reset. So I'm definitely going to implement something to at least save positions of the pieces that were last placed.

Thank you very much!

[PatchesTheWright]

New version v0.2 available!



New purple pieces: They have a sub-color that is represented by button-shaped hat, with them you can use Swap skill and Switch effect.





Swap skill: If a purple piece prevails after combining with different color, their sub-color is swapped to same target color.



Switch effect: If any piece prevails after combining with a purple piece, their color are switched to target sub-color.



Implemented challenge and puzzle select screen: Challenges contains a certain puzzle numbers envolving specific effect or skill, after choosed a challenge the player is guided to select screen.



Party skill adjustment: First selected piece prevails after combining any same color piece.

Placed piece hightlight: After player placed your piece on the board, their square changes color to yellow indicating that piece can be repositioned.



Restart memory: When resets any puzzle except tutorial, all placed pieces returns to last placed position.



Fixed bugs

• Overlapping piece with others on placing phase;
• Win puzzle with only petrified piece remaining;
• Overlapping piece with gray piece on solve phase;
• Puzzle 1-1 tutorial freeze;

Minor changes

• Added music and sound effects;
• Remade puzzle 1-1 tutorial, added more explanation with step-for-step guide;
• Added more 12 levels;
• Added brief explanation about effects for each first puzzle group.

Link to the game: Version v0.2 (07/08/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E

[PatchesTheWright]

Version v0.3 available!



Game demo -- (07/23/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E

Stage changes every new build, for new mechanics test.

Black pieces and Block skill



Block skill: Stops any movement against selected piece, only target's value is subtracted.



Orange pieces and Burn skill



Burn effect: Prevailing piece after combine with a orange color, it loses 1 value over any movement. This effect is transferable.





Game demo -- (07/23/2019)
https://patchesthewright.itch.io/equivalent?secret=pY4neC05YzP8qgX7Yz2uTeoUa4E

Any feedback, criticism or suggestions are welcome! Thank you for you attention!