v0.2.0: "Confirm Drop" option, Level balance and more


Hello again! Happy New Year!

In an attempt to make the arcade mode more approachable, I decided it makes sense to add the option to the allow the player to preview a move before they do it. 

The logic being, if arcade mode does not allow the player to undo between snakes, then the user should at least be allowed to visually show what will happen if they do a given move. 

This also carries the added bonus of laying bare exactly what options are available to you visually. 

My hope is that this would allow players to better rationalize their decisions in arcade and "play around" with the snakes like you can in stage mode.

On a more nitty-gritty game design level, I made a decision regarding this addition that may confuse some players if they really think about it, so let me explain my logic. 

The option is unlocked alongside the arcade and defaults to "arcade only", why? After all, it is not terribly unreasonable to expect the player to want this option on all the time.  

First of all, I don't want to overwhelm the player with options and UI right out of the gate. I think it is best to encourage the player to just mess around with the controls and see what happens initially. 

The tutorial levels are simple enough that you should not need to carefully visualize the results of your drops before doing them.

Plus, one of the things that the player is being taught in these levels is that "you can undo literally everything". Having this drop confirm option enabled from the very beginning muddies this lesson a bit in my opinion. 

Secondly, I want the addition of the drop confirm option (which is implicitly enabled for you the first time you play "Arcade Checkpoint 1") to jolt the player just a little bit. It forces them to recognize "this is a new mode that works slightly differently than before". 

And finally, I really don't think the player NEEDS drop confirm in the stage mode levels at all, but they are welcome to turn it on if they wish.

Patch Notes v0.2.0:

- "Drop Confirm" option added. Explained fully above

- Levels "Arcade Checkpoint" 2, 3 and 4 added to campaign. They gate the player and ask them to make certain lengths of chain in the arcade mode

- All levels in the game now have actual names, not just the level's filename (lol)

- Settings added to the pause menu

- Various levels shuffled according to their relative difficulty

- Old "no_space_4" removed. It wasn't different enough to warrant being a separate level

- Level "Overlay" colors swapped for demonstration purposes

That's all for now!

- Taylor

Files

hebi-hebi-win-64.zip 62 MB
Version 0.2.0 Jan 02, 2021
hebi-hebi_osx.dmg 38 MB
Version 0.2.0 Jan 02, 2021

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