Hello again!

New Level Type "Power Chain"

A "power chain" is a group of 5 or more blocks that pop all at the same time somewhere in a chain. There's a lot of interesting nuance to how to set up a power chain as opposed to a standard chain in which we want to separate out the sequence of clearing blocks. You have to think through how the blocks would fall such that multiple colors will all align at once while making sure that you don't cut the chain too early. Its an interesting balancing act!

This particular way of chaining will become more important in the "Challenge Mode" that is in the works. So, to prepare you for when that time comes, this handful of levels should allow you to think through the patterns!

What is "Challenge Mode"?

"Challenge Mode" is an upcoming mode that extends the "Arcade Mode" to fight back against the player. The goal is to recreate the push-and-pull dynamics of a two player match seen in games like "Tetris" and "Puyo Puyo", but with the turn-based, strategic gameplay style established in "Hebi Hebi". 

The player is pitted against an AI that will chain and send nuisance blocks to the player! But the player can send nuisance right back with their own powerful chains! The key is to build chains and strike the opponent when they have overextended! You can also change it up to send smaller chains more often to disrupt their progress!

"Challenge Mode" Progress Update

Currently a lot of the core aspects of the new challenge mode are ready, like the nuisance dispensing and AI functionality. You can see a lot of the new features in this quick preview:

There's lots of work to be done to improve the UI and balance it to feel right. I'm excited to share it with you all when the time comes!

Play Testers Wanted in coming months

As the challenge mode comes closer to being ready, I am going to need some assistance in tweaking it to feel right. Currently, my plan is to initially give players who bought the game and those who are highly experienced with "Puyo Puyo" the first chance to try. I will be doing that outreach when the challenge mode is closer to being ready in the coming months.

v0.2.1 Patch Notes:

- "Power Chain" levels added! Namely: "Power Chain (1-4)" and "Déjà vu"

- Arcade Mode Score redesigned! It now is at the bottom of the screen and gives indication of approximate ways of understanding how the score is calculated. This is directly an implementation of how "Puyo Puyo" does it, which is a bit suboptimal. It does not quite explain why for any of its numbers, and the calculations are approximate

- Adjusted tint of purple color to be a bit more distinct from the red color

- Decreased the severity of the undo shader's movement. The effect is somewhat more subtle now

- Quantize the sound updates on the settings. It now updates by 5, not by 1

- Change the phrasing to use the term "nuisance" instead of "garbage" wherever it applies in-game

- Bug fix: Arcade Checkpoint exit button no longer ends at semi-random sizes

- Bug fix: Chain count would reset in unpredictable ways in arcade checkpoint levels sometimes

- Bug fix: Pause Menu no longer soft locks from the settings menu

- Bug fix: Remove duplicated sound callbacks on settings menu in pause menu

That's all for now!

- Taylor