Steam Release 0.4.3 - Patch Notes

Missed the 0.4.2 patch notes? Check out the Steam post here.

Hey everyone! Hope your year has been well, we’ve been laying the ground work for a slew of new single player modes for Super Plexis, and that involves adding several new visual and backend updates to the game, most notably: our first 2 playable characters (Aria and Cleff), skins (for blocks / boards / characters), animated backgrounds, post-game stats, updated player cards in the lobby, and the ability to gain currency (Lumina) by playing matches. Read the whole change-list below!

Patch 0.4.3 Notes

Backend changes (highlights only)

- New "XP Data" service

- General support for server-wide progression systems

- E.g. In-game currency / lumina converted from in-game score

- Lumina & rewards backend

- Foundational support for mode-specific progression systems

- XP Data lobby streaming

- Real-time updates about remote player XP Data

- E.g. "<someone from your lobby> ranked up!"

- Generic unlocks support for characters, block skins, and board skins

- End-of-game data flow

- Player stats

- Game results

- Rewards

- Player selections

- Support for selectable characters, block skins, and board skins

Client changes (highlights only)

- New characters: Cleff and Aria

- Characters react to gameplay events

- Characters also have unique combat sound effects

- New block skin: Fruit blocks

- Each type of fruit has its own unique block explosion!

- New board skin: Loftwood themed board

- Updated battle music

- Many visual improvements to Lobby UI, including Player Card revamp

- Show assigned team color

- Show selected character

- Show selected blocks & board

- Animated backgrounds

- Title Screen splash

- Loftwood Battle stage

- Smoother flow between Lobby and Gameplay

- Selection UI for characters, block skins, and board skins

- End-of-game results screen

- Proper "Continue back to lobby" flow

- Added a News splash

- Fix positioning bug with Share Invite "Copy to Clipboard"

- Fix animation bug when swapping smushed blocks

- Fix... meh, too many bugs to name. Lots of bug fixes :)

What’s next?

With these new systems and visual updates now in place, we will be 100% focused on developing single-player game modes, starting with:

• Stage Clear (aka “Line Clear”)

• Score Attack

• VS Yourself

Stage Clear

The goal of Stage Clear is to reduce the level of your board until it falls below the designated “line” by clearing blocks. The mode will span several stages, each themed around a particular character, with a set amount of levels within. The stage ends with a “boss” that must be defeated via depleting its health bar (not in the form of a AI battle / battling another board).

Stage Clear is a beginner friendly mode designed to introduce players to the world of Super Plexis and its characters. Not only is it an approachable way to learn the game mechanics, but it can also offer increased challenge by setting higher difficulties. Each “run” through Stage Clear will timed start to finish for anyone looking to challenge themselves on clear time alone.

We also plan to make this the first mode to offer unlockable content in the form of new characters. Clearing that characters stage (some of which are only available on higher difficulties) will unlock them for use in multiplayer and other game modes.

Score Attack

It’s like Endless mode, but it can actually end! Play on a solo board and rack up as many points as possible without letting your blocks touch the top of the screen (or until the time runs out). This will likely be released before Stage Clear and will be one of the first ways to earn Lumina while playing solo.

VS Yourself

This mode functions similar to Score Attack except any chains and combos you make will send garbage to… yourself! Point gains will heavily favor clearing garbage.

“danger” music Preview!

Fans of this puzzle genre might be familiar with the concept of “danger” music, or the dynamic shift to a more dire or frantic music track when you are close to losing a game. Some games trigger this “danger” state based solely on the height of your board, but we might consider other factors too to avoid the obnoxious hard-switching of music tracks too frequently if you happen to be riding that threshold.

Enjoy some samples of these “Danger” tracks below! (beside their standard “Battle” themes for reference)

Loftwood:

Azure:

Starport:

We hope you enjoy this new update and are as excited as we are for what is to come! And as usual please feel free to share any feedback / bugs on our discord.

Thanks again and see you online!

• The Medley Studios Team

Steam Release 0.4.1 - Patch Notes

Patch 0.4.1 is now live on Steam! We debated delaying this release, since we had scoped for more features to be included and wanted to get everything out at once, but there were also lots of fully finished stuff we figured you guys should have access to sooner than later. While we’re finishing cooking up those other new features (more info on those below) there’s no reason to leave things like the max pressure fix, more controller support, and netcode optimizations sitting on the shelf.

The most noticeable update here will be the new in-game pointer, especially for gamepad users who can now navigate using the analogue stick like a mouse (D-pad functionality is also much improved, for those who prefer it). This should alleviate some of the awkwardness of switching from gamepad to mouse / keyboard, and is another big step forward to being able to offer full controller support. The other changes are QoL / bug fixes pulled from everyone’s feedback. Thanks again to all of you contributing to the #bugs-and-features and #game-design channels!

Patch 0.4.1 Notes

- Various controller fixes: game settings and other menus can now be navigated via gamepad inputs - Added “pointer” control for gamepads using the analogue stick - The “Max Pressure” game setting will now KO a player who touches the top of their board in 1 frame (instead of 15 frames) - Added the ability to move the board cursor and attack target during countdown. - Adjusted the visual presentation of getting “KO’d on the last swap frame” - Various netcode optimizations - Chain tags no longer get blocked by garbage, which prevented certain intuitive chains. - Fixed a bug involving chain tags not expiring when expected. - The in-game timer no longer resets after reaching the 60 minute mark. - The width and height of garbage is now based on the defender’s board instead of the attacker’s (applies to games with various custom-board sizes) - If a defender is KO’d with an attack inbound, the game waits for the attack to end before switching targets. - Fixed an issue with breaking garbage creating unpreventable chains (aka, garbage no longer produces “free” match-3s) - The pressure gauge will no longer change states during stop-time. - The terms “Local” & “Global” in game settings have been updated to “Player” & “Party” The following items were hot-fixed before 0.4.1 and are already live (listed here for archival purposes): - Fixed a rare issue where multiple windows of the “privacy policy / terms of use” pages would open rapidly - Fixed an Nvidia issue where a specific anti-alias setting would cause a black screen(edited)

Special Thanks (from our discord channel)

- @PoiZone, for finding a bug with keybinding: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/808147393462665286/812506180654989313

- @Wakeman, for finding the max pressure bug: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/428397229016088584/813161134609662042

- @kyon2570, for being the first to find and record a chain tag bug: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/421179189077475339/812560989320904745

- @August/UltraX and @VGPaul, who managed to play a 1 hour and 12 minute game and found a timer bug: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/808147393462665286/815417334504095755

- @ChaotixSpark, for finding a bug with the pressure gauge and stop time: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/808147393462665286/816388613897977876

- @BusterBeachside, for suggesting moveable cursors during countdown: https://discord.com/channels/301218739947569153/428397229016088584/812563864776343573

- And anyone else who shared follow-up screen recordings / reports with us, extremely helpful and appreciated!

What’s next?

So that’s everything in 0.4.1, up next we’ll be wrapping up features that we didn’t get to in this patch, most notably: binding 2 inputs to one action, “true” auto scaling, notification bubbles on the friends list, new custom game settings, dynamic difficulty scaling, and maybe more! We’ll share more info as we go, since things are subject to change in testing. As always, we’ll be watching the #bugs-and-design and other channels for any problems / questions that arise. Thanks again and see you all online soon!

[Archived] Beta Patch #3 (Final!)

[this is an archived post from our old dev blog, original link can be found here]

Hold on to your hats, this is the final beta patch before the official launch of Super Plexis and boy is it jam packed with new stuff to test! The focus of this beta is to give one final check on all the systems and features and iron out any issues before release. Feel free to provide feedback/suggestions as usual but keep in mind we wont be making any major changes until after release in the form of future content updates. Thanks to everyone for their patience and especially those who have with us from the beginning! 

Now on to what’s new in the version:

• The shop has been implemented and features a first wave of items including block skins, characters, character skins, portraits, and more ( see the section below for more detailed info on the shop)
• “Lumina” is the new block currency that you will earn during gameplay and is used as a currency in the shop to unlock items.
• The AI in V.S. AI has been completely revamped to think and act more deliberately during gameplay. Depending on the difficulty, the AI will make advanced matches, follow up on chain combos, and use abilities offensively. This adds a notable difficulty boost compared to the previous, more random AI.
• Reconfigured the title screen to remove the “Battle” and “Classic” buttons and replace them with a new “Singleplayer” button that contains the Endless and VS AI modes
• A tutorial has been added to the title screen
• An info button and quick access to your Profile has also been added the title screen.
• Player accounts have been reset so we can test the feel of progression. Some characters are now locked behind the shop, but as a beta tester you will receive a nice sum of Lumina to spend at the start.
• Level up rewards have been retooled, now offering flat amounts of currency with each level, and every 5 levels rewarding a special bonus unlock.
• Music in-battle now cuts out upon winning/losing and a new end-game theme plays on the stats screen.
• Endless mode now has non-character-specific combo sound effects.
• In-app purchases are functional but disabled for the beta. You can still purchase items with in-game currency earned in battles.
• Some portraits have been removed and/or updated with a fresh coat of paint
• Health blocks are 50% less likely to spawn

Introducing the New Shop Menu!

The biggest addition by far in this version is the shop and currency systems that are now in place. Players will start at Level 1 with only Aria and Cleff unlocked, and must earn currency to spend to unlock the other characters in the shop. Once you’ve unlocked a character, you’ll be able to purchase skins for that character. The prices of each item varies, with portraits being the cheapest and character skins being the most expensive (besides the Ad-Blocker).

Known Issues:

Gameplay/UI

• A previous issue with deadblocks not breaking is presumed fixed but keep an eye out during gameplay and let us know if you spot any consistently strange behavior.
• AI difficulty will be rebalanced as we go since it is a recent addition 
• Visuals
• On iPad, the aspect ratio may appear slightly stretched.
• Some rank emblems are using repeated/recolored sprites 
• Typo in the “Lumina Gift” pop-up
• Future Content Roadmap (from soonest to furthest updates):
• Addition of “Challenges” to the Singleplayer 
• Rank Emblem promotion and demotion animations will be added to the end game screen
• Retooling of board damage (possibly as ticks of increasing chunked damage instead of a constant rate) 
• New characters and abilites
• New achievements, levels, music, shop items, and more!

Thanks again for helping us get Super Plexis to where it is today, and we’re super excited to finally go live on the App Store and continue to grow the community! We’re very grateful for all the support so far and hope you’ll continue on this journey with the team!

[Archived] Beta Patch #2

[this is an archived post from our old dev blog, original link can be found here]

New build is finally online! This one really shakes things up in the gameplay, with a focus on strategy over speed.

What’s New:

• Block swap animation is slightly faster.
• Block hang-time (before falling) slightly increased
• Added an options button for use during battle, allows a player to Forfeit 
• Combos have been completely reworked to favor “Chain Combos” instead of fast matches of 3 (more info below)*
• The Deadblock formula has been re-balanced around Chain Combos, no longer send in sizes less than 3 blocks across (e.g. no more single block deadblocks)
• Deadblocks now only clear one row at a time when touched with a match-3. To clear 2 rows, touch the dead block with a match of 4, and so on.
• Character stats have been rebalanced in light of the new gameplay adjustments.
• Ranked Emblems have been added to a special section in the Gallery 
• Ads have been implemented (to appear occasionally at the end of matches) but will be disabled in the beta builds.

*The New Combo System: 

The first wave of beta testing helped us realize the old combo system, where simply making fast matches of any type increased your combo, heavily favored speed over strategy. We wanted to be sure players who planned out their matches in advance were rewarded for their effort. 

“Chain Combos” occur when matches cause blocks to fall into other matches (or when deadblocks crumble and fall into matches). These Chains will occur by chance in some cases, but a skillful player will be able to set up their own cascading Chain Combos to send massive dead block attacks. This is where strategy, reflexes, and staying a step ahead of your falling blocks distinguishes skilled players from the beginners. Fast matching still plays a part, you just have to make fast matches of 4 or more in order to count towards your combo. This new system will mean shorter game times and less stagnation in un-even skill match-ups. We also think it’s a lot more satisfying and fun to play!

Known Issues:

Gameplay/UI

• Playing as a guest (not signed in to Gamecenter) will prevent the health bar in Endless mode from rendering, as well as causing an instant loss in VS AI battles if the app is backgrounded. The root cause is known and will be fixed in the next update! 

Visuals

• On iPad, the game’s aspect ratio may appear slightly stretched.
• Some portraits are still using placeholder art.
• Some rank emblems are using repeated/recolored sprites.
• Some rank emblems appear too dark and will be brightened slightly.

Future Content Roadmap (from soonest to furthest updates):

• An in-app tutorial to teach new players
• Updated Title Screen with info, “How to Play”, and Shop buttons.
• A shop where players can use their “blocks cleared" as a currency to purchase unlockables.
• Addition of “Challenges” to the Single Player menu
• Rank Emblem promotion and demotion animations will be added to the end game screen.
• New characters and abilities
• New portraits, achievements, levels, and music

We hope you guys enjoy the game in it’s current state and look forward to your feedback to help improve it!  Follow/Contact us on twitter/instagram/tumblr @medleystudio to get additional updates and stay in the loop when we’ll be online the game!

Thanks guys and see you online!

[Archived] Beta Patch #1

[this is an archived post from our old dev blog, original link can be found here]

The new build is finally on Testflight! If you haven’t signed up yet, use the following link:

[old link, inactive]

(We’re using Apple’s Testflight platform which means there will be a delay between when you sign up and when you actually receive your invite depending on when we can update the list)

What’s New:

• Improved matchmaking that should get you into more matches and much faster (e.g. you wont see timeouts nearly as often)
• Added a Friendslist with the option to invite Friends directly into private matches! (see below for more info*)
• The difficulty levels in VS AI now actually do influence the AI’s speed of play.
• App Icon has been updated!
• All sound effects and music have been balanced into a cleaner, overall mix (but feel free to use the sliders in the options menu to make any adjustments for personal preference)
• Health blocks will appear 30% less often compared to before, and health gained from health blocks has been reduced by 50%.

*For the Friendslist, we’ve implemented a “Friend ID” system that will like you add and remove friends based on their ID number (seen at the top of the Friendslist menu). To add a friend, press “Add Friend” and input their Friend ID. With a friend on the list selected, you can use the bottom buttons to view that friend’s profile, invite them to a private match, or delete them from the list. 

note: this a new feature so you might encounter some bugs, and in general restarting the app will resolve any issues.

The ladder/leaderboard has been reset, everyone’s rank points will now start at 1050 with a fresh win/loss ratio! (this may not be the last time we do this moving forward, just a heads up! All part of the testing process).

VS AI difficulty now actually increases difficulty, so if you haven’t checked out that mode yet, or found a sense of pride in beating “impossible” in the previous build, you might want to prepare yourself.

And lastly, all the sound volumes have been rebalanced (with only a couple other bugs left to resolve, like the slight delay in music loop, or disappearing UI sounds). The new mix still isn’t perfect, so as the balancing act continues on our end you might want to bring the music volume below the sound effects for a better experience overall.

What follows is a list of known issues and a glimpse at what we’ll be working on next:

Gameplay/UI:

• Game balance in general is still in it’s early stages. The frequency of health blocks, rate of damage, character stats, and abilities will be adjusted in future updates to reach more comfortable, fair, and satisfying match durations.
• In the Gallery menu, the “Enemies” are temporary and are related to classic mode which is unplayable in this version.
• Music stutters a bit between loops, and certain sound effects might stop playing altogether (we’ve identified the issue and will most likely push out a small update for this soon)
• The Friendslist and Invite features have a few bugs that are being worked on, but in the mean time restarting the app will usually resolve any issues.

Visuals:

• On iPad, the game’s aspect ratio may appear slightly stretched.
• Character skins are being tested with temporary recolored sprites. 
• Block skins are also being tested with recolors (expect many more in future!)
• The character “Vulmir” is still in a rough-draft phase and will be receiving a fresh coat of paint in the next update.
• Some portraits are using placeholder art.
• Some rank emblems are using repeated/recolored sprites.
• Some rank emblems appear too dark and will be brightened slightly.

Future Content Roadmap (from soonest to furthest updates):

• An in-app tutorial to teach new players
• Chain-combos will be given more weight than fast successive combos when calculating how many deadblocks are sent (This is to reward strategic and calculated players and provide alternative play-styles). Chain-combos will also have their own distinct sound effect.
• A shop where players can use their “blocks cleared" as a currency to purchase unlockables.
• Additional Achievements for the Battle modes, Multiplayer, etc.
• Rank Emblems will be added to the Gallery
• Rank Emblem promotion and demotion animations will be added to the end game screen.
• A “Forfeit" option to end battles early (currently the only way to quit is to lose/win the match)
• New characters and abilities
• New portraits, achievements, levels, and music
• A glimpse at the “Classic Mode” single-player experience
• Additional modes in the “Battle” menu

We hope you guys enjoy the game in it’s current state and look forward to your feedback to help improve it!  Follow/Contact us on twitter/instagram/tumblr @medleystudio to get additional updates and stay in the loop when we’ll be online the game!

Thanks guys and see you online!

[Archived] Beta Release Notes

[this is an archived post from our old dev blog, original link can be found here]

Sign up with your email using the link below! (the beta is only on iOS so an iPhone, iPad, or iTouch is required, Android will come a bit later)

[old link, inactive]

We’re using Apple’s Testflight platform which means there will be a delay between when you sign up and when you actually receive your invite (depending on when we can update the list).
 

On to the details! This is a multiplayer focused beta so we’re mostly testing the online features such as matchmaking. But there are a few game modes you can play offline as well (just check the Battle menu from the title screen). Also, it being a beta means you might encounter unexpected bugs, crashes, or areas of the game that are a bit rough around the edges.

Here’s a list of currently known issues that will be addressed in future updates:

Gameplay/UI:

• Game balance in general is still in it’s early stages. The frequency of health blocks, rate of damage, character stats, and abilities will be adjusted in future updates to reach more comfortable, fair, and satisfying match durations.
• Matchmaking (Ranked and Unranked) will occasionally time-out, requiring that the player  re-enter matchmaking. 
• Matchmaking status doesn’t always work as intended but we identified the issue and already have a fix in the works.
• Difficulty selection in VS AI currently has no actual effect (will be fixed next update)
• In the Gallery menu, the “Enemies” are temporary and are related to classic mode which is unplayable in this version.
• The music and SFX volumes are not properly balanced (until we fix it, you can go to the options menu and adjust the music volume lower than SFX for a better overall mix)
• Invite a friend has been removed due to iOS 10’s removal of the game center app and with it game center friends. A newly implemented system for friend invites is in the works.
• iPhone 7s framerate is currently locked at 30 fps. Will be increased to 60 fps next update.

Visuals:

• The app icon is using old art assests.
•  On iPad, the game’s aspect ratio may appear slightly stretched.
•  Character skins are being tested with temporary recolored sprites. 
• Block skins are also being tested with recolors (expect many more in future!)
• The character “Vulmir” is still in a rough-draft phase and will be receiving a fresh coat of paint in the next update.
• Some portraits are using placeholder art.
• Some rank emblems are using repeated/recolored sprites.
• Some rank emblems appear too dark and will be brightened slightly.

Future Content Roadmap (from soonest to furthest updates):

• A big networking update that should noticeably improve connections over cellular data.
• An in-app tutorial to teach new players
• Chain-combos will be given more weight than fast successive combos when calculating how many deadblocks are sent (This is to reward strategic and calculated players and provide alternative play-styles). Chain-combos will also have their own distinct sound effect.
• A shop where players can use their “blocks cleared" as a currency to purchase unlockables.
• Rank Emblems will be added to the Gallery
• Rank Emblem promotion and demotion animations will be added to the end game screen.
• A “Forfeit" option to end battles early (currently the only way to quit is to lose/win the match)
• New characters and abilities
• New portraits, achievements, levels, and music
• A glimpse at the “Classic Mode” single-player experience
• Additional modes in the “Battle” menu

We hope you guys enjoy the game in it’s current state and look forward to your feedback to help improve it! We’ll be setting some specific times for a “matchmaking happy hour” of sorts that will hopefully get as many people online at the same time so there’s a good diversity of players in the ranked and unranked ques. This would likely be on weekends but we’re open to suggestions as well! Follow us on twitter/instagram @medleystudio so you know when to hop on with everyone else.