[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.