Bliz Studio - Game Update - August 18 (2019)

Game Update I’ve been building levels and now starting to focus on aesthetics of the game. Here is the look of the game from the beginning and now the direction that I think I am starting to move in. What are your thoughts? Stay tuned for more!! - - - - - - - - - - - - For my current game Tri

This August 2019 update covers a summer where client work pushed the game into the back seat - and what got done anyway: a completed first set of levels, and the start of a new visual direction that the community was asked to weigh in on. Here is the state of the project and the thinking behind it.

Mechanics first, then levels

The summer's focus was building out the game's mechanics, followed by a long run of bug fixes. With those stable, the work shifted to level building. The initial set is 30 levels - 34 counting the four introductory levels, with the other 30 played randomly on top of them. Thirty may not sound like a lot, but planning the puzzles and testing how the different mechanics work together inside each level is where the time actually went.

The new focus: aesthetics

With the level set complete, attention turned to how the game looks. The idea being explored: change the environment coloring every so many completed levels, so as the player progresses the world gradually shifts around them - nothing drastic, just the overall coloring. Roughly half a week went into experimenting with this, ending with a side-by-side comparison: the original aesthetic on the left, the new direction on the right.

Asking the players

Rather than committing blind, the update throws the comparison out to the community: which do you prefer, the original look or the new one? The point is to test how the new direction might impact how the game feels and how players respond to it before building everything around it. Honest opinions in either direction are the useful ones - that feedback is how the game gets better for everybody.

The takeaway for solo devs

Client work pays the bills, so the game advances in phases: mechanics, then bug fixes, then levels, then aesthetics. Progress is not always fast, but each phase finished is one that does not need revisiting. With levels done and the visual experiments underway, the plan is to get videos going again and keep the community in the loop as the game pushes toward release.

As for cadence: between the client workload, family life, and everything else competing for hours, videos have been sparse - but the plan is to get them going again and keep everybody updated as the game moves forward. The goal has not changed: get the game finished and out there, because it is genuinely fun to play - and hopefully players will think so too.