Polymino v0.4

Hello everybody! I can't believe it hasn't even been a month since Polymino was released, and I'm already able to bring you another huge update! Don't forget to join the Discord server if you have suggestions and want to directly impact the game's development!

Gameplay, QOL and Visuals

• New visual effects! When using a bomb, you'll notice a flash of light and some screen shake to add to the sensation of destruction. Both of these new effects can be adjusted in the Video Options menu.
• Bomb rebalancing: Ironically, the QOL changes introduced in v0.3 made it possible to get super high scores in very short amounts of time, almost exclusively using bombs. However, the QOL changes aren't the problem here, they just exposed existing flaws in the game's balance. So now, instead of earning a bomb every 10,000 points, you earn one every 20,000 points; if you've already earned at least 100 bombs, you earn one every 100,000 points instead (the previous hard limit on only being able to earn 100 bombs has been removed).
• New combo counter: Previously, the only visual indicators of your combo were the floating numbers spawned on the board. Now in version 0.4, there's also a persistent combo counter in your HUD. If you make a move which doesn't maintain your combo, you'll notice the counter turn grey. Normally, this would mean your combo will be reset when you make your next move. However, there's another new feature which can keep the combo going...
• Bombs now refresh your combo! When you make a move that doesn't form a match, you can prevent your combo from being reset on your next move by using a bomb!
• Speed balancing: one aspect of higher difficulties which I found frustrating was the fact that it's easy to lose due to your projectile not hitting its target fast enough, or the blocks obstructing the next junk piece not falling out of the way soon enough. To help make the game more fair, the speed of falling blocks and projectiles both get faster on difficulties above 10, and again on difficulties above 15.
• More combo QOL: if you attempt to make a move with no effect (swapping two empty tiles, trying to move a junk piece, etc.) you won't lose your combo anymore.
• Achievements have been rebalanced: some were unfairly difficult and some were too easy, but now they should all be fair and challenging.
• Finally, due to the fact that the game is now harder, the Steam Leaderboards have been reset so nobody has an impossible-to-beat score. In the future, this is the only type of circumstance where I intend to reset the Leaderboards again.

Other Changes

This update also includes some other changes which won't be very noticable to players. However, in the interest of transparency, here's a list of them anyway:

• Can no longer access the resolution menu when using the Borderless display mode. Changing resolution has no effect in this mode because it always uses your monitor's native settings.
• The format used to store some of the game's textures has been improved: each file is now an astonishing 14 bytes smaller!
• The stat bars in the progress menu have been fixed. They previously suffered from some bugs such as displaying as empty when they should be full, or not animating at the correct speed.
• Massive refactoring of the codebase, primarily C++ header files and inclusions thereof. These changes will make the game more stable as development continues, and they'll make development faster by speeding up compilation time.

That's all, folks!

I hope you enjoy the latest update. As always, if you have feedback or want to discuss anything about the game, feel free to make a post here on Steam, or join Polymino's Discord server!

[ 2023-12-17 18:07:54 CET ] [ Original post ]