Summary

* All art levels have been refreshed * Full controller support * Dropping Mac support * Ability to keybind all inputs * Difficulties: Easy, Moderate, Hard, Very Hard * Automatic note/pencil clearing * Row, column, and square highlighting * Customizable UI color * Customizable background image * Ability to disable parallax background * TImer for time spent in the art view page

Art Refresh

All the current default levels have been removed and new ones have been added in their place. Steam assets have also received an art update which should be visible in the Steam Store Page. There are about 28 new levels. If you have a saved game with the current art assets, they will no longer load and instead a default placeholder image will be played.

Controller Support

The game is now totally navigable and playable via controller or keyboard. Only text input like the ones required to create workshop items is not available for controllers. Blame Steam :), their on screen keyboard overlay doesn't work.

Mac Support

Operation Sexy Sudoku will no longer be compatible with macOS. My hacky system for testing on macOS is no longer working, so I'm unable to develop for the platform. There's a possibility that support will return in the future if I end up making other projects that benefit from being on macOS, but I don't want to be wishy-washy so if I do so, these other projects would have to be decently successful prior to announcing anything for this game.

Keybinding

All inputs are now fully customizable. Previously, we could customize just the notetaking keybind. The old customization is ignored so will have to be rebound (if it were used). This should work for a multitude of input devices, but has only been tested controllers and keyboards.

Sudoku Features

Difficulty

When starting a level, you can now choose a difficulty among Easy, Moderate, Hard, Very Hard. The difficulties are just there for the players; There is no difference in completing a level on easier difficulties than the harder ones. Naturally all the stored sudoku puzzles have been refreshed and the old ones discarded.

Auto Note Clearing

The new default behaviour when filling a tile with an answer removes all relevant notes/pencil marks. Relevant being all notes on the tile being filled, and all notes of the selection value in the same row, column, and square.
This behaviour can be turned off and on in the options menu. I can imagine the multiplayer aspect of this feature is a bit finicky, but should work. If a player with auto note clear plays with another that has it off, the player with the feature will remove relevant notes when they're filling tiles, whilst the one without won't modify notes. Overall, the board will stay in sync.

Highlighting

Previously, tiles of the current selection were highlighted, so if you were filling in 1's on the board all tiles currently filled with 1's would be highlighted. This update adds row+col and square highlighting of the "focused" tile which is the tile you're looking at whilst using a controller or the tile you're moused over. All highlighting behaviour can be turned off or on in the options menu.

Customization

User Interface Color

The color of the user interface can now be customized to any color.
Naturally this means the thumbnails generated for items added to the Steam Workshop will use the customized color of your UI. This is also how I created the thumbnails for the default levels! However the in game cloud colors when you're actually filling the sudoku board will always be tied to the local user configured colors.

Background

Of course, you can't have a customized UI colors if it meshes poorly with the background, so the background image can now be customized. Note that this will not copy the chosen wallpaper anywhere so if the source image is deleted the background will revert to the default image. An option to enable/disable the parallax effect for the background was also added.

Miscellaneous

Added a timer to the art view page. I just like it when the number goes up.

[ 2023-07-07 19:20:47 CET ] [ Original post ]