In the wet-works
Ahoy all you salty sky-raiders!
As the spring weather rolls in we are drenching ourselves in our work. Recovered from sickness and back on track we are pushing to get the first puzzle into your awaiting hands. My baby, Hydronautics (formerly bilge) is coming along and we are in the process of finishing it to be packed up and ready for deployment.
Soon you`ll be able to get your hands wet with our first puzzle, which we’re aiming to follow up shortly with the others. Our initial work is vital to the process, so we`ve spent a lot of time making sure the backbones for the interface, game management, and effects will work across multiple games.
Before we plunge into the depths of the full release we`ll be putting out all the individual puzzle games to play, getting player feedback, trying some experiments, and fixing bugs. We will be releasing a more detailed dive into Hydronautics with a video shortly (once I finish editing it...again). But I`d like to take a little of your time to explain some common elements across the various puzzles.
The individual puzzles, not the main game, will not be your standard level completion. That’s been done to death and wouldn`t reflect how the full game will be played. Instead you will first select a voyage length, depending on how long you want to be playing, and then your board type & difficulty level.
Then you can select the powerups which you would like to use during that puzzle’s board. Not all powerups will be available for board types. For instance; in Hydronautics - Classic mode will have the least, and Clear will have some restrictions to avoid making it too easy. We will take a lot of feedback and anonymous data from play into considerations and make adjustments to the powerups and how they feel.
Once the voyage begins you`ll play your board, trying to get the best rating possible. You will also be playing towards a goal for that board. Once you hit the board’s goal the voyage will be paused while you select your next board. During this time, you can (and may have to) swap out your powerups! The selection of levels will be random but will be weighted towards the higher and more rewarding levels as your overall reputation within the puzzle grows. Eventually you will not see Novice or Easy levels and a lot more Hard and Daunting.
When you complete the voyage you`ll receive a breakdown of how well you played and you can pickup some rewards, shop for new powerups or other items, review reputation increase, and be able to start a new voyage.
This is how all the pillaging puzzles will work in general, but there will be some variations within each puzzle. For instance, sailing will not clear the board from score, but will after the goal markers are all cleared. Gunnery will be scored differently as we will have multiple ‘boards’ that you can switch between during the voyage to try to keep as many loaded as possible. Repair will be focused on avoiding the ship taking too much damage.
I know all this is doing is wetting your appetite to actually play, and we hope to be making it rain with fun games soon. But this is still only week ten of our full time commitment, even though some days we feel like we`re just treading water.
Join us on the discord and ask any questions you have!
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