29th of March 2024
Good evening!
Today I didn't get much progress on the game. I did manage to do some minor changes, and I did spend _massive_ amount of time to fix some longstanding bugs, but as something to show, it's not that much.
What I did tho is decide that yes, the new version numbering is even numbers "stable", and updates are bugfixes and minor improvements, and even versions are feature implementation versions, where they start probably janky, and get updated until the next "stable" one. As such, the version has been bumped to v0.4
I managed to fix the flipping gems problem, and the way I'm doing the check now actually will help me in the future implementing puzzle mode and edge rotations. These won't happen until v0.7/v0.8 tho. I also fixed the floating gem problem, as well as added a mute button to both main menu and in-game. This has the added bonus that a player might realize that "hey, this game has sound!", as I think many mobile players play without sound. I've also tried to mix the volume of the sounds better so that they aren't too jarring.
For v0.5/v0.6 I'll start implementing the needed account handling system, which means a settings menu and ways to delete account data and disable online features. I'll also add sound configuration and linking to android device id as well as google account.
In the meantime I've been fixing the "accidentally to production" fudge-up I made, and soon I can start using closed testing again, or the alpha track. At that point I can ask people to join the testing on Android phones.
I've also been thinking of changing the way the current RUSH game mode plays. I like that it gets progressively harder, and I like that if you spend too much time on a level, you are kind of "forced" to either game over or the next level, but I do also want the possibility for a good player to just continue leveling up "indefinitely". So, I'll be implementing a "difficulty level cap" to around level 8. You can still go to the next level, and your level multiplier will increase, but that's the cap for increased difficulty. I'll be testing and fudging around with it to have a good cutoff point tho. Also some values might need balancing as well. ALSO also, maybe I'll change the constant multiplier from x10 to x25?