Universal Perfection! 4 (working title) Return of my classic puzzler.

Hello folks,

I hope we're all well and enjoying many a good game. C'mon now, hands up all of those iPhone 7 buyers who are frantically trying out all of their old games to see what looks better

I'm just putting this up here because there were 2, maybe even 3 of you if I'm lucky, here who liked my Perfection! series of puzzle games.

Something I surprisingly still get asked for is to bring Perfection! 2: Midnight back to the AppStore.
Unfortunately that's not really an option, far too much faffing involved in that due to its age.

But I recently had an idea and as I've decided to keep my developer licence for another year (god knows why really, but it keeps me occupied I suppose ) I figured I may as well bring it to life.

So for the small band of players who wanted that, I'll give you the next best thing.... Drumroll, dust blowing in the breeze and tumbleweed wafting across the ground.......

Perfection! 4: Midnight's Return (working title probably.)

It's very early days still, I've got the concept nailed down in a dark corner of my mind where these things usually happen and I've started hammering away at the keyboard working on the main logic of the game. So it's not fully functional yet, far from it.

The main meat of the game is a totally new take on how Perfection! Is played, but fear not, it's going to be quite probably the best Perfection! game yet, in my humble but incredibly biased opinion.

Needless to say I'm keeping the traditional tiles of the game, because I like them and they've kind of become a part of the games DNA now after all this time. So it'll have a somewhat familiar but completely new feel to it.

As an extra bonus though because it's been getting asked for. It's also my intention to include a completely re-written carbon copy of Perfection! 2 as an extra bonus (because making a new game's not hard enough on it's own ) It won't be locked behind a paywall or any of that nonsense though. And unlike the original Perfection! 2, neither will any of its game modes.


So, here's a screenie of just a section of the game screen that gives absolutely nothing at all away about the new game and how it works. But it may make those couple of people who liked it a little nostalgic. There's something happening below what's there, but it's not yet time for that to be uncovered, no, no, no, all in good time. (You can read that as, wait until the bugger is working properly ) But I just thought I'd let those few people who ask me for a return of Perfection! 2 know that your voices never fall on deaf ears with me.

Thanks for reading.
Stu.

 

Heee, I don't know why but I had a feeling you'd say something (likely the only person to as well)

The good news is, aside from having Perfection! 2 available as a bonus mode. The main game is a return to real proper puzzling, not like the more arcadey puzzle style of Perfection! 3 which I was never 100% happy with. This one will get your brain going, even in it's very early stage I'm enjoying it. Even if I do want to bang my head off the wall at times

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my iPhone 7 Plus, because I want to integrate the Taptic engine into the game, I just think there's a certain aspect of it that would be very suited to it.

I'll reveal the game properly, hopefully before too long, when I think it's at a stage worth showing.

Incidentally, if your curious about the games, Perfection! and Perfection! 3 are now free. No adverts, no in-app purchases, just free.

 

Just a quick update for my legions of (1) fans

Work on the game has been progressing nicely. The good news is, well good news for those who've been emailing me over the past year or so asking for it's return, Perfection! 2: Midnight has now been completely remade and included as a complete and free bonus game.

It's been stripped of all advertisements and in-app purchases, so just the full undiluted game. It still looks and plays exactly as it did before, albeit a bit sharper in places. I wanted to make sure it was basically a carbon copy of the original release because that's what's been asked for.


With that finished attention of course returned to the main event as it were. Perfection! 4: Nightfall as it's now known has been going very well. The core mechanics of the game are complete, as is most of the interface side of things. (Nightfall was chosen because, well I like the sound of it and much like Perfection! 2, the goal is to get the tiles pointing to midnight. It's just done in a very, very different way.)

So I'm basically left now with some visual tweaking of the interface, a tutorial to be made and the really fun bit, making all of the final levels for the game.

I'm still planning on getting some footage of the game in action, but that's going to come later. Just for a change I'd like one of my preview videos to have good footage of the game in action, so I want to wait until I'm happy with it as a whole before it's reveal.

Oh, I did finally get my iPhone 7 Plus a few weeks ago and ooooohhhhh, I love having the Taptic Engine in there, it almost feels like tapping a real button.

In what can only be described as generosity, or idiocy, or financial suicide. The whole package will be free, completely free. Both games, all of the levels, no advertisements and just one in-app purchase, which will be my "buy me a coffe" purchase, or maybe it should be, support a starving programmer either way it's optional and I won't throw pop ups around pointing it out either.

So, it shouldn't be too long before your old grey matter gets a serious workout, it just depends how long it takes me to make enough levels. But thankfully I can do those anywhere any time.

 

Indeed, you're always very kind when it comes to my releases, it's certainly appreciated (even if I don't consider myself worthy of it but one tries ones best.)

Development has been slow this past week or so as I'm ridiculously busy with my other venture (myskribblz.com I transform children's drawings into 3D sculptures. Might as well get the shameless plug in there ) seems a lot of people are wanting them to give for Christmas presents.

Anyway, it's mostly building the levels out now anyway so I'm fitting it in where I can and should get back to full speed next week to get more work done on achievements and such.

I'm hoping to get some footage up of the game by this weekend, or next week at the latest depending on how busy I am with Skribblz. So you'll at least get to see what I've got planned for the next re-invention of Perfection! and it'll give you the opportunity to tell me how awful you think it is. Though I'm hoping you'll agree the direction I've gone this time is an improvement over the last game.

 

Sincere apologies for my tardy response, between the other business having me run off my feet and family issues (why is it always this time of year) I've been run ragged.

Thanks for the Etsy advice, I'm on there but don't seem to get noticed which is more my fault than anything else I suspect. Most of the orders are coming through facebook of all places, why I bothered making a website I don't know

Anyway, back on topic, I'm sorry for the continued delay in getting a video up, with everything that's been happening I've just not had time. There will be one this side of Christmas I'm finally just about caught up with everything else so I'll be able to get back to my day job now. Day job, hahahahahahahaha. I mean pointless hobby of course

Edit**
I should also add that something I've been working on a lot over the past several weeks (as often as I can) is adding a different mode to the game. I'm not necessarily saying I'm going to abandon the set level idea, that's in limbo at the moment.

But one thing I liked very much about the earlier Perfection! games was that the levels were dynamic. Which essentially made the games limitless in their replay ability, they had tens of millions of possible levels and I like that, I think it adds value to the game.

Even though the new game will be free, yeah I'm stupid, I still hold the value factor in high esteem. So with that in mind I've been creating a certain intelligence into the game which can dynamically create an infinite number of possible levels. That I think is better than a selection of pre-defined levels which in and of them selves don't really enhance the replay factor of the game. I'm not much of a fan of playing the same levels over and over again in the games I buy, so I don't want to have that kind of limited scope in the games I create

Anyway, I'll stop waffling and get back to work now (I'm finally working on the video, yay.)

 

So, I keep saying I'll do a video and finally show you what I've been working on. Believe it or not, I finally have! Yay, the crowd of none goes wild

It's not finished, 120 levels so far. Perfection! 2 is in there and complete as a bonus game. Because it was asked for and it's too much hassle to re-release it as a standalone.

As usual it'll be free, no ads and just one iap that won't get in the way. My traditional buy me a coffee button. But you can ignore it if you like and just play 2, yes, 2 great puzzle games completely and utterly for free. I know, I'm mental

So here's the vid, I'll get back to work on the game now.

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*Edit*
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention earlier. The whole Taptic I waffled on about before. It's probably obviously used for when you press the buttons and the tiles in the game.

I like it, it really does add a subtle sensation of touching an actual object. Of course not everyone will think so, therefore there will be the option of adjusting the strength of the feedback, or disabling it altogether.

The Taptic feedback will, in keeping with Apple's rules, only be available on iPhone 7. Rather annoying as it can work perfectly fine on iPhone 6s, but we're not supposed to allow that. Stupid bloody rule if you ask me.

Anyway, just thought I'd add that bit in. More information will of course follow as we get closer to release.

And feel free to make suggestions/tell me the game is a stupid idea/slag off my video making skills/or just generally hurl abuse at me, I've got thick skin. To match my thick head

 

Yin more wee update.

I'm just about done with the achievements and so on, bloody things, I always hate doing them for some reason.

I'm thinking, in the interests of getting the game finished that it'll release with the 120 levels I've done so far (may throw in a few more before it's finished) and I'll update it with new levels on a bi-weekly/bi-monthly basis to keep you supplied with levels.

I'm going to be evil and lock away Perfection! 2. Because I'm a bugger that way
Nothing drastic, I'm not asking you to pay for it. Just play for it.
It'll be locked until you complete the first 50 or 60 levels. Following which you'll have complete access to Perfection! 2 and all of the levels it has. Which being randomly generated means you'll get an unlimited supply of those.

So that's it basically, I'll update with a final release date once I'm closer to having all of the artwork/translations and rough edges finished. Which shouldn't take too long.

I'm optimistically aiming for a release before the end of February. But it'll depend on how many 18 hour days I can be bothered with

So:

2 games in one.

Perfection! 4: Nightfall, a return to proper puzzling with an updated style of play.

P4 will have 120 levels, with more added on a regular basis.

Achievements and leaderboards.

And Perfection! 2: Midnight included as a bonus unlockable. Which is a carbon copy of the game that's been requested over and over, so no more emails you're getting it

The bit anyone cares about. Free, like all of my apps these days, properly free, no adverts, no in app purchases that you need to play the damn game. Just my usual buy me a coffee iap, tucked away in the settings should anyone wish to contribute to the future development of this and other apps. If not, I don't mind, never been in it for the money, I do it because I like doing it and hopefully they bring a bit of entertainment to some people.

 

Aww, really sorry to hear that, I hope you have a speedy recovery. You should demand a private room as you're allergic to farts, both the ones emanating from the roommates and the one on TV

You're welcome to join in on testing the game if you like, just PM me your email address if you want and I'll let you know when the next beta is ready for you to download.

 

Ok, so much for the release before the end of February. Clearly that was too optimistic

I decided to re-wright a big chunk of the code, I'll never learn But things are better for it. I've also been translating the game, which takes a bit of time and spending a lot of time playing it to hopefully avoid any bugs.

However, assuming nothing crops up in final testing (so far no issues,) the game itself is completely finished. I'm just creating all of the AppStore assets (yawn) and maybe a short video for on the AppStore. Though I'm never sure it's worth it with puzzle games, they're hardly the most interesting to watch. Much better to play.

I know there's not massive interest here, nothing new there with my games, and if I'm honest I could try and sell you on the idea better. But I'm a pretty straightforward guy, I'm not going to make up *insert bad word* and promise the world. For better or worse I hate all of that marketing nonsense, I prefer the simple, honest, here's what it is approach

It's a puzzle game, albeit a good one, you'll like it or you won't, I don't think there's any middle ground with games like this. They're the marmite of the games world. If you liked any of the other games in the series, especially Perfection 1 & 2, then this one is better, much better (I think.) and of course as I mentioned before Perfection 2 is included as an unlockable bonus as I've had lots of requests to bring that game back since I removed it from the AppStore.

The game will still be released with my typical value for money cost of completely free. No adverts (god I hate them) and no compulsory in app purchases whatsoever. You can get everything in the game just by playing it. Yes, I am a little bit mental.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let the few who I know are waiting on this game know that it's still coming and it's not languishing in development hell and it's closer to release than ever.

 

Well it turns out nerve damage and a butt load of pain causing a severe lack of sleep has its uses.

Everything is finished now bar waiting on results of final testing from some people. I've not found any issues myself, so hopefully that will hold true.

If everyone gives it the all clear across the weekend, I'll submit the game on Monday.

With a little bit of luck we might actually see a release before the end of the month

In the meantime, here's a couple more screens I've just taken. First two from Perfection! 4 and the last one from the included Perfection! 2 bonus game.

 

Aaannnnnd back again, sorry for all of the posts getting in the way. I hadn't planned on doing this until later.

Anyway, here's a quick video I've thrown together that gives a better look at the game in its current state and highlights some of the included features.

It is a very quickly put together one, I'm in the process of gutting my office and re-doing it to make room for my new laser cutter. Every mad scientist should have a laser
It's a bit of an undertaking when you've got the usual office stuff of computers, piles of hard drives, monitors and the rest. But me being me I've got a wall full of 40 odd consoles to shift around and a couple of 3D printers among other things to relocate around the room. Then there's the furniture to build, wiring to be done. Bloody pain the you know what.

Anyway, I digress, which is so unlike me I'm blaming the fact that I've had to take extra morphine to cope with the pain all of this relocation work is causing

Right, the game. As I say I'm plain and straightforward, so I'll just let the video cover what's currently in the game.
Naturally I've got a ton of ideas for things to add into the game. Multiplayer, new game modes, enhancements and so on. But it'll depend largely on the interest in the game how much time I dedicate to it.
So based on this forum, don't expect much. Ha, I kid of course

Right I'll stop waffling and just put the video up. Honestly it's not easy to shut up when you're doped up to the eyeballs


*Edit*
I should also probably mention that for our colour blind friends I've added in an option to set the colours used in the game to whatever your needs are.
Obviously with a game so dependent on colour it's not so easy to accommodate colour blindness. But I think that for now at least, that's the best option I could add in. I always consider colour blindness when I'm making an app and if I find a better alternative you can be sure I'll implement it.

Also, the entire game is synced seamlessly if you're an iCloud user. And if not, you should be
Every level you play, your progress is stored and synced so you can start on one device and continue on any of your others. Everything right down to your setting is synced, I think that's important in a game. Well, it is to me, I hate it when I'm playing a game on my phone, then switch to my iPad and it's like playing a different game. Why? Why would you do that in this day and age? I mean... actually I'll stop there before I go into a full on rant

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Thank you, as always you are too kind. I do try to make a decent game. Try being the operative word It's not the most visually exciting game in the world but it is an enjoyable one to play, well so we think anyway.

Re-jigging the office to accommodate my mad scientist laser might put a slight delay on the game. There's a fair bit of heavy work and when you've got nerve damage that's not a good mix.

But if anything it'll only be a day or two behind where I want it to be. I'll still get it submitted at the start of the week. Got to work hard for my audience of one

 

Just a quick update, me not rambling on will be a first

Good news for all one of you I'm done! Actually done, I'm in the process of uploading everything to Apple for review just now, I'll set an official date for release shortly.

I've already started making more puzzles to include in the first (free of course) expansion, so the games not getting abandoned and I've got some really good ideas for different game modes and expansions, some I've just thought of in the past few days. Whether those see the light of day or not will depend on if anyone's playing the game or not. So we'll see.

In the meantime, here's what the Icon will look like, I went with the classic look of the first game with a rather obvious addition. Feel free to share comments, opinions, abuse, the usual