Magnetic Billiards Blueprint

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by Ste Pickford

We're doing some tinkering with the ball graphics for the next update, to help people with colour blindness. If you're colour blind yourself, or just have any opinions, please have a look at our blog post and give us your feedback.

Blog post about colour blindness tweaks.

I can't wait to see some of those new Arcade Modes!

[JPickford]

Shouldn't be too long now.

We've reached the final of the App Madness tournament. We're up against a hangman clone but they seem to have quite a fanbase so competition is tough.

If you like Magnetic Billiards please vote for us (you can vote once every 24 hours). It's only a single click - no need sign up for anything.

http://appmadness.net/?p=1200

Thanks.

[Ste Pickford]

The guy who's currently top of the iPad leaderboard has graciously revealed his scoring secrets. His techniques are incredible, but could be a big help to anyone trying to up their scores.

Amazing guide to Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint

[Ste Pickford]

Just a quick note to let you know we've made Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint free for the Christmas period. Just in time to pre-install it on those iPads and iPods you're about to wrap up as Christmas presents!

Press release here

App Store link

[LordGek]

How goes work on those new modes?

[drelbs]

HOLY CRAP!

Major new stuff in the update!

I knew that skeleton key would come in handy!

[sapphire_neo]

Nice! Skeleton Key ftw

What's New in Version 2.0
Lots of new features, content and improvements added in version 2.0 - thanks for all your feedback!

NEW FEATURES:
• Pegs - a new Classic Game feature, where balls start off fixed in place on the table.
• Struts - a new Classic Game feature, where balls of different colours start off connected to each other.
• Undo - instantly undo bad shots, saving lives and protecting your Tariff!
• Replay - instantly replay the last shot taken, re-watch your brilliant shots!
• Record-breaking shots - the game stores some of your best ever shots to replay at any time.
• UNDOllars - earn and spend UNDOllars to Undo shots.
• Auto-resume - the game automatically saves if you quit the app mid-game, letting you continue playing later without losing your progress.
• Total Playtime Leaderboard - compare your total playtime with other Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint players.
• 24 new Achievements to discover - worth over 100 points.
• Cluster Shape Identification Cards - now viewable from the How To Play menu, including reward details.
• Re-Sync Purchases - instantly reinstate previous in-app-purchases of content with a single tap, after a clean install or when installing the game on a new device.

NEW CONTENT (free to Skeleton Key owners):
• A whole page of 20 brand new 'Tricky' tables available in the Classic Game.
• A whole page of 20 brand new 'Fiendish' tables available in the Classic Game.

NEW PROTOTYPES (exclusively for Skeleton Key owners):
• 'I Sent My Monkey To The Moon' - a gameplay prototype of a brand new game available to playtest!
• 'Squish' - a gameplay prototype of a new Arcade Game available to playtest!

NOW FREE:
• The 'Relentless' Arcade Game is now free to all players.
• 3 'Serious' tables are now free to play in the Classic Game.
• 3 brand new 'Tricky' tables are free to play in the Classic Game.
• 3 brand new 'Fiendish' tables are free to play in the Classic Game.

FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS:
• New icon!
• New logo!
• Game now smaller than 20meg, so it can be installed over 3G.
• Improved the readability of the in-game font.
• Changed our hairstyles, so updated the Pickford Bros pop-ups to reflect this.
• Ball patterns altered to improve visibility for colour-blind players.
• Rare physics bug now fixed.
• More instructions and tips, and several typos fixed (thanks for pointing them out!).
• Improved layout of Shop pages.
• Several minor graphical tweaks and bug fixes.

[LordGek]

I'm loving the new Strut, Peg, Replay and Cluster Book mechanics but find the new Undo feature annoying on multiple levels.

1) This not only seems to delegitimize the leaderboards, it is one of those, go ahead and retry a shot as many times as you PAID FOR via IAP. I want the Pickford Brothers to make money for all of their hard work but feel this is not a classy way to do it. I thought the previous IAP structure was brilliant but find a purely consumable IAP where the player is allowed to endlessly pay for their continued right to cheat the game is just creepy.

2) Since I refuse to bother with this new Undo feature, why must I constantly get a remind for it popping up in my face after every botched move?

3) Even cheesier is how it doesn't even seem to have it's own button nor am I reminded of my current Undo stock when asked if I want to undo a shot. IF I were to use these Undos, it would make a big difference to me if this was my last one or I still had 5 more to spare.

[sapphire_neo]

That sounds a bit tragic if sales were so poor to push them to this extreme. I hope they nix buying the undos with iAP and either junk the concept or just keep it as a purely in-game currency.

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by sapphire_neo

That sounds a bit tragic if sales were so poor to push them to this extreme. I hope they nix buying the undos with iAP and either junk the concept or just keep it as a purely in-game currency.

Yeah, while not a big fan of their unlimited use period, if it were only in-game earned ones that would at feel a lot less "pay to play" to me.

I'm not trying to single out the Pickfords on this as it is a seemingly growing and acceptable trend but I just HATE consumable IAPs, even more so when it is buying special cheats in an otherwise so perfectly designed game.