Hello builders!
The beginning of November brings good news and GREAT news!
Let's hear them!
TL:DR
- Level design completed: the game will feature 250 levels!
- No, you won't need to solve ALL of them... but I still hope you'll ENJOY doing it!
- Last development step: achievements!
- Official release date: December the 1st!
250 levels!
That's right! While kids (and grown-ups) were outside playing "Trick or Treat", I've been inside creating the last of the 250 levels that you'll find in How To Build Your Igloo... so, now, I can officially declare the level design process completed! And what a journey!
I'm quite satisfied with how all the levels came out... the hardest part, with so many levels, was to give each one its own personality, wether this personality was in the mechanics involved in the level, in what inspired the level in the first place (you'll find a lot of winks and tributes both in the names and shapes of many levels) or in both sides.
I feel there's no filler levels around the Puzzle Pole, in the end... but it'll be up to you builders to tell me if this is true or not!
If 250 sounds like TOO MANY levels, remember that the whole game is conceived so that the end can be reached solving just half of them! The overabundance of levels is meant to be both a treat for who will enjoy the game (the more you solve, the more you get to play!) and a help for beginners and casual players, who in most situations will be able to skip / work around a particularly hard level or to leave it for a while, moving to different levels / areas without just being stuck (which is something that, in my experience, can be enough to make you rage quit a game).
Almost done!
With level and world design behind my back, the game is almost ready for release!
There's still one main task I'm going to tackle this month: the achievements!
As a player, I don't like forced achievements that seem unrelated with the spirit of the game, but I feel there are some key achievements that a puzzle game just needs... the ones which give you certification of your success!
Release date: minus one month!
And now to the great news: I feel confident enough with the game development state to announce an official release date: How To Build Your Igloo will be out on Steam on December the 1st!
By the way, there will be a small discount on the full price for the first week, so... save the date!
Rava