Hey there, lasso lovers and logic cowboys!
Today we’re taking you behind the scenes to show how we built Hogtie’s tricky puzzles, biomes, and the balance between fun and frustration.
When we sat down to design Hogtie’s levels, one thing was clear: we didn’t just want puzzles that are "solvable"– we wanted puzzles that are satisfying to master.
Enter our three-star step system. You can always complete a level in as many moves as you like, but earning all three stars? That’s the real challenge. Early levels gently introduce mechanics, letting you experiment. And soon enough, you're juggling ropes, pigs, switches, fences, and ice tiles in increasingly intricate ways.
We also divided the game into biomes. Why? In a lot of puzzle games, difficulty just ramps and ramps until you hit a wall. We didn’t want that. Biomes give players a soft reset: fresh tiles, new visuals, and a break from previous mechanics. One biome introduces Thin Ice tiles that break after two steps. Another introduces Air tiles, letting pigs literally fly – adding a vertical layer to your strategies. Each biome is designed to feel like a breath of fresh (wild west) air.
Our goal is always clear: make it feel like play, not punishment.