The alpha version of Seasons is here! It's a very exciting time as I watch my high score suddenly be wiped by faster players...ouch! What can you expect from Seasons? read on to find out:
Seasons in Alpha
Seasons are made up of a custom selection of levels chosen by me to give players a fair shot across a variety of types of levels
Each Season will run for a month during testing to give it enough time to see how it all performs
To place higher in the season, simply rank higher in each level
At the end of the season will be rewards added to a players profile, and the history will stay visible so others can play the levels from older seasons (there are currently no rewards built in, but once they are they will be manually backdated for alpha players)
If your level is in the active season, it will be locked for editing until the season ends (this is currently OFF for alpha players so I can test the system)
After the season ends, all of its levels will be unlocked, allowing creators to update their levels if they so choose. Due to this, previous seasons levels may have been changed (or deleted) at the creators discretion. This is not a decision made lightly - S.O. is intended to be a faster, dynamic game that always evolves, allowing creators to update their levels (outside of seasons) at any point - resetting the leaderboards - but creating new and fresh challenges. Having levels that stay the same for years is perfectly acceptable if the creator desires it, or they can update it often to add small edits or big changes.
Level Cache
On the backend levels have received an overhaul for managing the rankings, making it easier to retrieve someone's ranking instantly. This plays directly into the Season Cache allowing for a quicker load in most cases until a new score is added/updated on the leaderboards. This was a huge change, so I'll be watching to see how this goes to make sure it runs smoothly.
Main Menu Overhaul
I have been waiting so long to update the main menu with these cards! Unfortunately I had to actually build out the Seasons so I could do it justice (ignore the coming soon parts, that will be very soon!)
The Basic Tutorial sets up... well... the basics of how to move and the goal
The Advanced Tutorial will dive into some tougher level designs and brutal obstacles
The Daily Level will pick a random level across the entire game for 24 hours
Ranking Visuals Update
Previously the rankings had a wide profile (the Trophy icon, the # and the ranking number). This caused a few slight problems on the smaller leaderboards with large rankings and didn't look as clean as I'd like. So, it's been updated to background-medals and the # has been removed.
BEFORE:
- The Trophy Icon wasn't even present on the level leaderboards
AFTER:
Next update will handle some pure backend changes to Replays (faster processing and better storage), the release of the Advanced Tutorial, Daily Levels and some other cool things. Thanks for sticking with me - wooooooo!
- Diesel