Last weekend I managed to squeak out an update to Squishy Bugs. The old url to the Squishy Bugs page on the Android market is no longer valid. I removed that package, which *poof* caused it to disappear from the market.
You can find the new Squishy Bugs market page here. I don’t expect to ever have to change market urls again. And if I do, you can always get the proper url at WaggSoft.com.
With this update I reduced the number of rows of tiles since some players complained that toward the end of the level it seemed to take too long for the bullet to reach the top-most tiles. This allowed me to display the player’s score at the top of the page. Which brings me to the other update.
The scoring system has been revised. Previously you were awarded 1 point for every tile that was falling the moment you squished a tile. 3 tiles falling? Squish a tile for 3 points. Squish another tile for 2 points (since there would only be 2 tiles left falling). And so on. Squishy bugs were worth a 2 point multiplier. No longer! Each tile awards a ridiculous number of points following the same number-of-tiles-falling rule. However, now you lose points for not catching tiles. Each tile that drops off the bottom of the screen will cause you to lose the same number of points as you would have had you managed to squish the tile. This prevents players from exploiting the multiplicative nature of the scoring system.
Also, the groundwork for adding new power ups has been completed. It should be relatively straight forward to add new power ups in the future. So in addition to the bouncy ball power up that’s already present, there will be a “drop similar icons” power up and a “drop similar colors” power up. They will work similar to the way dropping groups works right now, which is that groups of the same color and icon fall together if one of them is hit.
Some update in the future will see the addition of accounts which will tie into a WaggSoft community page. This will allow for global high scores (another feature to add) and potentially allow for the addition of special events.
19 months ago I linked to a podcast where Tommy from Team Meat said that nobody uses Linux and that Super Meat Boy likely would not see a Linux release. He replied in the comments that there would need to be enough enthusiasm for a Linux version in order to make the effort worthwhile.
Humble Bundle 4 featuring Super Meat Boy.
Yes, that means Linux.
The prototype has always been available here but this is a reminder in case you were unaware. However, that link won’t be the permanent location of SpaceFight!. It will eventually have its own proper home. Probably on another domain I recently purchased and set up. Mystery! Kind of.
I’ve been working on what I call the LOTRO Craft Assistant. You can find it here. It is intended to show you the base cost of a crafted item, with a focus on items crafted by Farmers and Cooks at the moment. I see potential to expand the app to cover recipes and ingredients for Tailors, Jewelers, etc. It might even be possible to cover crafting costs in other MMOs, too.
Like the majority of the things I do, I did it with selfish intent. It’s an app to help me price items for auction in The Lord of the Rings Online. I hope others find it useful, too.
I just finished with Friction Games‘ Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It’s a great game, one that gave me quite a few frights. I’m proud to say I’m one who pre-ordered the game (which caused the developers to create a commentary track to listen to as you played it, something I have not yet done but intend to do). I mention the pre-order fact because it took me months to finish the game! I played anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour at a time, yet it seemed like to took me forever.
That’s not to say that Amnesia overstays its welcome. I kept thinking, “I must be close to the end now!” only to find that more of the story unfolded. So I don’t know where everyone is getting the idea that the first play-through averages 6 to 8 hours. My next playthrough, one I intend to modify to allow unlimited health and sanity, will be for the purpose of listening to the developer commentary, much like a commentary track found on a digital video.
This game is good. The visuals (insanity? yes, please), the audio (insanity? yes, please)… the insanity. If you’re a fan of survival horror, or horror fiction the likes of which H.P. Lovecraft would have been proud to write, then you owe it to yourself to purchase Amnesia. You’ll scream. You’ll swear. You’ll laugh nervously.
Now that this survival horror is complete, I’m moving on to Alan Wake.
