Today I've launched a few minor tweaks for a smoother experience.
Bugfix: Opening the Steam Overlay no longer triggers the Run One Step feature. This was being triggered because it's bound to Tab, but it now won't trigger if any modifiers (Shift etc) are pressed.
Bugfix: The This Is Fine achievement no longer gets awarded when it shouldn't.
I've removed the Replay Error button from the failure popup. It doesn't really add anything on top of the rewind system, and it was confusing some new players.
Coloured Panels can no longer be placed in the rear workstation slot. There's no reason to do so, since there's no way to bounce a laser off them in that position.
I've improved the way old solutions are loaded. Previously if a solution was invalid (if, say, you've got a Coloured Panel in the rear position), or if an invalid setup existed in the Undo/Redo history, then the game would reject it and load a fresh solution. With the new version, if the problem is only in the Undo/Redo history, not the current setup, the solution will be loaded without the history.
Update 1.06
This update includes a few small fixes:
It's no longer possible to place additional Sourcers and Shippers on Megalaser Mishap and bypass most of the level.
Fixed a bug where having no saves for either of the last two levels would mean attempting to play either of them would always send you to Hexahedra Hijack, even if you wanted to play Hijacking Hexahedra.
Updated Unity version to fix an audio issue with some Linux distributions.
Update 1.04 - more tutorial improvements
The changes to level 16, Through The Looking Glass, definitely helped with completion rates, but it still has a big drop-off in players who make it through the level.
To help with this, I've reworked the Laser tutorials on both that level and the level before (Corporate Transparency) to make things clearer, along with an extra comment from Dantar to remind players about the Recycler.
Other tweaks in this update:
The Workshop menu now points you to the Steam Workshop, with a clickable button, to subscribe to puzzles.
In the Esc menu, the "Main Menu" and "Quit To Desktop" buttons have been renamed to "Save & Leave Factory" and "Save & Quit To Desktop" to make it clearer that solutions are saved on exit, and to clear up confusion where players thought selecting "Main Menu" would take them right back to the top of the menu, rather than the Save Select screen."
The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase is now live! 23rd-30th May
The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase is here! It's running from 23rd-30th May, and is full of thinky games, of which Hexahedra is one! Get yourself over there and pick up Hexahedra before the launch discount runs out at the end of the event!
Yesterday I realized that one of the video tutorials, covering adding payloads to cubes, was missing, so today's update fixes that along with a few other things:
Rest In Panels now has a proper explanation of how the Payload Adder works.
Some of the video tutorials were missing from the list in the Help menu, they're now available (including the new Payload Adder one).
Personal Best data is now saved correctly for Steam Workshop puzzles. The Steam friends data and histograms were always correct, but the "Best" readout next to the histograms will now be correct as well. You'll need to rerun solutions to get your actual best scores saved.
It's no longer possible to get locked out of using the mouse wheel to zoom by closing the Undo History by clicking the X button or opening the Esc menu.
It's now possible save a puzzle in the Editor if it has a Panel Adder in it.
You'll no longer see tooltips from UI beneath the story playback screen when it's open.
The Flip Cube Net button on cube visualizations now has a tooltip.
Through The Looking Glass simplified
Having looked at the first few days of data, there's one level which is stumping a lot of people, Through The Looking Glass. It asks you to make several leaps in understanding at the same time, which is a bit much, so I've simplified the level somewhat.
Old solutions to the level won't work, because the cubes you're trying to build have changed, but well done if you solved the original version.
I'll put the original up on the Steam Workshop at some point.
While I'm here, a couple of other changes: - The New Record screen no longer tells you you've broken all three records, just the ones you've actually beaten! - An Unexpected Visit (the first Inspector level) no longer allows you to add your own Sourcers. I can't imagine people were doing much of that anyway, given how the level works, but if you do have any solutions with extra Sourcers in, trying to load them will act as though you've started a new solution. - The tutorial in Going Solo is now shorter.
A big thank you to those of you who've been reporting bugs via the in-game Bug Reporter, I've got a list of things to work on in the near future. Please keep reporting issues that you see!
First post-launch update
Hey folks, it's been great to see people picking up the full game and having fun with it, I've spent most of the last two days watching Hexahedra streams on Twitch!
Inevitably, once lots of you were playing it some bugs came to light that I'd missed, so this is just a quick update to deal with a couple of the more serious issues.
Stopping the factory at just the right (or rather, wrong) moment no longer leaves rogue panels inside Panel Storers. They were purely visual and won't have messed up any solutions, but they were confusing!
The Help menu in the factory now works again - the videos show up as expected, and you won't experience a performance drop if you repeatedly click the options.
Completing Interstellar Relocation (level 26) no longer shows the Demo Complete screen. But I still think you should be congratulated for shipping so many cubes, so well done if you saw that!
Also fixed a few small typos in the story and tutorials.
I also realized I didn't post any patch notes when the game went live, for those of you who've been playing the demo or the playtest for a while. Here's what changed, apart from the last few levels and narrative going in:
The Kickstarter backers and the top 10 Bug Hunters are now in the credits! Thanks for your help, folks!
The camera panning is a bit more generous on larger levels, so you can pan further to the side when zoomed out. The boundaries on where you can place command track windows also lines up better with the size of the factories when they get large.
Skipping through the narrative now won't leave some transitions in an odd state. Lots of other changes to the narrative system went in to make the later stages of the narrative possible. Some of the existing story sections have been tweaked a bit.
The story for the first Inspector level now flags up that they're optional, and they're now always visible on the level select menu.
The last couple of missing video tutorials are now in. I've since realized that they didn't make it into the Help menu, I'll sort that out.
Fixed a bug where attempting to rename the solution to an Exported level (i.e. one you've made yourself in the puzzle editor) wouldn't save.
Tooltips are now suppressed when you're dragging a device or command.
I changed some of the random seeds for later levels. If you rerun your solutions you may find the Steps metric has changed. I reset the stats for the later levels, so the histograms will show correct data for the new seeds.
Update: More levels and a few tweaks
More levels, plus a few small tweaks and tutorial improvements.
Bugs fixed: 2
New Features
Two more levels! A final Octavius level, and the first level taking place in the Hexahedra Inc factory (though the narrative for this isn't sorted yet).
Other Changes
Moved An Unexpected Visit to after Colour Sorting.
Corporate Transparency now explains how the Recycler works.
A Sea View now requires you to ship 10 cubes, not 5, so that it's harder to complete without being properly on top of teleporter timings.
Megalaser Mishap now has narrative.
Bugfixes
The Demo Complete screen now appears again once you complete the final demo puzzle for the first time.
Puzzle Editor tutorial and new beta levels
As well as the news about Hexahedra's launch date, yesterday I launched an update to both the demo and the Kickstarter beta. Here's what changed:
Bugs fixed: 21
New Features
More levels! Levels have been added or updated showcasing the Laser, Teleporter, Weigher, Drop Painter, and Payload Adder. The GHSI Inspector and Octavius also have extra levels.
The last new level also includes a new device, the Megalaser! Unfortunately it's so powerful that it's at risk of destroying the factory, so you'll need to contain its enormous energy beams.
You can now see the state of the factory just before stopping. When the factory is stopped, press End to switch back to the state at the end of the last run. Press End again to go back to editing the factory.
Other Changes
The Puzzle Editor now has a tutorial. If you're using an existing profile, you'll need to press the "Repeat Tutorial" button in the top-left to get it to run.
Payloads now have proper icons in the UI.
The Laser and Panel Storer now indicate success or failure by showing red or green lights. The Laser now also uses those lights to indicate it's charging up.
Bugfixes
Drop Painters will now correctly paint cubes that are moving between workstations when the paint hits them.
Switch colourblind mode on or off now properly updates textures for cubes that are in the middle of being painted. Texture changes are also correctly applied to cube visualizations that haven't been turned on yet.
Changing a Weigher's threshold and saving now correctly wipes a solution's stats (since it might no longer solve the level).
Dragging a Weigher to another slot now preserves its threshold.
Keyboard shortcuts for zooming now correctly use the +/- keys on any keyboard layout, rather than the position of those keys on a US keyboard.
It's no longer possible to get the Puzzle Editor tools tab stuck in its collapsed state.
The Hide Tracks button on a workstation no longer goes missing if the tracks are in window mode and then reattached to the workstation while the factory is running.
Fixed a few lighting issues with the Heater and Laser. Things are prettier now!
The Teleport Buffer now picks up changes to the Show Cube Net By Default option without having to return to the main menu.
Renaming a custom puzzle now allows you to use the full 64 character title length.
Launching 16th May!
The time has come! Octavius is deciding which hat to wear to the launch party!
If you played the early versions of the game, or the demo, or you backed the game on Kickstarter, then thank you for being part of getting the game to this point and making it the best it can be.
The Steam demo is still available (and will be once the game is launched), so if you've never given Hexahedra a go you can start building factories and shipping cubes right now. Any progress will transfer over to the full version of the game. If you haven't yet, follow and add Hexahedra to your wishlist so Steam can notify you once it's live!
If you're a Kickstarter backer, I'll be in touch with your Steam key closer to the launch date. And if you've got beta access, check out the new update, there are lots more levels for you to have a go at!