Lingo
Spring Cleaning
Today's update features a ton of small tweaks, fixes, and changes to almost every level in the game. Here are some of the highlights:
- New Setting: Panel Quality - Try the low setting here if you're encountering any instability while playing.
- Settings: View Clip - Changed the name to Render Distance to help clarify what this actually does.
- Maps Folder - This should now be created automatically the first time you try to open it.
- Level 1 - Several small tweaks, including a Look Up! sign.
- Level 2 - Several small tweaks, including a fix for the infamous RETRACT puzzle.
- The Library - Fixed a bad puzzle, and is now unlocked from both entrances.
...and a bunch more! No new content this time, but hopefully these updates will make things smoother for folks just getting started.
A great big welcome to everyone who has found the game since the last update. I hope you're having an enjoyable time experiencing this world. I am chipping away at the next one and looking forward to sharing more about it with you when it's a bit farther along.
Until next time!
Brenton
Happy Birthday, Lingo!
The October Update
Since the release of Level 2 this spring, we have added:
The Staircase - A hub area for late game content. This is accessible after completing (most of) Level 2.
The Pumpkin Patch - The smallest map, focused on everyone's favorite color!
The Library, Second Floor - Follow the clues to find a path forward.
Level Secret - A capstone level which may or may not actually exist.
The Afterword - A timed, randomized challenge map, authored in collaboration with Star "Hatkirby" Rauchenberger.
This will likely be the last major addition to Lingo for the foreseeable future. I'm working my way through design of the sequel and look forward to begin sharing it with you as soon as I can. As always, I will continue to fight back against any bugs that might show their faces, and the custom mapmaking community continues to be an absolute treasure trove of Lingo content to participate in.
Thank you for being here, thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.
Brenton
Steam Workshop Support and More
Steam Workshop Integration
You may have noticed this already but if not - Lingo now has Steam Workshop support! This means you can subscribe to maps directly inside Steam, and they will appear in your maps list in settings automatically, shortly after booting the game.
It will also allow mapmakers to push updates to their content automatically, without needing players to download the maps a second time.
New Settings
Due to very popular request, Lingo now has volume sliders for music and sound effects, as well as a slider for mouse sensitivity.
Hints
You can press the insert key during solve mode to replace the first space of the placeholder text with the first letter of the solution.
Content Changes
Level 1
- Hid a mastery that was available too soon.
- The doors into the Orange Tower are orange now. Tasty!
- Mint has been de-aquaed and re-minted in the perception room.
- De-eyed those pesky eyes in the perception room.
- Two puzzles in the maze basement were moved away from the walls.
- Something in the Room Room was resized to make it clearer what was going on.
- Added Mastery hints and tracking into the game. Thank you Deusovi for your spreadsheet page; it has worked hard and deserves its well-earned retirement.
- Changed the Pilgrimage indicator; now you can't miss it.
- Differentiated some entrances and exits.
Level 2
- Added a sign to the Orange room. 2 IS NOT 1. This sign has layers.
- Lavender Room got some ugly but important puzzle logic fixes to help denote how they work. If you've gotten them, I think you probably know what I mean.
- A thing at the end of the game got some new countdown panels.
- Five panels were added outside the Parthenon to help you find some extra hard puzzles late in the game.
- Math Room title was breaking one of our logic rules, so I found a ruler and overruled it.
- Kiwi Room became a little less magenta.
- A thing after the end of the game got some signs.
- A novice got lost and replaced with a rookie.
- Another issue with magenta in the southwest.
Library
- Way more paintings from the community were created and hung! A huge thanks to Brendan for organizing these additions and adding them into the game.
- A few other content tweaks and additions here and there, probably nothing to worry about.
Reviews
As of writing this, we're almost at 100 reviews! I never in my wildest thought this game would get more than a handful of players. I'm incredibly appreciative of everyone's time and interest, of the people helping to make this game better and add new content, and everyone out there finding and playing it.
If you see this and haven't yet, please consider leaving Lingo a review on Steam. Reviews are the best way to help small indies like this one compete for storefront exposure. I also read every review, always, and I always appreciate hearing your thoughts on the game.
That's all for me today! Thanks so much for reading, enjoy the Steam Summer Sale, and I hope to hear from you soon!
-Brenton
Update - Lingo Day
This week brings a slew of new additions and enhancements to the game, and I'm very excited to share them with you! But first, I need to thank Chris for creating so much of this. He has once again elevated this game beyond what I could accomplish, and I am immensely appreciative.
New Custom Map: Lingo Level Mint - With Friends!
I hope you recall Level 1, because mint has taken over the game! Play through Level 1, but every block is mint, and every clue only tells you its first letter. Sound like too much of a nuisance? Share a New Game name with your friends, and you can fight through this mint-strosity as a team!
New Custom Map: Nerds Onvy
Thank you Brandon for this very small and very challenging new map!
New Graphical Style
Lingo has shaders! Now, it can look even more like a game it had already acquired a lot of its style from. Try it out in the options menu!
Custom Texture Pack Support
Texture overrides can now be set by creating a folder in Game Data and setting up images with the Lingo block names. I'll be making a guide and loading it to the website for those interested in making and/or using texture packs. I also intend to create some menu options that help make the game more graphically interesting and/or amicable to those who have trouble distinguishing between the colors used in the game. Stay tuned for more!
Better Font & HD Font Setting
Fonts in game should now look a lot crisper, and less like they came from a font junkyard. If you want an even better looking font, there's a new setting to effectively double its resolution.
Panel Unsolving
Want to share a puzzle with your friend without giving away the answer? Looking at a panel and pushing the delete key will now return it to its prior state.
Puzzle Fixes
A handful of puzzles have been given new clues or blocks, per community request. No more laughing at me about trough, sorry to disappoint.
More Paintings
Thanks to Brendan, we have 100 new paintings in the gallery! I'm looking forward to putting them on display as we roll out new maps and challenges.
That's all for now! Thank you for being here. I am continually overwhelmed by the kindness of this community. Thanks for reading; until next time!
Brenton
Update - Dynamic Keybinding
This update has been on the to-do list for a while, and is for our friends without QWERTY keyboards. And anyone who doesn't like WASD, really. Movement keys can now be remapped from settings.
I'm also pleased to bring you a very cool map from Kiwi today. Every answer in CODE is a four digit number. This map also hosts more guest designers than any other map, including LL2. I even had the opportunity to design one of them myself!
The guide for adding custom content is available at https://www.lingothegame.com/custom.html. There's also a dedicated forum post in our Discord available for chatting about your time with CODE.
Many thanks to Kiwi, our newest multi-maker, for this fun addition to Lingo's multiverse.
We're also midway through Puzzlefest and have added about 100 new players - if you're new here, welcome!
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Brenton
Lingo: Level 2 Has Arrived!
It's Brighter!
It's Back!
Lingo: Level 2 is available now!
This free content update adds a brand new map with 10 achievements, 40+ rooms, over 800 puzzles, and a few secrets. Explore pyramids made of cubes, schoolhouses made of cubes, trees made of cubes... you get the idea. I even included a couple plain white hallways, for old time's sake.
This map has been stitched together over the past five months, and I am very excited to share it with you today. A huge thank you to the beta testers and guest room designers who helped bring this space to life. And a big thank you to you for checking it out!
Welcome Back!
Brenton
The January Update
The primary feature addition today is an in-game achievement spotlight that our custom map creators (and I) can tap into. You'll know it when you see it!
New players shined new light on old problems, so I spent some time smoothing some edges (and in one case, adding some). Once again I want to thank the community for finding and in some cases helping solve these problems.
Random Player Floating - The good news is that you shouldn't randomly float upwards any longer. The bad news is that I'm pretty sure this prevents our most acrobatic players from jumping two blocks instead of the typical one.
Sliding Off Corners - Changed the player collision hitbox to a cylinder from a pill, which should make the hedge maze less irritating.
Panel Selection - There was a glitch where two panels next to one another would allow you to keep old partial answers on one of them. The text should now clear on exiting solve mode.
Incorrect Answers Flooding - Typing really fast would let you extend the allowed word in length checking mode (the default for the game). Now it pauses for the brief duration where there's red text, which makes the whole thing feel a little snazzier.
Side Panel Logic - There wasn't any. There still isn't, but I removed the side panels to sidestep the issue, as is my way.
Inconsistent Nonstandard Panel Types - Hopefully this is something that nobody will ever need to think about again; suffice to say, it fixed a weird bug.
Dynamic Credit Scene Text - Another request from our content creator community, the credits for their maps can be different than mine.
Panel Transparency - Panels on glass behaved weirdly, thanks to Chris for this fix.
Achievement Goalposts Moved - There wasn't a lot of logic behind what was required for one of the achievements. It hadn't changed while the world changed around it. If you're mid-playthrough, you may find one of your countdowns has counted back up. But, it should seem a little smarter when it does count back down now, so, hopefully that balances out for you.
Okay, I think that's probably about it. Once again, I want to thank the awesome people playing this game; those who are just finding it now and those who keep coming back. I've really enjoyed getting to see this game and community grow and evolve, and I so appreciate your time and attention.
Happy February!
Brenton
Minor Update - Bugfixes and Feature Requests
- Check that a custom map exists in the maps folder before trying to load it. If not, it sends you to the settings page. We can file this one under "things I should have thought of sooner."
- Cross Tower: Moved the panel on the back to become a panel on the front. Can't believe I'm still finding these.
- Cross Tower: Added some view obstruction to the central area, because it was REALLY confusing which section you were in, the way it was.
- Inverted mouse setting. Per request! Technically not tested on controller, so if you play on controller let me know if it works. It should, it's essentially just one negative sign and identical logic.
- Scoreboard text resizes after reaching 999. If that doesn't make you nervous, I don't know what will.
- Hitting the menu key while solving no longer brings up a copy paste menu. I spent like twenty minutes trying to script this and it turned out it was a single checkbox on the node I had to uncheck. #ProgrammerLife
- New Paintings! Courtesy of two members of our awesome community. They're hanging in the library. If you'd like to claim a library puzzle with a painting, I'm still taking them. 10x10
- Bigger reticle option. Also has better contrast: a white cross with an outline. I think it looks pretty nice. Already trying to figure out how to work it into a puzzle...
- Auto sprint wasn't persisting through game loads, now it should. I forgot to load it back in on game start.
These were all brought to me from players, and I want to take another second to say how grateful I am people are finding, playing, and enjoying the game. It's been basically three months since this kicked into gear and it's been incredibly rewarding, and the input from players has made this a much, much better game. Thanks for everything!
Brenton
Content Update - New Map: The Library
This was a quick project and is not Level 2, which is still in development. There are no Steam achievements for it yet, but I intend to add one when I have a few more.
Since the last patch notes, there have also been a few other smaller changes, as listed below:
- Support for windowed mode, from Settings > Graphics.
- Added extra non-answerable panels to make the existence of extra vertical cubes functionally irrelevant to a given puzzle.*
- Updates to a handful of puzzles in Level 1 (and The Library, if you had already found it). Bye, SURRENDER ROOMMATE. Bye, WALNUTS. Goodbye, I.
- Made several gray puzzles green bottoms.
- Added a performance troubleshooting tip to the Tips page. Please do reach out on Discord if you continue to have issues.
*For example: a middle white TRUE no longer needs a top white to be "technically" accurate, and a top white TOO no longer needs to not have a middle white to become TWO. In the places where this is relevant (looking at you, WHEEL) there are extra copies of the puzzle word on signs that tell you explicitly that it's important there. This only actually affects about 20 puzzles of the more than 500 in the level, it added very little in terms of puzzle interest/complexity, and it was a huge pain to work around in terms of design.
Finally, if you'd like to design a painting to hang above your favorite puzzle in The Library, send me a 10x10 pixel art image, and I'll create it in the game (assuming the usual reasonable things, like that you made it yourself and it's appropriate for all ages).
I think that's all for now! Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy the new map.
Brenton