Dear friends, we hope you're doing well, and you're also playing our game to relieve some stress and have fun. There is some important news we are excited to share with you today. In the last several months, we have been working on Masters of Puzzle II. While we can't share a specific release date yet, we are happy to tell you that we're progressing at a steady rate. The sequel will have all the features from the original game, albeit much improved, and new features that we planned for but never got to develop. What is more, all owners of the original Masters of Puzzle game at the time of release will receive the sequel for free on Steam! So, there is no need to wait for it - you can get the original now to play while ensuring you'll also get the sequel later on.
That's our announcement in a nutshell. If you want to get into the details and learn more, you can read on.
As you've probably noticed, we created the original Masters of Puzzle game in the Unity engine. It worked for us for a while, but then Unity introduced some changes to their licensing and toolset options in the last couple of years. These changes are not optimal for us as they introduced additional costs and complexity in our work. At the same time, Epic Games announced the new Unreal 5 engine, which is truly the next-gen tool we've been waiting for. And best of all, its licensing policy is extremely friendly to indie developers. Therefore, we decided to switch our toolset entirely and proceed with our plans for Masters of Puzzle and our other games in conception with the Unreal 5 engine.
Long story short, this boils down to two significant results. First, we will not make any more improvements to Masters of Puzzle unless it's absolutely necessary. And second, you will be able to enjoy Masters of Puzzle II on a genuinely next-gen engine with all the cool features it can grant us.
If you got that far, then you are probably curious about our plans for the sequel. So let's dive into that topic.
While we wanted to maintain the core experience of the game, which is an ultra-realistic puzzle-building simulator, we also wanted to make something new and utilize the full power of the Unreal 5 engine. Therefore, you should expect a completely different user experience in all other aspects. The general plan for the game is to be fully interactable at all levels. The menus, the items, the environment are all going to be interactable 3D assets. For example, selecting a puzzle box to start a new game will require you to choose it and pull it out of your puzzle collection shelf. The achievements you earn will no longer be simple icons in a scrolling list but various items that you can put on a display shelf. Since we always wanted to make Masters of Puzzle a VR-compatible game, we feel this is the direction for the best user experience.
In terms of gameplay improvements, there are many things we wanted to do but never managed to create in the original game. One of the most significant features we wanted to introduce is the completely variable shape of the puzzle pieces. Think of popular physical puzzles like the ones from WENTWORTH. They look incredible but are extremely difficult to create in 3D. However, with our new algorithms, the reality of having something similar draws ever closer. Even the traditional puzzle slicing now looks significantly better in the sequel than it ever did in the original game:
This time we changed our development process and started creating various in-engine tools that will help us make the best puzzle shapes possible. Like this tool for customizing the puzzle link section of the edges:
Remember, every slicing of a puzzle in our game is procedurally done based on a random seed, and all the 3D puzzle pieces are procedurally generated and textured. This makes it very different from any other jigsaw puzzle game out there and hopefully much more enjoyable.
As of now, Masters of Puzzle II is still in the early stages of development. We focus first on all the inner workings of the game - slicing and assembly algorithms, 3D object generation, collisions, sub-systems, etc. Once we complete the majority of these, we will proceed with the actual visualization of the game. This approach should help us minimize the effort necessary to deliver a playable demo for you as soon as possible. We will keep you posted as we progress and post spicy screenshots once we have new things to share.
So that's it for now. As always, we will be happy to read your comments and suggestions. Stay safe and have a lot of fun!
New Puzzle Box Released - Battlegroup Selcior
Dear players, the latest puzzle box of Masters of Puzzle has been released. Introducing Battlegroup Selcior by Christian Hecker:
The new puzzle box comes with 7 new achievements for you to collect. This is the second puzzle in the latest series Space Empire, so check out the others as well.
New Puzzle Box Released - Echoes
We've released a new puzzle box for your enjoyment. Behold Echoes - an amazing puzzle, created from an illustration by the German artist Christian Hecker:
As usual, it comes with its own full set of achievements. This puzzle is the first in the new series Space Empire. We hope you'll enjoy it and have many fun hours assembling it in various configurations.
New Puzzle Collection - Space Empire by Christian Hecker
Everyone, we are delighted to present to you a brand new puzzle collection for Masters of Puzzle that will start coming to Steam from next month. It will contain 4 incredible puzzles made from the artwork of Christian Hecker. You might know Chris's work from the collection Terran Utopia that was made available last year. Once again we can appreciate his talent and creativity:
Echoes
Battlegroup Selcior
Point Sentinel
The Eternals
Amazing, aren't they? Make sure to leave your comments below. We would love to hear if you want to see more collections in a similar style in the future. Also, if you like our game, please rate it on Steam. It really helps us to continue providing you with such high-quality puzzles.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
It's time for another puzzle box release! We present the third puzzle in the beautiful collection based on photographs by the artist King Wong. This one is named The Halfway Point and is our favorite yet in this series.
Be sure to also check King Wong's other puzzle boxes, Autumn Fuji and Byodoin Reflection. We hope you'll enjoy this latest addition to Masters of Puzzle and have a lot of fun with it.
New Puzzle Box Released - Byodoin Reflection
Greetings, puzzle builders! We are happy to announce another great puzzle box release. Byodoin Reflection based on photography by the artist King Wong. This is the second puzzle in our collection created from his work and we hope you'll like it!
If you like this one, make sure to also check King Wong's other puzzle box, Autumn Fuji. We hope you'll enjoy this latest addition to Masters of Puzzle and have a lot of fun with it.
New Puzzle Box Released - Dream of Arcadia
We are pleased to introduce to you our latest puzzle box, Dream of Arcadia. The original painting was created by the classical artist Thomas Cole and it inspired us to create this new content for you. Here is a preview of the new puzzle:
The puzzle is now available on Steam for free. We wish you a lot of fun time with it.
Release Version 2020.1.7698
Hi everyone, a new version of the game is available now on Steam. This is a very small update, but very important nevertheless because it addresses (hopefully) an issue with streaming the game on Twitch or other platforms.
As usual, you can find the full release notes on our website here.
We realized recently that some streaming platforms might have an issue with a game that only offers Exclusive Fullscreen support. Therefore we decided to quickly implement all available Unity options for screen mode, which include Fullscreen Window and Maximized Window in addition to the previous two modes. Of course, this is also useful for regular players, who don't want to play in Fullscreen.
That's it for today's update. Stay tuned, keep playing, and don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
Hi everyone, a new version of the game is available now on Steam. It's a relatively small update with a couple of new features that we hope you'll enjoy. We've also upgraded to the latest version of the game engine as well as all used libraries and tools.
As usual, you can find the full release notes on our website here.
You may have noticed that for some time now you have a player score that can be seen in the small profile window in the Main Menu. While that score is planned for some exciting new features in the future, we've also decided to enable the first leaderboard in the game. Welcome to the Puzzle Masters list where your position is based on your player score.
To be fully transparent, this is now you can accumulate score points with the current game version:
Rate Puzzle Box in Specific Tileset for the First Time: 10 points
For now, most points can be collected by earning achievements of any type. We currently have over 300, so it's a ripe field to harvest. You can also earn additional points if you rate any completed puzzle box in a given tileset using our Puzzle Rating System. In the future, you will have yet more ways to earn score points, one of which will be the Dynamic Tasks System (more on that in a future update).
Like any other advanced feature in Masters of Puzzle, this will require you to authenticate against our game servers before you could use it.
So, now that you know how it works, let the competition begin!
There was a request earlier from a player to provide an option to hide the in-game timer. We can certainly understand how the timer might prove to be stressful for some players, that prefer to enjoy the game at a slow pace. Therefore you now have a new option in the General Game options to toggle the timer. In addition, you can use the shortcut combination Ctrl + T to toggle the timer at any time during play.
In the past few months, we've released a good quantity of new puzzle boxes. While most were related to our 2 regular events, there were a few others too. We are excited to share with you that we have 15 puzzle boxes baking in the oven for you and we're constantly working to expand our network of collaborating artists. The new content will feature both illustrations and photographs, and of course, some of them will be free for all owners of Masters of Puzzle.
Stay tuned for more announcements on this soon.
That's it for today's update. Stay tuned, keep playing, and don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
