This is a small patch containing the following fixes and improvements:
Framework: Upgraded to Unity 2019.3.8f1
Framework: Upgraded to Steamworks.NET for Steam SDK 1.48
Bugfix: Fixed several issues with the generation of the game board where wrong triangles would appear at the corners of the mat hole
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that was causing key mapping system to crash the game on game load after having played at least once before that
Thank you for your support and keep having fun!
Release Version 2019.1.7401
Alright, everyone, this is the last major release of Masters of Puzzle before we leave Early Access. A lot of polishing and bug-fixing were done in the last week and several new features were added to the game.
Let's check out the most important changes:
Gameplay: Added Puzzle Model Stand item model that can be rotated around the game board with the interaction tool. Holding LMB and moving in either screen direction will cause the stand to move left or right along the edge of the game board
Gameplay: Redesigned the functionality for Interactable Objects movement. It will now rely on advanced collision detection rather than raycasting which makes it more efficient and less CPU hungry
Gameplay: Improved the mesh collision detection for puzzle tiles and puzzle tile groups. It will be more accurate now on the edges and puzzle links
Gameplay: Increased the puzzle tile linking trigger area – both on top and to the sides – to allow easier linking
Gameplay: Saved games will now remember if you put puzzle tile groups in containers
Interface: Created a new menu for the player’s earned achievements overview
Interface: Added Key Mapping system for all allowed actions (yes, finally!)
Interface: Added puzzle box Difficulty Rating System and set preliminary ratings to all puzzle boxes. Puzzle difficulty rating will now be displayed in the Start Game menu for each puzzle box. More about this below
Bugfix: Fixed a bug with the restoration of puzzle containers and the puzzle tiles within on game load that would sometimes cause the tiles to spawn in an offset position
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that was causing orphaned puzzle tile groups to remain on the game board cluttering the scene with invisible colliders
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that prevented puzzle tile groups in other than correct orientation from being linked to each other or standalone puzzle tiles
Bugfix: Fixed a bug with puzzle tile containers where overflowing containers would not be able to identify all puzzle tiles put in them as actually being in them
Bugfix: Fixed various issues with the movement of all interactable objects that caused unexpected collisions, leave the game board, scatter other objects, and etc.
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Puzzle Box Difficulty Rating System
So, this is a feature that we wanted to add for a long time to the game, but could never find the right time. Right now the game has 28 puzzle boxes and they vary greatly in art and style, but also in difficulty. We wanted to be able to indicate how difficult a puzzle box is to assemble in order for our players to know the level of challenge they were facing before they started a new game. In addition, we also want to use this rating system as a social experiment and see if we can fine-tune these ratings based on your feedback. We plan to introduce in-game rating submission for completed puzzle boxes before we leave Early Access, but right now we need your help in adjusting the preliminary ratings outside the game. For this purpose, we've created a Google Forms survey that you can access here. We will appreciate it tremendously if you take a few minutes and rate the puzzle boxes you've completed so far based on the perceived difficulty you had with them. This will help us greatly in kick-starting this initiative.
A little insight into the rating system is also necessary or it might look overwhelming at first. Because we wanted a very robust and feedback-sensitive system, we've defined 9 levels of difficulty each with a key letter that links them to our Achievements system:
N (Novice) - very easy
I (Initiate)
J (Journeyman)
A (Adept)
P (Proficient)
E (Expert)
M (Master)
G (Grand Master)
R (Guru) - super hard
The ratings are also color-coded for easy identification going in a gradient from soft blue (N) to soft red (R). We are very interested to see how the community will use this once the game enters full release. And if you're a new player, don't feel intimidated by this rather complex rating system. It's intended for informational purposes only and will not affect your gameplay in any way.
Next Steps
Now that this release is published, we intend to focus on the final round of polishing and bug-fixing. Once we're satisfied with the quality and stability of the game, we will leave Early Access and go live on Steam. We also appreciate very much the valuable feedback we've received from several of our fans in the last 2 weeks, which helped us identify and remove several gameplay issues. We hope to receive more feedback from you as we prepare for our official release.
So that's it for now. Stay tuned, keep playing, and don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
This is a small patch containing the following fixes and improvements:
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that caused some puzzle tiles to lose their mesh colliders when placed on the puzzle mat
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that caused puzzle tiles found outside the game board to pile in the middle of it
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that would falsely identify some puzzle tiles being under the game board
Interface: Added an info dialog at the game start if any puzzle tiles were found outside the game board
Thank you for your support and keep having fun!
Release Version 2019.1.7390
Hi everyone! We are extremely pleased to provide this new major release version to you today. As we are moving closer to leaving Early Access, we are now focusing on improving all aspects of the game, fixing old issues, and redesigning some features to make them more user friendly and convenient. Check out what's new:
Gameplay: Puzzle tile sizes across different tilesets are now closer to each other and more consistent from tileset to a tileset. This feature will only work for new games while old saved games should remain unaffected
Gameplay: The puzzle box is now placed in the center of the playing surface when starting a new game. You can move it away by using Alt + Left Mouse Button interaction
Gameplay: The puzzle model is now consistent in size across all tilesets and puzzles (it would previously scale up and down based on tilesets and puzzle sizes)
Gameplay: When called for inspection, the puzzle model will now take about half of the viewport to the right. This will allow the player to compare it much easier with the puzzle assembly while moving around and rotating the camera
Gameplay: Reduced the puzzle assembly area by 25% (necessary for the bigger puzzle tilesets 2500+)
Gameplay: Enabled the functionality to spawn up to 6 containers on the playing surface
Framework: Created a new mechanism for puzzle tile mesh colliders usage. This improves game performance drastically and allows the game to be played with the largest tilesets (2500+)
Visuals: Improved significantly the puzzle tiles mesh generation algorithm. They will look flatter and will no longer appear to have big sunken triangle wedges towards female links
Visuals: Changed the rendering color space to Linear. This will improve visual quality significantly
Visuals: Reduced overall puzzle tile thickness by 40%
Interface: Added keyboard shortcuts for sending puzzle tiles to containers (keys from F2 to F7). This feature will work for individual held puzzle tiles, puzzle tile groups, and multiple puzzle tiles that are held together
Interface: Added hours to the in-game timer widget
Bugfix: Fixed false self-shadows on puzzle tiles that were visible as dark diagonal lines which prevented the image from being observed properly
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor would not lock during camera rotation with RMB causing sometimes unintended edge scrolling
Bugfix: Fixed a bug with puzzle tile groups on game load that would sometimes make them link under an angle
There is much more to this update and you can find the full release notes on our website here.
Larger Puzzle Tilesets
As you've probably guessed by now reading this post, we've finally managed to find a solution for our huge performance issues when larger tilesets were being used (i.e. boxes of 2000 and more puzzle tiles). Yey!!! Keep in mind that these tilesets will still require relatively powerful PC to play with comfortably. However, where before that it was nearly impossible to play with 2500+ puzzle tiles, now we can get a very good framerate with an NVidia 2070 RTX card even with 4000 puzzle tiles. You will not yet have access to this feature until we manage to test it thoroughly. Also, tilesets above 2000 were always intended to be available only with second-tier paid puzzle boxes due to how much game time they would provide for a player.
With that being said, we will provide for free one entirely new puzzle box that can be sliced up to 4000 puzzle tiles as a huge thanks for our Early Access players. Stay tuned for an announcement very soon.
Roadmap Ahead
We mentioned last time that we are now working towards leaving Early Access and this release is part of that plan. In the following weeks, we will continue working on improvements and features that flesh out the game. You can expect one more or at most twobig updates before we reach the point for official release on Steam. We will, of course, post the proper announcements when it's time for that. For now, we wanted to share our vision of the future.
When we started working on this game, we envisioned a lot of features and cool stuff (many of these are not even announced yet). We didn't take into account the significant amount of research and work these ideas will require in order to become a reality. We also did not plan to remain in Early Access beyond the year 2019. Because of this, we were forced to evaluate our roadmap and decide which features we want to focus on right now in order to deliver a good, stable, finished game to more players. The rest of the features we want to release within new major versions and maybe even game expansions. We are now done with that evaluation and we've decided to move the following major features for after we leave Early Access - Multiplayer and Customizable Playrooms. As our earliest fans know, we actually have a working prototype of the Multiplayer, however, to put that on Steam would require us to invest a substantial monthly sum on cloud services. Currently, this is not something we can afford to do as the interest in the game is not sufficient to make it sustainable. As for the Customizable Playrooms, we feel that this feature, while cool and interesting, does not add immediate value to the core of the game itself. Combined with the significant amount of work it would require, we've decided to postpone it for a major release at a later date.
We are sorry we had to change the initial scope of our plans and we hope this isn't much of a disappointment to you. We still plan to deliver a lot of new features and cool puzzles for you. Our public roadmap is available at Taiga should you wish to follow up on our development as it moves forwards.
Thank you so much for being our fans and playing our game! We'll see you soon in our next update. Stay safe and stay home!
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
We are happy to release this new version of Masters of Puzzle for everyone today. There are several new and long-awaited features we’ve managed to implement in it, so let’s take a look:
Gameplay: Added new feature to Player Controls 2.0 that allows you to pick up (grab) multiple puzzle tiles using Shift + LMB interaction
Gameplay: Added new feature to start the game with the puzzle box unpacked and all puzzle tiles placed face-up on the surface. This can be selected in the individual game settings menu (see below)
Gameplay: Changed puzzle tile turn over interaction behavior so that it will now always turn the puzzle tiles with their face up. You can still turn them face down if you hold the alternate action key (Alt) and use default interaction
Interface: Added new Individual Game Settings menu in Start Game GUI that allows for choosing more detailed options when starting a new game. This can be accessed via a small button with a wrench icon to the left of the Start Game button
Interface: Start Game GUI will now show all unlocked achievements for a puzzle box, including limited challenges and different completed tilesets
Interface: Improved the Start Game GUI in various ways that should improve the user experience
There is a lot more into this update so make sure to also check the full release notes on our website here.
Headsup on Next Steps
It’s been a while since we started working on this game and it’s been a challenge, albeit a very positive one. We feel quite happy with the current state and the game is now stable enough to be considered a beta build. We still have a couple of features we want to implement and we will be adding them in the following weeks and months. With that being said, we’ve also reconsidered the scope and effort necessary to implement everything we initially wanted. The reality of the situation is that it will take far too long for certain features we envisioned to be completed. Because of this, we started reorganizing the roadmap and rethinking what we want to release as the full game out of Early Access. We don’t yet have the final picture in place, but as soon as we finalize that review, we’ll post a long and detailed post on how we plan to proceed.
As always, thank you very much for your support. Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
We've just published a fresh new release version 2019.1.7329 of Masters of Puzzle. This one focuses on various improvements and bug fixes as well as preparations for the coming new puzzle collection.
Let's take a look at what are the most important changes:
Gameplay: Improved the animations and overall behavior of take-in-hand feature, including the sorting of puzzle tiles while in hand
Gameplay: The puzzle box interactable item can now be moved only in alternate action mode by holding the Alt key
Interface: The new puzzle box collection with illustrations by F. E. Church is now visible in the menu
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that was causing puzzle tiles taken in hand (i.e. lower left widget) or being inspected to move in a way inconsistent with the player camera
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
As always, we'll be happy to hear your feedback.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
New Puzzle Collection - Classical Compilation by Frederic Edwin Church
A new puzzle collection is coming to Masters of Puzzle this month. It is a compilation of 4 beautiful classical paintings by Frederic Edwin Church. Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets. Church's paintings put an emphasis on realistic detail, dramatic light, and panoramic views. He debuted some of his major works in single-painting exhibitions to a paying and often enthralled audience in New York City. In his prime, he was one of the most famous painters in the United States.
The puzzle collection is named Classical Compilation and will feature diverse paintings with different subjects and color palettes. Best of all, all 4 puzzle boxes will be completely free for the owners of Masters of Puzzle. As usual, each puzzle box comes with its own new achievements. The first puzzle box is coming next week, but until then here is a sneak peek of the entire collection:
Heart of the Andes
The Icebergs
Cotopaxi
Aurora Borealis
We hope you like the art and will have a great time with the puzzles created with it. Make sure to share your thoughts and comments below so we know whether we bring you illustrations you love and enjoy.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
We've just published a fresh new release version 2019.1.7319 of Masters of Puzzle. This one focuses on various improvements and bug fixes.
Let's take a look at what are the most important changes:
Gameplay: Updated the game Tutorial for version 2019.1 of the game. The Tutorial is now enabled and can be started from the main menu
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where puzzle tiles taken from the hand will remain attached to the hand object and move around with it
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where all puzzle tiles would change their shapes upon the first loading of any saved game
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
New Free Collection Coming
This release also prepares the game for our new free puzzle collection of 4 puzzle boxes that will start appearing on Steam as early as next week. It is a selection of 4 wonderful classical paintings by Frederick Edwin Church that will provide you with a lot of fun and fresh challenges. Stay tuned for more information and some sneak peeks.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
Hi everyone, we are greatly pleased to announce that Masters of Puzzle is now fully playable on Mac computers. The supported version is macOS 10.13: High Sierra or higher. Also, your Mac will need to be able to operate a 64-bit system as the game has been compiled as a 64-bit application.
If you're an owner of a Mac and you have tried our game, do let us know how it performs on your computer and how you find the game controls. We will appreciate all the feedback.
Have fun playing and don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
This is a small but important fix for all players that participate in the Halloween 2019 event. There was a problem with Steam recording the completion stats for puzzle boxed finished during the event. This patch should fix the issue and let the game start counting your puzzle box completions as it was supposed to, therefore enabling you to earn the 3 related limited achievements.
Unfortunately, there is no way to refund any completions finished before this hotfix has been applied. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your support.
For feedback and questions please reach us on our social channels:
