New release 2018.0.6915 of Masters of Puzzle is now live on Steam right in time for our latest special puzzle building event - Christmas 2018. To get the update without further delay, please restart your Steam client. And here is a summary of the new stuff in this release:
Gameplay: The Christmas 2018 special event is now live and all related limited achievements have been made available for completion
Interface: Added puzzle categories and corresponding GUI. Puzzle collections are now grouped in 4 different categories - Special Events, Classical Art, Traditional Art, and Photography. You can switch between these in the New Game menu using the appropriately named ribbons on the top left of the interface
Interface: Added toggle control in the Load Game menu to hide/show completed save games
Interface: Added temporary Discord chat info panel and open URL button
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where saved games based on DLCs that are not currently downloaded will not display the button to do so
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
Here in Europe, the first snow is already on the ground and we are preparing for Christmas. You know, presents, holiday planning, stress... ahem, we mean joy and anticipation ːsteammockingː And what better time to start the next Masters of Puzzle special event than now? You can laugh at the snow and cold outside, open your laptop, and start building beautiful puzzles. And if you're in more temperate regions of the world wearing a t-shirt and wondering what snow we're blabbering about, well, just pretend for a bit in solidarity with us poor souls.
On another thought entirely, communication with our players has always been very important to us. Therefore, we've decided to open a Masters of Puzzle Discord server where we can talk and interact in a more convenient and fast way than the Steam forums.
Christmas 2018 Event
We hope you participated in our previous event for Halloween this year, but if you haven't here is a brief summary of what you can expect. The event will start on 7th of December and continue for a whopping 4 weeks until the 4th of January next year. During that time enter the game and play your favorites or any of the new Christmas Edition puzzles in order to earn special rewards. The event widget in the game's dashboard will once again allow you to keep track of the remaining event time and how many challenges you have completed so far. While currently these are only displayed in Steam as achievements, once we roll out the room customization upgrade you will also gain special trophies that you will be able to display there.
For the new players, you should be aware that Masters of Puzzle features limited achievements - or challenges, as we call them. These you can get only under special circumstances and usually only inside a limited timeframe (like events). Once the opportunity to get such an achievement passes, it might not come again for a long time or ever! We will announce all such new achievements early on so you have time to prepare your strategy to get as many of them as you can. Keep an eye on the updates and the game news in order to stay informed.
For the full list of challenges in this event see the list at the end of this post.
Discord Chat
As we mentioned above, we put great value in direct and open communication with our players. Therefore, we've set up and opened a new Discord server, where we can keep in touch with you in a more efficient and fast way. Discord is a popular all-in-one voice and text chat for gamers that's free, secure, and works on your desktop, web-browser, and phone.
To join our Discord server, please use this direct link. You will need to have an active Discord account or create a new one.
When you first join the chat server, you will be moved into the default guests role. Guests are able to see most of the channels and communicate in some of them - the ones, that are relevant for people who don't own the game. If you do own Masters of Puzzle and want to access the owners-only chat channels, then you should send us a request directly on Discord or here in Steam in order to be added to the role of game owner. Game owners will have the opportunity to discuss current and beta releases, suggest ideas or feature requests, and see some exclusive work-in-progress.
We hope to see you in Discord soon.
Event Challenges
These are only obtainable from 7th of December 2018 until the 4th of January 2019.
Play the game during the Christmas 2018 event
Complete each individual Christmas Edition puzzle box in any tileset configuration during the Christmas 2018 event
Complete any 3 puzzle boxes during the Christmas 2018 event
Complete any 5 puzzle boxes during the Christmas 2018 event
Complete any 10 puzzle boxes during the Christmas 2018 event
We wish you luck in obtaining as many as possible.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
Another awesome collection of new puzzle boxes comes to Masters of Puzzle starting this December. It features 4 illustrations from our partnering artist, Elwira Pawlikowska. Some of you might already be familiar with Elwira, whose illustration Pumking Garden House participated as puzzle box in our Halloween event.
The new collection is named Steampunk Visions and, you've guessed it, orbits around the steampunk genre as envisioned by the author. Each of the illustrations is wonderfully done in traditional art with an amazing level of details and colors. The puzzle boxes are all paid content and will feature all the benefits of our purchasable DLCs like an extended number of puzzle tile configurations, special achievements, and more to come. The first puzzle box is coming next week, but until then here is a sneak peek of the entire collection:
Steampunk Hearse
The Goblin Watermill
Clockwork Factory
The Being
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:
This hotfix addresses another potentially game-breaking issue discovered by our player, Wisnoskij. We hope that with this latest polish the current game release is stable enough so that we can focus back on the next batch of new features. Check out what's been fixed:
Bugfix: Fixed a sporadic game crash when loading a game and there were some puzzle tiles found outside of the game board. This should also fix any other related issues, however, the actual bug is with Unity and PhysX integration and it might reappear in other unrelated cases.
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where upon loading game with an already open puzzle box some tiles would find themselves under the box and/or intersected with the puzzle box lid.
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
We've managed to find and fix a serious issue with the game thanks to our dedicated player, jimithyone. Thank you so much for reporting this and providing sufficient details for us to track and fix it.
Here is the list of changes coming with the hotfix release:
Bugfix: Fixed a game breaking issue which made the game crash when trying to load any saved game created with the last major release
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where the load games menu would not open at all when the player had no saved games and installed the game for the first time on that PC
Interface: Added a new preview collection of upcoming puzzle boxes
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
It's finally here! The Masters of Puzzle gameplay tutorial is now ready and available with the latest release version 2018.0.6901. New players and returning ones alike can get familiar with the basics of the game in this controlled environment. That's not all there is in this update, though. Check out the highlights:
Gameplay: A gameplay tutorial is now available from the main menu
Gameplay: Puzzle tiles and puzzle tile groups will now detect and hover over other objects when moved around
Gameplay: Changed the puzzle tiles default snap settings from minimum to the middle of the scale (for returning players - you might have to reset the options to their defaults to apply this change)
Bugfix: Fixed a bug that prevented the playtime stat from being saved in Steam
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where in rare cases puzzle tiles left on the assembly area would be incorrectly returned to the puzzle box because they were identified as lost
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Gameplay Tutorial
The tutorial will introduce the player to the general controls as well as the various game items and the interactions with them. By the end, any new player should have a basic familiarity with the game and have a little taste of the challenges it provides. We've tried to keep things simple and straightforward and to find a good balance between textual explanations and practical exersizes. Nevertheless, we will appreciate any feedback from you, our players. Tell us if you find some parts of it unclear or too hard and especially if you think something important is missing altogether.
The tutorial features an exclusive puzzle image, The Titan's Goblet by Thomas Cole, which will not be made available as a regular puzzle box. In addition, the tutorial will slice the puzzle into a set of 100 puzzle tiles, in order to make this easier for beginners. However, the 100-tileset is not available with the regular puzzle boxes as it is far too easy to represent any meaningful challenge.
We still urge you to give it a try, though, as it offers a unique experience and in the end, you might even find a small surprise.
That's it for today. Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
A new free puzzle box, Old Age by Thomas Cole, is now available in Masters of Puzzle. This is the fourth and last box in the collection The Voyage of Life and it is even harder than the previous puzzle box in this collection. Don't let that scare you, though! Give it a try and let us know how you performed in the community group. We always appreciate good screenshots.
As usual, you can pre-download the DLC from the Steam client or directly in-game while starting a new game. Don't forget to update the main game itself as well or the content will still be shown as locked.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
Another hotfix release of Masters of Puzzle is now available for everyone. With this, we finally managed to fix and/or address all known and reported bugs related to the incompatibility issues between the new Unity version and some plugins. In addition, we also made an effort in polishing the game framework, removing all old known issues, optimize game loading, and prepare the puzzle generator for the planned non-uniform puzzle tile shapes and few other gameplay features. Thank you very much for your patience and support during this iteration. It's thanks to you, our dedicated players, that we managed to identify and fix several important problems that would have otherwise required a significant effort to track and reproduce on our own.
Here is the current list of changes:
Gameplay: The mat underlay on the playing surface is now larger in size and puzzle tiles moved over it will be at the same height as they are over the mat itself. This should help with the grouping of tiles outside the mat
Bugfix: Implemented new meshes generation for the top of the playing surface. The meshes now change shape based on the actual puzzle size
Bugfix: Fixed a bug with the linking of puzzle tiles when loading a game with free groups of tiles
Bugfix: Fixed a bug with loading games where puzzle tiles already in the mat would instead be linked together
Bugfix: Fixed a bug (known issue) where the puzzle tiles might "explode" in a shower you are loading a very old saved game (especially the Belfast puzzle)
Bugfix: Fixed/improved the algorithm of detecting whether a puzzle tile is outside the play area or not
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
In the last week, we managed to fix several non-critical issues as well as to recreate the temporarily removed parts of the model box frame and the inspection lens game items. This hotfix contains all that but also one more important bugfix for the current game event. Many thanks to our community member jimithyone, who reported this issue.
Here are the most important fixes in this release:
Bugfix: Fixed a bug where the player would not get credit in the Halloween competition for completing puzzle boxes not directly related to the event
Bugfix: Model box frame missing parts have been recreated and are now once again visible
Bugfix: Inspection lens missing handles have been recreated and are now once again visible
Bugfix: Fixed a bug (a known issue) where inspections lens can get its parts detached if you move it too fast around the model
Bugfix: Fixed incorrect tiling issues for some material textures for several environmental objects
You can find the full release notes on our website here.
Known Issues
If you are loading a very old saved game (especially the Belfast puzzle) the puzzle tiles might "explode" in a shower. This is due to the changed size of the puzzle tiles in the recent builds which causes them to appear in overlapping positions when you load old saved games and thus forcing the physics engine to push them apart. This should happen only the first time you load such a game. Just wait for the tiles to get to rest then save and re-load the game. Any tiles that might have accidentally left the game board will be returned back into the puzzle box.
Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game:
We've finally managed to isolate and patch the problem that prevented some players from playing the game. Namely, the issue that spawned the playroom without a table, puzzle tiles, and some other necessary items. We would like to thank heartily the few players, who were so kind in providing debug data and assisting us with tracking the origin of the problem (it turned out to be one of the third-party engine plugins we use). We wouldn't have been able to address this so quickly without your help!
Since we cannot fix this directly, we were forced to do a temporary workaround so that everyone can play until we find a more permanent solution. For the time being the play table will not change its shape to fit the puzzle mat, so you will see a larger than usual black rubber surface under the mat itself. Also, we were forced to temporarily remove a couple of components from the inspection lens setup, which will make the lens look like it's hanging in the air. Both of these workarounds are purely visual and will not prevent you from playing the game or use the inspection lens in any way. With all that being said, if you encounter any other issues that disrupt your gameplay, please contact us at your earliest convenience.
Along with the hotfix for the playroom, there are a couple of other improvements that made their way into this build:
Framework: Improved the scene loading manager. It will now take care of loading all necessary assets, therefore eliminating the previously displayed and very redundant loading bar in the main menu. This change should also improve the loading times somewhat when entering the in-game scene
Interface: Changed the way puzzle box DLCs are downloaded from inside the game. When starting a new game it will notify you that the required content is missing and has to be downloaded via a new button in the puzzle box preview. Finish downloading the content will not start the game automatically anymore; instead it will only unlock the Start Game button
Visuals: Improvements to the in-game lighting options and overall lights configuration
Full release notes will be made available on our website here.
Thank you very much for your patience and support.
