Patterna Testers RSS Feed

Patterna comes to Steam!

sschoener — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 20:27:48 +0000

Hi there,

Patterna is well on its way to Steam and you are invited to test the Steam version as well. Contact me if you want a Steam key for the Beta :)

Best,
Sebastian

New Version and Release

sschoener — Fri, 06 May 2016 17:34:08 +0000

Hi,

I have just updated the build on the itch-page. Node highlights are now computed in screen space and the final piece of the soundtrack has been added in.
The current plan is to release the game on itch.io next week, May 10th, to make it easier to distribute keys. When the game gets greenlight, I'll try to add Workshop support, but other than that, I think the game does not lack anything crucial anymore.

Here are the changes:
Game:

node overlays are now computed in screen space (so they do not rotate with pattern nodes)
pattern nodes' rotations are now synced up
moved some levels from Borders to Spinners, added a new level to Borders
he top-right menu buttons are now mip-mapped
the level history menu now works again
added the third piece of the soundtrack
Editor:
exiting the editor now aborts any solvability checking that may be in progress
the editor now won't let you place more nodes/edges than the game view itself supports (120 and 500, respectively)
the randomize/transform windows are now mutually exclusive
the level editor now warns you should you discard unsaved changes
you can now rebind most of the keys for the editor in the launcher

New Version - Includes more levels!

sschoener — Sun, 01 May 2016 17:46:05 +0000

Hi,

I have pushed an update to the itch.io page. It contains two new sequences of levels (20-ish levels) and some smaller fixes and changes. I also added a symbol to the level selection that tells you whether you have previously finished that level and whether that was a perfect game. Finally, there's an awesome new piece in the soundtrack (along with some new sounds).
Note that the Android version has not been updated yet.

Here's the changelog in full:

Game:

changed the way that scrolling with the mouse works
the UI now adapts to the size of the screen
the level finished screen is now black
added a new music track along with a new set of reveal sounds
added clicking sounds to various ingame UI elements that were missing them
game now runs on Android!
updated the ReadMe to include a bit more detailed instructions for Linux installations
the post-game statistics graph now automatically jumps to the last data point and is limited to a smaller number of entries
added a symbol to the sequence menu that indicates whether you have finished a level perfectly
opening the menu right before the level finished overlay is shown now prevents it from showing up
added two new level sequences: 'Spinners' and 'Radial Madness', plus a work-in-progress sequence without a specific theme

Editor:

fixed that sometimes the information on existing nodes is not updated when changing another node
added a way to center the level by centering its bound box instead of its center of mass
the solvability checker now stops when a new level is created
the feature preventing you from creating nodes atop each other now works as advertised
fixed a problem with connectivity information
undoing the deletion of a node now also restores the edges incident to that node

Android Version

sschoener — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:09:17 +0000

I have spent the last few days tinkering with an Android port of Patterna. (It was less work than anticipated.) You can download the APK on the itch.io page.
It has been developed with tablets in mind, not phones, since I suppose that it would be very hard to play it on such small screens.

The game's tutorial and tooltips have not yet been adapted to the input scheme used on Android. Here are the basics of the controls:

you are in either of two modes: Pattern or non-pattern (displayed on the left-hand side of the screen). Depending on the mode, clicking an unknown node will either try to mark it as pattern or non-pattern. Tap any free space on the screen to switch modes.
zooming and panning works as you would expect
clicking nodes with information will cycle through three states: normal, highlighted, and disabled.
to get a tooltip on some element, hold your finger down on that element

I am especially looking for feedback on performance. Please always include what device you are using.

New Version - April 20

sschoener — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:33:44 +0000

Hi there,

here is a smaller update. The main gameplay changes concern the random level generator and the level generation process. Also, the framerate of the game is now limited by default, which will probably reduce the CPU usage by 80%-90% or more, depending on the speed of your CPU.

Game:

fixed some more rounding issues during level generation
improved lower left ingame UI (enabled mipmapping, fixed cogs)
fixed naming of level 6h of the tutorial and 3.3-compact of the 'Borders' sequence
disabled the 'no radius' option, since the levels generated were rather poor
fixed flickering tooltips when hovering to close to a node
fixed that the tooltip for nodes with color information was not formatted properly
opening the menu when the level finished screen is shown now hides that screen
added a banner image to the launcher
improved the distribution of the distances used for radius information
radius 3 nodes now won't spawn on low difficulty levels
the color distribution mode is now automatically set to random for very small levels
the framerate is now limited to 60 FPS (can be set to 30/60/unlimited FPS in the options)
removed the 'prefer pattern nodes' option from the random level generator
changed the way that the random level generator selects which nodes to process next (it is now choosing randomly from pattern and non-pattern nodes alike, in contrast to earlier, where it tried to reveal only non-pattern nodes)

New Version - April 17th

sschoener — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 17:17:48 +0000

Hi,

I managed to put some time into Patterna this weekend. This new version contains many smaller fixes, repairs the editor (I broke that with the last update), and contains a new main menu.
If you have any thoughts on the new menu, I'd love to hear them (especially if you have ideas on how to improve the other menus).

Furthermore, I am interested in whether anyone has ever tried the scoring mode (see settings menu) and who of you is playing randomly generated levels (and whether you have any thoughts on them).

Here's the changelog:
Game:

fixed missing locstring for edge colors in the color configuration menu
the game's executable now has a proper logo
fixed a bug that occurred when both directions of the highlighting overlay were set to 0
fixed inconsistent scaling of node labels
fixed a bug related to the no-radius option for the random level generator
added an option to the random level generator that prevents it from revealing pattern nodes initially
reduced the size of the logo in the main menu slightly
fixed the size of the buttons in the instructions menu
new main menu!
optimized rendering of directed edges
fixed the alternative component highlight toggle; it was set to inverse the mouse buttons
added an option to set edge thickness
added more tooltips to the settings menu
fixed a bug with the level generator that caused unintended color distributions
tooltips and level instructions now display the correct mouse buttons when mouse buttons are inverted
removed unnecessary newlines in tooltips for revealed nodes without information
added a few more levels to the 'Borders' sequence

Editor:

fixed that the grid size slider took up most of the space in the UI
fixed that you could not select nodes
fixed a bug that caused nodes to assume non-grid positions when undoing movement actions
the editor will now ignore node movements that do not move the node (i.e., dragging the node around but dropping it off at its original position)

New Version - April 16th

sschoener — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 14:53:18 +0000

Hi,

I just uploaded a new version. The new version adds some more options to the random level generator and adds some vital features to the editor (among them undo/redo).

For the next version, I'd like make the menus a bit more interesting. I do not have concrete plans for that, but I'll see what I can do about it.

If you have any thoughts, feedback, improvements, questions, or levels you made, make sure to contact me. :)

Here's the change log:

Game:

more performance optimizations
added a version string to the main menu
added options for zoom/scroll sensitivity
added option to disable mouse scrolling
added a wiggling-animation to nodes when the mouse is hovering over them (can be disabled in options menu)
fixed a bug in the random level generator that prevented color information being added to the level
you can now zoom even if you are over a node
small fixes for tutorial
settings toggles now work as intended
fixed texture filtering on some UI and game elements
increased anti-aliasing on higher quality settings
added a plopping sound when an orb is absorbed
added an option to the random level generator to have a structured distribution of colors on the board
added an option to the random level generator to disable radius information
added an option to the random level generator to set min/max radius
added tooltips to most random level generator options
added a warning sound when the random level generator is not set up properly
fixed that you could not scroll while hovering over an UI element with an associated tooltip
the reveal-sounds now bounce back once they reached their highest pitch
removed tutorial level 4b
added names to most of the tutorial levels

Editor:

aborting the solver now finally works as advertised
added the possibility to highlight nodes according to their solvability state
added undo/redo functionality
nodes only can be created in positions that have a minimum distance to the closest other node.

Hotfix

sschoener — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 13:11:13 +0000

Hi,

today's update apparently broke the random level generator. I have already updated the windows builds on itch.io, the Linux/Mac version will have to wait until tonight. Sorry!

New Version - April 10th

sschoener — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 09:50:44 +0000

Hi,

sorry for the long break -- I actually intended to get this version out *last* Sunday, but I was rewriting some of the systems of the game to improve its performance, and that required some more bug fixing than usual. (Additionally, I am not working full time on this.)

For the next version, I am planning to improve some of the level editor's features and improve the performance of text rendering ingame.

Here is the changelog:
Game:

fixed that you could click the game board while the menu is open
toned the background down a notch
fixed blocky artifacts in the star field background
added import/export to color settings
the main menu now has a semi-transparent black background when opened over a running game
the finish game button is now separate from the node counter (see bottom left)
edges now have flat shading and new sprites
added a tooltip to the 'Disable Scoring System' setting in the menu that instructs users not to turn it on unless they are prepared for it
updated all tutorial levels, again
removed high visibility edges
improved performance when revealing many nodes at once
improved performance of highlights and node visualization changes
reduced memory footprint of various procedures
loading now takes significantly less time and memory
node reveal sounds now only play with a certain time delta between them
the settings menu now does not scale immediately when moving the UI scale slider
decreased maximum node label size by one
the Level Finished screen now only displays score data if the scoring system is enabled
the player now earns bonus points for perfect games instead of not getting points for games with mistakes
updated sound and music
you can now move the camera while hovering over UI elements
pattern nodes now rotate
fixed orbs going behind the UI instead of in front of it
fixed orbs occasionally not spawning when a node is revealed
added two sequences of levels created by Jack Lance ('Platonic Patterns' and 'Colorful')
added symbols to the numbers on the bottom left
the camera now tries to fit the game into the part of the screen that is actually visible
Editor:
added buttons to the editor that allow to apply various transformations to the level
the grid in the editor now renders behind edges and nodes
edges now take the correct color in the editor and scale the texture appropriately
in edge mode, you can now hold down Alt to reverse the direction of the edges you are adding to the graph

New Version - April 2nd

sschoener — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 18:59:12 +0000

From now on, I will post an announcement once a new version is released (like today). I have already pushed some updates in the last few days. You can find the complete changelog in the discussions or on the itch.io page.
The changelog for the latest version:

fixed rendering of nodes in the editor
fixed logo
fixed an exception that occurred when a sequence level was finished
fixed tooltip flicker when tooltip is over node
added a note to the tutorial that explains that you can configure the game's colors
added a few tooltips to the settings menu
added an option to switch to an alternative highlighting mode for component information
added the possibility to recolor edges
editor: nodes can only be moved when edge mode is inactive
editor: the solvability checker can now be re-run after abortion
revamped restart / skip level symbols
heavily updated tutorial
the game over screen graph now displays the aggregated data over all the different play modes
exchanged the 'No Colors' option of the random level generator for 'Max. Number of Colors' option
added 'Max. Number of Colors per Node' option to the random levle generator
all scrollbars in the game are now much faster to scroll using the mousewheel (15 times faster!)