The alpha of Xenoparrot Puzzles is finally finished. The game now features: pictures to the story, cross platform input, better UI, 12 meticulously curated puzzles, and updated cloudy atmosphere backgrounds.

How did we get here? Here's how:

First I had the old build of the game. Bad UI, only mobile input, and the cloudy backgrounds were an entirely different art style. I was only working on the input problem at the time. I thought the rest was fine. My goal was to have the alpha finished by the end of February.

Then I got feedback in this video: 

(Timestamp 46:33)

That's when Yän (and others on the stream) mentioned a bunch of issues, experienced several problems, and broke multiple puzzles. So where I thought I only had 50% of the game left to do, it turned out the work I had left was more like 80%. Not good. So I extended my time to the alpha by 2 months.

My first concern was the levels being bad. Most of the levels Yän played could be cheated, and the rest weren't even puzzles. So I deleted the levels that weren't puzzles, and reworked the rest. Then I prototyped about 15 levels, and chose the 12 best of all puzzles to make up the 12 levels of the alpha. And I meticulously made sure every chosen level was of high quality. As a result however there aren't any filler levels, so some may consider the game harder. Haven't done enough playtesting to say for sure.

My second action point was the UI. The UI needed to be more in line with the art style, so I remade it. I replaced text with icons on all buttons. Towards the end I had to add the ability for the player to set the position of their UI on their device, since I couldn't account for all resolutions.

Meanwhile during the whole process I was working on making the game have controls for every platform. In the end my goal is to have Xenoparrot Puzzles on PC, Mac, Android, and Xbox. In whatever way I can. If any version gets enough copies sold, I'll use it to pay to get on more platforms that have a platform fee (like Steam, which costs $100). Also I'll try getting on Switch if I can. Though this game likely won't be able to sell much without any hook or marketing. In any case, all input is supported now.

For a week or so I did work to make better backgrounds. The old skies were less than pleasant visually, so I made a new background system after a few attempts at prototyping ideas. What I settled on were procedurally set up clouds, with manually set colors. It looks good to me, certainly better than what I had before.

After the input update it was imperative that players got a small controls tutorial. So I put one in the Library, directing new players to it. The tutorial will certainly be replaced eventually, but for now it works. I have big plans for a tutorial later.

Last but not least, the game has a title screen now. This replaces the old title in the hub. It will also get some extra work along with the tutorial later. It's not particularly lively for now, and I'm thinking of making it have a prompt for the player to click or press a button before the hub loads.

I also started using my YouTube channel to put up short videos about development on the game. You can see it for yourself here:

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC4OPbUiuEaKOJovhzSeWS5A

After all that Jonas Tyroller put up a post saying he was accepting submissions to play people's games. Naturally I wanted to submit my game too. So I quickly wrapped up the alpha's development (stressing for a couple days on how to fix the problems with the UI). Then I sent the email. I don't know how that'll turn out, probably nothing will come of it. But I'm glad I hit the deadline nonetheless.

Now I'm taking a short break from Xenoparrot Puzzles, before resuming work on the beta. I intend to fully finish the game by the year's end. So expect the game to be released at least by December 31st 2022. Better play it free while you can, you'll have to pay for it then. ;)

Now that you've thoroughly proven that you enjoy reading obscure devlogs about unknown games, you can kindly help me by playing Xenoparrot Puzzles and leaving feedback in the comments. Or, you know, say nothing to me but at least enjoy the game for yourself.

Thanks for reading.