Hey you lovely peeps!

So recently I've picked back up work on TetRogue after a few weeks of minimal development.

Things are still winding up slowly rather than me jumping back in full force and risking total burn out BUT I'm here today with PROGRESS!

Title Screen

First up the game now has a title screen!

The title screen is still a WIP, and already since recording this some changes have taken place which gets me onto...

Progression Redesign!

The original plan was to have a shop, as you clear lines in the game you'd gain coins which you could use in the shop to unlock stuff like the ability to hold shapes and preview upcoming shapes.

I realized this would be kinda unfun. Toying around with it, it just felt like padding to a game I'm hoping will be fun enough that people will wanna play for the fun of playing. The system works in other games (even games I myself made) but in TetRogue it felt off.

That being said I'm open to the idea of implementing the idea later for cosmetic unlocks, I'll consider that when the core game is all done.

So instead of the shop now those unlocks are tied to achievements. For example the ability to hold a shape is unlocked the first time you get a Game Over! The ability to preview shapes comes soon after, but upgrades like the Ghosts are a bit slower to unlock (but not slow enough that you'll feel like you're grinding for them).

So how do you know when you've unlocked something? They're all tied too...

Achievements!

The achievement system is back in the game. This will be connected to how you unlock all new shapes, all upgrades, and all other content in the game. I've spent the last few days implementing the system and finally tadaaa;

I'm also working on reimplementing the Gallery which was in the previous version of TetRogue where you'll be able to see the shapes/blocks you've unlocked as well as credits for the artists who made them (including a clickable icon which will open their web page of choice so you can check them out!).

In that video above though you may have noticed...

Audio!

Yup, audio is finally back in the game. I've learnt about how audio works in Godot a bit more since the last build so now sounds and music are separated out and will have their own dedicated sliders in the Options menu.

Once again I'm using the amazing music of Towball from their "Towball's Crossing" music pack as I feel the chill and cozy music works quite nicely with the visuals of TetRogue and gives a relaxing atmosphere (even if the game gets stressful sometimes!)

And...

That's All For Now!

Not a huge update but I'm happy to be making progress again! TetRogue is probably the second longest I've worked on a project (with Bubble Frog DX and the base Bubble Frog taking up a fair chunk of time) and I'm proud of myself for sticking at it as I know I suffer from major issues with focus and motivation!

Hopefully I'll have more news soon!

-Timbo