Greg to Asher | Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 4:23 PM
Hey this is really fun!

Do you guys wanna go minimalist with it? the rounded corners could be a little more “fun-loving” and whimsical if you wanted, might be a better fit with the attitude you’re going after.

i’d say… you could still go a lot of different angles, but what are your resources? do you have an artist? can you manage the aliased edges on stuff in unity? with the game as it is now, the details matter. the less stuff that’s in the game the more those details will show. So focus on your color scheme, if you go with blocks it might be best to just keep them solid, simple. push the simple if you go for it, resist the urge to add more and stick to your guns, whatever you decide. I do think the game could benefit from an artist, while none of us have the resources that capy does, critter crunch is a good example of where you could take a “grid based” puzzle game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj0LnXFAO7g

shit can get real polished/character driven if you want.

i don’t think characters really make sense for this game, but regardless you could go with something more colorful and etc. and i’m not just talking about “colors”. in general the game feels like it’s in the programmer art phase, but a lot of stuff is in there and it’s just waiting for an artist to come in and swap everything and make it look pretty. if it’s something you wanna try on your own, i’d side with a style that’s sparse. focus a lot of time on just picking the right set of colors, then work out from there, keeping it simple with a focus on the details, like anti aliasing and etc.

Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 6:57 PM
http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes can be a great place to just see a bunch of palettes that have been voted on and such. also dribbble.com and flickr even if you sample from some pretty photos can leave you with a decent color harmony.

is the solo run here paramount or would you be open to working with someone on the visuals? you should definitely take a stab at it if you want but i’m sure you could find someone to knock the style outta the park if you were so inclined.

Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 7:58 PM
i’m busy, but yea i dunno. this seems like it’s up my alley. hmmmm…

Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 11:44 AM
definitely. :) is the current game all done with billboarded sprites? is fixed view 3D a viable option? just testing the waters here.

Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 11:56 AM
ah cool! and the aliased edges are a factor of iOS build settings? also real quick, why “puzzle juice?” i think it’s a good name just fishing for extra meat to hook onto.

Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 6:49 PM
Not [that game]. check! (i think)

but here’s a quick mockup i did. i think the structure is fairly solid, the colors could probably use some tweaking. but the idea is that these cubes are filled with “juice” then when you cash them in, the juice explodes out and reveals the letter inside. that’s not super evident because i’m sort of making it up as i go. but maybe the little chit inside with the letter could be floating in the juice (not showing the letter). anyway, details and not all that important details, but just something to get your mind jogging on what i’m thinking with this guy

Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 12:09 AM
right on, i hear you on all accounts. clarity is king, and we shall make it so! i’ll revisit the mockup and give it another go-round.

funnily enough, i just got done with a long session playing co-op with my girlfriend. i gotta say, man. really fun. sheesh! co-op was especially cool, though we ran into some multi-touch issues that i’m really not sure how anyone would solve, it was still really fun.

i’m guessing you’ve played it co-op as well, yea? also, dug european mode more than “normal” hard mode, but i think that’s because there were two of us so ratcheting up the difficulty made more sense.

interface wise i think that’s the thing that i get most hung up about. without the discrete feedback of buttons i’m always a little skittish about where a block is going to land, if i’m just on the threshold of it moving to the next column or not. the preview is very helpful, but i wonder if there’s more that can be done interface wise to make the blocks feel more solid, also animating into the rotations would help me realize more which way things are rotating intuitively.

i think the design of the game is really brilliant. bombs/freezing, those are all things that felt really rewarding and i salivated for more when in trouble. great tension. really through and through a fun game, just some of those interface quirks that felt more like gotchas rather than user error.

so yea, them’s my two cents, wanted to come on here fresh (just so happens you emailed me right before, nuts!) to give some feedback. i’ll give the mockup another crack tomorrow.

Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 6:50 AM
cool!

i’ve got somethign going mockup wise but it’s a WIP. one thing about that though, i understand having the blocks filled with juice, but if we have them like 98% filled so you can still see it’s a fluid and then don’t rotate them when you “rotate” them, wouldn’t that preserve everything? i know it’s weirder for sure code-wise but i think having them feel like they’ve got juice inside would be super cool.

re: feel. what i mean there is that since it’s about dragging my fat finger around the screen i sometimes let go with a sideways motion (as opposed to perpendicular) or swipe downwards diagonally at the very slightest angle and then i end up slamming a block in the wrong slot. this isn’t the only case, and it’s a minor quibble but it just felt like “aw damn game!” kind of thing.

i don’t really have a solution for sure, but if you look at how the iPhone scrolls between pages of apps. like you can actually scroll all the way to 49% of the screen width and if your finger has 0 to low inertia it will snap back to the page you were coming from. but if your finger has a decent amount of “flick” to it, then you flip right to the next page.

another option might be a dpad? not graphical but maybe just pressing right 50% or left 50% of the screen? you might have tried these things, but i guess i see the word game as a fluid motion working fairly well (wurdle style) and the block positioning part of the game should maybe be more fixed in its positioning.

that’s a random stream of thoughts. i think the feel is 90% there on the block portion, but it definitely becomes more evident at higher levels and especially in co-op, which is a whole other animal, tbh.

ok, i’m gonna poke more at this mockup, i’m excited to show you. don’t expect anything wildly different, but i’m trying to address the clarity issues while finding a cohesive design.

Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 3:35 PM
cool, yea i mean we could just have a set animation for when you slam or they simply come to rest. i agree that the way to do it is touch, it’s intuitive and that’s the best starting point. anyway, that can come later there are probably bigger fish to fry. here’s another stab at a mockup. this one had a fe more birthing pains and i ended up going simpler even. i’ve tried 4-5 different orientations/looks for the cubes and while one looks good on its own, then it would look weird combined into a whole piece and so on.

things can be tweaked here, i can foresee a gripe about the contrast on the letters and the shadows interfering too much but i do feel it’s a cool juxtaposition to have the letters fall flat as cards and have the cubes give off depth with shadows. that animation of the cubes falling into cards would be super cool feeling too. i think.

again, the radballs thing could be done easily on my end in a baked animation. if you wanted to roll something dynamic out that’d be… rad, but i’m not sure it’s necessary since the only time stuff like that would be noticed would be when the piece was either set or slammed. the other animation that’ll be important is the changing from a juice filled block to a text card. bombs, drills and etc. should be a little more straightforward.

Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 3:35 PM
also, are you submitting to the IGF?

Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 7:09 PM
:) of course. i love the game! it’s all for the love of da game. thanks for thinking of me. i’m having a ball with these.

so i hear your concern on the bg flash stuff. i’ve attached a few quick tests. i don’t think it should be much of an issue with some more refinement. right now there are some issues with simply changing the bg to white but i don’t think it looks bad. one reason is that the cubes are 70% transparent.

also, i’ve addressed the other issues you were talking about (at least most of them i think). the “stripe” was actually the top of the cube, since it’s transparent. so you’re looking “through” the cube. regardless of explanation it didn’t work and getting rid of it helps things immensely.

falling block shift = total accident. nice eye!

i hear you about the shape of the cards, i’ve added arrows on the corners (most evident on orange diaganol donkeying) (i’ve given up spelling diagnol correctly.)

diganole stripes are now colored, looking cool. :)

i think the blocks are getting there. it’s a sleek piece of sex and looking good imo. i think the slight transparency definitely works in favor here (see the left block with teh cyan against teh green) and pushes the depth even more.

the HUD below is a 1st draft but the idea is that it’s indented. like a bunker or something. differentiating it from the game world a bit more, also giving more meaning to the colored bg below it. frankly i think it looks better clean without, and echoes more of the minimalist feel that teh blocks are headed towards. this bunker bg was done in an effort to make text readable without having to be outlined (since bg color changes on flash). still a wip on that front for sure.

as far as how this is all working: Brilliantly! the feedback is extremely great, to the point and addresses things that i would be most concerned with as a designer as well. i’ve been a man of few words in reply but sometimes writing a reply instead of just going in and making the changes that make sense seems to stagnate my excitement for the revisions (also why i waited until i had this round finish to show to you).

no but i love working on this, probably my favorite project right now it being the honeymoon and all, but regardless of honeyed moons, the work is exactly the kind of stuff i love working on. so yea.

as far as other projects, i’m… insane? i think i’ll be a part of 6 submissions this year including puzzle juice. none of which i can see the end of currently. the 6th is a personal project that i’m not really sure i’ll submit even, but it’s one of those things that’ll be out early next year anyway once things start to get shipped, but right now my plate is full with like 3 other full plates. whatever.

don’t worry though, i like it this way and definitely keep the com line open and buzzing often, it’s best that way.

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 2:19 AM
fooled a bunch with the letters, but came back to the same sort of ballpark, refined though with one-wayers. tired, more later. :)

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 1:22 PM
:-/ well what about IGF proper?

haven’t tried the all white just yet, but i htink it’ll look good, and just have the orange reserved for when they are active.

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 3:26 PM
nioce. here’s a simplified version, i think it’s a lot better.

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 9:40 PM
sure no problem! rev split sounds great, and was what i was anticipating in a collab like this.

sooooo… i’m no stranger to this kind of thing, i work with a bunch of people on a bunch of different projects. with mikengreg stuff and other projects where i’m in on the ground floor we go 50/50 as equal partners usually sharing design stuff and other various burdens of setting out without any assurances. other stuff where i’m getting in after the game is a proven fun thing is between 20-30%. Something to consider as well is music. If you want original stuff and need to do a rev share thing around 10% is usually a good rate to offer.

That’s really the only two situations I’ve been in, other than contact for-hire work. let me know your thoughts, we should get things ironed out, whatever you comfortable with. :)

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 10:53 PM
Yea i hear ya, i’m cool with that cut as long as I’m a little more hands-off implementation-wise. is that cool?

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 11:07 PM
woop woop! sweet. :)

Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 11:38 PM

so this juice puddle thing is super bad and you have to keep reloading the swf due to the stops in there but gives you an idea of some of the word chain stuff.

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:32 AM
haha cool. yea i see what you’re saying, i’ll give the letters on top of the blocks a quick whirl. i was fiddling with a game icon, came up with this. i can get you a different res too if need be, it’s just usually the 72×72 version will get ya by until submission.

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:48 AM
for sure! definitely better.

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 5:51 PM
here’s a post game screen (the one i sent you earlier) mockup. the buttons aren’t there yet.

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 5:52 PM
also that copy text was too dark/thick, so i took that down a bit just now.

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 7:01 PM
cool, this is iPhone4 res, i just opened that image on mine and it’s legible and stuff due to retina but yea, buttons and things are generally too small. i’ll change this one to 1024×768 res and then work on a more useful 960×640 version and then we can downsample for non-retina displays?

Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 AM
NEVER!

;) yes let’s do it. i’m excited to see stuff in game. what format do you want stuff? right now it’s all in illustrator. i’ve attached a zip with the font (DIN Black, included in the suitcase file), AI file and the latest mockup image (gameplay) but if you want stuff in a different format, just let me know. some initial questions that come to my mind:

how do you wanna do shadows?

you were talking about the letters being blocks as opposed to cards, should we hold off until we’re happy with those?

the numbers are in a font called “Numbers – Redbird” and they’re from H&FJ which is a really expensive font. I’ve never used a font in a game because I’m scared of the expense since they be… expensive to license. if you use DIN Light Alternate for the numbers I think that’ll be an ok replacement.

Make sure to install the font before opening the AI file, or you will have to replace it with somethign and shit will look all weirdbad.

Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:46 AM
sweet! me too. i attached a version without the cards, treating letters like cubes. i think the shadows lost something with removing the multiple depths so i added a slight texture in the bg to make the trasnparency of the shadows/cubes more evident. also, the latest version of these assets is in the dropbox now.

i’ll get those other vfx things done next. i have freezing and bombs and other stuff on the list as well.

Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 8:45 PM
here’s a little freezing + drillers stuff

Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 8:56 PM
also, a quick +15 thing for the blocks. i’m getting fuzzy on the VFX. gonna switch to the menus and stuff.

Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 9:00 PM
forgot attacherrrr

Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 10:30 PM
new menu buttons for iPhone friendliness

Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 10:03 PM
here’s an idea for a particle effect for when blocks turn to words (clock shown but that’s just me being lazy). there are like 4 or 5 particle images in there and they should look much better once they are in the emitter proper. also a quick look at the dashed line over the whole object. i had that initially but wasn’t sure how important it was if it was obscured or not.

also, attached a few examples of modifications to the drills. when this version is shorted it loses a bit of its drill-ness, and i’m not sure it looks great when it looks like it’s inside the “jello mold”. i still dig the original the most, it feels the most violent and drill-like, but i do understand your gripe with the height of it.

Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 12:04 AM
also, did i ask about when you would be planning on release? have any rough targets in mind? the game feels fairly close minus art/music and some polish.

Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 12:42 AM
ok, and this too.

Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:32 PM
ok cool, january should be an interesting month for me! it seems everything is coming to a head in that month release-wise. no worries though, there shouldn’t be too much crunch overlap as i feel like things are shaping up with this guy anyhow.

re: black to bold. i gotta say. i don’t like DIN Bold much on the blocks. the black really fills things out on the block but maybe the renderer in unity and whatnot is different from illustrator so i’ll defer to what it looks like in the game once that’s implemented.

here’s a couple reworkings of the logo. i didn’t know that you wanted puzzlejuice as one word, so yea, that’s a definite concern. i dont think either of these are a solution, i’m continuing on and will see what else i can come up with. i do like the idea of the jumbled logo, but you know, not a great standalone logo by any means.

re: powerups and IAPs, i’m all for it. i think this case makes total sense. so it seems that we need a bit of a powerup “storefront” mocked up. this can explain the powerup, what it takes to unlock it, a sort of pokedex, and then a button to purchase if not unlocked. yea?

Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:50 PM
a more l->r t->b readable orientation..

and a droplet for good measure! let me know if that powerup screen is along the lines of what you were thinking and i can start laying it out.

Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 4:13 PM
pu zu zle juice (puh-zoo-zel juice) makes me laugh.

cool on all fronts! i’ll try that stacking thing and a few others for logo stuff. thanks for the powerup list, not knowing half of them makes me feel like a real noob now. ;) and i’ll do some sketching on the powerup browser/storefront/equip screen as well.

Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 10:08 PM
:PPPP

Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 10:56 PM
alright, so a lot of this is still placeholder (icons) and maybe the buy now button) i dunno. maybe it should have the price on it or something. some of that depends on how the IAP is handled from the button click. but the idea here is that the raised (block looking) powerups are available to you while the non-raised ones are yet to be unlocked. you can stil browse all of them, check out their descriptions and whatnot and then obviously purchase them.

Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 11:27 AM
heyo, no worries. i did see zach’s spelltower, i dont think its as fun as pj. so yea, im not too worried about it personally. i think pj is way more engaging

Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 10:18 AM
haha thanks! its gonna be a blast i think. dling the new hotness now. :)

Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 12:05 PM
ah alright, no worries.

Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 3:42 PM
so i’ve had a little more time to sit down with the new version, especially on iphone. i know things are very much in flux but i was just curious on one thing as far as variation between iPad and iPhone. i noticed the grid is kinda cut off (not nice margins like on iPad) on iPhone, should i be targeting the iPad res (1024×768) instead of the iPhone or is my original grid too small for the iphone so you’re widening it?

just checkin’ if it’s too soon and things are all a WIP then disregard completely. :) i’m just worried that this core change might be harder to reverse as things build on top of that grid.

Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 6:27 PM
ok great, understood. i will focus on that res for sure. i think for the iphone version i can design something that makes the blocks even
bigger than they are now without losing block previews and the like

Sent from my iPhone

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 12:38 AM
cool, i expanded the dot grid on this mockup, also had an idea for maybe a title screen. you slam down the “P” and then it spells something and puts you into the main menu for all teh game options?

personally, the expanded dot grid bugs me, it feels crowded and.. :-/ it might be better if the furthest dots were just disappeared and the cubes were evenly sized based on the width of the iPhone. so that’d be… 64px wide? yea. i prefer having some breathing room on the margin but i understand the premium on real-estate here for sure. i find myself thirsty for it when i’m playing on my iPhone…

also, i noticed you’ve been struggling a bit with the colors, that’s probably my fault, at least partially. color profiles and the way certain images export or copy->paste into Ps can be problematic and inconsistent. i’m not sure what your pipeline looks like but if colors can be fudged with across the board or even just changed in images, then i can go in for a second pass to make sure everything is balanced properly. since there are so few elements anyhow, it shouldn’t be a terrible thing. might be good to do before we go in adding new things like particley explosions and other visual elements so we can start with a good solid base (color and art wise) and then build on that.

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 1:25 PM
great! love the puzzle juice idea and spelling it! :) :) :)

i fixed the hash drift? what’s dis “hash drift” you speak of?

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 1:42 PM
ahhh, must have missed that. hmm, yea i think i remember there was a problem with their alignment but i fixed that awhile ago just on my own local file. also… is there a reason everything is 2xed in that .psd? blocks that on the mockup are 50px X 50px are 100×100 on the .psd. that’s cool and everything but just trying to get a read on how this is being used and so on.

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 2:16 PM
ok cool. :) here’s the color corrected psd. it’s not as in your face bright but it’s 1:1 accurate with what i had in the .ai file. (assuming no color profile magic happens along the way).

also, here’s a three stage mockup of what the opening screen might be like. with your ideas and etc. the dots might fly away when you spell “puzzle juice” or something like that? and yea, the main menu screen is TBDesigned so i’ll work on that next. i gotta say, i really love this way of opening the game. it’s just badass and i love teaching the player this way.

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 3:34 PM
ah ok, switching to full 100% alpha mode! :) alpha is 70% in engine then.

Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:07 PM
hmmm, yea i mean i understand what you mean. it’s more candy like with the brightness. i have a new idea for menus in general, based on your “spell puzzlejuice in a straight line” idea.

on the colors, i think we can go up to 100% opacity if you want, i’m fine with that, that’d definitely make things candy-like and it’s just a few tweaks in unity right?

Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 2:14 PM
here’s a little post game mockup with that same kind of “swipe the word” convention.

Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 2:41 PM
damn, i was hoping to take #100. i guess i get #101 and start a new thread! weeeeeee

ok, so yea i hear ya, the score should be bigger, i figure this game over screen is still a bit in limbo. it’s not hitting it like the title->mainmenu swipe sexiness. it’s closer but it’s not doing it just yet i don’t think. if you want, go ahead and make ‘er bigger and small-enize the other two scores.

as far as concerns about style and whatnot, i’d say for the time being if it’s faster for you, you should just do it without getting the go-ahead. we can always change it later if it’s not working or there are issues. if it’s a decision that you need to make that will change the fundamental structure and make things harder to change or tweak later, then yea that’s probably something we should work out together and pick a direction.

i’m very much a “do it now, fix it later” kind of developer, so don’t worry about offending my sensibilities. :) (i think that’s addressing your concerns, though let me know if i missed the mark since we’re talking in generalities).

Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 5:32 PM
cool. put ‘er in a .png in the dropbox for ya. let me know if you need something more comprehensive. i also just uploaded the latest massive .ai if you want to poke through that for misc. stuff. it’s a mess though so don’t hesitate to ask for specific stuff.

Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 2:46 PM
ah nice. :)

yea “ZEN MODE EXTREME” is a special kind of paradox. woulda really set the tone off right. perhaps there’s a different way to push that. with another set of “terms”.

is there anything that you’re waiting on from me? anything inhibiting progress or what’s next? if there’s a list of stuff you want me to knock out or some things you’d like to see mocked up more than others, let me know. i’m ready for round 3.

Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 5:04 PM
allllllllllllllllllllright. i’m back. :)

ridic fishing crunch was crunchy so i needed to be away for a bit. i’m back now though. so hmmm… let me catch up here.

re: menus >> alright cool, thanks for the zip. i’ve noticed that the menus aren’t in a standard res. is that because they are being cutoff or is there some reason for that? 960×640 is what i’m working with as a base. i’d like to get a read on what you’re thinking as far as taking the swipe the word to transition to other parts of the menu system. i’d like that to permeate all menu screens.

i guess right now i’m thinking there are some things i’d like to change about the visual details. now that the blocks are 100% i think the colors are clashing/vibrating so i went with this (attached). i think it still allows for enough differentiation and looks much better. Beyond that there’s a good bit more but i want to make sure that you are ready for that phase. it seems like right now the grid that the blocks are on, the size of the blocks and etc. will determine a lot as far as the menus themselves are concerned. so while it might feel a bit like premature polish, i think we should nail down a grid/blocksize and grid orientation that will flow throughout the whole game that we can build the rest of the game menus on top of. it will make both of our lives a lot easier if we sort of polish that vertical slice of the game.

right now, as far as the grid is concerned, it’s a bit awkward. aesthetically i’d much prefer my original grid, with a hefty margin, however i definitely realize the need to maximize real-estate. I’m going to try and work within those constraints some more and we should probably try and work as closely as possible to get something that we’re both happy with.

basically, i’m looking to get the pipeline as a sort of 1:1 thing, where we’re both aware of the exact measurements of things so the details are exposed so we can finalize the base grid, colors and visual rules and move forward using those to build things out. for instance, right now there is a hay-pixel gap between all block rows. I’m not sure what the case is there, but it’s one of the things we should try and figure out. that way, if i cook up a 960×640 mockup it’s with actual pixels that will be used in the game.

finally, this might not be what you were planning, and that’s fine as well. if you’d like me to take more of a direction/consultation roll in this then i understand that, but i strongly suggest that we focus down on the details to make this game special. it matters. apple has taste when it comes to the visuals and they aren’t going to feature something that doesn’t look crisp/professional/polished. we don’t have a lot of ammo to throw at the player so the way we make it look professional is with carefully crafted details.

alright,
so yea, i definitely think showing apple a build would be great. My contact is more of a development contact so she’s actually most interested in alpha/beta builds to talk about new features apple is pushing and so on. it’s a good idea for sure to keep up the dialog as that means we will be in her mind in the months leading up to release. hopefully you can build a direct contact with her about puzzlejuice and keep that up post-puzzlejuice. The hope is that when it comes time to release she can pass the word onto someone that has the power to offer puzzlejuice up as a potential feature.

in general the game is really shaping up and coming together. i can’t wait to keep pushing and making this puppy sing. :)

Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 5:12 PM
here’s her info to get her setup on testflight: [REDACTED]

Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:31 PM
here’s a 55px grid (actually has 14 rows, just fixed that in the ai file). but yea, there are smaller blocks here but i think it just feels really cramped at 60px blocksize. plus more room for UI and stuff like that…

Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 9:31 PM
ok cool. you make a good case and i can’t argue with it. 60px blocks it is! :) definitely no hard feelings or anything, i will work within the constraints to make it the best possible that it can be.

i see what you mean about the beige/blue, i will shift things around. i imagine it’ll take some tinkering to get it right.

i appreciate your fervor and pushing for function over form, and i feel the same way, i don’t have near as much knowledge about the pitfalls of the design and where we need to put all our chips, so yea, i will default to you. just know that i’m pushing for certain things in an effort to make the game look the best it can, but ultimately gameplay should be above all else. you’ll get no more friction from me if that’s on the line. :)

finally, don’t worry at all about taking new screenshots. they are just fine how they are, i was just curious about why they were like that due to some of the discrepancies you brought up about unity not being a 1:1 thing. i was searching around earlier and this is all probably all old-news and under the bridge for you but in the off chance it isn’t: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/82265-Pixel-Perfect-and-Clean-Textures. I’m not sure that applies as you are using 3D cubes for the blocks, yea? regardless, i’m sure we can come to some kind of happy medium and work through it no problem.

Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 11:03 PM
here’s a 60px grid, i think it’s working. :) pretty happy with this…

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 1:10 AM
:)

yea she be din. i pushed the fonts bigger, i think it works better for sure. i still attest that DIN black is the way to go. :) i also tweaked the colors here on my brightest setting of my monitor, i think there’s more contrast now between all the colors.

i understand wanting to see the score all the time but i worry having the HUD go over the blocks would look weird, i could try and design within that idea though. sounds like the word could go at the top too, i will take another stab at that whole HUD-at-the-top thing next round. :)

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 3:56 PM
here’s lookin at the word at the top and the HUD actually going under the blocks… perhaps it could go over the top while you’re spelling a word? i think making it context based is a good route for sure.

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 5:51 PM
yea definitely, sounds good. here’s a bunch more mockups to give you an idea of where we could take the menu system…

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 7:44 PM
here’s another option for the objectives, changed after working on the pause/post-game menus. attached as well.

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:12 PM
ok, gonna call it a night, wait for your feedback on these new guys. :)

Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 4:32 PM
ok cool, i agree that i’m not sold either. it’s forced and is looking really clunky. the title screen works as is, but we can and should simplify the buttons, they should not be taking up 50% of the screen space. i will refocus and look at some new button and menu conventions.

as for the type size, i’m working with a retina display for testing (iPhone4) so it’s definitely different. I will pump things up a bit, but i think that it might be more a factor of clutter and oversized swipey-buttons than the type size itself. if we can find a convention that works for us then type size and such can be a refinement issue after we’re satisfied with the general layou/system of the menus

Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 4:47 PM
no for sure, they are appreciated and well reasoned and also very helpful. so don’t worry at all about that.

Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 7:04 PM
what about if each one you swiped on the screen made for different juice splatters. so this is from core (because it’s got a blue gem) and so on for the title screen. so you explode a huge series of blocks and so on and then the blue juice rains down and makes for the bg of that menu for the most part. or it could not even be specific but menus would be covered in juice or something? i dunno…

Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 1:34 AM
random idea. it might be cool to keep this 125 (and counting) email thread as our only form of contact. if we can somehow manage to keep contact to this very space, then we can like… publish this as a process thing. like this is the entirety of every communication that we’ve had, includes screenshots and so on. i could put it into some kind of form with attachments to make it more readable and nice etc. think about it. in the future-now people are reading this and being like, wow. i’m reading the email about the thing i’m reading about about the game i played earlier and he’s writing things about me reading this very thing. what makes me, me? what is consciousness? what is is? o_O—————-_____

Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 1:56 AM
haha cool.

we will cross ‘er when we come to it. so yea, i went ahead and tried like six versions of things for the menu system tonight aaaaand i’m kinda back where i started, though in a good way. and in a different way. so here’s what i got so far, i’m still working cuz i’m kind of on a roll here…

Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 1:34 AM
:) cool! so i’ve worked more and have replaced the zip you gave me with this system. they should all be there, as well as the transition screen and the game mockup. :)

i think next is probably actually doing the powerup icons and exploring that whole deal.

Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 7:31 PM
yea i think that’s a really good idea. the score definitely seems to be a bit more cryptic than it probably should be. the multipliers are cool though, it gives me a sense of urgency for sure.

glad you’re digging the new system :) i wil continue to hone it as time allows but you probably won’t see a lot of me next week, unless prompted. looking forward to see those new guys in there. :) for some reason gmail is hanging like a mofo, so i’ll keep this short.

Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:33 PM
i think it would work similar to the metal sliding door hatch thongy that you have inthere now.

i will get you the file when i get home, clean it up too.

ps thanks! glad tou are digging it. i kinda felt like i touched on te solution with this iteration so it was a lot more fun to work on as well. :)

Sent from my iPhone

Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 6:46 PM
ok, she’s in the dbox now, all organized and whatnot. let me know if something doesn’t make sense.

just a headsup on these, too. i don’t consider them 100% final, like i might change some of the details like type size, tweak the colors or make the win screen more celebratory feeling, but in general i think the structure is sound.

Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 4:15 PM
one thing. you’ve got 1/25 as the release date and usually it’s a good idea to set releases for thursday (mignight + 1m) since that’s when apple rolls out its weekly change to the features. so technically 1/26 might be good? i dunno if [apple] is just assuming you are setting up for a thursday feature or what-have-you.

wednesday might be a good strategy as well, to give some time to get the buzz-machine rolling. just a headsup in case you weren’t aware. :)

Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 4:20 PM
also, sound/music. if you need some recommendations, i have some that i could throw your way.

Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 1:32 AM
hmm, i’m still getting the crash, though i do see the sexy new splash screen. i threw in a new icon-72.png in the dbox with the updated colors and whatnot. it’s not final, needs tuning but it’s a thing… :)

Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 3:02 AM
yea i hear you on the icon i am gonna give it an honest go soon. i dunno, i deleted the profiles, there were a handful, and i get the same result. on iPad. :/

Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 2:35 PM
hmmm, still having trouble with the latest build. i tried deleting my profiles, for some reason there were like 5 this time… and reinstall fresh, but still the same problem… :(

Sent from my iPhone

Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:22 AM
- New Multiplier Bar
-> really good idea.

- New Dictionary
-> didn’t fully test. got to aardvark and stopped.

- New Easy Mode
-> easy mode? is that why there were three-long rows and other three-pieces?

- New Tutorial
-> cool. personally, i hate tutorials. but i understand that they can
be a necessary evil at times. i think it’s a bit excessive, but i’m
not so sure you should listen to me there. i would probably throw the
person in a game and hope they poke at it and do some light context
stuff they could turn off with a dialog box. maybe we could offer
people the option to skip the tutorial? i know that can be a bad idea
sometimes as well. regardless, as far as stop-n-tell-em tutorials go,
it’s a thorough one that makes good use of the actual game to
visualize the rules. i don’t think we’ll have many players who won’t
get it after playing through the tutorial. maybe they won’t pick up on
the nuances of the punishment for 3 letter words though (i know i
didn’t), but that’s probably because i skipped through all the text as
fast as possible. :( that’s just me. take me as i am.

i did see the “short word” thing come up, but i didn’t necessarily
count it as a negative. maybe that’s because i know short words can be
the lifeblood of my multiplier? i’m definitely not a fresh kleenex
here. also, i noticed the chime is a bit different, what if it were
even more… flacid. not necessarily a tuba “ruh-roh” or anything but
something less celebratory than what’s currently in there.

- New punishment for 3 letter words
again, is the punishment that it’s just the text displaying? or is
there a real gameplay effect going on now? is the three letter thing
becoming all people do and so you’re trying to taper that off now? i
heard you tweet about how it’s disrupting the core mechanic or pushing
one kind of strategy (that is imba?) but i’m not a puzzlejuice
grandmaster… yet.

in general:
i love the new thumb-under display. super rad. i can design something
sexy for that. and the multiplier timer is super awesome great fun
times 1000. as i was playing i was thinking “this pup is really coming
together”. so fuck yea!

ps. i know it’s not set in stone but i’m gonna strongly urge we shoot
for a thursday release. thought it might not be our only shot at
getting featured, i think it gives us the best chance, from everything
i’ve heard and gone through with apple and other devs that have as
well. if we release 12:01AM Thursdays, then we get launch buzz (we
could probably get touch and a few others to boost us on launch so
that when the afternoon rolls around our sales are looking decent to
them, since launch tends to be the highest day of sales).

Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:21 PM
yea, i noticed the black gems initially, but i didn’t know why. i
still didn’t until you just told me. so i guess that’s the disconnect
right there. i thought that maybe the black gems were powerups that i
didn’t make icons for maybe or something. i have a unique perspective
since i’ve been developing and so on, but i’m not sure a fresh player
would have noticed that.

i’m all for just doing it in euro, i found it to be pretty damn hard.

Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 1:55 AM
alright, got a few things done

icon-72 in dbox in new, better proportioned, more pixel-perfect (deleted old 512 version)
new folder in /screentests called tutorials with a bunch of tutorial images
new 60px[...].ai file is updated with corresponding tutorial screens
also, threw those same screens in the .psd (now called [...]PostGreg.psd just cause that’s how i tested it initially
let me know what you think of the powerup icons (and the powersup being black gems instead of gray). i think that’s about it. #20 tutorial probably bucks tradition most because i had to use a white bg to let the dark gems stand out, but we could do something with the gray gems (untouched) and use the white/rounded corner arrow convention for that as well. as it stands it’s just kinda acting like you’ve touched it.

at some point in teh near future, i want to make a pass at the fx and secondary stuff like “short word” and “LEVEL UP” and so on. if you have a list of that stuff, and images to go with would be even better, even if it was just the raw asset in an image in a folder, i would recognize where it was supposed to go in the game and could swap something in.

Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 2:45 AM
here’s a few quick FX typography things (levelup, multi, shortword) not much different but just polished up. i’m all hands on deck for getting things done by the 7th.

i had a handful of people play it over the holidays, the iPad version definitely stuck with everyone who touched it (with me being silent) so that’s very good i think, but the iPhone version didn’t as much I don’t think. what are your thoughts on making it a bit easier, or offering up a third mode? like no black blocks and three-letter words busting up blocks around it. i found that a lot of people that played it enjoyed their first playthrough a lot more if they could bust up some blocks fairly easily. bombs were good for that when they got them, but in general, clearing the board gives that sense of control to the player, like cleaning up the cutting board for the next piece of meat to cut up. if players got to that point they were like “whoa, i want to play that more, please!” but if they didn’t, then it was sort of a “ah, cool (being nice)” and passed it over for the tv remote.

also, i did fiddle with the colors (yellow) and i will continue to. i understand your point about the white/yellow clash, it’s valid. also, i’ll try and get something together tomorrow night for the inert block.

hope your guatemalan respite was as badass as i’m imagining. :)

Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 1:29 AM
here’s the multi bar, a couple inert block ideas, a group burst and a color shift. i know it’s not the r/g/b but i just couldn’t get that to work, played around with a ton of different options but i think this new yellow and new colors in general are bolder and shouldn’t contrast weirdly with the light colored letter blocks.

Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 9:11 PM
awesome! i would have done the same exact thing. in the end it’s more productive to completely shut off from everything and come back fighting twice as hard anyway.

particles: yea they could be white/gray for the letter juice. basically, they just get colored based on the color of the block. i think it’s a good default, then if we have time i might propose something more specific for the letters.

colors: alright, i understand, attached a guy. just keep in mind though, the venn diagram of Colors That Look Good Together that overlap: saturated colors, fruity/tasty candy hues, three hues that are different enough to be quickly separated at a glance, and three colors that don’t vibrate when set next to each other, are very very slim. i know the green in this attached ss is gonna feel faded, but if i sap a bit of blue out of it and move it closer to 0x00FF00 then my art brain pukes a little. i’m keeping everything you are saying in mind but i just want to make sure the end result has harmony and meets my criteria as well. i think this yellow has enough saturation to feel edible, but also differentiate itself from the white of the letter blocks.

modes: sounds good, i understand the balancing act for the difficulties. it’s not a simple dance. i don’t think you should feel like you’ve been defeated, a pop-up is perfectly natural with a game of this pace, maybe even welcomed.

play sessions: now that you say that, it might have been that the difference was mostly due to iPad being co-op and iPhone being solo. perhaps it was mostly the co-op, nonetheless, certainly not a scientific test… regardless, i still think that co-op or not, it was the clearing of a line with a bomb or some large word that gave players the most satisfaction for continuing to play, once they did that, it felt like the hook was set much deeper than it was before.

Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 10:44 PM
cool! yea all your concerns/metrics were perfectly valid, no worries. also, i’m keen to hit the ground running on whatever you’ve got for me to do. i’ve got that FX list that i’ll knock out tonight hopefully. anything else, even minor stuff, let me know. the 7th will be here soon and i’d love to wrap it up by then, it’d feel awesome. i haven’t released a game since solipskier so… blue balls.

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 3:04 PM
hmm, well the text seems to be a bit larger than what i have in the mockup. i’m not sure how to normalize the scale here. the details are really important. this is sort of mockup v. mockup and it’s clear to me that the black weight fills out the blocks much better and is consistent with the chunky feel of everything.

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 5:01 PM
do i just need to give you an updated .ai?

any of these strike your fancy?

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 6:06 PM
yea, i’d want it to be a sweeping change. ok the .ai has been updated. get at dem colors! :)

interstate is pretty cool looking, pretty similar to DIN but probably a bit wider on the whole since it’s a little less condensed. i’m pretty firmly against any malformation of the letters, so yea, you were right about my bleeding brain. :P

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 7:41 PM
yea it concerns me too, i just went in and looked at a few menus with it and they’d need to be tweaked at the very least, but really should be redesigned, at least to some extent with Interstate in there… sooo maybe just DIN?

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 8:46 PM
if we used something wildly different, like lubalin or something like that then yea i could see that. but interstate and DIN are super close, they are both fairly bold sans-serif faces and the difference doesn’t look intentional enough. i think DIN is really legible/readable, just as much as most other sans-serif fonts. i can read it at like 25% size no problem and the face itself is really clear and concise. i don’t want design-by-committee working against us, these details are important and they all feed into the game looking professional. when Apple takes a look at it they will notice those details all at once and get the feeling that this looks like a solidly produced game (and is) and will hopefully promote it.

honestly, i think lubalin looks pretty cool, or governor has a neat personality to it that would be a bit lighter/happier. but those fonts are more for display and they don’t work on the blocks as well readability/legibility wise, i picked DIN for its clarity and tight forms so it’d be as big as possible on the block since we need to give it room to breathe within the block.

buuuut, i do like the look of interstate on the blocks, and the numbers looks nice, but in the menus it’s a whole different story. since the text is more conventionally displayed in there and i designed the menus text-first. here’s interstate on the blocks with a specialized numbers font for the HUD stats and the pause menu comparison between DIN and interstate. it’s clear that DIN is more economical spatially and allows for a larger typesize in smaller spaces. it’s not crazy different, but it definitely feels off.

Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 9:20 PM
no worries :) fwiw, if you want to go with DIN bold for the letter blocks and DIN black for everything else, that’s fine. probably our best option at this point.

Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 9:11 PM
cool, i took that into account, here’s what i got. also changed up the colors to reflect the new changes. updated the AI too, with this new game over screen. i can go through the rest of the menu stuff and switch over the colors as well, if that’s helpful. let me know, it’s not a huge amount of work but it is sort of monotonous.

Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 10:23 PM
yea centered, must have nudged it left a bit

Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 11:23 PM
ok let me know what you think of these, i threw them in and updated the ai as well :)

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 12:21 PM
i was planning on animating them. would a sprite sheet suffice?

is the freeze effect itself ok? i remember i mocked it up like that awhile ago but have forgotten what we decided.

re: slammer. totally agree. was pretty wiped and threw that in while crashing. i’ll go back in and cook up something much better (same with the tornado, not too happy with that one).

sweet! ok, also. a website? i figure i should make one, yea? just something simple and attractive with a spot for a demo video, big link button to app store, some screenshots, a short description, price and perhaps spots for reviews once they roll in. maybe we could shop for some of those while we’re waiting for the game to be approved. if you have a domain purchased already, maybe you could throw me the ftp details eventually, meanwhile I throw together a single-page mockup and we finalize it there then i build it out on your space. let me know. since it seems like i’m on piecemeal duty, i could get the whole site done, even before the 7th and we can chug coronas on the beach.

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:02 PM
ok sweet. the drill is… well i’m pretty fucking happy with it! here’s the animation test in a swf. :)

here’s a shot of maybe doing the multiplier bar in blue so it stands out more against the black. i was looking at the colors of the text of the hud and i thought “this is kinda drab”, since they were informed from the secondary shades on the blocks. so i used the colors from the powerups and recolored the numbers on the hud and i think it pops a lot more, plus it sort of makes the powerups tied to the score or the “good stuff”.

i’ma go see about a website… http://poc.ramp.com/thumbnails/cached_media/0005/0005535/0005535776/images/thumb.jpg

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:37 PM
sweet! yea it’s in the AI, on the top few layers (powerups and i modified New Colors layer as well) let me know if you need stuff cleaned up, it’s not as orderly as normal since i’m just kinda working directly in that AI nowadays.

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 4:35 PM
wow, looks awesome! man, just about every menu is in there. !!! you’ve been busy. i’ma keep on with the wwebsite, let me know if you want an audit or something, i’m full-on yours until the 7th, so use me and abuse me.

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 5:14 PM
yea, i’ll do an audit here.

here’s the site design, i think it’s pretty solid. i’m pretty sure vimeo can handle custom dimensions on a video like this, not sure what you were planning but if it would be a quick (look and tap on the phone) demo, that would work pretty well i think. still needs a spot for quotes if you want them, but that’ll just go below just like the screenshot section with another buy button. just need to extend the canvas there.

Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 7:37 PM
ok, here’s the longer version, a little more updated on the bottom and yea, think it looks pretty good. :)

and here’s the audit, in text form with hexes and whatever else you need. try to do it chronological, starting with the tutorials. also, not gonna pull any punches so i’ll try to prioritize each screen with what’s maybe the lowest hanging fruit at the top of the list and so on…

actually, i just put everything in a txt doc. colors though i’m gonna reserve for this email. it seems that the tutorial is pretty good as far as highlighted words and various line stuffs.

green = C0E673
cyan = 73D3E6
magenta = FF3389
violet = B32491
faded yellow = FFFFB3

that is pretty much what makes up all the colors for the powerups and that’s what we’ll use for the HUD/Menus and so on. using the block colors just comes out muddy against the bright white text.

most of the txt file deals with specific positioning and other stuff. i figure it’s easier to just kind of talk generally about color changes than it is to specifically point out each one piece by piece.

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 12:56 AM
haha! nice, . fake reviews are the best reviews. :)
if the squish is easy enough then let’s do that for now if you want to try it out. what i was thinking was something like what i’ve attached (just unpressed/pressed states).

I hear you on the video, here’s the page with the video bigger. at 100% it’s pretty commanding and everything is still above the fold, at least all the important parts (video, title, description and buy-it-button). put a bg behind the text, not exactly “button” but they do stand out a lot more as links. if you’re still worried, i can up the size by 100% and then i think they will be unmistakeable, but they are kind of footer material so i try to make them more texture then “hey look over here”.

cool! glad the audit is useful. :) things are really really shaping up. man. so pumped! :)

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:57 AM
not sure if you got my last email, since we just transitioned to the 3rd email thread. let me know if you didn’t see it (with the updated site and button example).

update: looks like you did.

feels good. i’m riding the wave! yeehaw! here’s a mixed powerup snippet to show off active/selected/inactive. it’s in the AI in a layer (now visible). i can make a couple new layers to round out the inactive for all powersup (as well as selected, if needed).

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:52 PM
whoa! awesome!!! :) :)

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 3:39 PM
so i’m looking at purchasing DIN licenses for the site (web fonts) and for us and so on. I want to make sure i buy the right types/licenses for us.

Unity can read .otf font formats, yea? our other option (cheaper) is .ttf, though TrueType is a little less widely supported, it’s still good.

we can save some money if we go with the “standard” version over the “pro”. Pro gives us every language on earth pretty much, while Standard gives us all the western languages. it leaves out a lot of eastern/specialized alphabets. if you were planning to localize a ton of countries eventually, it’d be smart to go with the Pro.

so i’m thinking i get DIN OT Black, DIN OT Bold and DIN Web Black (500,000 views/month license) and that should cover us as far as type on anything we wanna do. it’s not a bad bottom line, all of that is $185 and i’ll go ahead and cover that.

let me know what you think about pro/standard and the file formats and i’ll check out and finish up the site. meantime, i’m going to be building the site, use a dummy sans and just swap in DIN when I buy the webfont.

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 4:32 PM
ok, cool. welp, i didn’t check out .ttf before but i guess they pack fonts up and it ends up being more expensive and annoying: https://www.fontfont.com/fonts/din/packages#32864 if you go to that site, pick Office->Pro->5 licenses. To get both bold and black with those options it’s like $450. kinda bullshit, wish we could just pick individual fonts like we can with .otf. we could get the .otf and convert it to .ttf but that sidesteps the license and makes the whole thing pointless anyway…

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 6:22 PM
ok cool, i uploaded all of the licensing info and font files to dropbox. i’d keep a copy somewhere puzzlejuicey for our records. :) the webfont took some coaxing but it’s working now. onward!

after this i think i’ll focus on the icon, some promo banner stuff in case apple requests that (they usually give crazy short notice)… let me know if there’s other stuff you’re thinking i should tackle.

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 7:33 PM
alright, here’s da site: http://aeiowu.com/puzzlejuice/ it needs the splash image for the video, but i figure i’ll do that when i put the video in proper. also, the screenshots are still placeholder.

Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 12:27 AM
I think flat is good, the torn 45 triangley thing would look cool, but that doesn’t appear anywhere else in the game so i think flat is just fine. it should move fairly quickly anyway so it probably won’t be that visible.

i could see how the orange would be a problem. i changed the hover color and added some letterspacing to the review text. it’s not my favorite but options are limited with this kind of typography.

this promo banner might be too “in your face”, and the puzzlejuice logo is less dominant than the art itself. also i put in a 512 and new 72px size icon in the dbox. i’m also working on the screenshots, sort of a border system that is kind of popular today where we put in some helper text on the screenshots to help with variation a bit more and make them more attractive.

i’m kind of working against my own deadline of trying to be completely wrapped by the 7th/8th so that I can finish up ridic fishing with the time left in january before i meet up with mike last week of january to do some hardcore crunching on our game and hopefully release that in february. so that’s why i’m doing a lot of this stuff now so i can kind of psychologically release from pj and refocus back down the line once our deadline hits. it’ll feel that much better anyway… :)

Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 12:48 AM
haha awesome!

i added some dots just now to make it more explodey, i think it pops better, feels more like a puzzlejuice level deconstructed.

Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 2:23 AM
ok cool, i toned down the dots.

1)definitely! this is something i’ve noticed and wanted. i don’t think a popup every 5 letters is bad. maybe you could do a smaller just-the-word popup with “+1 Objective” with each one you did. I definitely found myself not understanding if i was doing the right thing to complete the objective, it’s probably a large part of the reason that i never unlocked more than three powerups in the game on any play session i had. another idea would be a dropdown notification, towards the top of the screen. this could show up for longer than a second or something and then curl back up. bottom of the screen works too. there’s room as long as it doesn’t stay for too long. i mocked it up just now, also had an idea where a much larger banner sits behind the blocks, since it’s non critical, that way it could stick around for awhile. also, could put it up further so if the player had a bunch of blocks that were obstructing the banner, it wouldn’t really matter since they are more worried about not losing at that point…

2) is there a special sound effect for the chain bonus? i mean, i don’t think doing something like “CHAIN BONUS!” the first time you do something quickly would be bad. it’d be kinda cool. people dig feedback as long as it only shows up for a half second or something. then each one after the first chain can continue with that sound effect? or just some kind of 3X! next it, sort of how i mocked up SHORT WORD. just spitballing…

Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 3:09 PM
cool! yea i think it’s kinda a cool solution, could be the way to go :) i think i screwed up on that last mockup and the banner wasn’t locked into the grid, so just know that wasn’t intentional. i’m still a grid-crazy fool.

could it have a +1, +2 next to it that rises and fades off?

i think i liked it because it darkens up the bg and makes for a little more POP on the colored blocks in the foreground. i’ll keep poking and see if we can’t reach a compromise of some kind.

also, here’s 1st draft of all the icon sizes. i’ll re-pixel the small ones, and i’m not totally sold on the black-depth-bar-thingy on the bottom of the 512 (and the rest). i also switched up the color placement on the P. there’s some vibration on the dark shading of the reddish block and the top part of the green block. it’s probably a good idea to tune the block colors a bit so that doesn’t happen. it’s not just a tiny tweak though i wish it was. i’ll poke at that stuff as a last priority for in-game assets.

Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 10:12 AM
yo, just pulled down the build, it’s downloading now. from what i gather the next couple of days are going to be a hellride?

i think it might be useful to re-evaluate the audit as there are probably some more important things we could focus on than a lot of what’s in there. for instance, per the icon colors vibrating, i changed the secondary colors (bottom shading) to avoid that. also, i noticed that when i lost (maybe it was a quirk) that there didn’t seem to be an explosion or a core meltdown of some kind like i was expecting.

also, and maybe this is like the fifth time you’ve told me, but what about the options menu?

playing now, looking really great! love the button transition, the shadow change, everything!

i’d say priority from what i’ve seen (and most of these are probably “no duh greg”):

i saw you mentioned you added the juice effects but i’m having trouble picking them out
the freeze seems to be the old freeze effect
old icons replaced with new
options menu? (let me know what you want in it and i’ll mock it up)
switching those secondary block colors
replacing my orange arrows from the original glowey orange ones
an explodey/CHOMPCHOMPy transition when losing
word list spacing on game over/pause screen :)

let me know if there’s anything i can do to ease your workload on this stuff. i’m happy to do it and it seems like to hit our deadline it might be necessary.

Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 3:17 PM
ok, i gave it a go, but there’s not really any good ways to do rotation on the particles like i want. it’s still mostly there though. the shading is bunked though since i can’t remember how unity does alpha masking from .psds argh!

here’s dat screen too. are we just centering the iPhone retina sized stage and then expanding out from there? it seems like that’s how things are on the iPad, just want to double check. it might not exactly line up… let me know.

Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 9:57 PM
cool, i hear ya. you are the POTUS! btw, just played a huge co-op session with my gf and we killed it. badass. :) if you have stuff for me to sound off on or do, i am planning on getting up early tomorrow and doing whatever you’ve got. keep me posted.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:39 PM
I dig the caps how it is. cool :)

sry about missing the previous options bullet list. here’s the options how i see ‘er. also threw in a twitter button on the game over screen (showing score and such). the colors are a bit swapped too. the notification “are you sure” thing i figured could be just a simple overlay bg and the button. these are also in the ai on dbo.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 5:53 PM
cool, do you want an audit? i need to finalize all the icons as well but just wondering if an audit is useful at this point. happy to do it as the icons won’t take a ton of time anyhow just a couple hours (have to hand pixel them to get the best look).

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 8:08 PM
ok, i’m goin’ in! i’m not gonna hold anything back, but i’ll bold and make text bigger for those that are most important.

INTRO
“Drag to Spell” and “Slam the block downwards” should be all caps (for all instances of that) and the same size as the type on the orange buttons.

MAIN MENU
The dots on the blocks between words seem to be less anti-aliased than the type. You could use bullets from the typeface itself (opt + 8 on mac).
The orange triangles are jaggy and don’t seem to be perfect 45degree angles, not anti-aliased/smooth looking.
The jiggle animation when a word makes the cubes jaggy, another AA problem.
The glow when you fully spell a word (in game as well), I dunno. It’s probably too late but see my mockup.

CORE MODE SELECTOR MENU
The orange arrow should be thicker, i cheated a bit and put like a 5px rounded outline on it in the .ai
The way the diagonal lines are rendered should be a bit different ideally. instead of a masked texture, they are sort of on a grid in the .ai and terminate on their own. pretty picky.
Even more picky, but if it’s more of a systemic thing that can be fixed across the board… the text rendering on the “MODE SELECTOR” letters seems a bit fuzzy compared to the smaller type in the same menu. I’m guessing this is just the deal we make with the Unity devil, but if possible, then yea.
That said, the small text “choose wisely” and the hint, are too crisp, while the text on teh orange buttons is goldilocks good. is it down and upsampling that core type size and that’s why there’s such a difference there with the font rendering?
The text on all the orange buttons should probably be nudged down by about 2 pixels.
The hint text line should probably be moved up a couple pixels.

OBJECTIVES MENU
The checkmark and X icons seem to be stretched wide by about 150%. see attached
The block behind the back arrow seems to be too far right by about 3 pixels, maybe 5.
Some descriptions of the objectives are not fully capitalized. Two line descriptions should the same size as the hint text to allow for the text to breathe more.

OBJECTIVES MENU AVOIDED
The banned banner is cool, but it’s jaggy as all get out on the edges.

POWERUP MENU
The depressed powerups (unlocked but unused) should be the lighter black (top coat) as opposed to the darker black that it turns into now.
The shadows on all the equipped powerups except the left-most powerup need to connect to the left edge of the cube.
I think the color of the three powerups that you’ve equipped should be the blue/cyan color. keep the yellow for “EMPTY” like you have it now.
Arrow looks good, slight hay pixel on the right edge of where the stem of the arrow meets the line.
Seems to be a slight line of hay pixels on the left edge of the dark part of the orange button. doesn’t exist in the other menus (on average).
The thickness of the white outline varies when selecting different equipped powerups. The drill has a rounded top left corner while the freeze outline corners are all perfectly square. Also, all four sides of the outline are not the same thickness.

ZEN MODE MENU
Same light colored hay pixel problem with the orange button as in the powerup menu (i think it’s the powerup menu).

LEADERBOARDS
Same light colored hay pixel problem with the orange button as in the zen menu.
The rounded corners on the tabs are pretty squished and aliased.
The 45degree lines in the header are squished and should be consistent with the rest of the menu headers.

GAME
If the only thing in the bottom left is the score, it should be moved over to the right by about 5-10 pixels to make the spacing even.
The multiplier finish text is really pixelated and over-expanded.
The black outlines on the 2x and smaller things seems to be misaligned or not covering everything, they also don’t seem to be completely round.

PAUSE MENU
The orange button is a little under-wide. The bottom right corner should reach the right most grid dot’s center.
Under “score breakdown” the Sweetest Word should be more vertically spaced.
The hint line should be moved down 3-5 pixels to vertically center.
Tap for further explanation on the objectives doesn’t work, which is fine, they are pretty clear, so just take out that text or replace it with something more flavory perhaps.
The “RAGE QUIT” text should probably be moved down 2 pixels or so and the whole “RAGE QUIT X” object should be moved down around 5 pixels.
Use the magenta text color for long words instead of the cyan (hard to read).

GAME OVER MENU
The hint text line should be moved down about 5 pixels.
Twitter button looks good actually. let’s go with it if you want. just make it square, it seems like it’s a little thin and should fill out to the middle of that bottom left grid dot. 60px wide i believe.
Use the magenta text color for long words instead of the cyan (hard to read).
The “MAIN MENU” text should probably be moved down 2 pixels or so and the whole “MAIN MENU X” object should be moved down around 5 pixels.

—BUG REPORTS–
When I go to the objectives menu (core mode) then back to the powerup menu, the objectives menu is superimposed over the powerups menu, sammiched on top of the other. i’ll email a screenshot from my iPad.

I get hard crashes of the game quite often when quitting from a core game to the main menu.

Got a less typical crash on just going to play a euro game (after much switching between menus, going back to main menu, looking at it and so on, then playing).

ok! i think that’s pretty much what i’ve got now. it was about 2 hours of intense examination/scrutinization. know that i was as detailed as I could be, pulling no punches and given the deadline and the dozens of fish that are much larger that are in desperate need of frying, do whatcha gotta do.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 8:39 PM
Also, I just played in the iPhone (was using the iPad before) and it’s a heck of a lot less noticeable (just about everything) on the retina, things look great there. I think that perhaps some of the type rendering issues I brought up were due to maybe iPhone assets -> iPad? or something…

Though, that shouldn’t change the audit itself, I did play with the PIP (obv, on the iPhone) and it looks good. also, in general, the iPhone4 makes this thing sing. The performance on my iPad isn’t nearly as crisp, though I wasn’t really noticing it before, just playing it on the iPhone4 makes me realize the difference. Annnnyway… since the only difference really is the res and the PIP feature…

PIP Audit:
Change the purple block to the same orange we use for the arrows/buttons.
The right side of the window’s black stroke needs an extra row of pixels. it’s too thin.

okey doke.

just totally almost spelled delicatessen. serious. i’ve been playing where i try to engineer letters by making them fall and so on. pretty cool, just discovered that strategy, sure it’s old news to the old masters, but yea. :)

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 9:09 PM
cool! I love me some AA. I think it’s passable on the iPhone but would definitely be a big help on the iPad. :) i will get you those icons as soon as i can. and i can take some screenshots (both iphone and ipad) and pack those together since i’m pretty sure that needs to be uploaded along with the app itself (at least that’s how it was with solipskier). i’ll try to give you a bunch so you have options.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 9:13 PM
i’m on it! :)

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 11:31 PM
alright, whadya think of this setup? i can put these in a psd and you can edit the text as you see fit. probably just use the same screenshots taken from the iPhone and set them on a different res with that kind of background flavor. also, all the icon sizes (not sure of all the filenames being correct) are in the dbox in the Icons folder.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 11:45 PM
i think that’ll about do it. i’m sure something else will come up, it always does, just let me know! :)

Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 12:16 AM
alright! weeeee, all the screenshots are in .pngs (also the somewhat organized .psd is in there too so you can edit the text) in the dbox. here’s a sampling of the 5 iphone ones, attached. i’m gonna decompress for a bit, have been on defcon 5 for the night (as i’m sure you’re on like 7 atm, but if ya need me, @reply me on twitter and i’ll get chimed at).

later gator,

Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 8:23 PM
What da status?

Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 11:45 PM
I’m setting up a mindmeld with the clouds in hopes of reaching The One True iCloud for a parlay. He owes me.

Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 12:17 AM
Don’t read this until you’re fully submitted and all that, not something to think about until shit is in the mail.

So… promo stuff:

I just played about a 20 minute game to 70 million with Amy. Shit it was fun, we finally delegated tasks perfectly and ended up getting 1000+x multi twice. The letter nuke/nado helped a ton, of course, but I was thinking a video of us playing would possibly get people interested. It wouldn’t be a trailer, just a “let’s play” to sort of help people _get_ the game as far as co-op is concerned.

In the trailer, I think it would really really good to show off co-op. I think it’s a badass way to play and it has its quirks like having a rhythm with your partner and delegation but people might not consider it? It’s times like this where I wish I had a 5d mark II and could shoot nice HD video of people playing, instead of doing the whole “show the screen with the finger”.

I have some other ideas: You do a super-quick-talking 50s trailer cutting and showing the game off while playing it. Maybe it’s just straight screen-cap of the game itself and cutting it up into exciting bits.

Also, press. I’ve got a few contacts and could drop them a line with the fresh build if we can get them UDIDs, but I think we should have the site with the trailer ready at that time so we can give them something to chew out the gate.

My personal site, I’ve got a feature graphic set up to go. I was thinking of putting it up now, talking about the game and how it’s gonna drop on the 26th, stoking the fires a bit. I wanna get clearance about when that’d be cool with you.

Basically, I think the trailer is kind of the missing piece in the marketing push and I feel like we should try to get started as soon as possible. I can work with you on it or I could even completely cut it, but you know your game and how you want to sell it. I really need to get to ridiculous fishing work tomorrow but I think i can pull off a trailer with a solid day’s work at some point in the week. That all said, the public hasn’t even seen screenshots at this point, so maybe releasing a few of those along with twitter scores would be enough reason to post something and hopefully get people excited. I think people that play the game, that are of a slightly higher gamer IQ are really gonna dig this and be the evangelists. A twitter search for PJ doesn’t reap a lot but, it does seem like with more exposure we could get more responses like this (aside from our tweets): https://twitter.com/#!/search/puzzlejuice

So I’m sure you’ve been thinking about this for months and it’s all in your head, but really just wanted you to know I’m thinking about it too and will help however I can. Let me know, cap’n. :)

Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 8:44 PM
RE: 12 slots: one thing we could do (which is something we did with Hundreds since adam/eric ran out of their 100 slots) is put you as an admin on my aeiowu dev account and you could forget about the stress of wondering if adding a device is worth it or not. let me know if this is something you’re into. if not, the last dozen are completely up to you, they should definitely go to press, though a couple key devs that could get different parts of the community excited would be pretty important as well. for solipskier, we emailed and contacted dozens of journos but none got back to us until we released and saw the crazy amount of tweets about solipskier.

apple’s 100 limit is one of the dumbest things amongst a sea of questionable rules. by no means should we have to feel like we can’t test with more people. that feeling will only hurt us and the quality of our app.

if we can get that separate ad hoc with whatever UDIDs we want, we can go out and contact reviewers and so on.

RE: trailer. I’m probably going to take a stab at it.

RE: let’s play. Gonna do it thursday.

RE: post/feature-on-my-site. cool!

RE: everything else. get some rest, you deserve a few days in some decompression chamber in japan with high oxygen levels, sushi and a limitless supply of strawberry gushers. hopefully by the end of the week things are a little more normalized and we can reload and fire away.

:)

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 1:16 AM
Ok great! invitation sent, just know that “darrel johnson”, actually eric from semisecret, is also doing a simliar thing and taking up like 20 slots or so, but that’s all through for now anyway. I’m just throwing the warning out because i have no idea how any of this magic works and don’t want that to screw with whatever foo you have to pull. let me know if there’s anything else or whatever arises with the dev account. :) also, as far as i know, eric didn’t use my account for any testflight stuff, so hopefully that also makes things easier (in case it’s not app specific or something…).

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 4:01 PM
ok, i sent that over to him with an explanation, i’ll let you know ASAP with what’s going on.

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 4:38 PM
[truncated the email]

ok, so i followed eric’s directions, and added a developerProfile file to the dropbox (aeiowuProfile)

the password is “juicethepuzzle”

i thiiiiink that’s going to work for us? i just always feel like this xCode shit is some kind of sorcery. mikengreg stuff is in there as well for some reason so make sure not to active the mikengreg profile stuff? i think?

Her life is in your hands dude,
Brandt

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 5:21 PM
thanks dude! :) gonna go celebrate a bit riiiight now.

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 4:14 AM
colaboratory, right?

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 2:35 PM
haha :) glad that got a laugh, she’ll be

ok, cool! here’s a shot of the materials. these are in a folder in dbox, along with a zip by the same title.

you’ll notice the feature image has changed composition wise. with the revised proportions 820×300 the title was really getting lost and the whole thing felt very busy and cramped. this orientation is still fun and interesting but also has a clear visual hierarchy with the title anchoring the image.

take a quick peek at the .psds and let me know if the smart objects are showing up (layers above the Rasterized folder) as i’m just a bit neurotic and want to make sure they’ll have both vector/raster options for any resizing they may want to do.

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 2:47 PM
also, trailer wise. the problem/sticking point is the footage… the simulator isn’t going to do it justice and screencapping while that hog is churning makes matters worse.

res should be 350×520 to fit perfectly into the site’s box: aeiowu.com/puzzlejuice

i don’t think i can swing getting footage of the game, i could probably swing cutting the trailer, given the right length song but i just want to be up front with you sooner rather than later… the IGF nomination was unexpected and i’ve had to do a bunch more work than i was intending to do this week for emergency websites/announcements and etc. etc. which has set back progress on RF.

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 3:42 PM
cool! :)

no worries, this stuff happens and all that, i just don’t want to over promise and put us in a situation where we surface without a trailer.

a) I used to use this: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/ but now i use this: http://screenyapp.com/ (because it’s cheaper and the UI is much less in your face/antiquated. though snapz pro records really really smooth almost lossless video and audio.
b) I’d say the trailer should be no longer than 1 minute, no less than 30 seconds. i know that seems really short but a 2 minute trailer is almost annoyingly long. i firmly believe a trailer should first make someone curious and hopefully hungry for more, as opposed to well informed. they’ll get well informed when they buy the game and tell their friends and so on. If jimmy puts together sort of a score for the trailer with a nice beginning, driving middle, and a cool, dramatic ending, between 30-60s then i can just use the track as a template for cutting it, and it’ll be a lot easier for me.

Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 12:53 PM
yea, i mean, i would say go with [app store representative]. like, no matter what if it gives us a better chance of being featured. being featured, in my experience, is nearly everything in terms of sales. the rest will follow.

my two cents,

Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 1:00 PM
haha, that’s pretty great. we need to add those terrible puns to the hundreds site as reviews. :)

again with the rescheduled release, i’m guessing they have something set up for the thursday we’re releasing and it’s less likely they can fit us in but more (and maybe much more?) likely that releasing this thursday will net us a feature. ok now that’s four cents, but yea, certainly talking about it with him is a good move, regardless, let me know ASAP when you have the footage so i can cut it and get this trailer out. also, i should probably contact press very very soon? i’m going to get that ball rolling today, hopefully we get some response.

Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 1:20 PM
alright, i’m announcing it everywhere!

Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 1:35 PM
badass. way easier and i think journos are more used to it. i’m hoping by tonight sometime, or early tomorrow, i can have this co-op video shot and cut and scored. then we’ll get the trailer out monday night/tuesday morning.

Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 1:36 PM
yea, throw me some promo codes, just got a journo who wants one. a chunk of 5 would probably be a good idea so i don’t have to keep bugging you.

Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 2:19 PM
awesome, just used the first one. CCed you on the email. :)

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 2:10 AM
heyo, should i put the website together on puzzlejuicegame.com? i’m not sure how appengine works, but that zip should just unpack as a wwebsite. we do need new screenshots, just replace them with the ones we submitted to the app store.

this “let’s play” session is 17 minutes long, but i did a timewarped version, gonna take half a day to render (not really an option) so i’m thinking about cutting one up really quick with some title cards in between to break up a bit of the monotony, hopefully we can show the 17m version but pass around the 2-3m cut session to give people a quick idea of co-op.

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 4:16 AM
http://youtu.be/ezpFkdQUGEo

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 11:09 AM
alright, so…. co-op play session-wise we’ve got:

sped-up version on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezpFkdQUGEo
full version on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze-ONzrmO2o&feature=youtu.be
and sped-up version on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/35128282
which i embedded on the test site: http://aeiowu.com/puzzlejuice/

looks like it’s all gonna work out with putting the trailer there, but i figure since bandwidth can sometimes be an issue with vimeo, if you want to upload the final trailer (hopefully done by tonight) to a pro account (probably should get one so we can have more bandwidth), then we’ll be good to go. I wish there was a better way to do this than use vimeo, as they tend to be pretty hateful towards game videos, which is why i was really non-descript with uploading this playthrough.

we’ll iron all that out later, but just let me know when i can tweet ’bout these vidyas.

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:42 PM
no problem, i can change the footer to that. to me, the site looks good. i’m in chrome, might be a browser issue? just tried it in firefox as well, seems to be good… hmmm

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:44 PM
i just uploaded the latest version (added good screenshots, a slight change to the style sheet and the vimeo embed). i’m working on the footer thing now…

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:52 PM
ok, cool! :) so replace these files and put the .png in the images folder and we’re good to gooooooo

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:57 PM
no, actually, use this index.php (missed a leading bracket in the title tag)

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 1:25 PM
ok, wow. too many versions. i just uploaded puzzlejuice3.zip into dbox. that’s my last and final testament. the bgFooter.png was out of date or something. honestly, i don’t know what went where at this point, but that zip should have all the fixes. ok, on to the trailer! definitely let me know ASAP when jimmy has the tunes, it’s really important since that’ll be most of the work (timing it to the track).

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 5:05 PM
i’ve got all the footage setup, any word from jimmy? i’ve got a like a three hour window left to work on it today…

Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 8:18 PM
i think rami is going to hook us up with someone at touch arcade, so we’ll probably need some more promo codes (i used all 5 already)

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 1:14 AM
alright cool! glad to get it, i think i can have it cut by the time i go to sleep. :)

just listened, fuck yea. this is great. :) :) :)

oh yea, and unannounced, andy wrote this glowy glowing glow review up: http://www.andymoore.ca/2012/01/puzzlejuice-review/ will tweet about it tomorrow when more people are awake.

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 2:37 PM
ok welp, i’ve got a pretty good first draft done. i had to export a .mov because h.264 is not cooperating music-timing wise. i think you can upload a .mov to vimeo, but i’m going to keep trying. since it’s 400MB, i’m uploading it to my webspace (i’m at a perpetual 95% on dbox, gmail too). I went ahead and put the .mp4 in the dbox, it might work out and quicktime player just hates .mp4 format, i don’t know. since it’s only 14MB, it’s worth a shot.

meanwhile, the lossless trailer will be at http://aeiowu.com/puzzlejuice/files/trailer.zip

again, watching that 14MB thing in quicktime won’t hammer home the timing, which a lot of the trailers coolness sort of rests on. but you can get the gist hopefully.

hey! the zip is only 160MB, that’s good. should up uploading in 5-10 minutes from the time this email is sent.

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 3:05 PM
sweet! any changes at all, be super critical on the text and whatever else you want to add/take away. the closing card is simple, we could add more info like puzzlejuicegame.com and whatever. just let me know, now’s not the time to pull punches/ideas. :)

no, don’t upload it, i want to give it another pass on a full stomach. but the lossless version has the perfect timing. i’m actually uploading that version to my Mikengreg vimeo account just to get an idea of how it’ll look embedded. once that’s in, then i’ll know enough to produce a final version. That won’t be done for another 30 minutes (due to vimeo’s “wait in the digital, non-existent line…”)

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 4:17 PM
sweet! done and done. plus i made some improvements to the text, colored it up a bit.

i put it up here: [REDACTED] i think it’s good to go. though… vimeo is sucking and is telling me “We are experiencing technical difficulties at the moment and have temporarily turned off uploading and converting while we explore the issues. We are very sorry for the inconvenience and will keep you updated.”

so i can’t fully confirm how it’ll look like on the site and so on just yet, but i’m pretty sure it’s gonna be good. :)

yay!

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:19 PM
also, can i get 5 more promos? i have a couple journos on the line.

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:37 PM
ok, it finally uploaded (the first draft) http://aeiowu.com/puzzlejuice/

the audio timing is not perfect like i want it to be. probably something with the compression. whatever, it’s better than what i had outputted earlier from AE and i’m probably the one of very few that would notice.

ps. also, forgot to ask, how did the meeting with [app store representative] go? i hear [app store representative]s are good people.

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:08 PM
haha. rock! i’ll send these out with you CCed. i’ll try and tap into the [app store representative] Overmind and reach his subconscious that way.

the site is working for me, and i’m passing around to trusted cohorts around the aeiowu global alliance, it seems to work so far…

also, people are scaring me by saying “whoa, $2.99, pricey”. o_O oh well. but really, i wanted to say before you release that link change the button to “coming on 1/19″ or something so people don’t get confused when the link goes nowhere, then change on release day, obv.

and let me know when you get dat trailer up, b. :)

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:33 PM
aw shit, sorry man. :( that’s never fun.

ah interesting. i’m down with your strategy, we just never talked about anything like that so i wasn’t sure of your reasoning. sounds sound to me!

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:40 PM
gah, i’m getting the old google deadzone on puzzlejuicegame.com…

hmmm, do you have a way to edit your DNS Zone File? Lowering the TTL value should help take that 48hour window to something like 15 minutes, at least in my experience.

Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:41 PM
it sends me to a strange url, maybe you’re doing dev on it though, so just ignore this if so: https://sites.google.com/a/puzzlejuicegame.com/sites/system/app/pages/meta/domainWelcome

ok, i’m sure you have enough to worry about, i’ll get outta your hair

Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 2:48 AM
site works great for me now! perhaps the planets have aligned and everything actually WILL fall into place? :)

portfolio is cool too! i’m honored. press release is really good too, one of the less annoying i’ve read. good good good

Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 6:18 PM
sweet! check: http://www.joystiq.com/

boom!

my number is [REDACTED] so text me if you need me. in case there is stuff. i’ll be on call for launch or anything we need. minutes can matter a ton once this guy goes live, and etc.

two things: do you wanna put analytics up on the site? might be fun to track stuff? also, the real-time shit on google analytics is… addictive and amazing. like crack on launch day.

also, would you mind if i tracked the app with my AppViz? I’d need your user/pass for your apple developer account and i can tap in that way. i totally understand if you’re not comfortable, but if you are, i’d love to watch the numbers come in on my end as well. obviously i would never ever use it for anything else but viewing the stats in a 3rd party app. ps. AppViz is probably the best way to keep tabs on your numbers…

ok, i think that covers all concerns so far. happy launch eve. revel in the stressful excitement that is your potential financial security! ;)

Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 7:07 PM
yep yep, got it!, everything’s good.

HIGH FIVE!

Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 11:52 PM
i think the app is live now in the EST (10 minutes early), so you can switch out the buy links for this: http://itunes.apple.com/app/puzzlejuice/id457273926?mt=8

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 12:06 PM
it’s relatively quiet press-wise and etc. and already #134 in Games on iPhone: http://appshopper.com/bestsellers/games/paid/?device=iphone!!!

GREGREGREGREGREGREG
featured!

congrats dude! mufuckin’ congratulations!

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pretty heavily featured in the games section as well #2 billing as well as the left-most mid-size banner a bit down the page.

now to switch from incessantly refreshing the app store to incessantly refreshing appshopper.com

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 4:44 PM
definitely!

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:02 PM
so not complaining, but noticed something weird.

before the feature went up. like RIGHT before. we were at something like #126 in all apps, #65 in all games.

then we get featured

now we’re nowhere to be seen on top 200 in all apps and we’re #145 in all games.

now i was thinking, and that seems completely bass ackwards but perhaps at the end of a feature cycle things really slow down, but the really prominently featured stuff, right when it hits, all gets shoveled to the top and we got overtaken somehow? so while we were actually creating a really good amount of buzz pre-feature, it was sort of big fish in a little pond. then we got dumped into a big lake with a bunch of other big fish. hmmm, maybe?

i just checked appshopper (where i’m getting all the above figures) against itunes and i’m getting shockingly different numbers. though, itunes can be slow on the update compared to appshopper. anyway, in itunes it’s: #117 in apps, #69 in games.

maybe appshopper is shitting us.

ok, well this has been another edition of Greg’s Neurotic Sales Figure Fantasy Island. tune in next time.

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:12 PM
whoa, you just dropped er to 99! dayum!!!!

ok, so on the site button it says 2.99 and it also says “tomorrow” up there in the description above it. just noticed that tomorrow thing like 10 minutes ago.

:) :) :)

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:15 PM
fuck yea, i just held the SHIFT key like it was my infant daughter. booya! (gotta update mine now too!)

to the moon,

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:19 PM
right after that tweet, we’ve got like 60 concurrent people on puzzlejuicegame.com

god i love these realtime analytics

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:22 PM
dude says he can’t download it because it’s being modified?

https://twitter.com/#!/wesleyStuckey/status/160124573302534144

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:30 PM
i’m a burnin’ up in heeeeere! haha

seriously. i want to fly to LA, jump from the emergency hatch, skydive into your window and before i land at terminal velocity, give you the largest high five in recorded history.

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 5:57 PM
i logged into my mikengreg account and tried it, but to no avail.

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 6:54 PM
keep ya head up, nothing we can do at this point other than be vigilant when it’s back up. we are still rising in teh charts bit by bit, so it seems like _some_ people are able to buy it at least. :)

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 7:04 PM
also, i’m sorry about jumping the gun. :/ i should have cleared it with you first.

Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 7:12 PM
=D

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 12:15 AM
i just scored near 2 billion with amy, but mostly because the multiplier broke. it’s probably why this score is possible: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2100865&postcount=49

i have some other bugs and stuff with more detailed reports, but i don’t want to inundate you with stuff until you’re ready. i’m happy to investigate further and give you cases to reproduce them as well, but yea, just seeing what your general thoughts/plans are for a patch (if at all).

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 12:31 AM
shit yes we’re #35 dude! #35 overall on all iPhone apps. iPad? #23!!!

we are gaining like 10 spots every hour or so.

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:05 AM
sweet! ok, yes. and that’s what i wanted to hear. don’t have a heart-attack please. do what you want for sure, but i’d recommend maybe just taking a few days off to do whatever. there’s nothing else to do other than maybe answer an email or two but that can wait anyway. you deserve it. i know the anxiety you speak of. i had chest pain last night and the sweats. a first for me. but yea, i think you should feel good about everything, the game is a fucking smash dude! we are #32 overall, i think that’s higher than solipskier ever climbed. so yea. i think if we put out an update in the next couple of weeks that would be pretty speedy, so don’t feel like it needs to happen in a few days or anything.

big ups!

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 12:32 PM
hmmm, i’m really going to leave that up to you, but we can avoid the lock-out if we set schedule the price 24hrs prior, right? i’d say maybe a price raise after a week? when we aren’t featured anymore?

personally, i dunno, i’m fine with 99c for awhile, i think it gets pj into as many hands as possible that way, which will spread through word-of-mouth that much more and give us a longer plateau. at least in my addled mind.

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:44 PM
my friend raigan emailed and was wondering about a steam release and at first i was like pffffbt. that makes no… but then i was like wait, it’s unity. and then i said “oh damn, WASD/SpaceSlam for tetris and mouse/click for block popping and word spelling. that could work really well actually!

anyway, just another thought in the bucket.

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:50 PM
nice! i think i might be able to recall my CS skills from long ago and command my puzzlejuice cockpit with great mastery.

ahhh, right. hmmm. steam? :P that’s my vote! because well, people pay money. if we do a downloadable we open up steam, then mac/pc on your own site, a possible humble-bundle inclusion. mac app store?

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 6:03 PM
top score right now is 6.7 trillion. either it’s a jailbreaker script kiddie or they tapped into the invisible multi bug and played for 18hours straight.

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 6:18 PM
oh that’s sweet! :) sure, i mean why not, free advertising. do you wanna try giving them the .ai file and if they aren’t comfortable i can make something to a specified size, but if it’s just as simple as us sending them this and they maneuvering it, that’d be sweet.

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 6:20 PM
ps. not sure if it came across but i’m almost positive (though you’d probably know better) that that 6trillion score is some jailbroken bs. but maybe someone played it for that long? i’m not sure how exponential that multi can get. especially when it’s over 9000

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 6:29 PM
badass.

you want my bug list? you probably know of all the bugs, but i thought i’d share (also, you got my fwd sms message from BMcC yea?)

Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 6:39 PM
this is more of a list than a proper report. but i’m just outlining them and if you have trouble tracking anything down, seriously, don’t ever hesitate to put me on the case to try and reproduce any of them. i like the challenge and if it offloads some of the stress on you, then it’s worth it ten times over.

1. Overlapping letters on certain blocks, appears to happen more often when certain power ups are firing and more often with powerup blocks themselves.
2. Overlapping menus when quickly switching between them very very quickly (while one spells out, you spell another), highly reproducible.
3. Complete freeze during game; block shadows remained on the board at first, then entropy continued and more shadows stayed, whole blocks froze in position and eventually the game stopped producing blocks. music continued.
4. Complete freeze during game; red blinking continues
5. Music hitching/stuttering on startup of game mode, highly reproducible, happens every time i think.
6. Powerups getting thrown off due to word spelling, seems to be consistent when spelling a 5 letter word where the powerup is within the blast zone.
7. Sometimes after a multiplier expires, a new one won’t be visible, but still counts up (evidenced by when i lose, the 437x comes up at the end). hard to reproduce (and exploit! ;) )
8. Twitter request token seems to be expired for some people I’ve talked to. (EDIT: this seems to be an issue with the user, not the game, or perhaps even Twitter).
9. Report on freeze/crash: Rotating a falling piece at the very bottom so it went to the -1st row (over the HUD) did it. The other major one involved a floating piece and unlimited time before the next drop, only returning to normal when I made some random movements. It wasn’t the Freeze power up, either, but almost certainly related.
10. Slammable block in rotation “step” of tutorial (blocks out and can’t continue). The player was in teh tutorial and was asked to rotate the block, but slammed it by accident instead, causing a total lock out and they needed to hard quit the game via the task manager.

Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 7:35 PM
whoa! never saw this before o_O this must be how the trillions people are gettin’ it. :)

https://twitter.com/#!/ryanmalm/status/160882200563286016/photo/1

Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 8:02 PM
options? hmmm… maybe it could be an option when you hit the tweet button. like next to “tweet” there could be a button that is “sign out”

Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 2:40 PM
i consider this to be one of the higher honors a game can ever get: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=23919.msg678600#msg678600

seriously, :)

Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 5:31 PM
yea no problem! comin’ up. do you want it in a sprite sheet?

Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 6:08 PM
ok, it’s in the dbox (not first draft, though that’s an option if you want to try it).

Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 7:59 PM
ok, i’ve been playing for awhile, haven’t run into any bugs, have been stress testing menus and everything as well. seems to be running smoothly! is there anything specific you want me to test other than just play play play?

Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 9:05 PM
ok just played a couple games on euro on the phone, feels a bit more sensitive? the diagonal word stuff seemed like i had less chance to screw up by going over to the next letter, but also more insensitive in so far as i had to go a bit deeper into the title. also, the slamming felt slight more insensitive, but the moving left and right felt more sensitive (hence my initial reaction). maybe the moving should be more sensitive? the block slamming is tough because for veteran players you just want to flick it, while newbies probably do that and then get scared because they didn’t mean to. not sure if that helped.

in bug news, i did come up with something. i played a euro mode (bombs,drill,freeze) and lost normally (i think i left some powerups on teh board, not sure really) and then went straight out to a zen mode and started with a frozen-looking and drill block hanging at the top. also had a 18x multi hanging there to start with. seems like the euro mode leaked into the zen a bit? i will try and recreate again and see if i can come up with something more concrete.

Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:17 AM
Ok, so this makes for the 365th email twixt us. seems like a good place to stop. I’ve started compiling the emails into a blog post, just got about a dozen in there so far, but I’ve made an account on aeiowu.com that you can use to see the article. you have to login at that address first with this info:

[REDACTED]

let me know what you think of that format, i’m just going to chip at it and we can sit on the post until we’re ready to publish. no rush or anything on my end, but i figure it might gives us a little boost of exposure. maybe not. either way people are sure to be bored by what might be largest wall of text ever published on a blog anywhere. ;)

ok! welp. we’ll just stop here as far as what we show people so there’s a clear cut-off. maybe we’ll do a part 2 later…