v1.0.3

So with v1.0.2 we had a couple lines of code commented out (oops) that are essential to the progression of Block'd. For those of you who have downloaded Block'd since yesterday, or will go download Block'd within the next week or so, will find that all 30 levels are unlocked and playable.

We fixed this problem right away, and it has been submitted and uploaded to Apple as v1.0.3, but as anybody who has worked with Apple will know, it'll be about a week or so until that goes live.

We hope you all take advantage of this time to get acquainted with some of the more difficult levels, and practice them! v1.1 will bring more reasons to have those levels down pat, so get to know them, and get to know them well.

With all that being said, this weekend we will be sharing a good bit of information about what we plan to have coming in v1.1, so stay tuned if that sort of information interests you.

Austin

v1.0.2 Update

Constantly keeping Block’d up to date has been one of our goals with it. Instead of just letting it fester as we did ColorGuess! However, that’s a different story. Today I’m going to fill you in a bit on what will be coming in v1.0.2.

First and foremost is the reason we pushed the update in the first place. Our iPhone 5S users were experiencing a weird delay in between completing a level and receiving the “You Win” statement and “Next” button. This has been fixed in v1.0.2, and the images should display at a constant rate now.

Just to talk a little bit more about this bug, it was an interesting one to squash, and to be honest: we may not have really squashed it, just buried it. As I said, the bug was only present in one model of the iPhone. Not only that, the bug would not show up when run from Xcode, only when compiled and transferred to the phone. In order to fix it, we removed the slight randomness of the timing. While we do not know what the root cause of the bug was (and may never will) we believe that this fix will hold.

Other than that bug, we worked on some quality of life improvements that were easy enough to just throw in. There will be continuous work on some of these changes to make them more aesthetically pleasing and better suited. For now, what we’ve done is added some level numbers, enlarged the tutorial images to make them easier to read, scaled down the credits scene to allow players out of it, last but not least, we added a few labels here and there to make things clearer.

I hope that these explanations of our changes make sense. Keep an eye on the website for informations regarding our first content patch, which will add new levels, new colors and new challenges for players to experience.

Austin

A Quick Block'd! Update

So about a month ago we were running our “10 days ’til block’d” count down blog post event thing where we posted about a different aspect of the Block’d development each day in anticipation of the launch on 7 - 7 - 14. . . But then Block’d! didn’t come out we just kinda stopped posting stuff . . . (although to be fair, Austin did post about the delay and then the release and then the first update)

So we’ve decided that we are going to try much harder to keep this blog updated with news about the minor and major updates we are bringing to Block’d (and the other projects we are working on), along with other stuff we find interesting (maybe some game reviews or a look at the new iPhone or . . . who knows).  See, one of the good things about not having a lot of people reading this is that when I say “we are going to keep the blog updated" people aren’t going to remember that this is probably the third or fourth time I’ve said that.  But I digress.  Let’s take this back to Block’d!

First things first, If you haven’t downloaded it yet go do it now.  It’s completely free so you have no excuse to not at least give it a try.  Secondly, I guess I can give you a recap of what happened (if you haven’t already read Austin’s posts).  So basically what it all comes down to is that we didn’t give ourselves enough time.  We were a little rushed submitting to try and get it released on the 7 - 7 - 14 deadline.  When we finally did get it submitted it took a week for Apple to tell us that we were missing one freaking icon, and we were already behind our scheduled release by two days.  We resubmitted with the proper icon and after about another week we had success!  But then things started breaking.  The ads weren’t working, the Facebook share button wasn’t working, there was a wired delay in one of the animations that was only happening on the 5s. . .  It was clear that we needed a quick 1.0.1 version to address some of these issues.  So we started on that and within a couple days we were submitting the update to fix most of the major issues we found in the first release.  And that pretty much brings us to where Block’d! is today.

Right now it’s in version 1.0.1 which means pretty much all the little bugs we found on release day were fixed. We fixed the ads and fixed the Facebook sharing button.  Although with this version there is still a delay in the animation on the 5s device.  However, we actually just fixed that issue yesterday so we will be pushing a 1.0.2 update pretty soon here with some other minor but fixes. Additionally we are working on a 1.1 update which will include a new level group with 30 new levels, a new color scheme, and a bunch of other new features that we’re still discussing.  To try and avoid the problems we had last time we are planning on releasing this major update sometime late September or early October depending on how things go.  One of us will post about some of the new features we are thinking about adding in 1.2 but I think this post is long enough as it is.

So yeah.  It’s always an experience submitting to the App Store but I think we learned some good lessons from all of it.  We're moving forward with bug fixes and content updates for Block’d! along with some other side projects, so keep checking back for more updates and other fun posts

As always, thanks for reading

-Matt.

v1.0.1 and more

In our eyes, the first few weeks of Block’d has been a great success. We’ve seen roughly 300 downloads (and growing), as well as one update already! But we have much more planned for this game, as we think it has massive potential beyond what you have already seen.

First, let’s talk about v1.0.1 which went live a few days ago. We released this update the day Block’d went live on the App Store. This update served two purposes: firstly we got the Facebook share button working properly so that it shares the right link for us. Secondly (and arguably more important to us) was to upload it with the signed iAd contract. Hopefully we can start earning a bit of revenue for our hard work.

I know, ads suck, but hey, I wrote a blog post about that a while back.

Now, let’s get on to the more exciting bit. What’s coming next for Block’d! We’re already working on development for a few more updates, bot v1.0.x as well as v1.1.

v1.0.x will be various bug fixes. For those of you who are playing Block’d on an iPhone 5S may have noticed a bit of an odd delay after beating a level, before the button to move on to the next level. We are actively working on a fix for that bug, and we will have an update with that shortly. Other than that, v1.0.x has been mostly internal code cleanup that will have no real end effect on the product.

For those of you who have made it this far, I’m sure you’re wanting to know what is going to come in the future for Block’d. As I’ve already said, v1.1 is right around the corner, and I do believe we’re expecting an October release date. v1.1 will bring with it new levels, along with some new colors to play with (more information on that coming soon.)

As expected, we have many more levels planned past v1.1, but we have a bit more. We have ideas for new game modes and play styles; more colors and more sharing between friends; but most importantly, more of the same gameplay we’re coming to know and love.

If you haven’t stopped by the App Store to download Block’d, please take a second to hop on this wild ride as soon as possible! I promise, it’ll be worth your time.

Block'd: Release Day Bugs

Block'd is officially live on the App Store! And with it have come a few bugs that need to get worked out in the up and coming Block'd 1.0.1. We've already started working on this small update, and we should see it submitted here within the weekend. 

Here's what we've found so far: 

• We need to make "multi-tapping" as a mechanic more clear. We've found that several people get stumped on some of our easier "timing" levels due to not understanding that you can tap more than one tile at a time.
• Ads are not showing up because I'm (Austin) a dummy and didn't set up the proper contract in iTunes Connect. 
• On my phone (Austin again) there seems to be a massive delay between the win animation, and the actual "You Win" statement and button showing up. 
• Facebook sharing button seems to not be working properly. 
• Some sort of clarification that there are options to the left of the first group.

If you go about your day playing our wonderful little game and you notice anything else, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below, tweet me (@hicksaustinj), Matt (@mattshubert) or Symbiotic Studios (@symbstudios) and we will get it added to this list to be fixed ASAP. 

Keep an eye on the blog over the next few days, as we will be sharing our future plans for Block'd with you shortly!

Enjoy playing.

Austin