At the start of this year, I released this game (Square Ogre) as one of my first big, paid, professional releases.

Although it was indeed a big accomplishment at the time, I’ve now gathered loads of feedback and grown as a developer, which means I saw some glaring issues with the game.

The biggest one? It was just OVERWHELMING.

Each world had 20-40 levels, slowly building the difficulty curve (from easy 3x3 levels to really hard 4x4 levels).

For most mechanics, though, 10-15 levels is more than enough to get the full gist of it, and most players wanted to continue to something new after that.

Additionally, some players might like a mechanic more or less than others, and it’s not fun to be locked in and have to solve 40 puzzles before something new appears.

I don’t know why I thought it was fine at the time, but I know better now.

I split all the worlds into the “regular world” and a “secret/bonus world”. Once you’ve completed all levels in the regular world, the bonus world appears. It’s completely optional. It just contains more and harder levels using the same mechanics. If you want to continue, you can do so without issue.

This means each world is now (on average) 15 levels, slightly more for the more complicated mechanics.

I also went over all the levels with a critical eye and removed those I thought didn’t add enough or hindered the flow in this new structure.

It’s an “obvious” change, but it makes the game way more enjoyable and accessible, especially in the long run.

Other changes are the regular kind: minor fixes and improvements to logic, visuals, performance, etcetera.

Soon, the sequel to Square Ogre will be released. Most improvements were backported from the development of that game, as it’s even bigger and bolder than this one! (Well, so far as a minimalistic, relaxing puzzle game can be BOLD.)

Hopefully these changes bring the game to more people and bring more enjoyment to those really digging into the puzzles! If they don’t, let me know, as a game developer is constantly learning and improving.

Until next time, Pandaqi