Bug Bashing & Feedback Fun

We've been continuing to iterate on Anode, and it definitely feels like we're approaching the finish line.  Various gameplay and presentation tweaks are getting done but they're getting progressively more niche.

Fun stuff that happened over the last few days:

- Particle effect for hovering blocks!
- Handicap rows now use a pre-defined arrangement that is WAY more handicapping.
- Explosions distort the background.  We're a modern game now!
- Mouse cursor gets out of your way if you're not using the mouse!
- Messages about your multiplier don't stomp over more important game-status stuff.
- You can now set the antialising level separate from the overall detail level.
- You can now be warned about up to 28 incoming blocks!
- Tilty panels!  Snazzier!

And so on, things have been busy.  The game plays and runs well and things are looking good to have it up for download in a few days!

Anode store page is live!

Now up for all to see here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/401120

We've been continuing to polish things and have smoothed out a lot of minor wrinkles and added plenty of small details to make things feel better and more understandable.  A trip to an indie game get together taught some good lessons and we've been sending out beta keys to get gameplay feedback from players.  I'm excited to get this published and out there, as it's a great title that's fun to play!

Anode - A falling block puzzle game!

Nobody makes these anymore.  I'm not sure why, but we have a lot of fond memories of Puzzle Fighter and Columns, so wanted to throw our hat in that ring.  Allow me to introduce Anode!


We've been working on this for the last three months or so, starting with a very rough prototype and gradually progressing though more and more refinement.   Several single player modes and competitive multiplayer are supported, along with achievements, online leaderboards, and plenty more.

Anode incorporates concepts from a number of other games, and introduces some of its own.  Colors can match diagonally or laterally, and don't go off until touched by a detonator -- something you have control of.  Set up chain reactions that can pay off later, or keep your bin clear, whatever works best for you.  Earn items to help clear the bin, stop your blocks from falling, or to punish your competitors!


Speaking of competitors, local multiplayer is fast and fun, with full support for either keyboard play, or a pair of gamepads, or whatever combination you like.  Break more than two blocks in a single sequence and any additionals get sent to your opponent's bin!  Work fast, and try to be the last man standing.  Set starting handicaps per player if things seem imbalanced.

We've implemented over thirty achievements, and have a variety of leaderboards covering all the game modes, including play with or without items.  All this is up and working now, with just some final polishing items holding things up.  Anode will be available on Steam in the next couple of weeks.

Just set up an IndieDB page too, check it out for a couple more screenshots!

A picture!

Still sort of settling on a name, but I was taking screenshots of a project we've been working on, and this one was pretty snazzy.

Blue Skies Live Wallpaper v2.27

This is a minor update that fixes a tiling issue with one of the sky images, and inherits a few minor updates to the underlying engine we use.

A Linux VirtualBox for Steam

Over the course of this year, I've had to re-create a virtual machine running Linux with OpenGL support three separate times.  The first two times, it proved to be a minor nightmare of searching through forum posts trying to find the right combination and order or library installations to make it happen, and I wasn't confident enough in what I actually did to try to write it down as the canonical method.  But this third time, the whole process went smoothly, and so I'm going to record it for posterity (read: me in a year).

This process will get you a virtual machine running Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS 64-bit, with enough OpenGL support that Steam will correctly install and run games built in Unity.  It won't necessarily run them fast, but they will run.

1. Download and install Oracle's VirtualBox.  At the time of this writing, I used version 5.0.2 on my Windows 7 machine and test build 5.0.3-102290 on my Windows 10 machine.
2. Create a new virtual machine.  It should be set for Linux, Ubuntu 64-bit, and the following:
• 16Gb virtual hard drive (or more)
• 2Gb RAM (maybe more, maybe less, but this is ideal)
• 128Mb video memory (the max VirtualBox supports)
• 3D acceleration checked
3. Get Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit.  Download the ISO image from the website.
4. Start up the virtual machine.  When it asks you for a startup disk, point it at the Ubuntu ISO.
5. Use the standard install options, and ideally download updates along with the installation.
6. Once installed, update once again with the latest updates.
7. Install OpenGL library dependencies.  This step is rather undocumented.
• Open a command prompt/terminal.  Use Ubuntu's "Search your computer" icon at the top of its system bar and enter "terminal".
• Run the following: sudo apt-get install libglapi-mesa libcheese7 libcheese-gtk23 libclutter-gst-2.0-0 libcogl15 libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libclutter-1.0-0  xserver-xorg-input-all
• Source
8. Install the VirtualBox Guest Additions.  In the VirtualBox window, go to Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD Image
• Make sure to reboot after this installation
9. Now you should be able to go to the display settings and set the window size to something better than 800x600.
10. Install Steam.  Go to the website in the virtual machine, download and run the Linux installer.
• The Steam package downloaded from the site will install an actual Steam installer.
• Running that installer will prompt a terminal window to install further OpenGL dependencies.
• After all of that is installed, the normal Steam client will install and update

At this point, Steam should be ready to log in, and you can proceed as normal.  Log in to your account, install the games you wish, and test.

Edit 2015/09/02: I changed the installation order slightly to install the extra OpenGL dependencies before installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions.  If you followed this guide before the order change, you may need to reinstall the VirtualBox Guest Additions.  Make sure the guest additions ISO is ejected, then reinsert it and follow the installation procedure again, the reboot.  Similarly, if you start up your VM and see the error "VirtualBox kernel service not running" (and/or your VM resolution is reduced down to 640x480 or 800x600), try reinstalling the guest additions and rebooting.