I’ve moved the application to a new server and the website is back up and running at infinitris.io. I haven’t made any major changes yet but some ideas are beginning to form. I’ve decided to do a detailed analysis this time and will report my findings here (hopefully in a shorter period of time than between now and my last update…)
If you’re interested in other things I’m working on, check out my personal website, rolz.nz.
Why? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Infinitris and realised it’s not really a multiplayer game. Yes, you join the same grid but there’s not really any reason to interact with others most of the time, and it seems like most people would rather play the game alone. This goes completely against my reason for creating Infinitris in the first place. I’m not going to abandon the game. I still think it has a lot of potential, it’s just up to me to figure out what it needs to become great.
– rolznz
Over the last couple weeks I’ve been focusing on a bunch of minor improvements to issues raised while Infinitris.io was featured on iogames.space. There’s still a few to do:
New features coming soon: Display settings, Combos, new game mode(s), improved lobby chat (+ access lobby chat while in a room).
Changelog:
[X] When gems cover each cell within a hole, the hole is automatically filled.
[X] Fixed grid not displaying properly on non-100% browser zooms.
[X] Fixed player not returning from “AFK” when they press a key.
[X] When the grid expands, each cell in the rightmost column is replicated rather than empty cells being used.
[X] AFK state for each player is now sent to players on join.
[X] When a player is actively typing, their AFK timeout is now reset.
[X] Camera shake intensity now decreases based on distance – no more grid-wide shaking when someone makes a mistake screens away.
[X] Cells stolen are now shown in the player statistics box.
-rolznz
Over the last day Infinitris.io has been featured on http://iogames.space. Both public rooms have been full for a large proportion of the time – 21 users playing together at the same time. Jumping ingame has been pretty hectic and I’ve uncovered a lot of things to work on, for example the fact that despite everyone in the Atlas room was working together they barely managed to clear any lines before the grid fully reset (without AL and I continually filling their gaps).
Still, since my last feature 4 months ago, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in reception. In the last 24 hours I’ve received 115 signups – an increase in 37% in a single day (315 to 430 registered users)!
I attribute this to:
So far so good on my resolution to not wait months between releases and convince everyone the game is dead – in the last week I’ve released 5 patches. It’s a lot easier to work like this and more motivating as well. No need to retest the entire application end-to-end, isolated check-ins which are easy to investigate when something goes wrong.
1.2.2 -> 1.2.2.5:
New Features:
[X] Added Gems
[X] – Gems will be randomly generated in holes of less than or equal to 8 cells.
[X] – Gems give extra points and ensure block placement does not cause a mistake no matter where the block is placed.
[X] – Gems are destroyed by sunlight
Bug Fixes / Improvements:
[X] Fixed ingame chat not going to bottom on open.
[X] Fixed high scores list not scrolling.
[X] Fixed chat loaded from database not showing star for premium players.
[X] Fixed newly-filled lines not being cleared when the grid shrinks.
[X] Fixed ability to rotate block immediately after it has been locked in.
[X] Decreased block placement time by 50% if the block has stomped.
[X] Fixed block touching ground not being moved down in the escape game mode when more rows are added to the grid.
[X] Fixed phase shift not causing delay before placement / another phase shift.
[X] Decreased line clear fade time by 50%.
[X] Decreased escape game mode row increase for line clears – now 1:1 ratio.
[X] Player highscore is now saved when exiting a room (not just on a mistake).
[X] Improved chat count positioning in lobby chat button for 1-3 digit numbers.
[X] Rooms can now have custom initial grid column/row counts.
[X] Added room: Erymanthus. 32 additional columns and 4 additional rows per player (registered only).
[X] Improved readablity of the chatbox – more opaque background.
[X] Ingame chat text with an unreadably-dark colour is now brightened.
[X] Improved block placement time – timeouts are keyed by block position and rotation. Different timeouts for stomping, phase shifting and basic placement.
[X] Improved block rotation: now rotation is attempted in all directions for the number of rows/columns in the block (can rotate off walls, into gaps etc).
[X] Fixed player blocks frozen on ground when they switch tabs until they are kicked for AFK – now their blocks will be removed and respawn at the top.
[X] AFK players now have (AFK) on their name and their blocks are displayed at 50% opacity.
– rolznz
Whew! finally I got to place I felt ready to release the next version of Infinitris.io. A large number of improvements have gone into gameplay, UI and rendering, networking and user accounts. I’ve also prioritised player retention through adding an extra 20 achievements and a user experience/statistics system which challenges the player to improve. Guests can also receive experience and gain achievements, which gives them more of a reason to sign up – hopefully I’ll see a few more coming through. A lot of groundwork has been laid for future releases
Happy to say that there are no longer any desyncs!
Video:
Yet again I’ve fallen into the vicious cycle of forgoing weekly releases to add multiple new features and complete a large amount of rework that I could have easily done in small regular chunks. I haven’t been feeding Infinitris and as a result the activity has severely dropped. Time to get back to releasing small improvements each and every week!
New Features:
Bug Fixes / Improvements:
– rolznz
On Wednesday morning I woke up and checked the player count on Infinitris on my phone (It’s somewhat become a ritual recently). 20 players online! I jumped on my PC and joined in, only to discover what an absolute mess of a state the server was in. The server was crashing every 5-10 minutes. Switching rooms would cause the game client to go out of sync and all sorts of strange things to happen. Hardly anyone knew how to play, and the grid was so clogged with towers and bridges of cells that it was impossible to play properly even if you knew how.
This week I’ve been working hard to fix the worst of these issues, and released a number of patches (1.2.0a-1.2.0f). I’m glad to announce that the server is now stable and easily handling the current load.
To deal with the grid overpopulation issues I’ve introduced player caps for each room, and created some extra rooms for more variation. Currently there’s four rooms available:
I took out Retribution (A room that inserts garbage rows for the first player who joins) – I want to make a properly polished game mode for this one.
Apart from bugfixes and some gameplay improvements, I also introduced persistent high scores – daily high scores and all-time high scores. There’s now a greater purpose than just holding the highest points in your current room, and it’s also helped increase the number of registered players.
A big thanks to Mike from iogames.space who approved my submission on his site. As a new game it’s currently being featured on the front page, and for the last week players have been streaming in. Over 90% of my traffic is currently coming from there, so once Infinitris drops off the front page the current activity is inevitably going to decrease. I’m taking full advantage of the activity levels though to do some thorough playtesting and re-assess the priority of items in my giant TODO list.
Some stats from the last week:
So, what’s next?
Infinitris Premium still cannot be purchased, and my server hosting costs are starting to rack up ($10 a day). If 10% of the registered players purchase the game at the current rate of new registrations, I should be able to cover those costs. It’s far from a profit, but this is only the beginning, and I’ve got to start somewhere.
Other than that I’ll be continually making small gameplay improvements, such as tweaking the grid reset algorithm, making grid size changes less disruptive and extra help for new players.
Anyway, here’s the 1.2 -> 1.2.1 changelog.
New Features:
Bug Fixes / Improvements:
This week I achieved a new record for the maximum players concurrently playing Infinitris at one time: 24.
24% of the way to my goal.
rolznz
Phew. It’s been five months since the last release. Looking back at version 1.1, Infinitris has completely transformed.
Over the past week activity on Infinitris has skyrocketed. The first time I logged in and played with 5 random players, I was completely mind blown. To think that something I’d made is starting to be enjoyed by players all across the world… I feel like I’m finally beginning to make my mark.
As I said in previous entry, I attribute the decrease in players due to the fact that it was possible for one player to completely ruin the game for everyone else, by spamming their blocks up to reset the grid. This is now fixed. What parts of the grid gets reset is determined by the state of the grid and the player who caused the reset. I’ve also improved AFK detection and added a controls overlay for new players. So let’s see how the next few weeks go!
A few days ago, Infinitris was posted on the news section of Phaser.io, the official website for the game engine Infinitris uses. The post was by the creator of Phaser, Richard Davey himself. That’s pretty inspiring.
Infinitris is also popping up on a bunch of .io game sites, and I’m hoping that this is only going to continue.
Anyway, here’s the changelog.
New Features:
Theme Makeover:
Bug Fixes / Improvements:
This weekend I presented infinitris.io at the Wellington Armageddon expo. It was an awesome chance to gain feedback and observe new players trying out Infinitris. Only a small percentage of the people who tried the game were really my “target market” – those who had enough interest and understanding to get past Tetris and try out some of the features Infinitris has to offer. But those 10% made everything worth it. We had a blast!
A special thanks to:
– Niamh for organising the Wellington Armageddon NZGDA booth
– CloudFire games for the extension cords
– Rob Hayes for the amazing poster and business card designs
– Jono – surface, router and networking advice
– Ricky – Ipad
– AL for the pre-expo test games
I realised how prevalent sore losers / attention seekers would attempt (and succeed) to ruin the game by playing blocks straight upward, causing multiple grid resets. I’m happy for people to troll eachother (My mechanics are certainly set up to allow it), but when one person is able to make everyone annoyed to the point they quit – that’s too far. I think this is the main reason why the activity on my game hit a wall and started dropping. I’ve received several ideas on how to fix this, and I’ll be implementing some of them as soon as I can.
– rolznz
It’s been over two months since my last post. I thought I’d have Infinitris 1.2 out by now, and maybe it should have been. I’ve deliberately not made any updates to the official page since my last release, mainly because I’ve invested a lot of time (and a decent amount of money too) into this game now and I haven’t wanted to release anything half-baked, even if it does follow my original strategy of a minimum viable product.
Anyway, I’ve completely replaced Infinitris’ old look with Rob’s new design, from the ingame assets to the landing page and user interface. Registration and logging in are now possible from the landing page, and once logged in you can choose your block colour and pattern, and also unlock achievements. Player status (guest, logged in, premium) can now be distinguished by a players’ nickname above their block.
Infinitris is starting to feel a lot more polished and immersive. The shitty graphics are gone and the connecting of blocks to form patterns is pretty satisfying. The new scoreboard makes players want to reach the top (rather than just plain text statistics) and the ability to customise your appearance really gives players a sense of individuality.
There’s still a lot to be done, but I’ve decided it’s time to stop hiding and “kick it out” as my Russian friend likes to sometimes say.
I’ve signed up to showcase Infinitris at the Armageddon expo in my home city next month (June 3rd) as part of the NZGDA booth. This should be a good way to kick things off and gain some exposure, lots of playtesting, make a few contacts, etc.
This means I’ve got a bunch of things to do before then:
I doubt I’ll get all these done, but let’s see how far I can go. I now have a deadline, and I’ll be releasing Infinitris 1.2 before Armageddon no matter what state it’s in. Once 1.2 is released, I’ll go back to my original strategy of frequent updates on the release branch.
I’ve asked Rob to create a couple poster designs and a business card design so I have something to bring to the expo. I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with – I’m sure it’ll entice people to try out my game!
– Roland
Over the last few months I’ve been working closely with Rob Hayes on perfecting the Infinitris theme. It’s been a bumpy ride of daily emails with multiple revisions, conflicting opinions and compromises based on the resources I have available. I think he’s done an amazing job! Infinitris has truly transformed.
Here’s a few screenshots of our journey:
Development-wise, I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work:
Now that these are done, it’s time to get Rob’s assets ingame!
Infinitris 1.2 – Coming soon to a port near you.
– rolznz
Infinitris.io 