Mondrian - Plastic Reality News

[p]Sorry for the delay, everybody! In the midst of working on this final update for Mondrian, I realized just how out-of-date the in-edit manual was, and could not successfully find a way to update it in-game where it would be screen-readable and easily editable. So, the Instructions panel has been removed, and in its place I have begun work on a PDF Mondrian Maker manual, fully updated, and even including instructions for Mondrian Studio too! The Instructions panel has been replaced with Quick Links, which will open the manual, the local content folder, or open your web browser to a few different sites (our homepage, this Steam community, our Discord, etc.). This manual is still in-progress, but you can view an early, low resolution Preview version of it for now.[/p][p]Much effort has been put into improving the controller experience in Mondrian Maker. You'll find that you can now actually access menu buttons, store colors in Miniswatches, open and close the Context Menu on blocks without issue, and the overall experience using a controller should just be a lot smoother.[/p][p]In the toolset, you'll see a new option next to the Grid menu, that being "Nudge Snap." This option snaps block and level nudging to the grid so blocks don't fall off from their snap amounts.[/p][p]There have been several bug fixes too, including fixing the Mod Switch on Relaxing Difficulty, fixing context menu glows, Block Nudge activating free move and soft-locking the editor, and more. Finally, Achievements have gotten a big overhaul for everyone, including reduced requirements and a few removals across the board. The full patch notes will be posted when the update is finalized early next year.[/p][p]Make sure to change to the beta branch to check out the updates. Until the next one, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year![/p][p]- Danny[/p]

[p]Hello everyone! As promised, Beta 2 of "The Last Exhibit" is now live. This build features a number of fixes, including:[/p]

• [p]Horizontal and Vertical level flipping now works for levels with Right Triangles and Quarter Circles[/p]
• [p]Both level flipping buttons will now close the Context Menu[/p]
• [p]Phase Blocks can now properly be set in Relaxing difficulty[/p]
• [p]Context Menu buttons now appear properly in Rotate/Scale mode[/p]
• [p]The "Up" context arrow now glows when increasing Phase Time on a block[/p]
• [p]Mondrian Maker no longer closes when pressing Escape to close the context menu[/p]
• [p]The Context Menu will no longer open on a block which happens to be under a block you're placing down[/p]
• [p]The "Big Gem Hunter" achievement in Gem Hunt mode should actually be achievable now[/p]

[p]I am currently in the process of attempting to redesign the Instructions panel but this is proving to be a challenge. My goal is to make each page far more readable on a Steam Deck, and built with actual strings, rather than graphics, for the sake of screen readers. That said, it seems that many of the functions in Clickteam Fusion that would have made this easy under Windows 7 now seem to be deprecated, or at the very least are not cooperating, so unfortunately this will cause some delays in the final release of this final update. Hopefully something is up-and-running by the next Beta build in a few weeks.[/p][p]It should also be mentioned that I'll be doing a pass on Achievements for "The Last Exhibit." Many are getting reduced requirements, and a few are being cut entirely. For instance, everything with an Apprentice, Professional, and Artisan level has gotten at least 50% reductions in requirements in at least 2/3 levels, and all the Wizard Achievements (to make Top 10 on the Leaderboards) are getting cut. The "Pumpkincraft" Achievement is also getting cut because there hasn't been a Mondrian Maker pumpkin carving festival in... three years? Something like that. These adjustments have all been made based on current Global Achievement stats.[/p][p]Finally, I'd like to do a BIG pass on The Museum, replace all the spotlight artworks with new pieces, maybe even get some of those columns to be paintable, finally. But no actual plans or work has been done on this yet. News maybe on this in the future.[/p][p]If you do give the new stuff a test, be sure to send your feedback here! Thank you as always for your support and patience. I'll be back with more updates soon.[/p][p]- Danny[/p]

[p]Hello everyone! I know it's been a while, but I'm excited today to tell you all about what's going on with Mondrian – Plastic Reality's final update, “The Last Exhibit.” This is shaping up to be the ultimate Quality of Life update, with a few fun new features too, so let's take a look.[/p][p]First and foremost, Mondrian Maker? More like Mondrian Makeover. Everyone's favorite level editor has been getting some fine-tooth comb improvements, from top to bottom. The menu and context buttons are now more in-line with the rest of the game's UI. Input text has been set to a higher minimum size for better legibility on Steam Deck. Everything interactive now properly displays the hand cursor. The RGB values have been darkened, making them more legible, and you can now click any number to bring up an entry box and type in a value! Last but not least, there are two new block shapes, Right Triangles and Quarter Circles. But there's more. So... so much more.[/p][p][/p][p]When you go to open a level, you'll now see a checkbox for “Speed Paint.” Opening a level with this checked will make your level open one block at a time. You can use this to record video of your level's creation and upload it to your YouTube, and then share it on the Community page's Videos tab! Combine this with playing your game in testing mode and our free-to-use, newly made “shorts ending” to make some instant content. You can download it in MP4 or MOV format off of GitHub.[/p][p]Other changes include some asset reversion, other bug fixes, and a couple new levels on Steam Workshop. The full 1.6 update is still several months away, but Lifetime Pass owners can grab the current changes off the Beta Branch if you'd like to check out the Speedpaint Mode for yourself. Right click the game in your Steam library, go to Betas, and select “beta” in the dropdown menu. Note that since the new levels use the new block shapes, you will need to be running this latest beta in order to try them out, or they may look... weird. Or may crash the game entirely. No promises.[/p][p][/p][p]I will be honest with you: this update is actually coming at a cost, and has become a lot of work. There are many ways you can support this update, including buying the game for a friend, getting the whole Mondrian Series Bundle, or purchasing a t-shirt, hat, hoodie, or pair of socks from our merch store. But if you can't afford any of that, please leave us a review on Steam! Good or bad, we'd greatly appreciate the support either way.[/p][p]Expect a beta update every 2-3 weeks until “The Last Exhibit” drops for real sometime late this Fall! Please send feedback on the Steam forums or join our Discord.[/p][p]As always, thank you for playing, and see you at the next update![/p][p]- Danny[/p][p][/p]

Hello friends! It's been a little while since we've posted anything here, so we thought no time like the present for helping convince you to play Mondrian on your Steam Deck!

While the game is not officially verified, we would like to personally assure you that the code has gone through extensive optimization to be as good as we've been able to get it. With that in mind, here is how things look compared to Steam's official verification requirements:

[h3]Input[/h3]

• Controller Support: Mondrian - Plastic Reality has full controller support, and in fact, this was prioritized specifically because of wanting the game to play great on Steam Deck.
  
• Controller Glyphs: Out of the box, the game defaults to Steam Deck/Xbox One controller glyphs. You can of course change these in the Options menu if you prefer.
  
• Text Input: The on-screen keyboard pops up for naming your levels and inputting your author name in Mondrian Maker.
  

[h3]Display[/h3]

• Resolution Support: The game will automatically scale to 1280x720 on the Steam Deck's screen. You will get black bars on the top and bottom of the screen but these do not interfere with gameplay.
  
• Default Configuration: Mondrian has been optimized to never drop below 60fps. You should have a very smooth time whenever you play.
  
• Text Legibility: 99.99% of all text in the game should be legible and meet the minimum size requirements. In particular, all important menu and story text absolutely does. If we missed some, please let us know.
  

[h3]Seamlessness[/h3]

• No Device Compatibility Warnings: We have never received a Device Compatibility Warning on the first gen Steam Decks which were used for testing. You should also be golden here.
  
• Launchers: Mondrian does not have any launchers or anticheat clients which would get in the way of you opening the game.
  

[h3]Proton[/h3]
As Clickteam Fusion Developer 2.5+, the game's engine, does not include a Linux exporter, Mondrian will always run under the Proton Compatibility Layer. However, any bugs related to this were cleaned up about two years ago. Your experience playing the game under the Proton Compatibility Layer will be excellent.



Since we don't expect Mondrian to ever be a priority for verification, we wanted to come here and let you know what you can expect out of the experience.

Thank you for reading and thank you for playing!
- Danny

Hello everyone! Just a small update today to fix some issues.[h3]Features[/h3]

• Users can now skip cutscenes with any key press, mouse click, or controller button.
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Fixed a long-standing typo in Adventure Mode.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed Gem Shields not spawning in their respective tutorial level in Adventure Mode.