3x64 News

Three years have passed since I was looking forward to physically meeting the players at Game Access 2019 in Brno, where I wanted to introduce the first mobile version of the game. Then the world changed and I wasn't sure if it would ever be possible again. But fortunately, now it seems that the opportunity is indeed coming!

The mobile version has already been released (currently for both Android and iOS), but that doesn't stop us from accepting the invitation to the event and show both versions to fans who plan to visit us in Brno. The last event we attended with the game was Game Developer Session 2019 in Prague, so it will be a big event for us after a long time and I hope this meeting with the players will bring us a lot of energy and inspiration for future games - maybe there will be some hints about our current big project :).

As in the last two events (PGA 2019 and GDS), everyone will once again have the opportunity to win physical blocks from the game - if you reach a decent score in the game :)

In the last post on the occasion of the release of the game for Android, I also promised an update for the PC version which aims to add all the latest missing features that the game should contain. Now two years after the game's release, it's time to publish the fourth, and final major update for the game! We have prepared a new game mode, a new language, a recipe book for powerups and a changed music system! Also the update contains many fixes and tweaks.

[h2]Gravity Mode[/h2]
A new game mode that takes full advantage of the game's gravity mechanics and teaches you to master planning in 4 gravities even better than before. Gravity mode has been my wish since the release, but the implementation has only now taken place so I hope you will enjoy it - don't forget to share the results of your planning skills in a new leaderboard!



[h2]Recipe Book[/h2]
The list of craftable powerups was very requested wish and I agree it's a feature that should be part of the game. So now you can find all recipes of already crafted powerups next to the statistics which can serve you perfectly to refresh the necessary combinations to achieve them!



[h2]New Music System[/h2]
With the final update we decided to share all music themes from the single game modes and also finished events for any game mode - so all standalone music themes are now played randomly in any game mode :)

[h2]Russian translation[/h2]
With the help from our great translator Andrej "Viking" Tichonov, we added complete Russian translation for our Russian fans!

[h2]Dualsense support and fixes[/h2]
The update includes many fixes and tweaks and also brings support for the Dualsense gamepad. See all changes below :)

I hope you will enjoy the new update - for the last two days, the game is still participating in the CZSK Games Week so if you haven't bought 3x64 yet, you can get it now with new gravity mode with 75% discount! I will look forward to your results in the new leaderboard :)

[h2]Full changelog[/h2]

[h3]Major features:[/h3]

• Added Gravity Mode with a separate leaderboard
  
• Added Recipe Book with list of already crafted powerups
  
• Reworked music system - the music is now shared for all game modes and switching is smooth
  
• Added russian translation (thanks to Andrej "Viking" Tichonov)
  
• Added support for Dualsense gamepad
  

[h3]Tweaks:[/h3]

• Added icon for Skip Tutorial on gamepads
  
• Tweaked UI positions for Simple and Gravity mode
  
• Better quality of ingame background for score, level and time
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed not translated buttons when changing resolution
  
• Fixed small inaccessible area by mouse for first powerup
  
• Fixed active menu navigation when changing resolution
  
• Fixed small inaccessible area of buttons when changing resolution
  
• Fixed changing the resolution by buttons
  
• Fixed not aligned polish texts in the tutorial
  
• Tweaked positions of polish ingame texts
  
• Fixed wrong display of arkanoid during replays
  

This week the 3x64 is part of the Czech & Slovak Games Week along with 223 other games - and we decided to join to the livestreams which are important part of this event!

From the beginning of the livestream, we will introduce the game to new players and then we will explore new features of upcoming update! Update will be released during the sale, so you will have a chance to try all new content very soon :)

It's been a long time since the last update of 3x64, but I believe today's great news will be a good compensation - to cut it short, after much testing and tweaking, 3x64 finally arrives to long-promised Android phones!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]About the development[/h2]
I thought it would be nice to talk about why the development took so long. We originally planned the Android release for last year, but it turned out that developing for Android is a little more difficult with too many new challenges. Originally I tried to build the Android version together with the PC version, but soon I found out that it would be better to make it completely separately from the beginning. It was a better decision due to optimization (as the original game, with its many effects and carelessly written code, was quite heavy for mobile GPUs) and also due to controls and UI, which had to be completely different from the PC version.

The UI and controls were the biggest challenges and it took a very long time to find the best possible solution. In the UI, we wanted to make powerups more accessible for fingers which I think we did, and fortunately we have preserved the in-game leaderboard with some new cool animations :). Supporting all aspect ratios with so many UI elements in 3x64 was a big challenge, but I hope it looks good on most devices :)

Searching the right controls was even harder as I wanted to find one common playing style for all players, but testers were divided into two groups - most of them liked the touch screen controls, but some of them played much better with virtual side buttons. In the end, I decided to support both variants.

I'm very grateful to all testers who gave us great feedback, especially during the last month before the release. The game can still have some problems or bugs, but it shouldn't be anything serious.

[h2]Differences in the Android version[/h2]
The Android version has many differences compared to the "classic" PC version. You can notice the biggest change in the controls - it's now possible to move blocks down with fast landing which makes the pace of the game much faster. Also as you unlock new ranks, you can upgrade one of the powerups for a single game and even start with ready to use (or craft) powerups.

For using all these features you need coins - but don't worry, they can be obtained only by playing or completing the quests, there is no way to exchange real money for them. The coins can be also used to get special powers, which are designed to make the game a little easier but at the same time with minimal impact to the leaderboards - all special powers have one use per round.



The mobile version has almost all features from the PC version, including colorblind modes, quests, and multiple game modes. The only PC-exclusive features are replays and cloud profiles with statistics (which are Steam-only). The mobile version is completely free, and is supported by ads in the menus.

[h2]Future updates[/h2]
With the Android release we have met our biggest goal, but there are still some plans for both platforms. I would like to expand the game for iOS soon, and regarding the PC version, I promised myself to finish update 1.4 with some new interesting features and also completely new game mode, but now we begin to focus on a completely new project so I can't promise any dates.

I hope you will enjoy the game, you can find it on Google Play! We will be absolutely happy for any reviews there, or feedback in the discussion here!

The Halloween event came to a conclusion and I'm glad the reactions were very good in the end, especially considering the difficult development :). During the event there were some small updates with fixes, which you can see at the end of the post. But first the results!

[h2]Results[/h2]
The first place in the Halloween leaderboard was won by Morrelo with an incredible score of 5595, who defends his victory from the last event - Destroy Threats Together - and thus wins the badge, Ghost Threats Buster - congratulations to him!

7 players also achieved 800+ score in the Halloween game mode, so each of you already got a special Halloween skin for the threat blocks!

[h2]Small fixes and next plans[/h2]
During the event I released a few fixes for both previous updates - anniversary update 1.3 and Halloween event. But there are still many suggestions and notes from the community, which will be implemented in another bigger update which will come out at a later date. I hope you enjoyed the event and thank you for your patience with implementation of new features and improvements. :)

• Fixed not working threat blocks in tutorial (since Anniversary update)
  
• Quests in the menu now also contains current progress
  
• Fixed wrong target time at Stop Time server quest
  
• Fixed wrong movement of the game modes (menu)
  
• Fixed not correct recognizing the dualshock gamepad
  
• Fixed not working backspace at player name field (game over screen)
  
• Better position of rank and badges in the leaderboards (menu)