Patchman vs. Red Circles News

Launch is a go!!



Don't be Patchman? But you ARE Patchman! So how do you stop being him? We can think of one way...

We've built, played, battered, and finalized the first episode of the game. Twenty Steam Achievements are ready to be collected, we're running a Leaderboard contest, you can start collecting the comic book, and begin figuring out the mystery of why YOU shouldn't be Patchman. Who? Well, come along with us and find out. We have so much to show you... epic plot twists, mind-blowing theme, and all that.

Later, when we add more episodes, this Steam package will contain them for FREE! I must apologize as the budget behind this game is tiny and as such the technical visual quality isn't as amazing as your average game is expected to be these days. But what we lack in tech we made up for in clever gameplay and unique story!

You can enter our leaderboard contest to win a coffee mug just by playing on Steam, but we'll have one more never-done-before contest announced next week. It should be a doozy!

cheers

LEADERBOARD CONTEST:

At the end of the year we'll be sending out Championship Coffee Mugs to the top players on our Steam leaderboards! We'll take a snapshot of the best scores at the end of each year, post them, and if you're on it you'll just need to contact us to claim your mug by sending us your mailing address. We hope to run the same contest every year.



For the best scores, and to be logged on Fastest Time boards, we advise playing on HARD difficulty mode.

You can see full information about the contest here:

http://www.dontbepatchman.com/leaderboards.php

TRADING CARDS:

We've added 6 trading cards to the game! The first five feature Patchman fighting one of the bosses in the game, while the final card is a special rare victory card showing Patchman on top of a pile of broken drones. In this card Patchman has all the power, as he holds the hoe, the most useful gardening tool, and in the other hand he holds the comic book, so he knows the truth...

We want to show them off but then that would spoil the fun of collecting them!

LEADERBOARD CONTEST:

At the end of the year we'll be sending out Championship Coffee Mugs to the top players on our Steam leaderboards! We'll take a snapshot of the best scores at the end of each year, post them, and if you're on it you'll just need to contact us to claim your mug by sending us your mailing address. We hope to run the same contest every year.



For the best scores, and to be logged on Fastest Time boards, we advise playing on HARD difficulty mode.

You can see full information about the contest here:

http://www.dontbepatchman.com/leaderboards.php

TRADING CARDS:

We've added 6 trading cards to the game! The first five feature Patchman fighting one of the bosses in the game, while the final card is a special rare victory card showing Patchman on top of a pile of broken drones. In this card Patchman has all the power, as he holds the hoe, the most useful gardening tool, and in the other hand he holds the comic book, so he knows the truth...

We want to show them off but then that would spoil the fun of collecting them!

After a lot of debate, we've made a significant change to our game mechanics. The hoe, shovel, and axe have all been modified and placed in different levels. Why? Part of the reason is that the hoe was always supposed to be the most powerful tool, the goto for Patchman, but it turned out the shovel became by far the best tool to take with you from the shack.

OLD TOOL POWERS:

Hoe - Removes low plants from the ground/soil
Shovel - Digs new soil
Axe - Removes larger plants from the ground/soil

NEW TOOL POWERS:

Axe - Removes most plants and bushes
Hoe - Creates new soil from grassy tiles
Shovel - Digs near water and rivers to expand them

This new setup gives a broader range of actions Patchman can do!

The unfortunate part is that now you get the Axe first, and that seems a bit out of place, not getting the Hoe until the Sheeple Rush level. Also, the Axe is misleading because players tend to think it can be used to attack Drones or Sheeple... but it's really not meant to do that. So we may even at some point replace the Axe with a less "offensive" tool.

BALANCING: TODO

All the tools still need more balancing. The hoe is a bit overpowerful, so we are thinking of ways to tone it down a bit. The overpower doesn't really make the game way easier, just slower. If you can hoe unlimited soil and grow too many plants, the simulation will just slow down. So we want to have a way to limit that, whether it's weeds or grass that overgrow your extra soil, or something else...

After a lot of debate, we've made a significant change to our game mechanics. The hoe, shovel, and axe have all been modified and placed in different levels. Why? Part of the reason is that the hoe was always supposed to be the most powerful tool, the goto for Patchman, but it turned out the shovel became by far the best tool to take with you from the shack.

OLD TOOL POWERS:

Hoe - Removes low plants from the ground/soil
Shovel - Digs new soil
Axe - Removes larger plants from the ground/soil

NEW TOOL POWERS:

Axe - Removes most plants and bushes
Hoe - Creates new soil from grassy tiles
Shovel - Digs near water and rivers to expand them

This new setup gives a broader range of actions Patchman can do!

The unfortunate part is that now you get the Axe first, and that seems a bit out of place, not getting the Hoe until the Sheeple Rush level. Also, the Axe is misleading because players tend to think it can be used to attack Drones or Sheeple... but it's really not meant to do that. So we may even at some point replace the Axe with a less "offensive" tool.

BALANCING: TODO

All the tools still need more balancing. The hoe is a bit overpowerful, so we are thinking of ways to tone it down a bit. The overpower doesn't really make the game way easier, just slower. If you can hoe unlimited soil and grow too many plants, the simulation will just slow down. So we want to have a way to limit that, whether it's weeds or grass that overgrow your extra soil, or something else...