After making the first few levels for my game, I decided to add a few twists to the puzzles to make for even greater challenges. Arranging the board in interesting ways could only be done so much until it's difficult to create fun, new levels. I introduced two new mechanics to make things more interesting.
My first idea was to add squares that had to be painted over twice to be completely filled. They look like this:
My second idea was to add squares that had to be painted, but that you couldn't click on directly. The only way to paint these squares is to have one of the residual dribbles land on it:
These two new mechanics sparked the creation of 10 levels each, bringing my grand total up to 30 levels. I was now in a position where I wanted people to start playtesting my game. So, I started making some preparations for that. First of all, I wanted the game to feel more polished. So, I added these few things:
That green checker pattern makes the game much prettier to look at.
The game now shows some of my philosophical musings every time you complete a level:
Finally, I had to make sure that I had some way to get feedback from my playtesters. I used SurveyMonkey to create a playtester's survey and provided links to the survey both at the end of the game and from the main menu. Most of my playtesters were members of Colorado's development community, but I also had my family and all of my close friends try it out as well. Stay tuned for the next article where I talk about the playtesting results and my future plans for POLYPAINT.
Oh yeah... Did I mention I changed the name of the game to POLYPAINT? I thought it was a fitting title, considering that you paint all the surrounding squares whenever you paint a square. See ya next time!
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