Connectrode GameClub "4.5 of 5 stars. Connectrode is everything I look for in a puzzle game!" - TouchArcade.com "...Gorgeous in design and b… TouchArcade Rating: Free Buy Now Watch Media Details"4.5 of 5 stars. Connectrode is everything I look for in a puzzle game!" - TouchArcade.com "...Gorgeous in design and both smooth and challenging in play. …You’ll never tire of this epic game of thought-provoking strategy." - AppAdvice.com "Connectrode is easy to pick up and hard to put down." - The Austin Chronicle Connectrode is a pure puzzle game of simple but elegant strategy. Connect the chips to clear them from the board - but with each connector you place, beware blocking off parts of the board from yourself! The game has no time limits - play at your own pace. Once you master the gameplay, try for a high score and discover new depths of challenge and strategy - and land a high score on the Game Center leaderboards. The "boards" you play in Connectrode are randomly generated - you'll never run out of new challenges. Post your score on a board to Twitter or Facebook, and friends can use your link to play the very same board - they may even beat your score and send a challenge back to you! Connectrode features a gorgeous ambient soundtrack by David Pencil (known for his soundtracks for Penny Arcade: The Series on PATV). This game was developed completely independently by a small team in Austin, Texas - we appreciate your support of indie game development! Information Seller:GameClub Genre:Kids, Puzzle, Strategy Release:Jul 02, 2011 Updated:Jul 21, 2017 Version:2.3.0 Size:39.8 MB TouchArcade Rating: User Rating: (5) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal This is NOT a Match-3 game... you drag a piece (connector) from the top of the screen down to the bottom part of the screen, connecting pieces of the same color together. You can't go through the squares in the lower portion of the screen... so sometimes you have to set the connectors in an empty spot and move on to the next one... it's a really interesting puzzle game, one that I'm REALLY enjoying! There's 4 different difficulty modes, the graphics are great, the controls are spot on, the music is nice, and the gameplay is just great. Fun and entertaining, this one will keep me busy for a long, LONG time! syntheticvoid Well-Known Member Jun 20, 2010 14,504 124 63 Musician & factory worker. a[V-O-I-D] http://apparentsymmetry.bandcamp.com #2 syntheticvoid, Jul 2, 2011 Last edited: Jul 2, 2011 Just finished my first Extreme Mode game... and wow! Totally had me stumped a couple times... I'm really really liking the atmosphere along with gameplay... enough that I wanted to remove a couple games from my sig. and put this one down there... Really recommend this one to you puzzle fans out there! Really wish I had a screen capture video thingy... This one needs a gameplay vid. =o( DeepPlaid Member Nov 5, 2010 21 0 0 #3 DeepPlaid, Jul 3, 2011 Last edited: Jul 3, 2011 Hey syntheticvoid, Thanks a lot for posting about us here on the forums! We just released today and are glad to already see spontaneous enthusiasm for the game emerging... I think it's a good sign that we've made something of real long-term worth. Good point about the need for a gameplay video, I'll try to put one together tonight and share it - I particularly want to share the music, which I think is wonderful (which was composed by David Pencil, who did the chiptune-style soundtrack for Penny Arcade TV season 2). We set out to make a worthy new addition to the puzzle game genre (worthy of comparison to games like Tetris, Drop7, Dr. Mario, and Bejeweled)... we feel that we succeeded. There's nothing as hard as making a game that's "easy to learn, impossible to master", so we're proud of having made something new that meets that description! nikhsterboi Well-Known Member Jan 6, 2010 1,549 0 0 In an Apple store near you #4 nikhsterboi, Jul 3, 2011 Wow...I want this... jyhjyh Well-Known Member Oct 21, 2009 977 4 18 Denmark #5 jyhjyh, Jul 3, 2011 Last edited: Jul 3, 2011 @syntheticvoid Thank you for starting this thread. There are so many fine games in iTunes that goes under my radar. This is a great, fun and inventive game I'm sure this game will stay on my iPod Touch and iPad for a long time. If you are a puzzle fan this game is a must buy. Only thing I miss is an option to turn the music off and still keep the soundeffects. syntheticvoid Well-Known Member Jun 20, 2010 14,504 124 63 Musician & factory worker. a[V-O-I-D] http://apparentsymmetry.bandcamp.com #6 syntheticvoid, Jul 3, 2011 Agreed... I ended up staying up all night playing this and Cuddle Bears... =oP some GameCenter support would be great for high-scores!! I personally LOVE the music... =oP There were times I would find myself just sitting there listening to it and staring off into space hehe... =oD syntheticvoid Well-Known Member Jun 20, 2010 14,504 124 63 Musician & factory worker. a[V-O-I-D] http://apparentsymmetry.bandcamp.com #7 syntheticvoid, Jul 3, 2011 Last edited: Jul 3, 2011 and WOOHOO!!! 10 Ratings in the US AppStore, ALL of them are 5 stars!! CONGRATS Deep Plaid!!! =oD *** Really, I can not believe this game is only a buck. It's got to be one of the best puzzle games I've played in a LONG time. The extra modes are great too... I put it on my daughter's iPod, and she's been playing on Easy, and enjoying it too. =o) Even though I beat a game on Extreme Mode, Medium Mode still gets me stumped sometimes... and I've had 6 or 7 games on Extreme Mode since then that I had to just give up on because I totally screwed myself. =oP Can definitely tell that a LOT of time and effort went into this game. Thank you so much for not rushing this! You've really got one AMAZING game on your hands. =oD DeepPlaid Member Nov 5, 2010 21 0 0 #8 DeepPlaid, Jul 6, 2011 I can't believe it's only $.99 either (and I'm the developer)! I actually just blogged about this topic on my blog, ranting a bit about the price erosion on the App Store, and making some (possibly controversial) observations on how we as developers could have avoided this. It's kinda "inside baseball" for developers but I thought you guys might be interested in the developers' perspective: http://www.deepplaid.com/blog/?p=329 Awesome, good to know that even kids can play Easy and enjoy it... though I'd say most gamers here on TouchArcade would want to go straight to Hard... that mode produces much more challenging situations. We're still standing at a solid 5 stars, but we'd love it if more people would play the game (and review it if they like it)! EnShinNoi Well-Known Member Apr 2, 2011 154 0 0 #9 EnShinNoi, Jul 6, 2011 Last edited: Jul 6, 2011 Have you got a video? It looks good but I can't quite tell what's going on from the images alone. Edit:I purchased it. I'll review it after a decent session. Edit 2: Here's my review. I haven't tried out the facebook/twitter thing. Might I suggest a facebook Connectrode page where everyone can share puzzles? I like competition but I don't have many friends to be competitive with Simple Yet Elegant Connectrode is a well designed puzzle game with a very non-aggressive approach (no time limits) which allows for more concentration on planning ahead. The music and visuals have a strong tranquil quality which helps set the mood for deep thinking. DeepPlaid Member Nov 5, 2010 21 0 0 #10 DeepPlaid, Jul 6, 2011 Thanks for trying and reviewing EnShiNoi, it's appreciated! (Reviews on the app store are appreciated too.) A gameplay video is something we know is really important but haven't yet had time to put together, but I seriously plan to put one together tonight! Aside from showing the gameplay, I want people to be able to preview the great music that David Pencil composed for the game. The idea of doing one big Facebook group for sharing puzzles/scores is a good one! I just added that to our to-do list for the first release. In related functionality, we also plan to do GameCenter support in that release. I'm proud of how we use social networks to let players compete with their friends; but until peoples' friends actually get the game, you're right that it's difficult. (Though searching Twitter for #Connectrode can accomplish something similar.) EnShinNoi Well-Known Member Apr 2, 2011 154 0 0 #11 EnShinNoi, Jul 7, 2011 Last edited: Jul 7, 2011 Game Centre would be nice. Just out of curiosity, is anyone else able to share their scores? Here are mine, keeping in mind I've only played each mode twice. Easy 10700 Medium 12300 Hard 12000 Extreme 11600 Georgina Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Jan 30, 2010 361 7 18 Sydney #12 Georgina, Jul 9, 2011 Last edited: Jul 9, 2011 Game Impressions Thanks for drawing attention to this game, syntheticvoid. I'm enjoying myself, though at this point I'm not sure whether it'll keep my long-term interest. Since the dev's in the thread, a comment and a question. Comment! The wording of "Continuing will overwrite your saved game! Do you want to continue?" is confusing, I feel, because to continue usually means to pick up your saved game from where you left off, not to start a new game. Question! Any chance of a universal down the pipe? Cheers. syntheticvoid Well-Known Member Jun 20, 2010 14,504 124 63 Musician & factory worker. a[V-O-I-D] http://apparentsymmetry.bandcamp.com #13 syntheticvoid, Jul 9, 2011 updated the OP with a youtube vid... still REALLY enjoying this one! It's become one of my favorite puzzle games! Me and the kids had a little competition to see who could get the best score on Medium difficulty... they beat my butt... hehe... and none of us came close to your scores Shin! really, GREAT job! =oD MetaGonzo Well-Known Member May 7, 2009 1,459 271 83 #14 MetaGonzo, Jul 9, 2011 Last edited: Jul 9, 2011 Seems like a great little game, very much enjoying it so far.... BUT... I am also disappointed that you can't turn the music off and keep the SFX. It's a total pet peeve of mine and I can never understand why the option isn't there for those that want it. It doesn't matter how good the music in a game is, I always want it off. I really struggled to enjoy Halo SP because of this; that's how much it annoys me. I would hope to see this addressed in an update. Apart from that; it's a nice, original puzzle gem. Good work devs. Edit: Also, what about a double tap to place rather than the place button. Seems to me it may be a more elegant solution. Misguided Well-Known Member Jan 27, 2009 2,346 19 38 #15 Misguided, Jul 9, 2011 I'm not really feeling this one. It seems to be well made, but I'm just not into it. That's odd, because this should be right up my alley. I think part of it may be a sense of frustration not knowing what the next piece will be. I feel like I have very little ability to plan ahead. EnShinNoi Well-Known Member Apr 2, 2011 154 0 0 #16 EnShinNoi, Jul 9, 2011 Each colour (left on the board) has equal chance of appearing next. It's just a matter of playing the odds to plan for the unknown. This for me is keeping as many options open at all times to avoid getting stuck. Although having said that, I am often forced to take severe risks in extreme mode because of the limited space to move but that's the nature of a higher difficulty. syntheticvoid Well-Known Member Jun 20, 2010 14,504 124 63 Musician & factory worker. a[V-O-I-D] http://apparentsymmetry.bandcamp.com #17 syntheticvoid, Jul 9, 2011 I really like that you have no idea what piece is coming next... though it would add to the planning side of things, I like having to plan for all colors... =oP DeepPlaid Member Nov 5, 2010 21 0 0 #18 DeepPlaid, Jul 10, 2011 Thanks for the praise and for the discussion, glad to see more people enjoying the game. What I've seen so far is that it's not for everyone but people who like it REALLY like it. And thanks syntheticvoid for posting the new trailer, I love what our artist (Dale Austin) put together for it! @Georgina, sorry for not responding to your comment/question... I had missed the 2nd page of this thread...! I'll reply now... Good call, I'm going to go fix that text right now. ...There, now it says "By starting a new game, you will erase your current saved game. Do you want to proceed?" There you go, you've officially left your stamp on the game Georgina! That'll be in the first update to the game... You also asked: I assume this means a Universal App, i.e. running as a native iPad app. The only benefit would be higher-definition graphics... but for sprite graphics such as we're using, you can't just scale graphics up, you have to redo them from scratch at the larger size. (The same is true for scaling sprite graphics down!) Also, we're all indies who are working full-time jobs and have been making this game in what spare time we have! In the end it just wasn't worth the trouble and time. We made the best, most engaging and addictive game we could with the limited time and resources we had. Speaking of limited time... I see other questions on the thread and I want to answer, but I gotta run right now... Will log on later and follow up, glad y'all are enjoying the game!! EnShinNoi Well-Known Member Apr 2, 2011 154 0 0 #19 EnShinNoi, Jul 10, 2011 Last edited: Jul 10, 2011 I've been wondering, what's the reasoning behind capping the streak at 7x? Also, it having no effect on the match-3 500 bonus? This makes matching 3 always the poorer choice during a streak. My guess is you didn't want the scoring to have a huge reliance on luck, which massive combos tend to favour. So the 7x cap is in place to close the gap between skill and luck, while balancing match-2 multiplies with the match-3 bonus. Am I right? DeepPlaid Member Nov 5, 2010 21 0 0 #20 DeepPlaid, Jul 10, 2011 Good guess, and in fact one reason I thought it was acceptable to leave these things that way was because they did have a good effect in that respect. But our engine (the open-source Flixel engine) had some limitations in displaying text: for a while it looked like it would be impossible to get our own font of choice in the engine so that we could draw whatever text we wanted. Instead we used static images of the text we wanted to show. Even the score in the top-right was put together with separate images of each of the numerals! The effect of this was that it was really tricky to just "print out" any score we wanted. So first I hooked up a "triple" score pop-up, but the "500 points" was baked into that. Later I decided to add the streak bonus: but since, again, it was hard to just dynamically draw any number to the screen, I made separate images for the 100 through 700 popups... and I had to draw a limit somewhere. (I'm actually impressed that you noticed the limitation, not many people hit a x8 streak, including me! But developers are rarely the best players at their own game.) In the last month of development I finally worked out being able to draw text however we wanted. One of my game designer heroes, Frank Lantz, played the game and gave me the same note that he'd like the streak bonus to "stack" with the triple bonus - I didn't have time to make that change before release but I am planning on adding it in the first update! (This will allow people to make higher scores that ever before, so I didn't want to do it lightly, but I think it's worth adding.) I'm planning to keep the x7 limit however, for exactly the reasons you said. Though I made that gameplay limitation based on technical limitations originally, I agree that it also has a good effect on gameplay, for the reasons you outlined. Getting the right balance between luck and skill in a game's design is a tricky thing. 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Just finished my first Extreme Mode game... and wow! Totally had me stumped a couple times... I'm really really liking the atmosphere along with gameplay... enough that I wanted to remove a couple games from my sig. and put this one down there... Really recommend this one to you puzzle fans out there! Really wish I had a screen capture video thingy... This one needs a gameplay vid. =o(
Hey syntheticvoid, Thanks a lot for posting about us here on the forums! We just released today and are glad to already see spontaneous enthusiasm for the game emerging... I think it's a good sign that we've made something of real long-term worth. Good point about the need for a gameplay video, I'll try to put one together tonight and share it - I particularly want to share the music, which I think is wonderful (which was composed by David Pencil, who did the chiptune-style soundtrack for Penny Arcade TV season 2). We set out to make a worthy new addition to the puzzle game genre (worthy of comparison to games like Tetris, Drop7, Dr. Mario, and Bejeweled)... we feel that we succeeded. There's nothing as hard as making a game that's "easy to learn, impossible to master", so we're proud of having made something new that meets that description!
@syntheticvoid Thank you for starting this thread. There are so many fine games in iTunes that goes under my radar. This is a great, fun and inventive game I'm sure this game will stay on my iPod Touch and iPad for a long time. If you are a puzzle fan this game is a must buy. Only thing I miss is an option to turn the music off and still keep the soundeffects.
Agreed... I ended up staying up all night playing this and Cuddle Bears... =oP some GameCenter support would be great for high-scores!! I personally LOVE the music... =oP There were times I would find myself just sitting there listening to it and staring off into space hehe... =oD
and WOOHOO!!! 10 Ratings in the US AppStore, ALL of them are 5 stars!! CONGRATS Deep Plaid!!! =oD *** Really, I can not believe this game is only a buck. It's got to be one of the best puzzle games I've played in a LONG time. The extra modes are great too... I put it on my daughter's iPod, and she's been playing on Easy, and enjoying it too. =o) Even though I beat a game on Extreme Mode, Medium Mode still gets me stumped sometimes... and I've had 6 or 7 games on Extreme Mode since then that I had to just give up on because I totally screwed myself. =oP Can definitely tell that a LOT of time and effort went into this game. Thank you so much for not rushing this! You've really got one AMAZING game on your hands. =oD
I can't believe it's only $.99 either (and I'm the developer)! I actually just blogged about this topic on my blog, ranting a bit about the price erosion on the App Store, and making some (possibly controversial) observations on how we as developers could have avoided this. It's kinda "inside baseball" for developers but I thought you guys might be interested in the developers' perspective: http://www.deepplaid.com/blog/?p=329 Awesome, good to know that even kids can play Easy and enjoy it... though I'd say most gamers here on TouchArcade would want to go straight to Hard... that mode produces much more challenging situations. We're still standing at a solid 5 stars, but we'd love it if more people would play the game (and review it if they like it)!
Have you got a video? It looks good but I can't quite tell what's going on from the images alone. Edit:I purchased it. I'll review it after a decent session. Edit 2: Here's my review. I haven't tried out the facebook/twitter thing. Might I suggest a facebook Connectrode page where everyone can share puzzles? I like competition but I don't have many friends to be competitive with Simple Yet Elegant Connectrode is a well designed puzzle game with a very non-aggressive approach (no time limits) which allows for more concentration on planning ahead. The music and visuals have a strong tranquil quality which helps set the mood for deep thinking.
Thanks for trying and reviewing EnShiNoi, it's appreciated! (Reviews on the app store are appreciated too.) A gameplay video is something we know is really important but haven't yet had time to put together, but I seriously plan to put one together tonight! Aside from showing the gameplay, I want people to be able to preview the great music that David Pencil composed for the game. The idea of doing one big Facebook group for sharing puzzles/scores is a good one! I just added that to our to-do list for the first release. In related functionality, we also plan to do GameCenter support in that release. I'm proud of how we use social networks to let players compete with their friends; but until peoples' friends actually get the game, you're right that it's difficult. (Though searching Twitter for #Connectrode can accomplish something similar.)
Game Centre would be nice. Just out of curiosity, is anyone else able to share their scores? Here are mine, keeping in mind I've only played each mode twice. Easy 10700 Medium 12300 Hard 12000 Extreme 11600
Game Impressions Thanks for drawing attention to this game, syntheticvoid. I'm enjoying myself, though at this point I'm not sure whether it'll keep my long-term interest. Since the dev's in the thread, a comment and a question. Comment! The wording of "Continuing will overwrite your saved game! Do you want to continue?" is confusing, I feel, because to continue usually means to pick up your saved game from where you left off, not to start a new game. Question! Any chance of a universal down the pipe? Cheers.
updated the OP with a youtube vid... still REALLY enjoying this one! It's become one of my favorite puzzle games! Me and the kids had a little competition to see who could get the best score on Medium difficulty... they beat my butt... hehe... and none of us came close to your scores Shin! really, GREAT job! =oD
Seems like a great little game, very much enjoying it so far.... BUT... I am also disappointed that you can't turn the music off and keep the SFX. It's a total pet peeve of mine and I can never understand why the option isn't there for those that want it. It doesn't matter how good the music in a game is, I always want it off. I really struggled to enjoy Halo SP because of this; that's how much it annoys me. I would hope to see this addressed in an update. Apart from that; it's a nice, original puzzle gem. Good work devs. Edit: Also, what about a double tap to place rather than the place button. Seems to me it may be a more elegant solution.
I'm not really feeling this one. It seems to be well made, but I'm just not into it. That's odd, because this should be right up my alley. I think part of it may be a sense of frustration not knowing what the next piece will be. I feel like I have very little ability to plan ahead.
Each colour (left on the board) has equal chance of appearing next. It's just a matter of playing the odds to plan for the unknown. This for me is keeping as many options open at all times to avoid getting stuck. Although having said that, I am often forced to take severe risks in extreme mode because of the limited space to move but that's the nature of a higher difficulty.
I really like that you have no idea what piece is coming next... though it would add to the planning side of things, I like having to plan for all colors... =oP
Thanks for the praise and for the discussion, glad to see more people enjoying the game. What I've seen so far is that it's not for everyone but people who like it REALLY like it. And thanks syntheticvoid for posting the new trailer, I love what our artist (Dale Austin) put together for it! @Georgina, sorry for not responding to your comment/question... I had missed the 2nd page of this thread...! I'll reply now... Good call, I'm going to go fix that text right now. ...There, now it says "By starting a new game, you will erase your current saved game. Do you want to proceed?" There you go, you've officially left your stamp on the game Georgina! That'll be in the first update to the game... You also asked: I assume this means a Universal App, i.e. running as a native iPad app. The only benefit would be higher-definition graphics... but for sprite graphics such as we're using, you can't just scale graphics up, you have to redo them from scratch at the larger size. (The same is true for scaling sprite graphics down!) Also, we're all indies who are working full-time jobs and have been making this game in what spare time we have! In the end it just wasn't worth the trouble and time. We made the best, most engaging and addictive game we could with the limited time and resources we had. Speaking of limited time... I see other questions on the thread and I want to answer, but I gotta run right now... Will log on later and follow up, glad y'all are enjoying the game!!
I've been wondering, what's the reasoning behind capping the streak at 7x? Also, it having no effect on the match-3 500 bonus? This makes matching 3 always the poorer choice during a streak. My guess is you didn't want the scoring to have a huge reliance on luck, which massive combos tend to favour. So the 7x cap is in place to close the gap between skill and luck, while balancing match-2 multiplies with the match-3 bonus. Am I right?
Good guess, and in fact one reason I thought it was acceptable to leave these things that way was because they did have a good effect in that respect. But our engine (the open-source Flixel engine) had some limitations in displaying text: for a while it looked like it would be impossible to get our own font of choice in the engine so that we could draw whatever text we wanted. Instead we used static images of the text we wanted to show. Even the score in the top-right was put together with separate images of each of the numerals! The effect of this was that it was really tricky to just "print out" any score we wanted. So first I hooked up a "triple" score pop-up, but the "500 points" was baked into that. Later I decided to add the streak bonus: but since, again, it was hard to just dynamically draw any number to the screen, I made separate images for the 100 through 700 popups... and I had to draw a limit somewhere. (I'm actually impressed that you noticed the limitation, not many people hit a x8 streak, including me! But developers are rarely the best players at their own game.) In the last month of development I finally worked out being able to draw text however we wanted. One of my game designer heroes, Frank Lantz, played the game and gave me the same note that he'd like the streak bonus to "stack" with the triple bonus - I didn't have time to make that change before release but I am planning on adding it in the first update! (This will allow people to make higher scores that ever before, so I didn't want to do it lightly, but I think it's worth adding.) I'm planning to keep the x7 limit however, for exactly the reasons you said. Though I made that gameplay limitation based on technical limitations originally, I agree that it also has a good effect on gameplay, for the reasons you outlined. Getting the right balance between luck and skill in a game's design is a tricky thing.
