Wow! VERY impressive take on the match 3 genre! Love how you need to match the piece you're moving, and not the piece you're moving to... Makes for more strategy... And for anyone wondering, this is NOT just a match3 skinned with chess pieces, pieces move like they do in chess. And the three different modes (along with a 4th 'practice' mode), each offer up totally different strategies/gameplay. Really, it's hard to think that no one has come up with this before now! Thank you for the GREAT game! =oD Gonna be staying on my device for quite some time.
Game Impressions Okay, another potential game mode idea! Royal Court: (You must summon the royal court without needlessly pestering those you've already summoned) How about something based around needing to clear sets of each of the 6 pieces (in no particular order) to avoid losing a life (assuming they have something like 8 lives ala Pawn'd)? As soon as a move is made where no new piece is cleared (directly or via cascade), a life is lost. Once all 6 pieces have been cleared, the player receives a nice little bonus and the process starts all over again. Play continues until all lives are lost.
And the update to Pawn'd is now out too, adding improvements and a the new Ivy'd game type. Fight off the growing ivy to keep it from covering the board.
I LOVE THIS NEW MODE!! So, assuming people are already familiar with the game (Bejeweled meets Chess), this mode adds such a clever new layer to the game. The basic concept is that the board is slowly being enveloped by ivy that, once fully grown in a space will lock the piece in place. At the start of the game you see several ivy vines lightly covering the pieces on the bottom row. This means there is trouble afoot as only by clearing a set adjacent or even in the midst of the ivy (pieces covered in ivy can't be moved but can still count as part of a reaction) will hold this ever growing menace at bay. If the initial vines are left untreated on a space they will become full blown ivy covered the next turn. Since the ivy spreads each turn, it is important you make as big a move as possible each turn to hold it back (huge cascades and occasional Checkmates are key to blasting this stuff out of the water. If you are resourceful enough to completely clear the ivy from the board you'll get a big bonus Don't even think your job is over, however, as it will only come back stronger when you move onto the next level (it will cover a bit more of the board at the start). These huge clearing bonuses get bigger and bigger with each clearing you make in a single run!
Love that you're still working on this game. It's still one of my go-to games when I've got some time to kill, and now I'm sure I'll be going back more and more. I love the Ivy'd version and it adds a really good new strategy for the game. Having to keep making your matches at the bottom to get rid of the Ivy is a lot harder than one might think. I do have one little problem with this update... I accidentally touched too low when making a move and I was charged with a "hint". This took 1,000 points off of my score. That seems a little harsh. Also, I'd still love to see other new modes. "The Royal Court" that was brought up a while back was good. And I'd really love to see the Chess theme played out more with some sort of versus/competitive mode. One way would be to see how quickly you can take a certain number of pieces (1 King, 1 Queen, 2 each of the Rook, Knight, and Bishop, and maybe four pawns). Doing that would be a cool sort of "winning chess" idea. The other would require some AI. In this version you alternate turns with the computer (or maybe an online/pass-and-play player). Same sort of rules apply as the above situation. You are trying to clear a board before the opponent does. Even if nothing gets touched with this game from this point on, it's still one of the best hidden gems on the app store. So glad to see it with an update and a chance for more people to find out about it!
We've actually got a good amount done towards a sequel. A number of other game types (one especially that's unlike anything else I've ever seen) and power-ups We're still deciding how to do it, a new quest-type addition to Pawn'd, or a separate game. Since doing the quest to unlock the powerups really changes some of the existing games. Some meetings this week may give us some ideas...
We just submitted an update for Pawn'd It adds a couple new game variations for existing ones, like this Ivy'd Master picture below (the game board starts like that--and notice the move timer and iPad landscape view too.) In addition to the new game modes & updates for newer devices, we redid the menus to be cooler and more helpful; and a number of other nice little touches and enhancements. It's waiting for Apple, so hopefully will be out soon!
Not at all and I'd always been a huge fan of the game, thanks for the heads up! (although it simultaneously depresses me we'll likely never see the full version of Quest mode)
