We are deep in the trenches of level selection / editing for Regency Solitaire II (please wishlist if you haven't already done so!)

It's time to share a quick update with you about our progress and development process...

Mapscreen and CE levels

Jake has been working on map screen variables behind the scenes to make sure they are labeled correctly, and that they work with our new game feature - the Collector's Edition (CE).

Because we are making a 'Collector's Edition' type of game with later-game, unlockable content, he needed to figure out what would happen on our 18 chapter map screen once the separate, bonus content menu becomes active.

The game needed to cache the player's level completion status in both the CE and the main game once both were available/unlocked. Will players who have unlocked the CE levels be likely to flit between this content and the main game? This is something we will need to support just in case!

Various sequences to do with where a player lands if they exit a chapter or hand needed checking, too, to make sure they allowed for extra levels (at this stage, it benefits us with our level editing and cheat codes.)

Testing checked that:

• if the player says no to the resume dialog and goes to the map screen then goes back to the title, it won't show the resume dialog again. This happened in the original game too.
• beating the base game doesn't show a resume dialog.
• resuming a CE levels works.
• It shows a different text and the chapter number (beginning again from 1 for the CE content)

Extra content

Now we have been able to bring in and display CE chapter names, and combine all base + CE levels in the levels folder.

Our starting templates for level design come from levels in previous games that we like the look of, and which meet functional criteria (for more on this topic, see this post.)

We have been creating extensive spreadsheets encompassing details of previous levels, and our new ones for this game. I have also been making level libraries, so that we can easily refer back to things we have made in the past.

In the spreadsheet we log details of how the level looks and how it performs, with any concerning variables flagged so that we can make further modifications as needed. In some cases, it will be a good idea to decide the final destination chapter and hand for a level before finalising these changes. This is due to mainly to balancing - the fact that players get more power ups / wildcards and money as the game progresses.

Level editor

This work on level design and editing has led to some code improvements to our level editor, which now:

• has more grid size flexibility
• can compress levels or expand them horizontally or vertically
• has a 'select all' function
• can quantise an individual card or group of cards to a grid
• has a function to 'park' spare levels in a temporary folder to assist with the process of assigning them to final chapters
• has a multiselect count on UI
• has a key to flip all cards face down
• has more fine-grained rotation so cards or groups can be turned by 1 degree instead of 5.

Automated Testing

Our test code automatically plays a hand and gives us data on the outcome of 100 or 1000 games, so that we can use it to troubleshoot and assess difficulty and other features.

Jake has worked on checking this code, and made sure that wildcards were cleared when doing multiple test runs, for an accurate result. He also checked that removing playable or bow cards at the start of a hand was increasing the powerup charge as intended.

Power ups were also assigned recharge rates - we will revisit these during balancing. We can run the test code both with and without powerups (as mentioned, this becomes more relevant once we know if a level is deployed early- or late-game).

The test code now outputs more values than previously, which helps us make even better levels :) It also helps us to figure out which levers are the most powerful in balancing (we have a pretty good idea but also have a bunch of new power ups, and more in play at once than in Regency Solitaire).

Tooltips

We have scaled up and finessed a bunch of tooltips, and in doing so, had to figure out new font sizes and placement, and what will happen / scope for word number during localisation.

Here's our fresh new power up tooltip:

Tutorial tool tips:

We spent a bit of time deciding the best position for this important tutorial (and subsequent ones), which introduces players to the basics of "golf" solitaire, which are the specific mechanics this game is based on.

Dialogs

We also have dialogs to introduce hidden story items in the game. Here's the first one:

We needed to:

• Make the picture dialog support more lines ready for localisation
• Make the main text dialog (for OK dialog, error dialog, yes/no dialog) automatically scale down the text until it fits read for localisation:
  

Tutorials

We finalised the tutorial list, which needs to cover joker, wildcard and recharge tutorial levels/hands. We also have Regal Lock and Butterfly Card tutorials.

There are some technical points to consider in designing tutorials, one example is ensuring a joker isn't on the top layer on the Trident powerup tutorial level in case it gets removed by the powerup.

Some tutorials also require us to 'force' a card to the top just once to ensure players see it on a designated hand or chapter with a relevant tutorial (such as introducing wildcards).

Tea card

The tea cards appear randomly and, once played, rapidly charge a power up. We had to discuss the fine details of how this might work. How frequently should they spawn? Should they recharge a power-up entirely or all powerups partially? Do they only spawn on a tutorial level when the player has a decharged or semi-charged power up, so that we can show off what they do?

Additionally, we wanted to debut the tea card on our tea party chapter.

At present, we have decided to force a tea card on chapter 3, with a flag in place to not have them spawn earlier in the game. It will also spawn first when there is at least one power up available that is not fully charged.

In addition to making these decisions, the outcome needed adding to the automatic test run code, so that we could account for them in our level output stats (as discussed above).

Meanwhile, we scaled up our shiny gold arrow, which bobs up and down during tutorials:

Anyhow, I must get back to level editing. Here's a pretty one we made earlier: