Hello everyone! We're long overdue to give a status update on the state of the game, but we've recently hit the big milestone we've been working toward these past few weeks. It's taken a bit longer than anticipated, so we went longer without an update than I'd hoped we would, but that update is now!
Petal Crash 2 is actually already available to play for backers that pledged at the Backstage tier or higher! If you pledged at that level, check your BackerKit survey - you should now have access to a Steam key and an invite link to the backstage Discord server. You'll get access to the score attack and local versus modes, as well as the feature we just finished - the Puzzle Editor, with Puzzle Mode with it!
We've made some exciting additions, allowing for an even wider possibility space for your Petal Crash puzzles. In the original game, there was only one goal - to clear all blocks of a certain type. Now, that's merely one of several goals you can pick - you might be tasked with clearing a chain of a certain length, or arranging a specific shape on the board. We've also got a new "rule" mechanic - alternative failure conditions for puzzles that make them even trickier! You might have to clear your entire goal in one move, or even avoid clearing blocks of a specific color.
We've also got a brand new system for sharing your puzzles - instead of the original's long puzzle codes, now you have puzzle cards!
Each card is a .png file that contains the entire puzzle in its metadata - you can send these images back and forth with your friends, dropping them into your puzzle folder to play them. Personalized with your chosen player color, character, and costume palette, these puzzle cards are a great way to show off your creations. Collect them all! (Disclaimer: New ones will constantly be made. You will never be able to collect them all.)
The State of Development
It's no secret that development is going a lot slower than I'd like - I'd hoped we'd already have the game in Early Access by now, but we've still got a ways to go. In general, UI related work is taking much longer than I thought it would, and that sort of work makes up a majority of what's yet to be done.
That said, we've also hit a lot of exciting milestones, too. All of the character animation, music themes, and backgrounds needed for Early Access are ready to go. We've got a lot of fun stuff waiting in the wings to get hooked in, like our system for unlockable player titles and character palettes. The game itself plays great, and has been well received by both newcomers and veteran Petal sickos in our Backstage server.
All that we have left to do before the game is ready for Early Access is to have our How to Play demos in, get the unlockable customization system up and running, make a bunch of built-in puzzles for the Puzzle Mode, and get a vs. CPU opponent up and running for an arcade-style versus gauntlet mode. I'm hoping that we can have the game up publicly for sale in Early Access by the end of the year - we'll be doing our very best to make that happen!
