Comments - SeanMPuckett

Great point. I changed it to Puzzle with a subtype of "Puzzle Compilation" which seemed to be what most other time-challenge matching games went with. What the heck! At least Trichrome should be easier to find now.

So what do you viewers think? Should this be a "puzzle" or "arcade" game?

Thanks for the kind words, btw!

Trichrome 1.3 has been approved by Desura mods so now you can enjoy some great full screen action!

I've just uploaded version 1.3 for Windows which adds proper full screen support, including a toggle on the presentation screen. As soon as Desura admins approve it, it'll be all yours.

Oh also you should all take a look at this great review from Toronto Thumbs! They're big fans!

Trichrome Review: Torontothumbs.com

Quick note that I've got the update to Unity and am working on a full screen fix as well as a few other bugs and quirks. Thanks for the support!

Just a quick update after double-checking -- full screen mode was disabled in Trichrome version 1.2 because of an intermittent full screen switching crash bug in Unity 4.1.5f1. As soon as that's corrected I'll get an update into Desura. Sorry for the problem there. Using the maximize window control makes the game as big as possible, but admittedly it doesn't cover the whole screen. It's as close as I could get without having a showstopper bug.

If you hold the ALT key down when launching the game, you'll get a screen control dialog that might let you tweak game settings. However, Trichrome only draws a 4:3 screen ratio, so you'll get black bars on either side of the playfield when full screen. There's nothing there to see!

Glad you enjoy the game! Unity is indeed 3D, I'm just using flat objects.

There are five score bonus systems in Trichrome during gameplay. (Level end bonuses are different.)

1) Speed bonus.

The faster you play, the higher your score. The best players can achieve 5x speed bonus. But even beginners can get up to 2x if you don't dally too much.

2) Level bonus.

Starts at 1.0x and increases by 0.25x per level. So, on level 5, you get 2x on every score.

3) Pure bonus.

Starts at 1.0x with no pure tiles created and increases by 0.33 per pure tile on the board. Create three pure tiles and not only have you almost opened up a winning move, you are scoring at 2x.

4) Type bonus.

Basic tiles score 1x, advanced tiles score 4x, evolved tiles 7x, and pure tiles 10x.

5) Shape bonus.

The more symmetrical the shape you create, the higher the shape bonus. These are the highest bonuses in the game, ranging from 1x for a "wild" (unsymmetrical) shape to an incredible 135x for a natural looped quad kaleido propeller combo.

The bonus system encourages fast, smart, tactical play, and just to give you an idea of how bonuses can stack, it is possible to score more than one million points in a single game-winning combo.

Yes! Yes! [evil laughter] Yes! Trichrome has been unleashed upon the world!

Let the gnashing of teeth begin!

Trichrome releases today for PC on Desura! Really looking forward to getting this in your hands.

Hey great news -- my game Trichrome is scheduled for release on July 25, 2013. Keen to get this in your hands!

Once you get to a certain level of play in Trichrome -- especially when you're going for points -- you learn that the most important move in the game is the last one, because that's when you cash in your pure combo, the pattern you've been creating for the last 1000+ tiles.

Once you complete a pure combo, you've won & the game ends and your score is tallied up with a bonus for any tiles left on the board.

But you don't have to complete it -- you could keep building, going for a better pure combo.

The most key question in Trichrome becomes then: Do you want to risk it? Or play it safe?

This is the essence of the game; deciding which move will be your last.

The risk is that you'll lose the game by running out of time. You earn more time by making combos and picking off starter tiles. But those only go so far; in higher levels you have to move faster and faster.

And if you run out of time, you lose. And you'll feel the pain of losing; of failing that risk assessment. Because when you lose, you lose spectacularly. Just as you get a big positive bonus for winning, you get a negative bonus for losing.

And at high levels of play, your losing bonus could be massive -- it can even be more points than you have.

Yep, in Trichrome, it's possible to end an almost perfect high score game, with a score of zero.

It's evil, but it's fair. You're rewarded highly for taking risks and succeeding, and you're punished severely for taking risks and failing.

I love hard games. I love games that challenge player skill, not only to get better, but to get smarter. My favourite action game is Dark Souls.

Perhaps you'd like to think of Trichrome as the Dark Souls of arcade puzzle games. I think I'd like that.

I created Trichrome because I thought that the same sort of "zen flow" that one gets while playing Tetris or Bejeweled or those other sort of fast-twitch pattern-matching games could also be used for a game with more strategy and complexity. There's nothing wrong with those games, but they don't have deep strategies to plumb. With Trichrome the same pieces can score 200 points or 8000, it all depends on the patterns you make with them.

During playtesting I found this opens up a whole new level of flow; you have to plan your moves well in advance in order to get a good score, and yet you still want to be playing at a very high speed. It really does absorb all your attention whilst playing. We found early on that the game had to be broken up into levels with click-to-continue intermissions where you can catch your breath and blink and wind down again. Without the intermissions, we'd finish up a 10 minute game with our muscles locked and breathing in shallow gasps!