Puzzle Retreat slides onto Windows Phone 8, we look behind the scenes

Slowly only surely, the upcoming Windows Phone 8 games we previewed from Casual Connect a few months ago have started to appear on the Shop. Showtime came Babel Rise 3D, then Yeti on Furry (awful name!) and Nightmares from the Deep: the Siren'southward Call. At present Puzzle Retreat, the first game nosotros covered from the show, has finally get available on Windows Phone eight.

Puzzle Retreat (from Australian programmer Voxel Agents) is quite clearly a puzzle game. Windows Telephone owners can enjoy the first 60 levels for gratuitous, then opt to purchase additional level packs if they like. The developers took great pains to ensure Puzzle Retreat runs on devices with 512 MB of RAM, so everyone rocking a Windows Phone 8 device can play it.

We've got impressions, easily on video, and new behind the scenes info from the developer – all after the break!

Become away from the grind

The basic goal in Puzzle Retreat is to fill every empty space on the board by sliding blocks into it. A block can only be moved in one case, and only in the cardinal directions. Once all the empty spots are filled and the blocks have all been used, y'all win the level.

Before long, a variety of special blocks and tiles brand their way into the puzzles:

• Blocks with die patterns on them will separate into 2-v separate blocks when moved, filling multiple spaces.
• Water ice blocks can h2o Bonsai saplings or be melted by fire blocks.
• Burn blocks cook ice blocks and turn into an impassable block when they burn out.
• Bonsai saplings abound into impassable trees when ice blocks touch them.
• Arrow tiles cause whatever blocks pass over them to move in a unlike direction.
• And more!

Since blocks can just exist moved once and puzzles get increasingly circuitous, it's possible to make a error that prevents you from finishing the level. If that happens, players tin undo any move they've made so far by pressing the undo button on the previous motility (the hardware Back button besides performs the same activeness on Windows Phone). Or kickoff from scratch past tapping the reset button at the top of the screen.

Call for help

If y'all really struggle with a puzzle, assistance is but a push press away. Press the Help button at the top of the screen to visit a Facebook page defended to that specific puzzle. There players tin can ask questions and offer advice. It's definitely an innovative use of Facebook.

However, the characteristic's implementation on Windows Phone leaves something to be desired. The page loads up in a spider web browser at a highly zoomed, non optimized for mobile level. Considering information technology can't be zoomed out, the shared solutions are difficult to read.

Voxel Agents discovered this issue during the game's QA process. Unfortunately they don't have the control over the page'south formatting on Windows Phone. Only they are currently working with Facebook to solve the problem, which should not require an actual title update.

Graphics and sound

Besides clever and challenging gameplay, Puzzle Retreat has as well benefited from its very solid artistic blueprint and UI. On the level select screen, yous get a preview of the level'due south appearance and indicators for whether that level is un-played, in progress, or completed. During gameplay, all the functions you'd need are just a single push button tap away.

Backgrounds look similar they're made of wood, as do most of the blocks. Slide a block into the spaces and they make a satisfying "thunk" sound. Everything is bright and inviting. The simply disappointing aspect of the audio for me is the complete lack of music. I always prefer an in-game soundtrack to hunting down my own tunes.

Building a ameliorate port

Puzzle Retreat utilizes the Unity game engine, allowing for a relatively painless porting process from iOS to Windows Telephone 8. It took a team of two (i designer and one programmer) two months to bring the game over. That's the same time behind the Android port, so at least Windows Telephone doesn't seem that much harder to work with than the competition.

The developers added a couple of improvements in the process of bringing their baby over to Microsoft'south smartphone platform. For one: they enhanced the level completion blitheness. This should increase the satisfaction players feel when they beat a level. Information technology does look pretty cool when all the blocks popular out of their holes before the game moves on to the next stage.

The second picayune enhancement: a live tile. Subsequently pinning the game to the Start screen, its tile will brandish the game's logo atop the almost contempo phase'due south background. It's not the most inventive apply of a live tile, only still a absurd affect regardless.

One challenge that Voxel Agents faced involved Puzzle Retreat'south stability on low retentiveness devices. The game would sometimes crash when played on the Lumia 520 and other devices with 512 MB of RAM. The developers discovered that an issue with Unity was the source of the problem.

A huge segment of the Windows Telephone 8 market owns 512 MB phones, so Voxel Agents would have limited the game's penetration potential had they released the game without low memory support. Leaving the crash in would have tarnished their reputation for quality and polish, so that wouldn't have been platonic either. In the end, the team decided to delay the release until Unity could fix the engine problem.

Windows Phone and beyond

Equally long as Puzzle Retreat does well on Windows Phone, the developer plans to support it with new content and features. One of those features is cloud save back up. Now, players can restore purchases, but actual save data is non stored on the cloud. As for new content, the "Promenade" level pack that debuted on Android last week will likely be released for Windows Phone as well.

A game similar Puzzle Retreat plays great on tablets also as phones. Voxel Agents kickoff demonstrated it to us on an iPad, afterwards all. Naturally we'd beloved to run across a Windows 8 version to complement the phone version. Voxel Agents reveals that a Windows 8 port is "on [the] radar."

Again, the decision to go ahead with it will depend on the Windows Telephone game's performance. As long as the telephone version does well plenty, nosotros can wait Puzzle Retreat to appear on Windows 8 during the first half of 2022.

One pack at a time

Puzzle Retreat includes two free level packs: "Welcome" and "Morning." Welcome starts out piece of cake enough, only the challenge ramps up around the fifteenth level or so out of 24. Morning is fifty-fifty more deviously difficult from the offset. It will take careful thought and exercise to clear its 36 levels.

Players who want more block-sliding puzzles can buy extra level packs for 99 cents each. At nowadays, the Windows Phone version offers six extra packs – all with 36 levels apiece. These new level sets characteristic unique backgrounds, advanced block varieties, and new completion animations and sounds. I grabbed the "Piano" pack and was not disappointed to hear a piano fanfare when I beat a level.

Puzzle games don't tend to amaze from a technical standpoint. Only games like Puzzle Retreat can catch certain players and reject to let get. These puzzles crave plenty of planning and/or experimentation in order to succeed. I imagine the game has some will be too hard for certain players, but at to the lowest degree you can ever movement on to a different puzzle or utilise the Facebook assistance feature if you're stuck.

Puzzle Retreat has lots to offer puzzle fans. Hopefully mobile Windows platforms will run across lots more from Voxel Agents in the hereafter.

• Puzzle Retreat – Windows Phone 8 – 18 MB – Free – Store Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/puzzle-retreat-windows-phone-review

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