Bugs on the loose!

There are bugs on the loose! Identify them, burn them, don't let them live...!! Oh! Hello!

As anyone can guess we are still on burnout mood. April has arrived and we got sweet news for you..!

The past month, HexCraft got featured in over 38 markets, we gotta admit we did not expect that coming, as it grew smiles on our faces and now we are working with a better mood..!

Right now, the Imagine Cup team is creating the initial and final screens (The Character Selection Screen and the Winning Screen) as part of the game flow, so that players may chose any character from the 6 given and take control of their very own destiny! The rooms have been redesigned a tad bit, some optimization here and there, and still we are quite a few AI tweaks away from going to playtest phase right before the greek finals!

Greek finals... yes, it has been announced, and it's getting more and more official by the day, here are the rewards of the greek Imagine Cup finals :

The Spoils of war!!!

Did you know that we are using Trello as our lead project management platform, for assigning tasks to everybody and killing off all those bugs that keep running away from our intense test cycles? We've been falling in love with it lately as we overcame our fear of trying out something new besides Visual Studio Online and Excel.

Stay tuned for our next post, as I am now promising to all of you that we will leak the first ever screenshot of the game with some rooms open, characters scattered around the house and the whole first draft of the game HUD on screen. :)

Till next time,
have fun all!!!

Another weekend of burnout for Genesis Game Studios

It's a sweet Saturday evening, first day of March (Happy new month!) and we haven't blogged for this week for neither game. The latest updates:

HexCraft has been announced "App of the month" at the Official "Windows Apps Made in Greece" group on Facebook. And it was also featured in MSCorner! Check it out!

Thank you admins!

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Blackthorn Manor has been going under great pressure this time.
Everyone went into rage mode and programming has been going well!

We have been working on basic systems such as Combat System, Stealing System, Movement System, and set up basic AI functionality such as A*-ish pathfinding inside the house.

At the same time, we have been reviewing the final list of items, seals and events that will make it into the game, and have been designing rooms at the same time. You can see the walls are built up, doors opening when explorers pass through them, Intriguing Combat Cameras with Zooming Effects and dice rolls, and excellent pathfinding inside the creepy corridors of the blackthorn manor, ranging from the bone-chilling Mirror Room to the breathtaking Incineration Chamber that lies in the basement.

We are clearly seeing that the house is evolving quicker than before, now that Imagine Cup Greek finals are on their way, the team is clearly going for the finish line!

There still are systems left to be done though, such as the Item Effects when they are used, Flipping effects, binding unique Sound Effects to the Cards when they appear, graphical representations of the dice rolls, then again, there is the Scenario, and of course the Core AI that will support the game in a training / demo session that Imagine Cup judges will play!

Did you know that Imagine Cup this year is split into National Finals, World Semifinals and World Finals? The first two will be done online, just like Project Blueprint Challenge (Honourable mention, yay!).

It will be a very difficult project to build, since deadlines are approaching like vile serpents, but the expectations are going pretty high, should we manage to complete it, at least that demo version that we want to showcase.

We won't leak any images from the Project at its' current state *YET* but we promise that it's going to be worth waiting for. We are doing our best, and just like we never broke a promise, we promise you, you will like what you are going to see :)

Till next time!

HexCraft Published for Windows Phone!

OMG It's HexCraft Wednesday and we are giving you the best we have given on any HexCraft Wednesday there ever was, after HexCraft booth at Infocom!

HexCraft for Windows Phone has been officially published globally!

You know what you have to do right? Download the game right away and send us your feedback! Which level seems the most challenging? Can you get into the leaderboards?

Download the game HERE :
http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=625582ed-a7fc-485f-bb4d-279d25be5540

...Or just search for it on the Windows Phone Store ;)

As you are mashing your way on Windows Phone, we are awaiting like predators for the Windows 8 version to be certified. Be on standby, those who are holding tablets and those who play on PCs and Laptops. You will be notified the moment it passes certification :)

Enjoy HexCraft on your mobiles for now! :D

HexCraft Release Soon!

It's #HexCraftWednesday, and we will fill you in with the latest.

Our game will feature 12 different leaderboards! Finally, we got this working with Azure Mobile Services and we feel that this game is really coming to an end.

As you saw in our latest photo in Facebook, we leaked how the main menu will look like!

HexCraft - Being Tested on Windows 8 - Desktop and Tablet versions.

HexCraft is currently under playtest mode and we look forward to hooking you up with the Download link soon! Expect the game to be released in February!

Also, we will appear at infocom to showcase our game, we will be expecting you :)

For more information, visit this link : http://www.infocomapps.gr/

That's it for today folks, see you next week!

Bashing code for HexCraft like crazy!

The days are passing and HexCraft's first release is being prepared. We got galactic monkey demons writing code, so you guys can finally play!

This week we have started going into rage mode for our promotional art, and adding finishing touches to HexCraft, such as Facebook login and In-App purchases. We expect to be done around the end of the week, if everything goes as smooth as we hope it will!

Each level you play is going to have a dead-simple goal : Solve the puzzle. That's it! You don't have to worry about the best time, or the best moves, anymore, as we are only recording these for getting you into the global leaderboards of HexCraft, meaning that if you like playing for fun, then we won't stop you, or mess up your experience!

The very first release of HexCraft will be for Windows Store, and soon there will be a Windows Phone version coming right after.

Stay tuned people, till next Wednesday!

HexCraft Promotional Image - Coming first on Windows Store

Let's do the HexCraft Dance! - Gameplay Video

Hello people!

How's everything going? It's HexCraft Wednesday! Everything goes smooth in the world of the hexagons. We are adding timers on each level and playtesting like mad, every single level. Some of us suck at this game, we got to admit, others are just getting better, so we really hope the time we give out for each level suits everyone's playstyle and it really helps them out to gather as many stars as possible.

Besides designing for levels we are just begining turning our wireframes into in-game UI, so that is "under development" as well. Social Media is still a pain, since we have been researching quite a lot on how to implement such features correctly.

Remember what we promised you last week? Was it a candy? Was it a toy? Or maybe was it a HexCraft Alpha Version Exclusive Gameplay Video? Bwahahahah, and just as promised, here is some video footage from our gameplay currently in alpha version (Which only means it will only get better)

By now, you get the idea of the whole game, and for those who still haven't i gotta warn you it may not seem as easy as it seems on first sight. There are actualy some hexagons that will make your life easier and some that will make it harder, by turning around all other nearby hexagons. Sure, you want to turn that Cyan Hex into an Orange one, but just by doing that, you may turn all Orange Hexagons around it to Cyan Hexagons.

Think before you act! But then again, there is the factor of "Moves" and "Time". It's a tough call...

Catch you next week folks! ;)

Hexagon Cells gone crazy!

Guess what? It's HexCraft Wednesday!

Time to fix you up with the latest..!

So, what's been going on at Genesis the latest week? With all those crazy projects on, our minds are literally blown, yet we are so thrilled to just keep going at the same pace as before to deliver..!

HexCraft is coming to a pretty decent shape, since we have finished up the procedures of level design and we have been working on visuals, leaderboards and porting to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.1 Platforms.

Each level now ought to be tested thoroughly, as those little cells are taking away chunks of our time, in order to properly create a challenging enough experience for everyone out there. 

Looks Yummy. Next Week!

We have a special treat for you people, next week - We promise to hook you up with a sweet Gameplay Video, so stay tuned, there are puzzles to be solved!

You can see our progress here, when our programmer has failed enough times on this puzzle so he can now solve it perfectly right in front of you, hey dont cheat now, when you get the game, okay? ;)

This HexCraft Puzzle is calling out to you "SOLVE ME, SOLVE ME!"