puzzlez - New features & Puzzle Design Tools

Hello everyone!

Earlier this month we revealed puzzlez - a shapez game as our next project, and today we're excited to talk about some of the new features coming to the game that are different from shapez 2!

Keep in mind that everything shared in the devlog is very much work in progress and subject to change.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Can't see the gifs? Check out the version on Reddit.

Layer Limits

Despite puzzlez being a shapez game and featuring buildings from shapez 2 specifically, the gameplay experience will be quite different. Instead of building sprawling mega factories to produce every shape known to man, puzzlez gives you a single challenge to overcome on a smaller but unique playing field for each of its 75+ levels.

One challenge we've encountered is the 3 building layers from shapez 2. We want to bring that over to puzzlez, but having the freedom of 3 building layers either makes the puzzle way too easy or makes it very difficult to create a challenging puzzle.

To solve this, we needed to give puzzle designers more control over layers. When creating your own puzzle, you can disable up to two build layers. This of course allows you to disable the top two layers to make a single-layer puzzle, but you can also get more creative with this by disabling the middle layer! This could limit players to the buildings pre-placed on a disabled layer, or transport shapes from layer 1 to layer 3 with the new ramps or lifts, which we'll touch on in a bit.

Welding blocks

When creating a puzzle, you now also have to option to weld buildings and blocks to the level. These can no longer be moved or removed by the player of the level, but do otherwise remain functional. This allows a puzzle to force its players to solve the puzzle using a specific building in a specific position, or restrict their playing field.

Building restrictions

To make welded blocks work however, we had to do something with lifts; simply being able to place lifts everywhere would make welded blocks a bit pointless. We needed a way to restrict the usage of specific buildings. So, when you create a puzzle, you can do exactly that: forbid certain buildings from being used in a level!

In tandem with the welding systems, the puzzle designer has absolute control over the puzzle's intended solution, whether it has a single possible solution or multiple.

New Buildings

Of course, puzzlez gets a couple of new buildings!

Ramps

First up are the aforementioned Ramps. They provide the same utility as a Lift, moving a shape up or down a layer, but with a larger footprint. When you have to optimize your factory for space, these require a bit more planning to move between layers!

There are two kinds of Ramp:

• Small Ramp: Moves shapes 1 layer up or down with a footprint of 3 squares.
• Large Ramp: Moves shapes 2 layers up or down with a footprint of 5 squares.

These are still very much work in progress though and we're currently reworking our initial concept. We're having a few issues with the model's footprint when rotating shapes on a 45 degree belt. It's still nice to show now and compare it with the final result later!

Belt Portals

We're finally thinking with portals! They're similar to the tunnels of shapez 1 and the Launchers & Catchers of shapez 2, but unlike the latter, these go through buildings. Both Belt Portals and Launchers now have unlimited placement range, with the Portals acting as a superior version of the Launchers thanks to their flexibility. It's up to the puzzle designers to choose which you can use in a level!

Playing Field

Last but definitely not least, the playing field! We want to give puzzle designers the freedom to design the playing field itself, instead of making do with a fixed square. Make it small, make it big, create gaps, and place random islands. The sky is the limit! (with 'sky' being the 3rd building layer in this case)

You probably noticed the running theme throughout this devlog: giving puzzle designers as many tools as possible to make the best puzzles. On the topic of puzzle quality with that not-at-all-forced segue, puzzle designers are required to solve their own puzzle before it can be shared with others. This makes sure we don't end up with a bunch of puzzles that are simply impossible.

Anyways, be sure to wishlist puzzlez - a shapez game below, it would really help us out!