Sweeper's Luck 1.3.0 — Versus, a Tutorial & Screen Zoom

Sweeper's Luck 1.3.0 — Versus, a Tutorial & Screen Zoom

Three big additions this time: a head-to-head Versus mode you can play against bots or against other people online, a tutorial that teaches the game from scratch, and a setting that zooms the in-game computer screen to fill your monitor. Your progress carries over.

NEW: VERSUS

Open Versus on the desktop or from the Start menu. Two players race on boards of their own, and every point you score fills an attack meter.

• Draft first: pick 3 Stickers from 6 before each match.

• Attack: a full meter blocks the next hazard coming at you, or sends one at your opponent.
• AIM: picks which hazard to send (Q/E or LB/RB).
• HOLD: keeps a full meter ready as a shield for up to 10 seconds (H or View).

• Six hazards: Locked (4 tiles can't go on a Slip for 10s), Rotten (3 tiles halve the Mult of any Slip they're on), Fog (revealed numbers hidden for 6s), Squeeze (your Slip holds 3 fewer tiles for 15s), Steal (takes one of your Peeks) and Tighten (the minimum Slip goes up by 1 for 15s). You see each one 5 seconds before it lands, none of them ever adds a Bust, and they all wear off.

• The minimum: every Slip needs at least a minimum number of tiles. It starts at 3 and goes up every 14 seconds, to 8. After that, every new board has more Busts.

• Busts: three and you're out. Each one deals you a fresh board, and while you're behind, your points count for more. Peeks come back over time, and NEW BOARD buys a fresh board early, costing more each time.

• The clock: matches last up to 7 minutes. At the end, more lives wins, then more points. There's a warning for the final minute, and sudden death when you're both down to your last life.

• In Versus, right-clicking a tile cycles between a flag, a "safe" mark and clear.

• After a match you get a timeline of the whole game, side-by-side stats, and a tip on what to try next.

• Jack has plenty to say about all of it.

Play the bots

• Take on the Easy, Normal or Hard bot. Each one plays a real board and only knows what a player could, and you keep a win/loss record against each.

Play people online

• Invite a Steam friend: opens a lobby and the Steam invite list. Your friend can accept the invite even with the game closed, or pick Join Game on you from their friends list.

• Quick match: plays whoever else is looking for a match through Steam.

• By IP:Host and Join for a LAN or a direct connection. Over the internet the host needs to forward UDP port 24777. Steam invites and Quick match need no port forwarding.

• Put a name in the name box, or leave it blank to use your Steam name. REMATCH keeps you with the same opponent. Online matches can't be paused and don't count toward your record against the bots.

• Fair play in Quick match: each player's boards are dealt by the other player's game, so no copy of the game ever knows where its own Busts are. When the match ends, both games check every board they were dealt. If anything they were told doesn't add up, the match is declared void.

Versus is brand new, so the rules and balance may still change. We'd love to hear how your matches go.

NEW: TUTORIAL

• Your first run starts with Jack walking you through the game on a real board: reading the numbers, flags, building a Slip, Paylines, Push or Bank, Peeks, and making your Sweeps last.

• Make a mistake and Jack explains what went wrong. Moves that would break the lesson are blocked.

• It's a real run. When the lessons finish, you're already playing, and the first Ticket goes easier on you.

• Jack walks you through your first shop visit too, and covers the price of your first Sticker.

• The instructions switch to your controller's buttons when you're playing on a pad.

• NEXT hurries Jack along, and SKIP TUTORIAL skips it.

• Already played? Open it any time from the new Tutorial button in the launcher. It always plays on the basic rules, so your Stake, Charms and Payline levels don't change the lessons.

• Jack's tips: after the tutorial, the first time you run into something new (a Boss, an enhanced, Rotten or Locked tile, your first Token, Bust, Streak or route, your last Sweep), Jack gives you a short tip about it. Each tip appears only once, and none appear in Versus or when Jack is set to Off.

NEW: ZOOM INTO THE SCREEN

• A new Display setting, Zoom into the screen, drops the desk and the monitor bezel off the edges, so the desktop inside the game fills your own screen and everything on it is bigger.

• It switches on and off instantly, with no restart.

Thank you to everyone who has played so far. If you run into anything strange, or have thoughts on Versus, let us know in the discussions!