Whats New Version 0.91

It’s been a while since the last post here, and three releases have gone out in the meantime. The most recent one is the biggest change to the game in a long time, so let’s start there.

Squads and coins are gone #

Version 0.83 grouped your balls into squads of five, and had you buy and upgrade those squads with coins collected from blocks. It added depth, but it also added two layers of bookkeeping in between you and the part of the game that’s actually fun, which is deciding where to aim. Managing a currency and a roster is not why anybody plays a brick breaker.

So both are gone:

Balls are back to a single shared pool that you grow and upgrade directly.
Coins are gone. There’s no currency in the game any more, and nothing to save up for.
Instead, the arrival of a new boss starts a new wave, and you pick an upgrade for the wave ahead: more balls, more power spread across the balls you have, a bigger card collection, or a ball upgrade such as extra damage on the flank columns or a boost that builds off wall bounces.
The bonus block has been reworked to fit. It used to drop a pile of coins; now it grants a second upgrade pick, with a fresh set of offers after you’ve taken the first.

Cards are now the entire economy of the game. Everything you gain, you gain from a card that a block dropped or a boss died holding.

Two new enchantments #

Martyr — when the enchanted block is destroyed, every other block on its row gains strength equal to its base strength. Leave it for last.
Stifle — while it’s on the board, you gain no charge at all toward your next charge point.

Catching up: 0.87 and 0.88 #

Two releases that never got written up here.

0.87 brought waves. Game flow is now broken into waves, with a new one starting every time a boss arrives, and an upgrade phase in between. Also in that release:

Enchanted blocks no longer clear after a few turns. The Invincible enchantment now lasts until it’s the last block on its row.
New enchantment: Scatter — the block’s bounce angle is randomly deflected.
New upgrades: Meteor Strike and Bank Shot.
Big visual enhancements throughout.

0.88 brought charge points and boss actions.

Charge points! Fill your charge meter and a glowing marker appears on the board. Pass a ball through it to power up for that turn. The marker drifts down the board each turn until a ball uses it, or until it’s gone.
Bosses now take an action every turn they’re alive: heal, accelerate, dodge to another column, armour up, swap spots, or guard.
New boss: The Enchanter, which enchants another block every turn.
New boss: The Damper, which blunts your upgrades for as long as it lives.
New enchantments: Rush, which advances an extra row each turn, and Swell, which grows stronger each turn.
New effect card: Dispel, which strips every enchantment off the board at once.

As always, let us know what you think at info@irontreble.com.