In early 2009 Pixelated was released. After four and a half years later it is time to rethink the concept. Pixelated Shapes takes the concept of Pixelated and applies it to the different geometries of triangles and hexagons, forcing you to rethink your well worn strategies.
Pixelated Shapes will be released for BlackBerry 10, PlayBook, and Android later this month.
I am excited to be launching a new game later this month. More details will follow in the coming weeks…
Four years ago today I sold my first three copies of Pixelated Plus. Since then the game has been written from the ground up five different times in four different languages. The game The game has gone from just supporting the Storm to supporting every BlackBerry phone that ran OS 4.6 and everything newer including the PlayBook, and BlackBerry 10, and even to other platforms such as the Nook Color and Windows 8. The result is over six million downloads and enough income for this to be my full time job for the past two and a half years.
I hate when people ask me where I see myself in the next five years, because five years ago I certainly did not see this…
Pixelated has been updated to version 3.4 for Windows Phone and for Windows 8. The changes in this update mostly relate to supporting better screen transitions in the Windows Phone version of the app, and supporting more languages in the Windows 8 version of the app.
Pixelated is an addictive puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win. The game is controlled by the large colored blocks on the side of the screen.
Pixelated and Pixelated Plus have been updated to version 3.4 for all BlackBerry 10 phones. This version adds support for the BlackBerry Q10, adds a second leaderboard for scores posted in the past 24 hours, integrates with BBM profile boxes, and improves the options for sharing your best scores in the app to social networks.
Pixelated is an addictive puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win. The game is controlled by the large colored blocks on the side of the screen.
This update to Pixelated adds support for showing a leaderboard (powered by Scoreloop) for not only the top scores of all time, but also the best scores over the past 24 hours. Also new in this version is the ability to see a preview of each color scheme inside the color changer on the options page. Additionally there have been improvements made to the sharing options for the app. The app now lists the actual new score when sharing a new high score message, or the number of earned achievements when using a generic share, while the BlackBerry 10 version of the app now also updates BBM profile boxes just like you get on previous BlackBerry OS versions.
Following Pixelated’s recent upgrade to version 3.3 the game has exceeded 5,000 reviews in the BlackBerry World store. Even with so many reviews, the game continues to have a four out of five star rating. One of my favorite reviews to be posted in recent months is below.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support of Pixelated.
Pixelated has been updated to version 3.3 across all platforms. Notably, this update adds support for BlackBerry 10 which is being launched on Wednesday.
A new colour scheme option has been added to Pixelated Plus for all platforms. The PlayBook version of the app has had a visual update to give it a look more in line with the Windows 8 version. The game has also gotten a thicker highlight colour for the selector on non-touchscreen versions of the game on BlackBerry Phones. The new BB10 version of the game includes a leader board that is powered by Scoreloop for both the free and paid versions of the game. This update also includes a number of bug fixes.
Pixelated is an addictive puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win. The game is controlled by the large colored blocks on the side of the screen.
Pixelated is now available to be downloaded through Microsoft’s Windows 8 store for laptops, desktops, and tablets. This version offers all of the same features that are found in BlackBerry version of the game, except that access to Pixelated Plus is gained through an in-app purchase instead of a separate download.
Pixelated is an addictive puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win. The game is controlled by the large colored blocks on the side of the screen.
The game runs on x86, x64, and also ARM processors like those in the recently released Microsoft Surface tablet. Additionally your games are automatically synced across all Windows 8 devices that are registered to your Microsoft account. An upgrade to the full version of Pixelated Plus can be achieved through a $2.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all grid sizes, all difficulty levels, your game statistics, and displays the number of turns that you have remaining.
After receiving millions of downloads on BlackBerry over the past three years, Pixelated is now also available on Windows Phone as well. Additionally a free trial of the app is available that matches the features found in the free version of Pixelated for the BlackBerry and the Nook.
Pixelated is an puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win.
One of the updates to the recent release of version 3.2 of Pixelated Plus, is a free version for the Nook Color, and Nook Tablet.
You can now download a free version of Pixelated Plus from the Nook Bookstore by clicking the “Download Trial” button right next to the option to purchase the app. The trial offers the same features of the free version of Pixelated on BlackBerry, where you can play the game as many times as you wish, but are limited to only a single grid size and difficulty level, and do not have access to any of the game statistics.
Pixelated Plus is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win.
Following the recent update to Pixelated Plus, the free version of Pixelated has been updated to version 3.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This version adds support for diacritical marks on the PlayBook.
Pixelated is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to complete. Starting with the square in the upper left corner, the object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. This is done by repeatedly by changing the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible.
Pixelated Plus has been updated to version 3.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This new version includes support for diacritical marks on the PlayBook, and improved social media options on BlackBerry 7 devices, as well as other bug fixes.
Pixelated Plus is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win.
Three years ago today I sold my first BlackBerry application. In the morning I posted Pixelated Plus for sale in AppWorld, and by the end of the day it had been purchased by three people. It has sold a lot more copies since then.
Back on May 31st, 2009 BlackBerry AppWorld was less then two months old, and not preinstalled on any devices. Pixelated Plus at the time was exclusive to the BlackBerry Storm and had no free version available. So three sales on the first day seemed pretty good. Of course the next day, I didn’t sell any.
At the time the magic number was 93. That was the number of copies of Pixelated Plus that I needed to sell in order to break even on the $221 that it cost me to get into the store. At the time I was nervous about my ability to make back that investment.
Needless to say, but it has paid off. In 2010 I left my job in order to make silly little games full time. So thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past three years. There is no other “job” that I would rather have.
The free puzzle game Pixelated has reached 4,000 reviews in BlackBerry AppWorld.
With these reviews the game has maintained its rating of 4 out of 5 stars, and has held a steady spot in AppWorld’s list of Top Rated games.
Thanks to everyone, for your continued support of Pixelated over these past three years.
Version 3.1 of Pixelated for the PlayBook added the ability to move the game’s controls to the left side of the screen for easier left handed play. This is something that should have been added much sooner, but addresses an issue that is mostly unique to tablets.
Placing the controls for the PlayBook version on the right side of the screen for the first version on the PlayBook was mostly an accident. On the phones, the controls are always at the bottom, but given the wide screen nature of the PlayBook, there was far more room for them along the side. (The fact that the whole app isn’t in portrait orientation is mostly just an artifact of the limitations of the pre-release simulator.) Still once the game was placed onto actual devices it worked great. All of the controls were in place to be easily reached with your thumb while casually holding the tablet. At least if you were right handed.
Still, most people (myself included) are right handed, so if you had to pick a side to place the controls, the right side of the screen would be the place to do so. I didn’t realize how bad it was for left handed play until I saw my mom playing the game.
To play with your left hand, you need to reach over to the far side of the screen, which is the absolute most reach, and also has the unfortunate side effect of obscuring most of the screen with your hand. After a while, my mom found it easier to just hold the whole device sideways.
As a result Pixelated now has an option on the settings screen to place the controls on either side. However, it still defaults to the right.
This is a problem that is fairly unique to tablets. Phones are small enough, that you can reach any part of the screen, while holding it with just one hand. Desktops are controlled by a mouse, such that there is a complete disconnect between the input, and a control’s location on the screen.
Jon Webb while working on his #PlayBook24 project ran into the same issue, and suggested that “the PlayBook should have a global setting to indicate whether you are left or right-handed”. If such a setting were available for developers to read (similar to default language), it would allow the UI of an app to be better optimized for each user (and to stop just assuming that everyone is right handed).