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Like mentioned on Twitter, I participate to the Ludum Dare October challenge.

The rules are simple:

• finish a game during October
• take it to market
• earn $1 (not necessary during the same month)

I was already thinking about finishing Bloblocks and releasing it on iPad and Kongregate this same month so my participation is more a commit to this deadline than an unbearable challenge :)

Anyway shipping a game is always a challenge.

My main problem right now is to stop improving things and store good ideas for another version or update.

So let's focus a little. What do I want to ship?

Bloblocks contains two game modes.

Arcade survivor mode:

• Objective: stay alive and earn as many points as possible.
• Interest: addictive, repeatable game-play, beat your own high-score, or play to Kongregate/iOS Game Center high-scores

Puzzle resolving mode

• Objective: clear puzzles using game mechanics
• Interest: mind challenging, unlock story artworks, "completed the game" value

Bloblocks also contains a story. You unlock the height scenes story playing the Puzzle mode.

Bloblocks contains a message which is delivered here and there. I tried to create a small text to introduce each puzzle level. These texts usually have a meaning. I hope my English is not too bad…

Now, what is missing:

Help: playing the game should be easy. I plan to add small tips in the main screen to explain the 3 main things you have to know to play the game correctly:

• touch groups of the same color to make them explode
• how to rotate the board (flash is different than tablets)
• how to select the swap option

Puzzles: plenty would be better. I create a few each day and I won't be happy with less than 50 puzzles for the release. It takes time and sometimes provokes dangerous ideas like "hey this features would be cool".

Marketing material:

• screen-shots
• promotional texts
• big icons for stores
• if I have the time a video
• promotional website containing all these
• promotional icon for Kongregate too!

So let's work on all this and only if I have the time I will add features and improve the game further… :)