Today's update adds a new default ghost piece behavior along with some small changes. I think this new ghost piece design gives a noticeable improvement to game feel, especially in the CONSOLE and ARCADE modes, but if you'd prefer the old behavior there's an option for that as well!
With this update I think Tetrachroma will be entering a new phase of development with less frequent but larger updates. There aren't as many small issues to address, so I have more time to work on expanding and improving the game in larger ways. I'm excited! I am currently planning a fun update which I hope to have available within a week or two. I'm also going to spend more time promoting the game to grow the Tetrachroma community.
Thank you all for your feedback and support!
Changes
- Hotfix 1.1.5: Fixed a positioning error of the I piece in the next / hold window in ARCADE mode.
- Reworked the ghost piece display with a new default option for improved game feel. Previously the ghost piece option had "OFF" or "ON" settings. The new setting allows for "OFF", "ALWAYS ON", "FLASH ON SPAWN", or "APPEAR ON SPAWN" with a new default setting of "FLASH ON SPAWN". The old behavior is retained with the "ALWAYS ON" setting. Developer's note: The old default behavior of the ghost piece was unusual in that it appeared as soon as the piece started to spawn. This was an intentional choice to allow the player to react immediately and move the piece as it is spawning with the game's spawn delay canceling feature. But, this 'always on' design gave no indication of the spawn delay duration which could make the controls feel slow in certain circumstances. The new default 'flash on spawn' design attempts to address this. Additionally the new 'appear on spawn' option allows for the more traditional ghost piece behavior for players that prefer it.
- Added Max Gravity Ghost Piece option, defaults to "ON". Developers note: This change ties into the previous change. Some players prefer to disable the ghost piece at max gravity (20G) because it is not as useful for gameplay at this gravity and can hurt the game feel by obscuring the rhythm of the spawn timing. I'm leaving the default to "ON" for now but may change this depending on community feedback.
- Modified Level 12 announcement sound to make it more clear that the slower gravity at level 12 is intentional
- Settings and Mode Selection menus now "wrap around"