
Show HN: Tumblestone – We're a team of 4 and just launched on Steam and consoles - aschearer
http://tumblestonegame.com/
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aschearer
Hi I'm Alex Schearer, one of the developers on this project. Tumblestone is a
new type of puzzle game. It takes the staid formula of Bejeweled and turns it
on its head. We stripped out all the random gem flipping junk and replaced it
with really tough puzzles.

Some interesting technical stuff about the game:

1\. It supports online multiplayer for up to four players with bots, local
players, and join in progress supported. There are four distinct online game
modes.

2\. We used machine learning to generate a huge number of puzzles as well as
train the bots to be fiendishly difficult. As a result no puzzle should ever
be played twice and you can mix and match our 12 game modifying rules with
mind bending results.

3\. We launched on Steam (Mac and PC), Wii U, and Xbox One (we'll be part of
Games with Gold starting Saturday) simultaneously -- and PS4 is around the
corner. (For those of you unfamiliar with console development, this is quite a
feat!)

4\. We've translated the game to support 21 languages. There's a 40+ hour
story mode with cutscenes, so there's a ton of text to wrangle.

5\. We built an interesting system to share Tumblestone with friends on Steam.
Anyone with a copy of the game can give a free Steam key to a friend which
lets their friend play online up to five games per day. This required all
sorts of tricks on the client side as well as a server to hand out the keys.

If you have any questions technical or otherwise I'll do my best to answer
them.

