PixelBoom!

Factsheet

Developer:
Pixelplant Studios
Based in Münster, Germany

Release date:
30 July, 2015

Platforms:
Apple App Store:
Currently unavailable

Website:
pixelplant-studios.com

API:

Regular Price:

Free To Play

Description

PixelBoom! is a new kind of picross- or nonogram-puzzle game, with over 60 levels in 4 degrees of difficulty. The game features two kind of level types: One is time based and the other one has a limited number of permitted false attempts. No matter what, if you fail, the level will go "Boom", so you have to act smart. The objective of each level is to uncover an image in a grid of squares, which in PixelBoom! are called "pixels". There are pixels contributing to the final image and pixels, which must be transparent. It is your goal to deduce which are the contributing and which are the transparent ones. Digits, which are attached to the grid, will tell you the number of consecutive contributing pixels in each row and in each column. Combining these numbers is the key to solving the level.

The project started in 2012 was almost solely developed on Tuesday evenings, with the occasional 24/7 weekends sprinkled in between. Retrospectively it was an interesting but also demanding challange to revisit one's code only once a week; even more challenging if you keep in mind, that this project has also been my first dive into iOS and Objective C programming. In the beginning I tried to build my own game framework based on some books I read along the way but fortunaltely I stumbled across the great open source framework Cocos2d and decided to go with it. My first prototype was a Zelda-like top-down adventure game, but I scraped that, due to being much too demanding time-wise. I decided to go small and casual and so PixelBoom! was born (or "project pixelai" as it was called back then).

Features

Free To Play
60 levels
4 degrees of difficulty
Earn energy to unleash powerful tools
Hourglass tool: Increase your time or the number of permitted false attempts
Hint tool: Solves a randomly chosen pixel, which contributes to the final image
Focus tool: Reduces the playing field and lets you focus on solving a smaller area first