Trichrome, a fast-paced game of tactical pattern making.
July 12, 2013 11:21 AM Subscribe
Trichrome, a fast-paced game of tactical pattern making.
Make large triangles out of four smaller ones. It's a simple concept, but you score more points and earn more time by extending your triangle combos into more complex shapes. A completed combo returns a newly upgraded tile, and you match those up the same way. There's a timer, and you push it back by gathering initial tiles. By making different shapes, you can unlock symmetry, mirror and kaleidoscopic bonuses and even capture other tiles to raise your score multiplier up to 20x or more. Most games take about 5-10 minutes to complete. There are 30+ achievements and 3 leaderboards to measure your skill; Game Center supported on iOS and OSX.
So the whole point of Trichrome is that it's intended to be something like Tetris or Bejewelled or Lumines in that it gets your fast-twitch instinctive gameplay going, except that it has very deep tactics and strategies. You don't want to just be thinking one or two moves ahead, you want to be thinking a dozen ahead -- and the game shows you at least that many pieces in advance.
I won't apologize for creating a hard game: it is indeed hard, and at times seems almost cruel. But it rewards thoughtful play, intelligent risk-taking, and learning through exploration and experimentation. Everyone develops their own personal tactics that are right for the way they think and how their own reflexes work; I can't teach tactics, I can only teach rules. The tutorial is short and explains just the rules and gives a few tips.
Trichrome engages you fully; it's not a game that you will zone out playing. When you reach a certain level of skill you'll find yourself in the "flow" state and it's awesome. It's not "addictive" in that horrible rat in a cage sense of Candy Crush or those other dopamine switch-clicking type games. It's fun and enjoyable as a game because skillful gameplay is rewarded by higher scores, and although luck has a minor factor, your achievements don't depend on it. It's enjoyable nature is solely based on the truth that getting better at a difficult task feels good... it's more of a serotonin rush, a cleaner high that lasts longer.
Anyway.
There's no free version, I'm sorry for that; it's a commercial game, I have bills etc. Desktop pricing on Windows, Mac & Linux is $5, iPad is $3. Buy links at the project site. (The Windows version will be released on July 28 '13 on Desura but you can pre-order before then.) I'm considering Android tablets but I need to see whether these other platforms will succeed first.
At this point a few people have bought it on the iPad & Mac and it has really captured their attention and love it to bits, but getting the word out is extraordinarily difficult especially with my anxiety and other mental issues.
Sooooo, in order to spread the news about Trichrome I'll happily give a free copy of the Linux or Windows version, or an iTunes code for the iPad or Mac version, to any mefite who has a blog or podcast or other audience and is willing to commit to sharing an honest review. Just MeMail me.
And even if you don't like this kind of game, telling your friends -- especially if they happen to be editors at major gaming sites -- would be very helpful.
Make large triangles out of four smaller ones. It's a simple concept, but you score more points and earn more time by extending your triangle combos into more complex shapes. A completed combo returns a newly upgraded tile, and you match those up the same way. There's a timer, and you push it back by gathering initial tiles. By making different shapes, you can unlock symmetry, mirror and kaleidoscopic bonuses and even capture other tiles to raise your score multiplier up to 20x or more. Most games take about 5-10 minutes to complete. There are 30+ achievements and 3 leaderboards to measure your skill; Game Center supported on iOS and OSX.
So the whole point of Trichrome is that it's intended to be something like Tetris or Bejewelled or Lumines in that it gets your fast-twitch instinctive gameplay going, except that it has very deep tactics and strategies. You don't want to just be thinking one or two moves ahead, you want to be thinking a dozen ahead -- and the game shows you at least that many pieces in advance.
I won't apologize for creating a hard game: it is indeed hard, and at times seems almost cruel. But it rewards thoughtful play, intelligent risk-taking, and learning through exploration and experimentation. Everyone develops their own personal tactics that are right for the way they think and how their own reflexes work; I can't teach tactics, I can only teach rules. The tutorial is short and explains just the rules and gives a few tips.
Trichrome engages you fully; it's not a game that you will zone out playing. When you reach a certain level of skill you'll find yourself in the "flow" state and it's awesome. It's not "addictive" in that horrible rat in a cage sense of Candy Crush or those other dopamine switch-clicking type games. It's fun and enjoyable as a game because skillful gameplay is rewarded by higher scores, and although luck has a minor factor, your achievements don't depend on it. It's enjoyable nature is solely based on the truth that getting better at a difficult task feels good... it's more of a serotonin rush, a cleaner high that lasts longer.
Anyway.
There's no free version, I'm sorry for that; it's a commercial game, I have bills etc. Desktop pricing on Windows, Mac & Linux is $5, iPad is $3. Buy links at the project site. (The Windows version will be released on July 28 '13 on Desura but you can pre-order before then.) I'm considering Android tablets but I need to see whether these other platforms will succeed first.
At this point a few people have bought it on the iPad & Mac and it has really captured their attention and love it to bits, but getting the word out is extraordinarily difficult especially with my anxiety and other mental issues.
Sooooo, in order to spread the news about Trichrome I'll happily give a free copy of the Linux or Windows version, or an iTunes code for the iPad or Mac version, to any mefite who has a blog or podcast or other audience and is willing to commit to sharing an honest review. Just MeMail me.
And even if you don't like this kind of game, telling your friends -- especially if they happen to be editors at major gaming sites -- would be very helpful.
Role: creator
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I can't tell you how much I appreciate the choice of not doing in app purchasing type stuff. But I can give you 70% of $3 from my iPad. And I've done it.
posted by DigDoug at 12:06 PM on July 29, 2013 [1 favorite]