- Hotfix 2022.6.18.3 - 29 June 2022
- Fixes issue with older save files taking no abilities into stage, causing game to get into a corrupt state.
- Update #16 - 18 June 2022
Earlier in the week, the very helpful "Dohi64" left a nice review for Cascade Cafe (Thanks!). However it seems they ran into a few bugs, which is unfortunate. They also identified a few areas of gameplay/UI that could be improved which I hadn't even thought of. So today's update fixes the following areas: Improvements Added a "Restart Level" button to the menu Pretty self explanatory - there's now the ability to restart a level without having to go back to the main menu. I'm not sure why that didn't occur to me to add this in before. Tooltips for items and stage gimmicks You can now hover over items and stage gimmicks during the match and you will get the tooltip information. Another one of those 'seems so obvious in retrospect" features that I totally missed! Block Rotation Reminder It's funny that Dohi64 mentions in the review that, initially, they forgot you can rotate tiles. The #1…
- Update #15 - 30 December 2021
It's the monthly update - errr..a bit late! One of the tricky parts of being a part time dev is that you only get to work on the game part time. With work ramping up near the end of the year I've not had as much time to work on the game as I liked. On the plus side I was able to get some patches out for the game (so they've actually been live for a few weeks now) but I'm only just not getting around to the update. Freezing Game Fix One of the bugs that I've been trying to track down for a long time is when the game randomly freezes when playing against the CPU. Locally I almost never got the issue, but I did get a number of people sending screenshots using the in game feedback tool. Plus Magerama left a review mentioning the freezes as well. I was finally able to track down what the cause was. It turns out that it was the timing of animations when using abilities. You see, the game proc…
- Hotfix 2021.10.16.3 - 26 October 2021
+ Fixed game freeze when switching from Full Screen to Window and back to Full Screen. + Fixed "Thunderstorm" ability using wrong targeting type (previously you could not target your own tiles, despite the description claiming you could). + Fixed "Woodworkers Hammer" ability causing the level data to get out of sync with the visuals. Note: To apply some of these fixes, the game engine had to update to the latest version, which may cause other unforeseen bugs. If you see any strange issues, either use the in-game feedback tool, post on the forums or send me a message on Discord. Thanks!
- Update #14 - 16 October 2021
It's the monthly update - and just a small bit of news... Cascade Cafe is fully released! It's taken a huge amount of work to get here. This is the first game I've released on Steam (I've made lots of web based games, but never a full PC game), and the amount of work it takes to get to a full release is so much more than it seems. It's amazing how fast you get the core loop of the game done, then spend most of your time building screens, save systems, trying to come up with consistent UI/UX. I could probably write a hundred blog posts on what I've learned about running a long term project in Unity. Here's some fun stats: Years of Development: 2.5 Unity Version Upgrades: 5 Number of full art replacements: 2 Number of theme overhauls: 3 Number of full code rebuilds: 4 - I think? I did 2 prototypes, then started a real version, which later I rebuilt a second time which is the version today…
- 2021.9.26.2 Hotfix. - 7 October 2021
+ Fixed level 10 not triggering stage challenge, instead it was loading on stage 11. + Fixed AI not following same tile restrictions as player when playing stage 10 challenge. + Updated ability and item icons to new artwork.
- Update #13 - 2 October 2021
It's the monthly update - and it's just one update away from the full release. *air horns* *confetti* *air horns* Puzzle Mode A new mode Puzzle Mode has been added to the game. It's in preview right now, so there's only 4 levels. I probably wont have all the puzzles done for the full release, but I'm hoping to at least get enough in there that people will feel they got enough content in the game they paid for. I'll be working on getting more puzzles into the game for the months after the full release. The puzzle mode went through so. many. iterations. I originally wanted something that was more like a programming puzzle, a bit like a zach-like style game, where you had a tile in and a tile out, and you had to use your tiles available to get that score. This didn't pan out the way I hoped. Then I moved it closer to the mode the game has now, but each turn had its own score to reach in or…
- Update #12 - 24 August 2021
It's the monthly update - and its getting down to the last few items before release! New Maps The quickplay mode has had an overhaul. Quickplay maps now unlock as you proceed through the story, although it does start with a handful of maps already unlocked. The maps now have a bit more variety as the items available are now also specific to the selected maps (where as before every map had every item available). I think this will make each map more unique, plus it helps spread out the items over multiple days in the story mode (so you don't get overwhelmed with items right at the start). There's also a hidden character now in the quickplay and multiplayer modes. Once you've completed the story mode, the final boss will unlock as an extra playable character ;) The UI for the quickplay and multiplayer mode have been updated to look much nicer (or so I think!). I never had to program an int…
- Update #11 - 19 July 2021
It's the monthly update - even though it's not quite been a month yet! Story Mode Completed All the maps, gimmicks, ability unlocks and story dialog have been completed. You can now play through all 30 days of the game and actually complete it! That feels like a big milestone. I'll probably be going back through the dialog and cleaning it up a bit, but overall it should be fun enough to read through. Bug Fixes A few fixes have been pushed up in this patch. One is to fix a reported issue by acaciaofhyrule where you could wait for the Whirlpool trap ability to expire, then placing a tile on it would cause the game to lock up. That's now been fixed. There's also a few other minor tweaks and fixes that have gone up. I found a weird edge case with the "Complete" paths that were not being scored. I thought I had caught them all, but apparently one still managed to sneak through. It's a funny…
- Minor update 2021.7.4.3 - 6 July 2021
+ Fixed "Same" path not counting points in some situations. + Added in different path effects when scoring points.
- Update #10 - 3 July 2021
A small update this month, but important non the less! Early Access! Cascade Cafe is now officially in Early Access. *confetti* *air horns* The idea is to keep the game in EA for the next month or two while I wrap up the single player story mode and add in a few remaining features. Cascade Cafe is at a stage where feedback is critical, so feel free to always use the in game feedback form or join us on the discord at https://discord.com/invite/jurtMyWy52. New in game manual In the top right of the game is a new little icon. Clicking it will open a new screen which shows the manual for the game which Cascade comes with. This should provide a quick reference guide for the different path types in the game, the general rules and what paths get you which points. I programmed the game and I always think loops are worth 20 points each instead of 10, so even I will find it handy. Bug fixes While…
- Hotfix 2021.6.21.2 - 22 June 2021
Fixed issue with story mode getting stuck in some cases when exiting back to the main menu and then returning to the story. This would previously get stuck at a black screen. This now fixes the data the next time the game is loaded and should progress the story from where it left off (so save data should not be lost).
- Release 2021.6.19.4 - 19 June 2021
- Added a "Skip" button to story mode cutscenes. - Fixed issue with story mode where you could exit to the main menu as the day was ending, causing an issue where the scene would close as it was saving data. - Fixed Quickplay and Multiplayer loading the incorrect map setup.
- June 17 Hotfixes (Version 2021.6.5.7) - 17 June 2021
Fixed tutorial bug where tile could be placed too early, blocking off the step which teaches you about creating Loops. Fixed bug where settings menu could be opened during cutscenes where the day starts, which paused the game but hid the button to continue.
- Update #9 - 9 June 2021
Lots of interesting updates this month. Early Access Coming Soon While Cascade Cafe is not quite ready for Early Access yet, it will be very soon. There's still a small amount of content to do, but it's getting pretty close to done. This will be a pretty big milestone for the development of the game, where there will finally be something to purchase! The Steam demo day starts on June 16, so the game will be put into EA a few days before that. The demo version of the game will stay up. The multiplayer though will be available in both the demo and the full version, so if you are looking for a free version to send to a friend to play, they can just use the demo link. The game will probably be in EA for about a month (perhaps less) while I wrap up loose ends in the game. One feature that has been bumped from release to post-release is the challenge/puzzle mode. Being a team of 1 means I had…
- Update #8 - 7 April 2021
The monthly update - which is actually a bit past a month - is ready! Lots of updates this month as the game makes a final few sprints towards release. It's not completely done yet, but it's getting close. A new playable character Tommo has been added to the game. Tommo is the owner of the Cafe that the game takes place in, and appears in the story in a few places. With Tommo come three new abilities to try out (and yep I'm still rockin the mspaint) and is the last playable character to be added to the game. Well, there might be one more hidden character that you will unlock eventually by completing the story... Afternoon Sun: Increase a tiles face value by 1. Coldsnap: Place a Trap which which activates when a tile is placed on top. Stun the tile until the next round. Regain 2 energy when activated. Skipping Stone: Target any tile. All tiles that you own with that value are discarded.…
- Update #7 - 27 February 2021
A short but fun update. A new playable character Jove has been added to the game. With Jove being added to the game, this introduces a new gameplay mechanic: Tokens. The three new abilities have effects that are very strong (and cheap), but take a long time to setup. A patient player who plans ahead will make the best use of these. The three new abilities (with my amazing placeholder mspaint icons...) Field of Sprouts: Add a token to a tile you control. Counts 3 extra points when the tile is scored. Falling Oak Tree: Add a token to a tile you control. When the tokens match the tiles value, discard that tile plus a random opponents tile for each token. Spring Harvest: Add a token on a tile you control. Double it's points for each token when scored this turn, then remove the tokens. Fixed reported bug: CPU placing tiles on existing tiles A bug has been fixed in this release which was allo…
- Update #6 - 1 February 2021
Lots of update this month! It's a good start to the year to get some of these items off the TODO list. There's still a lot of work remaining, but I think I'm getting closer to having a more stable final release date. New User Interface I finally got around to doing a full pass over of all the UI elements in the game. This not only brings all the elements together to look more consistent, but it should also fix multiple issues with elements not being positioned on screen correctly in certain resolutions. I think most people use 1920x1080 anyway, but it's nice to have the peace of mind that someone playing on a laptop isn't going to get a subpar experience. Discord Server Cascade Cafe has a Discord! ... Again! Yes technically I had a Discord server before, but I only just realized that the default server link that Discord generates expires in 24 hours. So every time I was adding it to the…
- Update #5 - 9 January 2021
This might not sound like the most exciting update, but it took a lot of work to get this feature done: Cascade Cafe now has a whole new AI behind the scenes, which should make the game much more of a challenge. The previous AI did have some general smarts to it. It wasn't completely random (even though it seemed like it sometimes), and it would try to figure out the best move to play. However, it had one major drawback - it lacked the ability to look further ahead than it's current turn. By that I mean it would only try to figure out what the best possible move for the current turn is, and not take into account what corners it would paint itself into. This could be seen in plays where the AI would place a tile down with all bridges facing a wall, which looked pretty silly. The new AI uses a concept called the Monte Carlo Tree Search. It's actually what Alpha Go uses underneath the moun…
- Update #4 - 22 November 2020
It's been quiet on the news front for a few weeks! Due to a certain part of the game getting some development focus on it, it's been head down programming to get it done. But, now that I can resurface from the depths of programming, I should have more time to give updates on the progress of Cascade Cafe. So what was it that was taking up so much time? Cascade Cafe now has a single player story mode! The current build on Steam includes the first 5 days of the story. Over time I'll be slowly rolling out the remaining days of the story. The beginning days of the story are fairly basic, but the plan is to: Tell a full story over the 31 days. Let you try out all the board layouts. Collect all the abilities. Add story-specific gimmicks to certain levels, like the batteries in the board game going flat halfway through a match, someone spilling a drink on the board, or a time limit when the caf…
