- Thank You - 12 August 2026
Thank you to everyone who purchased Gearplexed. I hope you’re finding it fun. Please consider leaving a review. I did my best to make a unique and innovative game, and it would be great to hear what you think. If you like it, tell your friends!I make games mainly for the joy of the craft. This was a fun and challenging game to make, and there’s ideas for expanding on certain things depending on interest (e.g adding tenth world, doing more with level stats, etc.). I plan to continue supporting, updating, and enhancing Gearplexed as appropriate and will be around to answer any questions and address bugs as needed.Thanks again for playing!
- Demo Update v2.1.0 - 5 August 2026
This update affects Gearplexed Demo only.I always like to save the best for last, but on average people have been quitting the demo after about 15 minutes, which is before you get to any of the good stuff that really makes Gearplexed what it is. So I rearranged the levels to get to some of the the good stuff faster. There are also a few outstanding minor updates and bugfixes included this update.Major ChangesRearranged demo levels. Demo 8 is now Demo 3, Demo 3-5 are now Demo 4-6 (respectively), Demo 6 is now Demo 8. Demo 1,2,7,9, and 10 remain the same.Minor Updates and Resolved IssuesIf a non-dismantlable entity is highlighted during chain dismantle, it now highlights red.Added version number to debug overlay.Fixed an issue that may cause a tutorial to appear on the wrong level.Sorry if this affects your demo progress.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Techn…
- Update v1.0.3 - 27 July 2026
This is a follow-on patch to 1.0.2 checking for and correcting any additional ambiguities that may lead to confusion. Two issues were found and addressed below:Modified artwork on bubblers in level 9-8 so they are more easily distinguished from the environment.Removed unused inventory slots from level 9-1.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Update v1.0.2 - 25 July 2026
This is a small patch that fixes a couple minor issues below:Full v1.0.2Removed an empty inventory slot from level 6-3 (thread)If a non-dismantlable entity is highlighted during chain dismantle, it now highlights red to be consistent with dismantling behaviorAdded version number to debug overlayThe latter two will be updated in the demo when demo patch 2.0.5 is released.Edit (4 Aug 2026): The latter two were updated in demo patch 2.1.0.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Gameplay Tips - 20 July 2026
Gearplexed will be launching soon, so now seems like a good time to give you a couple little tips to help jump-start your full version play-through. You can try these out in the demo right now too.Chain DismantleWhen you dismantle a gear, continue holding the right mouse button and sweep the cursor over other gears you want to dismantle. You will collect all the gears on that layer for quick and precise dismantling of entire gear trains.Chests and MachinesDid you know you can connect top gears on chests and machines? Generally, if you see a hole in something that is similar to the hole on bottom gears, there’s a good chance you can snap a top gear to it.RPM Hint On levels where speed matters, you can hold any gear up to another for a short time and you will be able to see the RPM (Rotations Per Minute) appear below the cursor. No need to tediously place it, drop your gear, then check th…
- Periodic Devlog #5 - 12 July 2026
The last devlog wrapped up the core design of Gearplexed, so now what? I haven’t updated for a while, and I’m told I need to provide some type of regular update so people know the developer wasn’t squished by a meteorite or something. (I wasn’t, by the way)For this short devlog I’m going to talk a little about a design feature that, if I did my job right, nobody will notice, including the people the feature is for. Approximately 8% of males and 0.5% of females have some form of colorblindness. That’s nearly 1 in 12 of you guys, and I want to make sure you can enjoy Gearplexed the same way as anyone else.The game looks different for different people.Without going into too much detail, I have a decent amount of professional experience with writing publications and presentations. It only made sense to pull those standards into my game dev hobby. Typically, with any visually heavy medium, y…
- Update v1.0.1 / Demo Update v2.0.4 - 10 July 2026
This is a small patch that fixes a couple minor issues below:Full v1.0.1 / Demo v2.0.4Fixed a minor issue that if you continue holding the mouse button after building a gear it still shows as place-able. Not a problem per se, but it made the game feel a bit janky.v1.0.1 onlyIt was previously unclear that you received more than one wheel when collecting the bonus in level 7-3. A token was added to tell you how many wheels you get.Fixed a couple of other minor issues with colliders, artwork, and sounds.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Demo Update v2.0.3 - 18 June 2026
I stumbled on to a bug yesterday where if you quit a level while a gear train is seized, that annoying 'gear-train-seized' sound effect continues playing into the main menu. It is now fixed.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Periodic Devlog #4 - 6 June 2026
Welcome to part 2 of game design. In Part 1 I talked a little bit about some of the overarching design philosophies in Gearplexed. Today I'm going to get a little more into the technical side of the game design.Game Design Part 2What gear ratios to use? How are gear ratios made? How do we keep the game from turning into math homework? If you’ve played Gearplexed, you probably didn’t even give a second thought to these things. However, at the beginning of development, these were all open questions.Starting with the basics, gear ratios are made when two gears of different sizes are engaged together. The ratio of the gears’ teeth (or more precisely, the effective circumference) determines the gear ratio. For example, if a large gear with 32 teeth is paired with a small gear of 16 teeth, every time the large gear spins once, the small gear spins twice, doubling the speed (and also halving t…
- Periodic Devlog #3 - 16 May 2026
In this devlog I’m going to talk about one my favorite parts of game design, both as a player and a developer: Artwork! I’ve been interested in computer graphics (CG) for about 30 years. For a time, I actually considered, and trained for a career in movie special effects, but ultimately decided on a different path for career stability. However, keeping CG a hobby purely on its own was somewhat difficult. It is difficult for me to just sit down and make a piece of artwork without some inspiration or purpose. Incidentally, making my own video games turned out to be a perfect outlet. It’s a way of giving myself small, bite sized assignments. Often of things I wouldn’t otherwise do that push me out of my comfort zone.At the risk of stating the obvious, video games need a lot of artwork (a lot!). For Gearplexed, I settled on a no-outline 2D toon style because it best reinforced the game’s ca…
- Demo Update v2.0.2 - 14 May 2026
The patch adds some polish to the UI. Here are a couple highlightsThe escape menu is now accessible at any point during level transitions (previously only accessible during play).Auxiliary UI elements (tooltip and dismantle timer) are updated with new artwork.The level introduction screen now contains some hints to the level mechanics.A few other minor tweaks, detailed in the changelog.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Demo Update v2.0.1 - 28 April 2026
The patch fixes a few minor issues:Added a tutorial for Demo 3 to clarify the mechanics of Random Chests.Improved readability of tooltips. The row order is consistent across all entities, and it is more difficult to confuse different spinner types.Resolved an issue that caused the level transition screen to advance if the mouse button is held down at the end of a level.Adjusted collider size on trusses in Demo 10 to more closely match the artwork.If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4292020/discussions/0/
- Periodic Devlog #2 - 23 April 2026
Hello again! I thought it was about time to provide a status update. I recently updated the trailer and screenshots to reflect the polishing work I’ve been doing the past couple months. In this devlog I’m going to go into a little detail about Gearplexed’s game design.Status UpdatesDemo 2.0 is released, I hope you are enjoying it. Gearplexed is registered for Steam’s Next Fest in June. The final artwork pass is complete. Some levels got a light touch, others got a complete makeover, and a few levels were completely redone from scratch. The next step is to add Steam Achievements. As of this writing I have 12 achievements in mind, which run the gamut from gimmes to major challenges. I’ve narrowed the release date down to a three-week window in late July, and I plan to announce the specific day late June/early July.Game Design Part 1I’ve divided this devlog into two parts. Part 1 focuses o…
- Demo Version 2.0 - 1 April 2026
This is a major update that affects nearly every part of the demo. Here’s the summary of what’s changed:3 New demo levels! The demo seemed a bit short, so I added three levels including two, more substantial ‘Puzzling’ levels from mid-game. If you already finished demo version 1, you will be able to continue with the new demo levels 8-10.Syncing the demo with the full version:Finishing touches on the artwork, including a second pass on the level artwork and animating some of the decorations to give the environments a bit of life.A few new discoverables/secrets. Nothing game-changing, just a few trinkets that you may find here and there to make the gameplay more layered and interesting.The Options dialog now follows a more typical, and flexible, tabbed style instead of cluttered all into one window. The “Defaults” button only affects the currently active tab so you can reset a group of o…
- Periodic Devlog #1 - 7 March 2026
Hello! The Gearplexed store page has been up for a month as of this writing, and I thought it would be a good idea to provide a little update and background for anyone interested.Status UpdateGearplexed full version is very close to finished. All 72 levels have been through at least three design iterations. I’m currently working hard to complete the fourth and final design iteration, which involves adding the finishing touches to the level environments and refining the game-play. Then, I need to work on every indie dev’s “favorite” thing, marketing! I make games I personally want to play yet don’t exist. But what is the point of making a game if you don’t share? About GearplexedThe Drawing Board, literally. Not the best sketch artist, but enough to keep track of ideas.I have been dabbling in game design for the past nine years, even longer if you count the custom artwork I made for Sim…
- Demo Update v1.0.1 - 21 February 2026
The patch fixes a few minor issues:The level numbering no longer refers to the level numbers from the full version and instead uses its own number system (i.e. 1-7). This should help reduce confusion due to mismatched level numbers between the demo and full version.Added balancing to random chests. Previously they were purely random. Now they check against the base probability and re-roll if the disbursed items get too out of sync with what they are supposed to be disbursing. This will provide a more consistent experience on levels with random chests.Minor tweaks to tutorials.Upgraded Unity Editor version to 6000.3.9f1If you experience any bugs please report them in the "Bugs and Technical Issues" subforum of the community hub.
