(Youtube version if you would like to share it)

A W&W Demo for the WIZ is available here and you can Order W&W here for $16 (~10 Euro) the normal version and $24  (~16 Euro) with the custom sprite and support independent games!

We would like to thank everyone who supported us from the older GP2X version: If you purchased the GP2X version, you can download the WIZ version for free, just visit the Members area to download the game.

Hope you enjoy the game!

We have good news! Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles for the Dreamcast was featured on gamesTM magazine, one of UK’s and Europe’s most renown magazines. Also, W&W has been restocked by Play Asia, more on this below.

gamesTM also reviewed the game, praising the fact that so much content “was only made by two people”:

“The first thing you’ll notice about W&W is that it has an impressive amount of content for a game that was made by just two people. The puzzle game itself can be played in story mode — a meaty adventure featuring multiple routes, RPG-like progression, animated cut-scenes, text dialogue, even mini-games. It’s basically everything you would expect from a pluzzler’s story mode and more. [...] There’s more here than you’ll find in any of the other genre realeses that appeared during Dreamcast’s lifetime and it’s all top quality too. You never get the feeling that Yuan Works rushed or cut corners throughout production. [...] The core element of Wind and Water is actually a very playable and original concept. [...] The core gameplay has just the right kind of addictive quality to keep you playing for hours [...] In short, if you’re still actively buying Dreamcast games and you’re looking for something different than the usual crop of shooters then this is essential“

Also, we have other good news: Wind and Water had been out of stock for months on Play Asia, but last week Play Asia restocked the game for those who were not able to purchase the game.

The magazine features a full interview regarding the development of Wind and Water, development from Dreamcast, and our view as Independent Game creators (special thanks to Kim Wild for the interview). Remember that supporting Independent Games helps us continue doing games for our favorite consoles which are not supported by manufacturers. Here’s the trailer of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles in case you haven’t seen it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here’s the Gagaman’s review of the game.

Hi everyone! We have a surprise for you! We have redesigned the Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles website and, in honor of the Dreamcast’s 10th anniversary, we have created a new image for our beloved console’s birthday!

We have also created the official W&W trailer for Dreamcast, be sure to check it out below!

(Youtube version if you would like to share it)

Help us spread the word about the Dreamcast’s 10th Anniversary! We also have new updates on Little Ninja and other Yuan Works projects, so don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed to receive our future updates! And remember to support independent games so that we can continue creating games for our beloved genres and consoles, and developing Little Ninja!

The wait is over! The Dreamcast version of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles will be released by the end of October, and preorders are running now. Head to the W&W website for more information! The game can be preordered at our publisher redspotgames’ webshop.

We have also opened the official W&W Forums where we will be adding information about the preordering, the release date, and future shops that will carry the game, so don’t forget to register and check it out!

We’d like to let you know that Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles for the Dreamcast will be released on Summer 2008! We’ve updated our website with the announcement, you can check it out here. The sprite ordering for Dreamcast will be available for two weeks starting now and will be very limited, so be sure to grab yours as soon as possible! The game will be available for preorder in the following weeks, and will be published by redspotgames.

New packaging and design

The game will feature an extensive manual in both Japanese and English, as well as new artwork and design for the packaging:

New features for the Dreamcast version

For those familiar with the GP2X version, we’ve added tons of new features,  including: the new Mr. VMU character and dialogues, the new Danger Break system, faster and more accurate gameplay, new Computer Difficulty Levels, fully dual-language packaging and game software (English and Japanese), new artwork and design for the Manual and Packaging, a new ending, rebalanced 2-player battles, tons of new graphics, high-quality CD Soundtrack music with new songs, arcade stick support for the Dreamcast, and much more (but we don’t want to spoil everything)!

Don’t forget to check the new website!

The Demo will be included on a Dreamcast bootable disk and, as the GP2X Demo version, the Dreamcast demo includes two complete Story Mode worlds, 2 Puzzle Mode Stages, and some other stuff. Don’t forget to insert a VMU with at least 4 Free Blocks!

(Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed to keep in touch with the latest news about the development of W&W for the Dreamcast!)

As we all know, the resolution of the GP2X is 320*240 pixels, and though it may sound like a very limited resolution by today’s standards, it houses no less than 76800 dots of pure workload. The reason is that sprite graphics have dots hand placed carefully to make everything look pretty and well animated.

For the graphics, as always, everything goes by the “rule of eights” with me. I already knew that the “Elements” in the game would be 16×16, so all I needed was to make them colorful and to include the appropriate Chinese character inside. Chinese characters are pretty complicated compared to letters in say, English, and sometimes squeezing the whole ideogram in a limited space can be quite a challenge!

At first, they were going to be more “classic” in style. The characters were more calligraphic and the blocks much flatter. Later, I imagined them as cubes, so I had to play with the lighting to give them volume. I wanted the blocks to fade according to the element they represented, so I drew the bursting animations.

After drawing “sprite sketches” of the first characters (which are Hao and me!), and some needed props, I had the first (mockup) screen of the game! Now all you need is to imagine it finished and animated in top quality! (Okay, I admit it requires a lot of imagination.)

But after drawing some more elements and improving the quality of others, things looked much more promising (in mockup mode, of course…)! The character size I decided upon was 48×48. They looked much better after I worked more on them. Now, they only had to move to be ready!! (SIGH…What a pain…why do sprites have to move? Just drawing them is complicated enough!)

I also started to work on the dreaded “press” graphics. If you notice, the beta “screenshots” of the game have a silver colored press, while the final one turned out raven. Here are some of the concepts I explored. The black “dents” in found in one of them are actually the ancient Chinese “Bagua” trigrams, also linked to the Ancient Elements.

As a bonus, here are the dummy blocks Hao drew to make the test engine! It is funny that the cursor you see there was kept for the GP2X Software Contest, the Teaser Demo, the Final Demo, and was replaced by a new one merely days before the official worldwide release of Wind and Water! We considered keeping it as a memento, but it was very different from the overall quality of the final game, so we had to retire it as a veteran warrior!

In future workshops I’ll detail more on sprite rendering and animation. Stay tuned!

Hao and I had always wanted to make a puzzle game. But we wanted something a little more ambitious than ones currently available. We wanted one that had a very strong and competitive two player mode. One where skill, practice of difficult moves, and strategy would dictate the winner, much like in a good fighting game. On the other hand, we also wanted to include a story mode unlike anything ever seen in a puzzle game before.

The Story Mode of this game is perhaps its most original feature

We already knew the basics that we wanted: a game with combos and chains. Combos that could be constructed with speed and planning. And chains that didn’t happen by chance, but rather by skill. Also, we didn’t want anything precipitating all the time from the top of the screen. We wanted to have the whole board available from the very beginning to let players start making strong moves right away.

But what did we feel was missing from other puzzle games in terms of gameplay?

One of the greatest puzzle games ever made!

Hexic was too much based on strategy, which made it a little slow for action battles. Bejeweled had nice chains, but it was hard to set them up even with skills. Super Puzzle Fighter II X (Turbo) had a big percentage of chance going on: even great players sometimes lost matches because of bad luck. Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack) had an overall excellent battle system, but combos and other moves became rather useless to experienced players, who rely exclusively on chains, of which you eventually run out.

What would happen if Dr. Robotnik met Puyo Puyo?

We wanted to make a system that was flexible enough to allow for true improvement in one’s own style. If someone wanted to perfect combos, there would be a suitable style to let them exploit their ability. If someone preferred chains, there would also be an adequate system for them.

I though about a rotatory system that had squares aligned vertically, but not horizontally. When staring at my house’s floor, I played in my mind with the tiles arranging combos and chains. I spent the time in college thinking about possible systems, and sleepless nights refining them. After I knew what I wanted, I started drawing it on paper to visualize it better and explain it to my brother. After all, the game I had in mind had three different ways of playing ala Street Fighter Zero (Alpha) 3, so it would be complicated to explain just verbally.

If you ever wondered how the very first alpha of Wind and Water looked like…

Hao (who is a rather good at puzzle games) agreed on everything except that he thought it would be too hard to get good at making chains (which is ironic, since after about three weeks he started pulling infinite chains so he had to make the timing very precise). And he started to work on a playable engine to see how things worked out. The first playable demo Hao put together was very primitive, but had all the elements of the basic gameplay. It turned out to work very well, especially with my theoretical additions such as the “press” which pushed the board against the top, and “Time Combo/Time Chain” styles of play.

Hao makes some pretty insane chains in Panel de Pon

As a bonus, I wanted the theme of the game to be the Five Chinese Element and Feng Shui. All those years of learning such things in Chinese school might come to use, after all. But how could I merge the Five elements in the game with “Wind and Water”, when “wind” was not an ancient element?

Water, as represented in our grandfather’s calligraphy

Wind would be a special element; one that would have an unusual reaction when paired with “water”, thus forming Feng Shui. There was another element present in Buddhism and the Japanese Godai I wanted to include as well: the heaven, void, or sky. It would be the ultimate element that both bound all together and disappeared all at the same time. One last secret element was to be included in the game, and would present at all times, although only those who have seen the true ending of the game know about it! Who said this game wasn’t philosophical?

Thus, the game used the Five Elements as matching blocks. Instead of the original colors, I opted for the special Wind element to be golden, the void to be purple, and the secret element to be black.

Then, I started to work on the graphics for the game, at the same time that Hao started to do so on the real engine. After all, we only had three months until the contest deadline!

In our next post, we’ll include early W&W concept screenshots and design documents, so don’t forget to check back soon or subscribe to our RSS feed!