[Free Game] Qublix Has Been Completed & Released

[mairsil]

Qublix, the 3D sliding block puzzle game, has finally been completed. Please see the official announcement here:
http://www.pouncingkitten.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=2

The game is free to download for non-commercial use here:
http://catnip.pouncingkitten.com/index.php?act=view&id=13

Qublix is arcade machine friendly. Using the included configuration tool, Qublix can be run in any resolution supported by the computer it runs on. Also, keyboard and mouse controls are customizable.

It's free, go play it. 

[AtomSmasher]

I'm not a big fan of slow puzzle games like that, so I'm not going to review the gameplay, but the game does seem to be well done.  My one main gripe is that the way you exit the game is not the standard way to exit a game.  First I hit the esc key a few times, then 'Q', 'X', Ctrl-'Q', Ctrl-'X', and all the F-keys.   I came close to just ctrl-alt-del my way out, but I knew you had to have a way out hidden somewhere, so I started sliding my fingers across the keys.  I eventually figured out that 'tab' opens a menu on the sidebar, which lets you exit.

Please make the Escape key a way to exit the game, its named the escape key for a reason 

Other then that it seems to be well done.   

[mairsil]

Unfortunately, escape can mean two different things to two different people: exit, or cancel. Based on feedback from testers, I went with the safer option of cancel for the key binding. Also, because of the time consuming nature of some of the puzzles (the 16x16x16 puzzles have 1352 moveable blocks), I did not want people to accidentally quit. While there is no single key bound to quitting, the game does respond to the standard Windows Alt-F4 command.

All of the default controls are documented in the manual. 

[Lutus]

I can't speak for everyone but "arcade friendly" usually means exiting on escape.  If you have to pull out the keyboard to alt-F4 or use some crazy "hold down player 1 start and press up on player 1 joystick" or whatever it is, just to be able to exit it is no longer arcade friendly.

My 2 cents.

[AtomSmasher]

Unfortunately, escape can mean two different things to two different people: exit, or cancel. Based on feedback from testers, I went with the safer option of cancel for the key binding. Also, because of the time consuming nature of some of the puzzles (the 16x16x16 puzzles have 1352 moveable blocks), I did not want people to accidentally quit. While there is no single key bound to quitting, the game does respond to the standard Windows Alt-F4 command.

All of the default controls are documented in the manual. 

I'm not saying esc should immediately exit the game, it should open the same menu that hitting tab currently opens, the menu that lets you quit.  This is how pretty much every game made in the past 10 years has done it.

[mairsil]

I'm not saying esc should immediately exit the game, it should open the same menu that hitting tab currently opens, the menu that lets you quit.  This is how pretty much every game made in the past 10 years has done it.

I understand that some people would prefer the escape key to open the menu as well as act as a cancel button. However, from a user interface design point of view, this is a bad design since you should try to avoid having one button perform multiple functions when the entie set of functions is small. The controls can be changed, possibly to escape for menu and backspace for cancel.

As far as the quick exit for arcade machines, I thought that most people did not mind a two button exit command to prevent accidental quitting?

[crashwg]

My one main gripe is that the way you exit the game is not the standard way to exit a game.  First I hit the esc key a few times, then 'Q', 'X', Ctrl-'Q', Ctrl-'X', and all the F-keys.

When I read that the first time I took it as that was the steps you had to go through to exit the game!    Then I got to this part...

I eventually figured out that 'tab' opens a menu on the sidebar, which lets you exit.

and I realized what you were saying and decided mairsil was not a complete moron.