pyehouse

I’ve recently been revisiting my little iOS chess like app, Stalemate. The latest update is currently in review and includes two major revisions. The first and most important is the addition of a tutorial mode. That is a feature that has been requested and honestly should have been there from the word go. When I put Centripetal together, the game play was simple enough that a simple help screen was sufficient with some explanation of the goal and obstacles. With Stalemate the scoring needed to be explained, the fact that pieces don’t move once placed was probably not what folks expected and though simple it is still more complex than Centripetal. So yeah, should have made a tutorial to begin with.

The second and less important but more visible change is with the look and feel. I moved away from my attempt at aged parchment with some sort of Renaissance gradient font (seriously, what was I thinking?) to a simple black and white glossy look more in line with the icon set I used for the pieces in the first place. Here’s the new splash page:

Splash screen for Stalemate iPhone app

Okay, yes, I’ve picked another custom font. But this time there is no gradient at least. When I created the reflection, at first I just made it a normal reflection but then it occurred to me to reflect (see what I did there?) the oppositional nature of the game and therefore made the reflected portion a negative of the full portion. I may not have a future as a graphic design artist but I thought it was a nice touch.

Update – We’re now live with the new look. In addition, I’ve made Stalemate and Centripetal free. I think I would rather see them getting played than continue to see a trickle of income off of them. Have fun!