That's so exciting and congratulations. I'm sorry it was so frustrating dealing with Nintendo, but I guess sometimes it's good that they're like that. I'm looking forward to reviewing PixlCross, and I just filled out the form to do so! I'll email you a link to the review when it's done and posted.
NOA Lotcheck - Completed!
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 On 03/10/2016 at 04:51 PM by PixlBit Studios See More From This User » |
Hi Everybody! It's been a while since I've had an opportunity to provide an update on PixlCross and how things have been going. Believe it or not, it's been about 6 months since we "finished" the game and sent it off to Nintendo of America for certification (aka Lotcheck). Well, a lot has transpired since then and the reason for the delay is multi-faceted.
As it turns out, there's something to those rumors about the difficulties of working with Nintendo's online infrastructure. There's a lot to it and it's not always as simple as it seems, which we learned the hard way. To the benefit of the consumer, Nintendo is very thorough in how it tests any and all online functionality and if things don't work EXACTLY as they expect them to, right down to the way error messages are displayed, they will reject a submission.
From the point of submission, it's taken us five tries to get it all right. Thankfully the extra time has provided an opportunity to improve the game. Some notable improvements include:
• Partial hint completion
• The ability to post a message to Miiverse with an ID code of a puzzle you created that when entered will allow players to download your puzzle (think Super Mario Maker)
• Miiverse message posting after completing a puzzle
• More streamlined UI interactions
• Ability to see how popular a puzzle you've shared is
• More responsive menus and cleaner transition between scenes
Generally speaking, PixlCross is a much better product than it was when it was first submitted to Nintendo. We also found and solved a number of small bugs that escaped us during our testing cycle. On one hand, the long road to release has been frustrating, but on the other it's been tremendously helpful in ensuring the best possible product we could deliver.
If you've been eagerly awaiting PixlCross, there's not much longer to wait now. We're firming up the release date with Nintendo at the moment, but we're tentatively targeting March 31 for an American release.
If you're not in America, either across the pond (or down under), the release of IARC ratings on the Wii U eShop has enabled us to release PixlCross internationally at no extra cost. The effort to translate the game into French, Italian, German, and Spanish is now underway and hopefully within the next few weeks we'll be submitting to NOE Lotcheck for both a European and Australian release.
And finally, if you're not a Wii U owner but still want to play PixlCross, help us complete Steam Greenlight - we're currently hovering between 45% and 60% of the way to the top 100. If we can make it into the Top 100, we're basically a lock for getting on to Steam. We'll be supporting PC, Mac, and Linux, so whatever your run at home will be able to accommodate PixlCross!
- Nick
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