Piecewise! by ./badgames.zip (a daily puzzle game!)

The pieces go in the holes. That's kinda the whole thing.

You've got one minute* to get all the shapes in the holes. The board, colors, and shapes are assembled into a new layout each day.

One chance, every day. Win or lose, it's up to you!

*Time limits are customizable with modular difficulties. More info below!

Includes... gameplay mechanics!

Easy-to-understand mechanics make Piecewise more than just a drag-and-drop game.

• Bringing real life into the digital world, Piecewise allows you to hold two pieces at a time, one in each hand. This is a huge step forward for video games as simulation this precise was previously impossible.

• To further enhance the experience, pieces can be rotated while held, allowing for easier identification of the subtleties of their shapes.

With these mechanics, you'll be able to manipulate pieces with superior tactility, as if they were real physical items.

Master the skill of... holding things and putting them in specific places!

Bet on yourself with wager-based leaderboards!

Show off your skills on the daily leaderboard with modular difficulty modes (and score bonuses)!

Piecewise's time limits are fully customizable to accommodate all skill levels and abilities. But on the global leaderboards...

• Shorter, more difficult time limits apply bonus multipliers to your final score.

• Bet on your own success to dominate the leaderboards! But don't be overconfident: if you fail, your time won't be ranked...

It's a simple game, designed to make improvement fun.

Piecewise may appear simple and straightforward, but was designed to have a high skill ceiling. Push your limits and master the game!

The game provides features to let you practice and track your improvement:

• Personal record-keeping

• Daily online leaderboards

...And additional content separate from leaderboards and other players:

• Themed challenge boards

• Practice mode

• Endless mode

Made through 500+ hours of hard work and human artistry.

Piecewise contains NO generative AI output, and AI was not used in any capacity during the game's construction. I take pride in making my games, and refuse to let machines take the fun parts away from me.

...with extensive Developer Commentary!

Players liked it last time, so I'm doing it again!

Piecewise was developed over a way-too-long period of time (HUNDREDS of hours), during the worst and hardest year of my life. But i got it done! Despite everything that's happened, I finished the game, and I'm proud of that.

And as for Piecewise itself, I think it turned out great. So i included a ton of personal introspective commentary tracks, finding meaning in this small simple project and the journey it took to bring it to life. So you can listen to all that artsy talk, if that's your kind of thing.

But before you write it off, it's not ALL artsy! The commentary tracks also dive into the reasoning and process behind TONS of design decisions (both big and small) that brought this game together,, and document its journey from an over-engineered mess to a (mostly) clean project that's become a joy to work on :)

Developer's Note:

My first game was a small project with an important message, a really short experience that didn't need much polish.

For my second project, I wanted to make another small game with a fun and replayable gameplay loop and great execution. That second game was Piecewise!

Its not as lofty or thematically ambitious as "an unplayable game?!" was, but I think it's a lot more fun to play. I took a simple (if a bit derivative) concept and executed it as best I could, with the goal of making a game that's fun to master.

In a way, Piecewise is all about self-improvement, for me AND for you.

I designed the game to motivate you to push your limits and improve your skills, because that's an important part of any fun game. It's a lesson that I wanted to learn too, to make all my future games better.

It was an investment in myself, and my learning, and ALL my future projects, and that's why this is a really important game to me. It helped me improve as a developer, designer, and artist in a TON of ways, and I can't wait to use those skills to make even better games for you <3

And I think it turned out pretty good in the end :)

Thank you for your interest, and please enjoy Piecewise!

- ./yemáko/badgames.zip