Tametsi news & patch notes

Developer Draknek & Friends (creators of A Monster's Expedition and Bonfire Peaks) has organized an event called the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase from May 19 - May 23. A lot of great puzzle games are included in the event, and I am very happy that Tametsi has been invited to participate! Many games that I have recommended in the forums and to my friends are included, and I will also be using this event to check out some newer titles that I'm unfamiliar with. Tametsi is in great company here, and I hope that this will help highlight some games from other small developers.

There is a new beta branch available. It is identical to the main branch, except that it prefers to use an existing Java installation instead of the OpenJDK that is bundled with Tametsi. This is a potential fix for a few users who have reported a crash upon launch. There is no reason to use this branch if you aren't experiencing this specific issue. Players who opt in to this branch will see the version number appear as "1.79b". For anyone trying this out, please share feedback!

Version 1.79 - Quieter win/loss sounds

The "revealed mine" sound is now several decibels quieter, and the "win" sound is lowered a bit as well.

Version 1.78 - Wider eraser

The eraser was previously 25% larger than the pen. This was okay for drawing and erasing wide lines, but didn't really help for thinner ones, and it was probably too conservative. The new eraser is 25% larger + 12 pixels in diameter. This should make it easier to spot-erase work, while hopefully not causing problems for anyone.

Version 1.77 - Removed black tiles

Some players reported minor issues with the black tiles in puzzles 52 and 75; specifically, the total mine count for black tiles was not black, but dark grey. To avoid any future confusion, I have replaced the black tiles with other colors in those puzzles. The puzzles themselves are unchanged.

Thanks to a very kind and very unexpected review from John Walker over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, there have been a lot of new players coming in over the last few days. A PSA to anyone new to Tametsi: the options in the launcher are there to help you out, and none of them make the game significantly easier. I play with most of them turned on these days, and they default to off for legacy reasons -- after you get used to certain numbers counting down or not counting down, it's a bit of work to change. Also, if you have any questions, I still check the forums regularly. I don't plan to add any more features to the game, but I will definitely (try to) fix bugs, and I will try to help if you encounter an accessibility issue. Finally, some of the bonus puzzles (on the right) are much harder than the main puzzles on the left. In my opinion, if you finish the main 100 puzzles, you win -- the others are there if you get bored one day or feel like a challenge. Have fun!

Version 1.76 - Minor bug fix

This update fixes an unreported bug: toggling fullscreen with alt+enter was sometimes incorrectly resizing text inside tiles. This is barely enough to justify an update, but it's a mistake that I wanted to fix. Happy holidays!

Version 1.75 - Cleanup

This is just a small refactoring update. The only change that will be visible to some players is that error logging for achievement-related issues is now off by default. I have not received any recent reports about earned achievements not being awarded; if this happens, please reach out to me via the discussion board or email.

Version 1.741/2 - Tweaks to drawing mode

This is a minor update, making a couple of amendments to the recent 1.74 update.

• The drawing cursor is now a crosshair with a circle that shows the drawing radius. There were some problems with this, and v1.741 reverts this change.
• The "erase" color draws 25% larger than every other color, making it easier to erase your marks without using the size controls.

There is also a new feature, by request: if you manually edit your config file to include a line "target fps=X", where X is between 20 and 100, you can set the game's display rate. This is not officially supported or recommended.

Version 1.74 - Changes to drawing mode

This update comes with a lot of small changes:

• The drawing cursor is now a crosshair with a circle that shows the drawing radius.
• The palette is much larger, so the grayscale palette and the eraser are much easier to click.
• If you click and drag on the palette, and your cursor leaves the palette, you can still select colors on the border -- a small dot will appear in the palette to show you what color will be selected when you release the mouse. This will also help select a grayscale color or the eraser.
• The middle mouse button, Shift+click, and Control+click are all shortcuts for the "erase" color; I've added two tips that mention these changes.
• The drawing size selector is wider and goes up to 32px (previously maxed out at 28px).
• All puzzles now obey the left and right margins, where previously a few puzzles were allowed to stray.

As always, if you experience any problems with this update, or disagree with any of the changes, please let me know on the discussion board. Error logging for achievement-related issues is still turned on, so also let me know if you're not receiving achievements.

Version 1.731 - Error logging

A couple of users so far have reported not receiving earned achievements and being unable to use the Steam Overlay in version 1.73. I don't know why this is happening, but in an attempt to get to the bottom of it, I've added an error log. It only records issues related to Steam achievements. If you are affected by this issue, please tell me about it on the discussion board (there is a thread already).

Version 1.73 - Achievements

Version 1.73 adds achievements. There are 19 of them, and they all represent significant milestones in the game. There are no hidden achievements, and none of them require perfect solutions to puzzles. If you have already met the requirements for any of them, they should all unlock when you load up the profile that meets the requirements. Please let me know on the discussion board if you experience any difficulties with this update.

Version 1.72 - Changed ordering on level select screen

In retrospect, the last two sets of levels should appear in reverse order; I won't elaborate here to avoid spoilers. The unlock conditions are unchanged, to avoid breaking anyone's progress. Now it is likely that people will unlock the final set of bonus puzzles before the second to last set, but this bothers me less than having an anticlimactic final set of puzzles.

Version 1.71 - Removed background lines

Due to some amount of demand (I didn't take a poll), I've removed the moving lines in the background. For many users, these were only apparent on the "win" screen, and some users saw them as a glitch of some kind. If you have thoughts about this change, there's a thread on the discussion board. I also added some new, higher, resolutions to the launcher. These were originally monitor resolutions, but really, there is no reason to ever select your own monitor resolution in the dropdown -- it's better to play fullscreen if you're trying to use your entire monitor. The higher resolutions are there for people with large monitors who still want to play in a window, and so there's no good reason to make them fit existing monitor resolutions; instead, I tried to span a wider range of nice aspect resolutions to play in a window.

Version 1.7 - The last content update

This update adds 9 new puzzles, bringing the total number of extra puzzles to 60. They unlock at the end of the game. There are no more planned content updates, and the game is also feature-complete. Still, please report any bugs or issues you have, and I will address them as quickly as possible. Also, thanks very much for all of the very positive feedback over the last year, both in the reviews and on the discussion board. It made creating all of these new puzzles and features more than worthwhile.

Version 1.64 (27 July 2018)

After the addition of drawing mode, some users were complaining that the position of the "erase all" button was leading them to accidentally click the "reset" button. The reset button has been moved to the left, just below the puzzle's title. This should totally prevent anyone from accidentally clicking it, since there is nothing else active nearby. There are also three new puzzles that unlock after finishing puzzle 65.

Version 1.63 (20 July 2018)

If you wait for a few seconds on the profile select screen, the current tip will change. There are a total of 20 tips (fewer if you disable drawing mode), and they will not repeat until all of them have been displayed.

Version 1.62 (18 July 2018)

When switching between windowed and fullscreen modes involved a change in aspect ratio, the drawing canvas was becoming misaligned with the tiles. This is fixed now. You will notice a significant loss in image quality on the drawing canvas if you repeatedly press Alt+Enter. This is not really a bug; it's just an unfortunate consequence of resizing an image multiple times.

Version 1.61 (18 July 2018)

This update fixes a minor problem with windowed mode after leaving fullscreen: there was previously a narrow strip of unused space below the canvas and above the bottom window border, and it should be gone now.

Version 1.6 (17 July 2018)

There is only one major change in version 1.6: you can now press Alt+Enter to toggle fullscreen mode.

• The "toggle fullscreen" feature respects multiple monitors, and should never move Tametsi to a new monitor when Alt+Enter is pressed.
• There is a lot of logic involved in choosing an appropriate window size upon leaving fullscreen. Assuming the current monitor is at least 1024x768, the window that results should be reasonable.
• This feature is documented in the tips that appear upon launching the game, and the keybinding is fixed.

There are also three new puzzles that unlock approximately 2/3 of the way through the main game.

Version 1.51

There are two significant changes in 1.51:

• Clicking the back button, pressing the "back" key, or closing the game while the "undo" banner is up will automatically trigger an undo; previously, they caused the puzzle to be reset in some circumstances.
• There are tips that show up when you start the game. They reinforce important points from the tutorial, and also give some useful information that should have been made explicit before, but wasn't.

Version 1.5

This update adds two new features:

• There is a new keyboard shortcut (Control, by default) to highlight neighbors of a tile.
• The game will suspend drawing when not in focus.

If you have already bound Control to another function, then you will have to go bind something else to "show neighbors"; it will be unbound when you load up the game. The behavior of the "show neighbors" key deserves a little explanation here. If you are currently hovering over a tile (either active or revealed), it will highlight all of the neighbors of the tile you are hovering over. If you are on the border of a tile, but your cursor is not inside of any tile, then the tile closest to your cursor will have its neighbors highlighted. This is to keep highlights from flickering on and off if you hold down the "show neighbors" key and drag the mouse around. I hope this will not result in any confusion. Please let me know if you experience any issues with this update.

Three new puzzles are available; they unlock after completing level 82: Wires, and they have a similar theme. This marks 45 bonus puzzles, out of a planned 60; if you have any feedback about what you'd like to see in the upcoming puzzles, please share your ideas on the discussion board!

Six new puzzles are out today, in two groups; both groups unlock very late in the game. The rhombille tiling in the RHO puzzles is something that's been lying around since early in development, but it just doesn't work without corner neighbors. It's a little tricky to get used to with corner neighbors, but hopefully some of the other new tilings from the extra puzzles have been good practice.

New puzzles (17 June 2018)

Three new levels unlock after level 90 in this update. There is also an internal change to the extra level format; it's really minor, but it will cause Steam to download them all again. Oh, and "Not A Knot" is now "Not a Knot", because it was bothering me.

New levels (2 June 2018)

Three new puzzles are available; they unlock after finishing level 80, and feature a new tileset. As always, your feedback is appreciated -- if you've been waiting for more puzzles like your favorites, and none of the bonus puzzles fit that description, let me know on the discussion board!

Version 1.43 (23 May 2018)

In the launcher, there is a new tab labeled "Manage profiles". All you can do from within this tab is erase one or all of your profiles. You are required to type a message to erase your data, so if your cat manages to delete your data by walking on your keyboard, then you should regard that as a deliberate act. This update also adds three new hex puzzles that unlock around 3/4 of the way through the main game.

Version 1.42 (5 May 2018)

This update is late, but to compensate there are 6 new puzzles this time. These unlock very late in the game, and they bend the rules a little bit. Corner neighbors are turned on for all of these puzzles, and some tiles have extra neighbors to be wary of -- be careful near the center. In addition, all of the column hints are bent.

Version 1.411 (10 April 2018)

This update adds three new puzzles, with different variations of a new tiling. They're unlocked by finishing a specific level in the second half of the game.

There are three new puzzles that unlock after finishing a specific level in the low 40s.

Other changes:

• On the level select screen, puzzle titles are now displayed at the bottom center on hover. This only applies to puzzles that are currently unlocked.
• Extra levels are now displayed in six columns instead of five.
• Minor changes to the way tiles are positioned on screen. This should help keep the level select squares from becoming too small on 4:3 resolutions.
• Fixed a minor bug: "toggle drawing mode" key was not disabled when drawing itself was disabled.

There are three new puzzles that unlock after finishing a specific level in the low 40s.

Other changes:

• On the level select screen, puzzle titles are now displayed at the bottom center on hover. This only applies to puzzles that are currently unlocked.
• Extra levels are now displayed in six columns instead of five.
• Minor changes to the way tiles are positioned on screen. This should help keep the level select squares from becoming too small on 4:3 resolutions.
• Fixed a minor bug: "toggle drawing mode" key was not disabled when drawing itself was disabled.

Changes

Now you can draw on top of your puzzles. Drawing is enabled by default, but you can turn it off in the options section of the launcher. To begin drawing, click the big pencil symbol toward the lower right. While drawing mode is active, you can't interact with the puzzle in any way. To leave drawing mode, click the pencil icon again or press the back button. To see the canvas outside of drawing mode, hold shift (by default). If you have already bound something else to shift, you will need to set a key for this feature in the launcher. Your drawing will only last until you leave the puzzle you're currently on, so this probably isn't the right tool for your next masterpiece.

Drawing mode controls

Drawing mode has some new controls. From top to bottom:

• Two boxes, showing the colors bound to the left and right mouse buttons respectively.
• A palette for changing the drawing color. Clicking here works with either mouse button, and so does clicking and dragging. The checkerboard pattern is an "erase" color.
• A size control (hover over it, and click when the circle is the size you want).
• The pencil icon -- clicking this leaves drawing mode, and so does pressing the back button.
• A giant eraser where reset and the sound toggle used to be. This button erases the entire drawing; to erase pieces by hand, choose the checkerboard color in the palette.

Minor update notes:

• The default drawing colors are "revealed tile" color on the left, and a "flagged tile" color on the right. If you've changed your controls to swap the mouse button behavior, these colors will also be swapped by default.
• There is a small zone to the left of the smallest pen radius that will also select the smallest possible radius, because it's very hard to click on the smallest part of the size control.
• Your drawing will persist if you click a mine, but winning a puzzle, resetting it, or leaving it will all erase the drawing.
• Fixed a bug: the reset button was not changing its appearance on hover in the extra levels.
• Changed the default color of the reset "X" to be darker, to increase the contrast between the button's default state and its hover color.

Version 1.401 changes (14 February 2018):

Fixed a minor text alignment bug for triangular tiles, and added three new puzzles.

Version 1.402 changes (15 February 2018):

• Changed Combination Lock levels to all unlock at once, instead of in sequence.
• Flagging and revealing tiles with keys is now correctly disabled in drawing mode.
• Binding LMB to "show canvas" works properly.
• The drawing size control allows clicking and dragging now.

Version 1.403 changes (18 February 2018):

• Added a key to toggle drawing mode (defaults to D).
• The mousewheel will adjust pen size in drawing mode.
• Made the palette larger; most of the extra size went into a wider grayscale area, and a larger area dedicated to the "erase" color.

Version 1.404 changes (14 March 2018):

Added three new puzzles; they unlock after beating a specific puzzle in the 80-90 range.

Changes

Now you can draw on top of your puzzles. Drawing is enabled by default, but you can turn it off in the options section of the launcher. To begin drawing, click the big pencil symbol toward the lower right. While drawing mode is active, you can't interact with the puzzle in any way. To leave drawing mode, click the pencil icon again or press the back button. To see the canvas outside of drawing mode, hold shift (by default). If you have already bound something else to shift, you will need to set a key for this feature in the launcher. Your drawing will only last until you leave the puzzle you're currently on, so this probably isn't the right tool for your next masterpiece.

Drawing mode controls

Drawing mode has some new controls. From top to bottom:

• Two boxes, showing the colors bound to the left and right mouse buttons respectively.
• A palette for changing the drawing color. Clicking here works with either mouse button, and so does clicking and dragging. The checkerboard pattern is an "erase" color.
• A size control (hover over it, and click when the circle is the size you want).
• The pencil icon -- clicking this leaves drawing mode, and so does pressing the back button.
• A giant eraser where reset and the sound toggle used to be. This button erases the entire drawing; to erase pieces by hand, choose the checkerboard color in the palette.

Minor update notes:

• The default drawing colors are "revealed tile" color on the left, and a "flagged tile" color on the right. If you've changed your controls to swap the mouse button behavior, these colors will also be swapped by default.
• There is a small zone to the left of the smallest pen radius that will also select the smallest possible radius, because it's very hard to click on the smallest part of the size control.
• Your drawing will persist if you click a mine, but winning a puzzle, resetting it, or leaving it will all erase the drawing.
• Fixed a bug: the reset button was not changing its appearance on hover in the extra levels.
• Changed the default color of the reset "X" to be darker, to increase the contrast between the button's default state and its hover color.

Version 1.401 changes (14 February 2018):

Fixed a minor text alignment bug for triangular tiles, and added three new puzzles.

Version 1.402 changes (15 February 2018):

• Changed Combination Lock levels to all unlock at once, instead of in sequence.
• Flagging and revealing tiles with keys is now correctly disabled in drawing mode.
• Binding LMB to "show canvas" works properly.
• The drawing size control allows clicking and dragging now.

Version 1.403 changes (18 February 2018):

• Added a key to toggle drawing mode (defaults to D).
• The mousewheel will adjust pen size in drawing mode.
• Made the palette larger; most of the extra size went into a wider grayscale area, and a larger area dedicated to the "erase" color.

Version 1.404 changes (14 March 2018):

Added three new puzzles; they unlock after beating a specific puzzle in the 80-90 range.

Changes

This update adds support for new levels outside of the main 100-level progression.

• New levels will be visible on the right in the level select screen, and can have a variety of unlock conditions (for example, completing a specific puzzle or finishing a certain number of puzzles).
• All new levels are totally optional; the only effect they can have is to possibly unlock other bonus puzzles.

Version 1.3 also fixes a couple of small bugs.

Update: Version 1.302 (23 January 2018)

Version 1.302 fixes a very significant bug related to sound. For those players who experienced sound cutting out or related crashes, these issues may be fixed. For anyone still experiencing problems in the new version, please send an email or post in the discussion board!

Changes

This update adds support for new levels outside of the main 100-level progression.

• New levels will be visible on the right in the level select screen, and can have a variety of unlock conditions (for example, completing a specific puzzle or finishing a certain number of puzzles).
• All new levels are totally optional; the only effect they can have is to possibly unlock other bonus puzzles.

Version 1.3 also fixes a couple of small bugs.

Update: Version 1.302 (23 January 2018)

Version 1.302 fixes a very significant bug related to sound. For those players who experienced sound cutting out or related crashes, these issues may be fixed. For anyone still experiencing problems in the new version, please send an email or post in the discussion board!

Changes

This update adds a new group of options based on player feedback:

• Darken finished tiles: Numbers on revealed tiles will go dark when all of their neighbors have been flagged or revealed (if the number of flags matches the indicated number of mines).
• Revealed tiles count down: Numbers on revealed tiles will count down as neighboring tiles are flagged.
• Column hints count down: Columns with mine counts will count down as tiles are flagged.
• Treat grey like other colors: This removes the total mine count, replacing it with a count for just the grey tiles in a puzzle (if there are any). This also changes the visual style of flagged grey tiles to match other colored tiles.
• Alternative flag style: A new style for flagged colored tiles is available, with a white border.

These options are all turned off by default, and can be enabled in the "options" tab in the launcher.

Version 1.201

Fixed an oversight: when "darken finished tiles" was turned on, completed "?" tiles were being darkened along with numbered tiles.

Version 1.202

Fixed another oversight: when "treat grey like other colors" was turned on, puzzles with no active grey tiles still had a grey count of 0. This has been removed.

Version 1.21 (25 December 2017)

Added a new "night mode" option that replaces the bright "level completed" color by a very dark blue. Changed the behavior of "?" tiles when "darken finished tiles" is on; "?" now go dark whenever all of the neighboring tiles are either revealed or flagged. This is slightly different from the numbered tiles' behavior.

Version 1.211 (29 December 2017)

The state of the sound toggle is now saved between sessions. Made colorblind text white when it is on top of a black tile (only affects a couple of levels).

Changes

This update adds a new group of options based on player feedback:

• Darken finished tiles: Numbers on revealed tiles will go dark when all of their neighbors have been flagged or revealed (if the number of flags matches the indicated number of mines).
• Revealed tiles count down: Numbers on revealed tiles will count down as neighboring tiles are flagged.
• Column hints count down: Columns with mine counts will count down as tiles are flagged.
• Treat grey like other colors: This removes the total mine count, replacing it with a count for just the grey tiles in a puzzle (if there are any). This also changes the visual style of flagged grey tiles to match other colored tiles.
• Alternative flag style: A new style for flagged colored tiles is available, with a white border.

These options are all turned off by default, and can be enabled in the "options" tab in the launcher.

Version 1.201

Fixed an oversight: when "darken finished tiles" was turned on, completed "?" tiles were being darkened along with numbered tiles.

Version 1.202

Fixed another oversight: when "treat grey like other colors" was turned on, puzzles with no active grey tiles still had a grey count of 0. This has been removed.

Version 1.21 (25 December 2017)

Added a new "night mode" option that replaces the bright "level completed" color by a very dark blue. Changed the behavior of "?" tiles when "darken finished tiles" is on; "?" now go dark whenever all of the neighboring tiles are either revealed or flagged. This is slightly different from the numbered tiles' behavior.

Version 1.211 (29 December 2017)

The state of the sound toggle is now saved between sessions. Made colorblind text white when it is on top of a black tile (only affects a couple of levels).