I just released COMPULSIVE for iOS and Android.  It’s a puzzle game.  The rules are pretty simple in that all you have to do is join 4 or more tiles of the same color to score points.  The bigger groups you clear the more points you get.  And you earn a bonus multiplier if you can create chain reactions–one group clears which causes another to clear.  The game last 60 seconds which is plenty of time to score lots of points.

The first thing I noticed when people play Compulsive is they don’t realize tiles can move to any location on the board.  This is most likely because they are use to playing Bejeweled or Candy Crush.  This will only hurt your chances of scoring big because Compulsive lets you move tiles clear across the screen to make a move.  It only requires that there be a same color tile next to where you drop it.  That’s it.  I found after experimenting with a lot of different rule sets, that having more restrictions on tile movement just wasn’t as fun.  I never got into  Bejeweled for probably this very reason.

There is a special glowing tile that drops on the board every 15 seconds or so.  It’s the coolest part of the game in that it cleans off all tiles of a specific color from the board.  Just drag it onto the color you want to clear and then watch them explode. The glowing tile is very strategic.  It can be used to quickly clear a color that’s in the way, score some points, and setup an awesome combo.  The glowing tile also clears itself if it hits the bottom row.  It’ll reward you with 1,000 points when that happens which also counts towards a combo multiplier.  Figuring out the best way to use this tile will take a little practice but the rewards can be great.

Where did I come up with the idea?  I think I had a lot of influences from a lot of different games.  The board is a vertical 6×8 rectangle with tiles that fall down the screen.  This  might remind you of Tetris.  It has a very generous point system which might feel a little bit like Bejeweled. The design is very modern and clean which is similar to Letterpress.  The glowing tile is similar in behavior to that of the diamond in Super Puzzle Fighter II.  The Mike O’Meara show thinks the music comes from the movie American Psycho.  I really don’t think that’s the case… although it was one of my favorite movies of all time.

Please try it out and let me know what you think!