{"id":259,"date":"2015-11-16T12:02:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T20:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/?p=259"},"modified":"2015-11-16T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T20:02:12","slug":"gems-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/16\/gems-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Gems Of War"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Gems Of War<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gemsofwar.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/gemsofwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/GOW_wallpaper1-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Gems Of War\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gemsofwar.com\/he-slimed-me\/\" target=\"_blank\">It&#8217;s official!<\/a>\u00a0A game that I did some contract work on has shipped.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gemsofwar.com\/\">Gems Of War<\/a>\u00a0is now available for <a href=\"http:\/\/store.xbox.com\/en-US\/Xbox-One\/Games\/Gems-of-War\/726af7b5-2ae3-4df9-b850-058735be51ea\" target=\"_blank\">Xbox One<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/store.playstation.com\/#!\/en-us\/games\/gems-of-war\/cid=UP4040-CUSA02829_00-GEMSOFWARPS40001\" target=\"_blank\">PlayStation 4<\/a>.\u00a0It&#8217;s the latest Puzzle\/RPG from the original creators of Puzzle Quest.<\/p>\n<h2>Match 3 Puzzle Battles<\/h2>\n<p>The game itself is based on a match-3 puzzle mechanic, similar to Candy Crush Saga. Instead of single-player puzzles with different layouts and special pieces, the puzzles in Gems Of War are openly laid out and played against an AI opponent. Each side has a team of up to 4 characters who have special attributes and abilities. The player alternates taking turns with the AI, and as you match different colored gems (or skulls), you build up magic points which allow the characters to use their special abilities. Matching skulls and, most of the time, using special abilities deals damage to the opposing team. The last team with remaining characters wins the match.<\/p>\n<p>I was a fan of Puzzle Quest many years ago, so I was pretty excited to get to work on the game. I was familiar with the game mechanics and strategies, so I could focus on the Xbox Live stuff without having to learn the game as well. In addition, whenever I had to test certain things, I got to play matches. It&#8217;s always nice to enjoy playing a game while you work on it.<\/p>\n<h2>Xbox One<\/h2>\n<p>The mobile and Steam versions of the game were written in Flash for the AIR platform, and Pipeworks re-wrote the game in Unity for the console versions. I was contracted to implement the Xbox One functionality.<\/p>\n<p>This project went very smoothly. The other programmers had the game ported and running in Unity when I came onto the project and I just had to add support for the Xbox-specific features. As is the case with development on a new console, digging through the documentation and learning the idiosyncrasies of the platform take the bulk of your time. After going through the process though, it makes it much easier during subsequent projects.<\/p>\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-16 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OutOfMyMindGames\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:16px;height:16px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" style=\"display: inline;width:16px;height:16px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/32x32\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-16 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OutOfMyMindDave\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:16px;height:16px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" style=\"display: inline;width:16px;height:16px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/32x32\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-16 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-linkedin nolightbox\" data-provider=\"linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Find us on Linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/out-of-my-mind-games\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:16px;height:16px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"linkedin\" title=\"Find us on Linkedin\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" style=\"display: inline;width:16px;height:16px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/32x32\/linkedin.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gems Of War It&#8217;s official!\u00a0A game that I did some contract work on has shipped.\u00a0Gems Of War\u00a0is now available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.\u00a0It&#8217;s the latest Puzzle\/RPG from the original creators of Puzzle Quest. Match 3 Puzzle Battles The game itself is based on a match-3 puzzle mechanic, similar to Candy Crush Saga. Instead &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/16\/gems-of-war\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gems Of War<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gems Of War - Out Of My Mind Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gems Of War, the latest puzzle\/RPG\/strategy game from the original creators of Puzzle Quest, is now available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/outofmymindgames.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/16\/gems-of-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gems Of War - 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