EightyEight Games's 10000000 proved to be an intensely addicting dungeon crawler/puzzle game that met with great success. With great success comes great responsibility....to make a sequel. In this case, that sequel isYou Must Build a Boat and it debuts June 4, 2015.

This roguelike cross between Candy Crush and Torchlight 2 will be available on Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Any service through which you can buy games should offer You Must Build a Boat, and anywhere else Redwood can think of. 

Roughly a year ago I had the opportunity to interview 10000000 game developer Luca Redwood and talk about the improvements available in the sequel. Most basically, You Must Build A Boat expands on the original game by giving players control of a small boat, which can be used for exploring, adventuring, and searching for new crew members.  

While I initially found the matching game/dungeon crawler combo of 10000000 confusing, there's no doubt that it is addicting. I look forward to seeing the new challenges that You Must Build A Boat brings us. 

You Must Build a Boat will be available on Android, iOS, Linux, Mac and Windows PC. 

I don't usually review Android games. Actually, I NEVER review Android games, but I'll make an exception for 10000000. (That's ten million if you're too lazy to count the zeroes). Thanks for making this addictive puzzler, EightyEightGames. 

Okay, just to give you guys a quick rundown on the "story", if you can even call it that, 10000000 is about you being trapped in a dungeon where you're forced to fight your way out. The ultimate goal is to get a total high score of, you guessed it, 10,000,000. 

Graphics

There's not much to the graphics in this puzzler. The art style is pixelated and 8-bit. I feel the developers purposely made the visuals and textures in the game somewhat basic. It's just a simple looking game that you can play for hours on end. 

The theme music that plays during runs all add a sense of rhythm to an arguably repetitive game. The upbeat music is just another (very small) noteworthy feature about this game. 

Gameplay

Alright, now we're getting to the bulk of the game. 10000000's gameplay is based on the simple idea of matching tiles to make a minimum of 3 identical tiles, much like Bejeweled or Candy Crush. What's just slightly different with this Android title is that you can slide entire rows and columns to match your tiles.

The basic gameplay mechanic is that you're endlessly running forward in a dungeon where you can encounter enemies, mini bosses, bosses, locked chests,  and locked doors. Every time you stop running, whether it's to kill monsters or unlock doors, the dungeon slowly keeps moving forward without you. So if you wait too long or get stuck somewhere, you'll die. 

In a nutshell, the goal is to keep running for as long as possible and rack up as big a score as possible. 

Behind this simple idea is a deeper gameplay mechanic. There are "magic" tiles that hits your enemies with magic, there are "sword" tiles that hit your enemies with normal attacks (with the chance for critical strikes), "key" tiles help you unlock chests, "rock and wood" tiles all contribute to another part of the game.

That other part of the game is your castle. 

The castle is where you revive if you die. There are many rooms, each with it's own special purpose. One room might let you learn a new perk or skill, another will let you upgrade your magic attacks, while another will let you have more armor at the start of each run. All these rooms are upgradeable using the "rock and wood" you collected in your runs. 

Needless to say, the rock and wood tiles are basically useless during actual runs so it's best to quickly break them, leaving space for more useful attack tiles. 

Matching more tiles, say, 5 same tiles or 3 tiles of "key" and 3 tiles of "chest" at the same time grants you items that you can use during the run. These items can range from scrolls that turn several tiles into swords or magic. Other items, like food, help give you some more time if you're not moving quickly enough in the game. There are multiple ranks in the dungeons as well. Think of them like levels. The higher the level of the dungeon, the tougher the enemies, but the higher the score multiplier. 

The Overall

Overall, this game is actually only 4 to 5 hours long, depending on how long you play. However, it felt much longer when I played it, and I'm sure many gamers who've played 10000000 would agree. Each run feels very rewarding and satisfying as you try to conquer your previous score, all in a collective effort to reach that score for freedom.

The game provides a very distinct "so close yet, so far" feeling when you play the game and it keeps you coming back for more. The game is available for both iOS and Android, all for a cheap price of less than $5. It's one of the few games that I would've payed more for. 

To sum it up, 10000000 is short that feels long. it leaves you wanting more at the end of each play session. It's a satisfying thinking game that you will gladly give your complete attention to. Definitely worth a buy. 

Last week I had the opportunity to catch up with Luca Redwood, the one-man dev team behind the hit game 10000000. With a new game in-development, Luca shares some advice for people getting into the game dev business, and gives us a few details about You Must Build A Boat.

Editor's Note: All bold was added for emphasis.

What was your inspiration for creating 10000000?

There were really a bunch of things. One of the things that spurred me in is that once I became a grown up and had to work my gaming time really diminished.

There were games that I could play in short sessions on the tube to work, but I wanted a game with a beginning, middle, and end that I could beat - albeit over weeks of short sessions. So I set out to make a game that I could do that with. 

I wanted a game with a beginning, middle, and end that I could beat - albeit over weeks of short sessions.

What went right/wrong during development?

I decided to update Unity and 3rd party libraries without backing up. That went very wrong and took about 3 weeks of evenings and weekends to recover, but other than that nothing went majorly wrong. There were lots of changes, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

What went right? Having my wife support me while I was working these constant evenings and weekends so I could really get focused. 

What aspect of game development is your least favorite to work on?

In game dev, there is never a right answer, there is never a right answer, there is never an objective "yes this is done".

That's a good question. Before I started doing game development, I did development at a normal, serious, non-game company. Game dev is better, but one thing I miss is that you'd get requirements, and then you'd plan a piece of software that fit those requirements and.... that was it.

In game dev, there is never a right answer, there is never an objective "yes this is done". So I just have to iterate and iterate without really having a clue when something is going to be finished and fun.

It's great when it goes right and you end up with something fun and unexpected, but rubbish when it goes wrong and that feature you thought was cool is actually rubbish. 

Did the reception of 10000000 surprise you? 

Yeah, I couldn't have expected it at all. I honestly expected to sell 10 copies to sympathetic family and friends. But it wasn't just that it sold well and became a success that surprised me - it was that people liked it. I don't know why but that was what confused me most. 

Tell me a little bit about You Must Build a Boat, the sequel to 10000000. 

It started out as an update to 10000000, then became a DLC, then an expansion pack, but kept growing and growing and took on a life of its own and became a whole new game.

With YMBAB I want to keep the core experience similar, but just have all the things I would have liked to have done if I had the time when I was making 10000000. 

How does YMBAB expand and/or improve the experience of 10000000?

(Spoiler) So, in 10000000 you were locked away and everything was similar. In YMBAB there is much more exploration in the game visiting different environments and that changes how the game is played. Each time you run a dungeon it will have different procedural modifiers that affect what the best way to play the dungeon is.

The Monster capturing system is really cool too. If you are up against a dungeon with  infrequent, but beefy, monsters -- something like a Sand Dragon is really good at countering that, but that means you are going to be weaker in other areas. 

One of the hardest things to deal with is--at least when you are breaking into the industry--nobody has any expectations. Now I need to make sure this games lives up to them. Eek.

With over 300,000 copies sold of your first game, how do you think You Must Make a Boat will be received? 

Bloody hell, I'm terrified. I still feel like I somehow duped people into liking 10000000 and this will be when they finally realise. I hope it's really good; it should be since I'm spending so much more time on it, right?

One of the hardest things to deal with is, at least when you are breaking into the industry nobody has any expectations. Now I need to make sure this games lives up to them. Eek. 

Do you have plans for more games once You Must Make a Boat is finished? 

So I've been working on 10m and YMBAB for a few years now, all put together. And I've built up a backlog of around 30 ideas that I want to prototype and see how they feel. I think I'll try to take on a few smaller projects before another big one, but I'll probably get carried away again. 

Anything else you would like to add?

Play 10000000! :)

You can download 10000000 from Steam, App Store and Google Play. You Must Build a Boat will be a free download for all owners of 10000000! 

10,000,000 was a game I picked up on a whim as I was getting ready to go on a trip. Little did I know it would swiftly become one of my favorite mobile puzzle games. 10,000,000 is a hybrid RPG/matching-puzzle/adventure game, a combination that is equal parts weird and glorious.

The story of 10,000,000 is minimal, not that I expected anything mind blowing from a dungeon crawling puzzle game as far as story goes. You play an unamed prisoner whose goal is to score ten million points to earn his freedom. Points are scored by exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and finding treasure. When you aren't killing monsters and looting dungeons, you will be upgrading your prison to get better weapons and armor.

10,000,000 looks and sounds like an old NES game. The graphics are nothing to write home about, but if you like the old 8-bit style, it will appeal to you.

The enemies and obstacles are easily identifiable so the graphics do not cause any confusion despite their old style. The music is catchy, especially the dungeon crawling song. The UI is easily navigable. In the mobile version, your inventory is on the top. Underneath that is the visual representation of your character moving through the dungeon encountering doors, chests, and enemies. Taking up the rest of the screen is the puzzle portion of the game. The PC, Mac, and Linux versions of the game are nearly the same, only with the inventory moved to the left.

Dungeon crawling x puzzling = Fun

For most of the game, you will be exploring dungeons and fighting monsters.

Upon entering the dungeon, the character will begin to move towards the right side of the screen until he encounters an obstacle (chest, door, or monster). While up against an obstacle you will slowly move towards the left side of the screen. If you touch the left side, you lose and return to the prison. Taking damage from enemies will move you closer to the left side of the screen as well. You can traverse these obstacles by lining up three or more of the blocks below.

Matching blocks is done by moving whole rows or columns (sort of like a Rubik's Cube). Matching swords or magic wands will attack monsters with melee or magic attacks respectively and shields decrease the damage you take from enemies. Keys unlock doors or chests. Backpacks give you items for your inventory. Stone and wood blocks can be accumulated to upgrade your prison. Killing monsters and unlocking chests provide you with gold and items. Items can be used to attack enemies, unlock locks, move closer to the right side of the screen, or change the blocks you have available.

Back in your prison, you can spend wood and stone to rebuild rooms that will let you spend your gold on weapon and armor upgrades or experience on character upgrades to help you progress further in each dungeon. Each dungeon comes with a list of challenges that will net you experience point bonuses.

The variety of obstacles you face makes this game very dynamic. Every game you play is a little different, requiring you to plan ahead, adjusting for any items you find, enemies you encounter, or block arrangements you get. There's more strategy to it than your average matching puzzle game.

I really like this game. It's one of the few mobile titles to stay on my phone for more than a few months. The Rubik's Cube-like matching mechanic was unfamiliar, but once I got used to it the game became really fun. If you're a fan of puzzle games, check it out. You can find it on the Android Market, Apple App Store, or on Steam.

Steam just might be the bane of wallets everywhere: being able to click-click-buy any game that takes my fancy is dangerous in the extreme, especially when they're on sale and "only a few dollars".  Worse than that, when I come across a little game-gem, I immediately feel justified in future purchases.

10,000,000 is one of those gems. (One of the in-game tips: do not name your game 10,000,000.)

The Gameplay: How 10,000,000 Runs

The general idea is that you need to get 10,000,000 points to escape from the prison you're in.  Don't worry about why.  Just keep moving and matching pieces, breaking blocks and getting your little pixelated hero across the screen.

If you stop, you have to break through whatever you're stopped by.  Monsters take damage when you match three (or more) swords/staves; you can also match shields to reduce the amount of knockback you take when they hit you, so you don't get bumped off the screen and have the run end.

You can also be stopped by chests or doors, which need keys.  And of course, you need to collect resources - gold, stone and wood - before the run ends by matching them up.

When the run ends, you head back to your cell. 

From there, you open up areas with wood and stone so that you can improve your possibilities on the run.  You build training rooms, smithies and the like.  And once you have those, you can spend experience on new talents, gold on improving your equipment (so that swords deal more damage, shields give you better reduction and the like) and even get potions to change what you get on a specific run.

Then it's off to your next run.  Just keep running, just keep moving and you might just get out.

The Hook: Why I Can't Stop

When I first started I thought it would be a quick diversion for a few hours, something I'd tinker with for a bit before getting bored and moving onto the next game. 

That was last week.  I'm still running.  And I'm going to keep running until I get out.

What looked like simple gameplay (in my head, I was going "Come on, how hard can a matching game be?") is surprisingly rich and complex without being too difficult.  Having the RPG-ish aspect of leveling up items and buying perks keeps me interested, so there's a balancing act beyond just matching up titles and zoning out.

And maybe the best thing I've seen about it is the matching interface.  Most of the ones I've played are tile-swaps: click one tile, click a tile next to it, match, repeat.  This is a full drag-match, where the whole bar moves.  If you're lucky, you can match up two or three different lines at once.

I'm still getting used to that idea - I still want to click-click and match individual tiles - but it's a little change that made all the difference, and it keeps me coming back.

Steamrolled Score : 9/10

This has been the first installment of Steamrolled, a semi-regular column about impulse buys on Steam that turn out either very impressive or very... not.