Chromino is now in Alpha!

[MutantPigeon24]

Chromino is now available for Alpha testing

A new abstract, tile-placement game for the whole family has been added to the Alpha pool!!
Chromino is a great fusion of colours and dominoes (I know the community has been asking for that for ages ) and I hope you give it a try.
You can start your review by using the link here: https://boardgamearena.com/reviewer?game=chromino

Looking forward to your helpful feedback so I can improve the eventual experience for all our players.

While waiting on feedback, comments and approvals, I will be adding a few extra variant options, as well as sprucing up some visuals and animations.

Kind regards, and happy board-gaming!
MutantPigeon24

Useful links:

• Review page - Submit feedback and approvals
• BGG information - Learn more about the game
• Alpha Group - Ask for an invite if you are interested in joining

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino players

A small, but hopefully well received update will be deployed shortly: https://boardgamearena.com/reviewer?game=chromino
As no bugs have been found as of yet, the update is mostly focusing on making the game more accessible and streamlining play.

As we are still in Alpha, games that were started prior to this release might experience some hiccups when attempting to resume post update.
I have tried to mitigate any potential errors, but I do apologise if I was not able to save your game

The summary of changes can be found below.

Quality of life:

• On tile draw: Auto select new tile
• On player's turn: Update selected tile with new possible moves
• PASS button is now red to easier differentiate against DRAW button
• Swapping to other tile after draw is now disabled

Spectators:

• Removed unneeded containers for spectators

Turn based games:

• Highlighted the last played tile on game load
• Center board on game load
• Auto select drawn card on game load, if player hasn't chosen to pass yet

As of now Chromino is sitting on a 4.77 rating, with 20 of those being 5/5.
Thank you for the feedback received, and I look forward to further input and approvals.

Have a great weekend players

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino players

An update, to take care of 2 items brought up in the suggestion board, will be rolling out shortly: https://boardgamearena.com/reviewer?game=chromino

As before, games that were started prior to this release might experience some issues when attempting to resume post update.
I have tried again to mitigate any potential errors, but I do apologise if I was not able to save your game

The summary of changes can be found below:

• Player Assistance variant added
  Brought up in Issue 51774, some players felt the game was holding their hand too much. As such a new variant for player assistance has been added:
  • Beginner assistance will still stop players from drawing a new tile if there are possible moves available. This is the mode that was previously available.
  • Intermediate assistance will allow players to draw if they choose to, even if there are potential better moves for them to make.
  Hopefully this new addition is enjoyed by the more advanced players.

• A final round will be played before the game ends
  A rule omission brought up in Issue 51833, players will now have one more round to catch the leader, once a player has emptied their hand, as per the official rules.

• Centre/Reset Scrollmap button added
  In case you lose your board with constant scrolling and zooming, a simple tap will now reset the boards position.

• Draw Animation added
  A simple draw animation, for realtime players to more easily see who has drawn a tile, has been added.

• Drawn tile will autoselect in single player games
  A small tweak to speed up single player games. Drawing a new tile will now auto select that tile for the player.

• Score updates as game progresses
  Finally, instead of only seeing the final scores at the end of the game, players can now keep watch for players pulling ahead, with live score updates.

As of now Chromino has 4 of the required 10 approvals to move forward into Beta.
We're nearly at the halfway point

Have a great new week players

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino players

An update to improve the game accessibility will be deployed shortly: https://boardgamearena.com/reviewer?game=chromino

As brought up in issue 51829 Chromino is problematic for players with certain types of colour blindness.
This is to be expected, as Chromino (as suggested in the name) is about matching colours, and any hinderance to differentiate colours can make the game annoying and at times unplayable.

Two new player preferences have been added to hopefully make the game more accessible for all our players:

• 4 new colour palettes added
  Players can now choose between 4 colour palettes excluding the original default palette. These new palettes have been designed to assist people with different types of colour blindness, but are also available for players who just want a change of scenery
  Thank you Shobu for the suggestion.

• Symbol overlay preference added
  Assuming the colour palettes did not work, players can now also opt to display unique symbols on their tiles. This option should also help those with visual impairments.

The above 2 features are not mutually exclusive, and as such players can mix and match colour palettes and symbols, or not. I hope you will find a combination that suits your playstyle, needs and preference

One final note:
The above 2 preferences are only available on Board Game Arena as the physical versions of the game are made without symbols and a set palette. This means that this potentially will be the first time some people will even be able to plausibly play the game... and I think that's fantastic. Accessibility is making it possible for a slew of players to enjoy games they were never able to before.

As always, games that were started prior to this release might experience some issues when attempting to resume post update.
I have tried again to mitigate any potential errors, but I do apologise if I was not able to save your game

Hope you enjoy the new player preferences

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino players

A new build, implementing two of our own group's suggestions will be deployed shortly: https://boardgamearena.com/reviewer?game=chromino

• Move validation
  As raised in issue 51880, playing on mobile can be a bit frustrating if a player taps the wrong move, and plays a tile they were not planning to. For touch devices we now have move validation.
  For now this feature is purely for touch screen users, but I might move it to be a player preference in the future, once I am confident it has no bugs.

• No Assistance (Master Mode )
  A new option has been added to the Player Assistance dropdown. Initially brought up in Issue 51991, it has been hinted at in the game group as well. Players can now decide to play Chromino with no assistance. This means you can draw whenever you feel is best, and the moves available to you are yours to decide.
  Not for beginners!

These were 2 rather large code changes, so please do list any bugs, issues or suggestions you think of.

Kind regards, and happy gaming!
MutantPigeon24

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino Players

A new build will be deployed shortly with the follow addition:

• New Ruleset - Junior Play
  A new optional ruleset has been added. Junior Play is one of the official Chromino Alternative Versions, and can be used if playing with kids, teaching someone the rules of the game, or looking for a more relaxed game of Chromino.
  
  From the Chromino rule book:

  If you are playing Chromino with young children, you can teach them to play by playing the game like regular Dominoes, by only making a single contact of identical color between the ends of the tiles.
  By placing the Chameleon Chromino tiles perpendicularly (like doubles in the game of Dominoes), the game will be able to spread in several directions, as this is one of the specificities of Chromino.

There were issues this weekend with the BGA Studio server, so this update was slightly delayed.

As always, games that were started prior to this release might experience some issues when attempting to resume post update.
I have tried again to mitigate any potential errors, but I do apologise if I was not able to save your game

Kind regards, and happy gaming!
MutantPigeon24

[GreenD6]

I'm impressed by the updates and announcement details explaining the changes, it shows some great commitment to the alpha! Well done.

[nccc]

Click tile bag to draw isn't implemented yet?
Ok, i'll wait.

[MutantPigeon24]

I'm impressed by the updates and announcement details explaining the changes, it shows some great commitment to the alpha! Well done.

Thanks Huabear , I'll keep your congrats till we get this thing in Beta

Click tile bag to draw isn't implemented yet?

Hi nccc
Not just yet, trying to get all the major features out the way so we can ping the the publisher and translators.
But don't worry.... I won't forget

[MutantPigeon24]

Hi Chromino Players

A small update is going out soon to implement some suggestions from our players.

• See last moves for each player
  As brought up in issue 52182 by Cyllan33, Chromino will now highlight all previous player's moves. Before, only the last player's move was highlighted, but with larger games this did not help much. This should be especially helpful for those playing turn-based games with a large amount of players.

• Double tap move to validate
  One for the mobile players. As brought up in issue 52419 by nccc, if you are playing on mobile, you can now more easily and quickly validate your tile placement. Previously a player would need to click the validate button... Now they can simply re-tap the tile they just placed to validate.

• Small UI tweaks
  You might have noticed the UI is changing slightly. I am trying to improve the overall UX of the game, and get the UI to match more closely to the Chromino brand. Getting things more consistent in short I will be watching player feedback closely while evolving the UI to make sure the game doesn't degrade.

Thank you for all the helpful feedback!

As always, games that were started prior to this release might experience some issues when attempting to resume post update.
I have tried again to mitigate any potential errors, but I do apologise if I was not able to save your game

Kind regards, and happy gaming!
MutantPigeon24