Poetry Slammers v6 -- Time for Poetry Breaks

About the time version six came out, I started to feel like there needed to be at least one different way to construct poetry. The magnet maker game is super casual, and all it requires is the ability to build anagrams. Seeing as how the circuit associated with this update was all about Arcades, it felt natural to build an arcade type of poetry game to go with it. 

When I sat and thought about what game would work here, I could definitely visualize how a game of Breakout could work, and so that's what I did. (In fact, the bricks in Breakout already look a bit like Poetry Magnets.) This works exactly as you would expect, you slide your finger along a bar to move your paddle and bounce a ball back up at the bricks, which contain words.

Break the bricks, collect the powerups, don't miss the ball, and have fun!

You're scored in poetry breaks according to the number of power ups and power downs you collect. Since the power downs are riskier, they're worth more. in other words, if you collect a power down that makes the ball move twice as fast, it's worth more points than if you collect a power up that grows the size of your paddle. Ultimately, you're aiming to break all the blocks that contain specifically arcade-themed words in 30 seconds, but as a fail-safe, just in case you really aren't good at this side mode game, you can still make a poem out of words that are arcade themed.  

Your poem is saved along with your score!

Every time you beat a game of poetry breaks, you'll get a new currency called pixel coins. Because I now had pixel coins, I needed to build something you could BUY with pixel coins. To those ends, I built a new character skin you could buy that featured Feelixs, but in 8-bit form. That required building a whole suite of animations and everything for the new skin. I also made a new Arcade word buff so you could start each game with an arcade word right out of the gate.

Of course, I had to build a social sharing screen for Poetry Breaks as well

Because I was already building an Arcade word buff it made me realize that it just made sense to tie word groups together and make word banks for every existing circuit. Now when you were making poetry on the Coffee Shop levels, a third of your available words used to construct poetry would be coffee themed. Poems for venues now matched the venues pretty good!

As for the side mode and rearranging of the circuits, my thought here was that every three or four circuits, I would love to open up a new feature or a new way to play the game. Because of that, I reordered all of the circuits to accommodate that game design decision. 

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Poetry Slammers v0.6, Welcome to   Poetry Breaks!

• A new Arcade Circuit has been put into the game.
• Rearranged the campaigns so that the Arcade Circuit comes after the Library Circuit
• Current circuit order is as follows:
• Coffee Shops
• Record Shops
• Libraries
• Arcades
• Campgrounds
• Oddity Shops
• The Arcade Circuit features a standard 15-level campaign circuit, packed with arcade-themed words, neon vibes, and a new judge.
• Paku, the arcade judge, is all about action words. 
• Beat all 15-levels to earn his identity.
• New Side Mode: Poetry Breaks
• In the bottom left-hand corner of the campaign screen, you'll now find an arcade cabinet button. 
• The arcade cabinet is locked until you reach the Arcade circuit (note for beta testers, you can click the debug button to advance quickly to try it out)
• Poetry Breaks is a playable retro brick-breaking side mode where you play a "breakout" type of game to collect word magnets.
• Move your finger along the finger slider to move your paddle.
• Smash bricks and collect word magnets
• Chase five special Arcade target words
• Grab helpful pickups and risky power-downs
• Turn your collected words into a custom poem 
• Save your best runs to the Poetry Breaks High Score board
• Share your poems from the high score board with a special 8-bit look on your share card.
• Earn Pixel Coins based on the Arcade target words you collect.
• Spend Pixel Coins in the Slamtown Shop on new arcade-themed rewards.
• New Shop Items
• Arcade Word Cache
• Purchase this timed buff to start normal poems with a free Arcade-themed bonus word.
• Arcade Cache words have their own special pixel magnet style, so they stand out from regular Star Words.
• Pixel Feelixs
• Pixel Feelix is now available as a permanent Pixel Coin unlock.
• Play as your favorite sassy poet in pixel form!
• Magnet Styles and Poetry Board improvements
• Star Words and Arcade Cache words have an improved special presentation on the poetry board
• Now you have access to more standard articles and prepositions along the bottom row of the word tray.
• Your third row of magnets in the word tray will now always feature themed words that correspond to the circuit you're playing in.
• Added new words for all the circuits to give your poems even more themed flavor.
• Other Improvements
• Added Arcade-specific campaign music support.
• Improved shop support for Stars, Happy Tears, and Pixel Coins.
• There's a new count of your currencies at the bottom of the shop.
• Added better handling for purchases made during an active poem
• When room is available, newly purchased Star Word and Arcade Cache buffs can add their bonus word when you return from the shop.
• Continued tweaking the Expand and Collapse button during the poetry phase.

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I got a bit frustrated with the game and so I wedged in a sub build . . . version 6.5.  More on that tomorrow!

Happy Dueling!