Devlog #1 — Where it started, and why it changed

I work in the games industry, engine and systems programming, low-level stuff. Building a game solo is a different kind of challenge. Not technically harder, just... different. Game design, communication, publishing, none of that is my day job. This project is my attempt to figure it out.

PRJ-CQUADS is a puzzle game built around one object: the ColorQuad. Concentric color rings, one cell on a grid. The outermost ring is the active match color. Match it with a neighbor, it loses a ring. Chain matches, trigger cascades, race the sweep timer.

Simple enough on paper. Getting there took a few wrong turns.

It started as a match-3

The first prototype was a classic match-3, full grid, click to select, click to swap. Mouse-driven, because that's the natural starting point for a grid game on desktop.

Drag & drop, then a sweep timer

The next step was opening up the grid (not every cell occupied) and letting the player place pieces from a queue via drag & drop. I added a circular sweep timer that periodically resolved all matches on the board. That rhythm felt right. The sweep created tension and rewarded planning ahead.

But drag & drop turned out to be the wrong call. The first people who playtested it, my brother and a couple of friends, all said the same thing independently: it felt like managing an inventory, not playing a game. That feedback was clear enough.

The pivot

I dropped drag & drop entirely. Instead, the player navigates an orbit around the grid, chooses a side, and drops the piece. It slides to the last empty cell before an obstacle. Arrow keys, gamepad, swipe gestures, all the same interaction, no cursor needed.

Then came grid rotation: rather than navigating four sides of the grid, the grid itself rotates to always present a new side at the bottom. One consistent drop point. It clicked immediately.

That combination, drop from orbit and grid rotation, is the core of what PRJ-CQUADS is now.

Where it is today

The early versions had no objectives, just survival with increasing difficulty. For this first release I switched to a campaign of 10 levels, each with a specific objective: reach a score, survive a number of sweeps, trigger a cascade, clear a line. It gives the game some structure and introduces mechanics progressively.

There's probably balancing work ahead, and more interesting objectives to design. But this is where it stands.

If you've played it, the feedback form takes about 3 minutes. One question in particular I'm curious about: does the sweep timer feel right, or does waiting for it to fire break the rhythm?

PRJ-CQUADS is a working title. Solo project, code, audio, and design.