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Embergram

Original Release: 2019
A Picross-esque puzzle game

News

6 October 2023: Added WebGL version of the game to this page

Play Here (WebGL)

Developer Notes

The idea for this came from my cousin who sent me a picture from his Mensa calendar:

Mensa calendar match puzzle

I wouldn't say I was nerd sniped, but the puzzle was intriguing enough that I wanted to do more of them. There were a few similar offerings in the iOS/Play Store involving thermometers, but I wanted to try to build one with more intuitive controls as well as more variety in the puzzles (curved matches). My cousin agreed, so we built this game over the course of a year or two together.

The name "Embergram" comes from avoiding the word "match" at all costs because... well, try searching the app store for "match puzzles" and you'll find the results saturated with puzzles having to do with matches, but not of this variety. The scope of this game was originally much grander with a storyline and so on, but development was stagnating so I just wanted to get a minimum viable product published.

This game was originally released for iOS and Android as well since it was built with Unity. However, it costs $100/year in Apple developer fees to keep the app in the store. So I dropped iOS support. Then Google Play kept forcing me to periodically update Unity SDKs, privacy policies, etc. due to their ever changing "Developer Program Policies". This became tiresome for a game generating no revenue, so I stopped complying with Google's demands and it was removed from the Play Store.

A WebGL version of the game can be played here.