This is a minor update, with timer enhancements, updates to the game icon, and adding a Rate button to the Settings/About screen.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that RuneCryption is getting a good number of downloads, especially through BlackBerry World. Quite often, it is showing up in the Top Paid Apps, Top Grossing Apps and Games, and Top Grossing Games. Even so, the number of ratings and reviews on all platforms is quite low. The ratings themselves are high – mostly five stars.

Someone suggested to me to add a rating button to the game. Personally, I’m not one who likes nag screens popping up, asking for reviews, but I understand the need to get people to rate games in the different app stores. It’s a funny little catch-22. My compromise was to add it to the Settings/About screen. That way, it is built into the game, available for easy rating, takes you to the appropriate app store, and isn’t nagging you to go rate the game. It’s a much more passive approach, which I prefer.

If you’ve played RuneCryption, I’d be honored if you would rate and leave a review. If you want, you can contact me through he support links, or leave a comment on these posts. I’d love to hear from people and help to make RuneCryption a better game.

If you haven’t tried RuneCryption, check it out and let me know what you think!

Play RuneCryption in your Web Browser!

This has spurred it on with the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 as well, showing up in the Top Paid Games and Top Grossing Apps and Games sections in the BlackBerry 10 version of BlackBerry World.

If you have a BlackBerry PlayBook, Z10, or Q10, check out RuneCryption. Remember to rate and review as well!

Changes include level numbers on the scoring screen, Speed Play enhancements, the timer multiplier Easter egg, and the ability to pause the game while the countdown timer is preparing to scatter the stones.

Version 1.3.1 is available now in the Google Play Store. It has also been submitted to the Android Appstore and is awaiting approval for release. I’ll post an announcement as soon as Amazon’s approves the update.

Someone contacted me a little while ago with an interesting query. His wife has a neurological disorder which affects her short-term memory. He bought RuneCryption hoping it would help her with remembering things. The problem was, that she could not memorize the initial pattern on the easiest level (a 2×2 grid) in the five seconds that it displays before scattering the stones.

For most people, you can click on the Solution button, which puts all the stones back on the game board and the countdown timer starts over again. With her memory issues, that could be a distraction to the memorization process, so I wanted to find a way to help her out.

What I ended up doing was add in a Easter Egg to the settings screen. Invoking the Easter Egg multiplies the timer by 10, giving the level 1 countdown timer 50 seconds before it scatters the stones. Each time the Easter Egg is invoked, it reduces the multiplier x9, x8, x7, and so on, until it gets back to no multiplier. My hopes are that by adding in the multiplier, those who have a hard time memorizing the pattern will be able to increase the countdown timer to the level that is easier to memorize. As memorization gets easier, the multiplier can be reduced to match the new memory level.

As the levels get more complicated, the countdown timer increases. It would be almost impossible to memorize the 48-stone pattern on level 18 in just five seconds, so the game adds more time to the timer as the levels increase. This Easter Egg is an extra bonus that works on all levels.

Even though I’ve outed the Easter Egg itself, I’m going to keep the location a little bit of a mystery. Hopefully you can find it on the Settings screen on your own. If it is something you need to help play the game, hit me up and I’ll be glad to let you know where to find it.

The Easter Egg is available in RuneCryption version 1.3. It is already available in BlackBerry World for the BlackBerry Z10, Q10, and PlayBook. An updated version 1.2.2 was previously posted to Amazon’s Appstore to help out this person’s wife. I’m working on the 1.3 update for Android and will have that available on Amazon and Google Play soon.

One of the things I noticed when someone sent me an image of completing level 18, there wasn’t anything in the scoring window to let me know which level was completed. The only way I knew was based on the runestone score, and that was a little cryptic, even for a pattern matching game named RuneCryption. With this update, the scoring screen now shows the level completed.

Changes include:

• Level completed indicator.
• Updates to the Speed Play timers.
• New hidden Easter egg.

Version 1.3 is available now in BlackBerry World, and the Flash-based web version has also been updated. The Android versions in Google Play and Amazon’s Appstore will be updated very soon.

Level 18 is the highest level in RuneCryption. It includes 48 rune stones in an 8×6 grid. Since there are 24 rune stones, this means there are two of each stone in the playing area. The game doesn’t care that you get the exact stone on the square where it came from, just as long as the stone matches the starting pattern.

Personally, I usually bog down around level 7 or 8, and I’m the person that wrote the game! To see someone not only determined to complete the highest level, but to actually do so with only a 12 misplaced stones (15 point deduction for each) is quite a feat!

What is the highest level you can complete?

I’m just thrilled and honored that BlackBerry added RuneCryption to this week’s featured category! It is in some good company, with other nice brain games.

The reviews have been quite good as well! It’s great to see RuneCryption rated so high in BlackBerry World. Even in Google Play and Amazon’s Appstore, RuneCryption has been getting very good reviews.

If you’ve tried out RuneCryption, I’d love to know what you think about the game. It was made with a simple concept that gets more challenging with each level. I keep wondering if anyone would be able to complete all the levels, especially level 18 (memorizing 48 stones in an 8×6 grid).

How many levels can you complete?

The update brings a lot of enhancements including sound effects, larger text on information screens, and a Settings button on the main menu where sounds can be toggled and high scores can be reset to zero.

In preparation for the upcoming BlackBerry Q10, a square formatted game screen was added. This places the timer and game buttons across the top, keeping the game area rectangular.

RuneCryption is available on the BlackBerry PlayBook, the new BlackBerry Z10, and the (coming soon) BackBerry Q10. How many stones can you remember?

In the first few weeks, I RuneCryption had 3 sales. At the time, it was only available on the PlayBook and for developers who had the Dev Alpha development device. It also takes a while for an app to get known in the market, so I was quite happy to see some sales.

In December, Crackberry did a video review of RuneCryption on the PlayBook. Since then, sales took off. I was really pleased to see how well it was doing on BlackBerry, and on Android! That has even carried on some with the release of the BlackBerry Z10.

What is somewhat interesting to me is how big of a split there has been between platforms. BlackBerry sales have amounted to a whopping 86% of all sales. Sales through the Amazon Appstore account for 10%, while Google Play came in with only 4%. It’s interesting to see that sales on Amazon’s Appstore are more than double the sales on Google Play, and that BlackBerry sales are six times better than all Android sales. I don’t have the iOS version out yet, but something tells me that BlackBerry would still be on top. At times, it seems too easy to get lost in the sea of apps on Android and iOS.

I have been asked several times why I develop for BlackBerry. With 86% of sales coming from the BlackBerry platform (PlayBook and Z10), I can’t think of another platform that would be as profitable. As a developer, you need to be where the sales are. Why wouldn’t a developer want to be on BlackBerry? The future of BlackBerry 10 has me very excited.

If you have a Kindle Fire, Fire HD, Fire 8.9, or other Android device that uses the Amazon Appstore for games and applications, the update is now live and ready to download!

The same change log from our previous post applies to the Amazon Appstore version (same game – different store). The web game has also been updated with the latest version!