Version 1.0.0: On win states

I'm excited to announce that Fire Hose is now feature complete and moving on up to gold status. Version 1.0.0 is now available!

The big update for 1.0 is that you can now win the game! A building is on fire, and it has a finite number of floors. Clear them all to save the building and go home a hero!

After you have saved one building, the original endless mode will become available as an option.

There are also a bunch of new level designs too. I can't really call them puzzles, but they do force you to change your strategy.

This was an interesting update to make. When I started making Fire Hose, I wanted something that would be fun to pick up and just play for a while. No waiting, or really thinking too much, just doing. So I concentrated on the mechanics and built a game where you have a short term goal (clearing a room of fires) but nothing much further than that other than the ability to do it some more. There was no win state - no long term goal - and also no lose state. I thought about the idea of making the fires destroy the level somehow... or perhaps have something precious and flammable that you have to protect. But that kind of stress is not what I want from a game like this.

Thinking about it further, that's how I have approached most of my game development projects. I've made a few Android games in the past, and very few of them have had real win or lose states. I love a good meaty game when I'm sitting in front of a TV or computer, but in the short form of handheld gaming, what I really want to do is just play with as little friction as possible.

Then again, another way of looking at it is that I've been developing in a bit of a vacuum. I spend most of my time on the bits which are fun or problematic to me as a developer. And with Playdate it's even worse than normal, because virtually nobody has a Playdate. So it was a real eye-opener when jordanthompson posted a letsplay video on YouTube. Watching along, I have to say that he's very kind to Fire Hose in that video. For anyone other than its creator, the game just needed more variety. And it needed something to shoot for; something to make the player look at room #8 full of fires and say: ok, just a couple more now.

So I've added that now, in its own low-fi way, and the game is much much better for it. There's still no lose state - some people may say that a game with no lose state is barely a game at all - but I stand by this for Fire Hose. Having the fire spread everywhere while the fire demon ties you in knots is more than enough stress for a fun little handheld diversion.

I'd still like to investigate potential performance improvements, but for now I'm calling it feature complete.

Please download and enjoy!