Doubling Tiles & New Menus: 0.8.2 Update

We’re excited to unveil a new feature that’s going to change the way you think about the later levels! Say hello to the..

Doubling Tile

You’ll encounter this tile for the first time in the Wizard Woods, and it will appear randomly in levels through the rest of the game.  Watch out, because when a monster steps onto this tile its number will be doubled!  Keep your monsters away from the tile if you can.

Updated “You Win!” and “Sorry!” menus

We’ve been meaning to jazz these up and finally got a chance.  They now have trumpets, crowns, sparkly stars, and a hoisted monster flag if you lose.  Don’t let the monsters into the castle!

Bug Fixing & Polish

As usual, we’re also working on lots of tiny things to improve the overall quality of the game.  Here’s the full list of what’s been updated in this build:

• Bug fix: Using the Kaboom potion to take out the last monsters doesn’t register as a victory
• Bug fix: Spells with negative numbers don’t have the dash to signify that the number is negative, ie “-2” shows up as “2”
• Bug fix: If you use the Move potion on a monster and it runs into the towers, the wrong tower will crumble down
• Bug fix: Players can use the Move potion to move a monster onto a catapult
• Bug fix: If players select-drag a spell before they’ve all loaded, the arrow remains on screen even if the player’s mouse button is up
•  Players can now select around the top, bottom and right edges of the screen to deselect monsters

Let us know what you think of the new update!

Thanks,

The Little Worlds team

The Counting Kingdom is now available on Steam Early Access

We've hit a huge milestone here at Little Worlds Interactive, and we're so excited to share that The Counting Kingdom is now available on Steam Early Access!  

Steam is one of the biggest distributors of PC and Mac games, and we're so proud to be part of their Early Access platform to interact with players as we continue to develop the game.

Jump on in and please help us share the exciting news!

Get your spellbook ready!  It's time to protect The Counting Kingdom in this tactical math puzzler featuring strategic tower defense gameplay and a colorful cast of characters.  Banish monsters and save the day!

Downloaded the game?  Let us know on Twitter: @LittleWorldsInt 

New Alpha Build of The Counting Kingdom: 0.6.1

Today we're releasing a new build of the game to alpha testers with all sorts of new features and goodies - hooray!  Not signed up for the alpha yet?  Sign up here to download the game and start playing!  Here's what's new:

Mac Download

Previous builds have been PC only, but Mac users can now join in the fun.  If you have been waiting to join the alpha because it was PC-only, now is the time to dust off your spellbook and join the fray!

Free Play Mode

Players in The Counting Kingdom rescue castles one by one as they travel across the land.  This new mode changes things up a little bit by allowing players to select a difficulty level and jump right in.  Click the Free Play button from the World Map to access this new mode.

We believe this mode will be especially helpful for teachers; you won't need to unlock all the levels to get access to the various difficulties!

New Potions

Previously potions were limited to +1, +2, -1 and -2.  We have four new potions that you will unlock as you travel throughout the kingdom:

Move: Drop this potion on a monster to move it to any open square next to it. Drop the potion on the monster, then select the arrow for the direction you want the monster to move in!

Zero: This potion immediately drops a monster's number to zero.  This can be extra helpful in the later levels when the monster's numbers get particularly big!

Freeze: This potion will drop ice chunks on an entire row.  The row is frozen in place for two turns, but you can still cast spells on frozen monsters.  If you have a row that's getting precariously close to the towers this potion can give you some breathing room!

Kaboom: Easily the most powerful potion in the game; drop it on top of a monster to make an entire row of monsters disappear.  Save this potion for when you really need it!

Tutorial Updates:

We've streamlined the tutorial and spread it over the first four levels.  The first level will teach players how to select monsters and cast spells.  Over the next three levels you will unlock the ability to recycle spells using the spell book, combine spells, and use potions.  (Note that you will be unable to see these unlocks if you have already beaten these levels). 

Visual Effects:

We've been working on making the game as exciting as we can, so you'll notice stars, confetti, potion bubbles, and big explosions!  

New Icon:

Last but certainly not least, the game has a new icon.  This is one of the three icons that we've come up with - let us know which one you like best!

What's Next?

This is a big update but there's still a lot to do!  We are going to focus on releasing smaller updates more frequently in the upcoming months, so you can expect to see updates approximately every 2 weeks.  Here are a few of the things we're working on next:

• Screen resolutions: Right now the game only plays in 1024 x 768 windowed mode.  We'll expand on this to let you choose your preferred resolution and play in fullscreen.
• Introductory cinematic: This will show the story of the monsters invading the kingdom, and how our brave Apprentice decides to fight back!  Here's an early storyboard of what it might look like:

That's all for now!  If you haven't signed up for the alpha, join now to check out all the new features!

The Counting Kingdom is now in Alpha Testing

We're incredibly excited to announce that we've opened up access to The Counting Kingdom for alpha testing!  This means that we'll be letting in waves of playtesters to download the game and share their feedback with us.  Sign up now to start playing!

To celebrate the beginning alpha testing, we put together an infographic on how to play The Counting Kingdom:

The Counting Kingdom Update

It's hard to believe we're halfway through December already!  Recently we’ve been heads down here at Little Worlds Interactive, directing monsters, mixing magical ingredients, and exploring the furthest reaches of The Counting Kingdom.  I’m extremely excited to share some peeks into what we’ve been working on in the past month:

World Map

We set out to investigate the four corners of The Counting Kingdom, and the monsters are everywhere!  Work your way through 30 different levels across the five regions of the Kingdom.  Start with low-level monsters and spells but work up to truly challenging fights.

Higher level enemies

Say hello to the big baddies.  We have some newcomers to the fight - monsters now go all the way up to 20!  Don’t worry, you’ll earn more powerful spells to deal with them.

Odds and Ends

Saving! Pausing!  Credits screen!  We’ve added in all sorts of glamorous features like this that get the game up and running.

View fullsize

Keep an eye out for more detailed views of the regions of The Counting Kingdom, as well as profiles of some of the monsters you can expect to come across.