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Sphere Break

The addictive side game from Final Fantasy X-2, now for android

Sphere Break full now FREE

Freed on 7 November 2010

The full version of Sphere Break is now Free (gratis). The "demo" in the market has been updated with the code from the full version, and the former full version has been removed from the market.

Downloaders of the demo version should see their upgrade to the free-full version today. Thanks to all that purchased the $0.99 version. I stopped collecting a price for this app once I reached the appropriate offset for out of pocket costs to set up of Google-Android developer account. My software, like the Final Fantasy Companion applications, will remain free (and ad-free), but with a link to donate to these projects.

Sphere Break

Sphere Break released on Android Market

Released 11 June 2010

I am overjoyed to announce the release of Sphere Break for the Android Market, in free and pay verions. The free version is a few of the first levels, to introduce players to Sphere Break that may not have played FFX-2 for the Playstation 2. With it, one can get (re)aquainted with the rules, and get a feel for the UI as a mobile application.

The full version, at a modest $0.99 US, features many more levels of play. Difficulty reaches higher and higher towards impossibility. Believe me, you will be tested. Or, you could take it easy and play a custom game. Set your own win conditions, and even turn off the timer if you want to.

Your feedback is important. Please leave a market review or rating.

How to play Sphere Break

Sphere Break is a mathematical puzzle game introduced in the Playstation 2 game, Final Fantasy X-2. The game takes place on a 4x4 board with a Core Sphere in the center. The four fields around the Core Sphere are reserved for the Entry Coins, which you bring with you at the start of the game. The Border Coins are the twelve outer fields.

Each coin is numbered from 1 to 9, and the objective is to combine these numbers in order to achieve multiples of the number in the Core Sphere. That is called a Core Break.

A game is comprised of three parameters: the Quota (the number of points you need to acheive in order to win the game), the number of turns you have to meet that quota, and the time you have for each turn. The difficulty of a match is a function of adjusting these parameters.

At the start of a turn, a new number is generated for the Core Sphere, and you may begin selecting coins. An entry coin from the center four must be picked first. You may then select any coin (that hasn't already been picked for that turn) until a Core Break is acheived. You have a certain amount of time per turn. If the time expires, you lose. If you select every coin on the board, but fail to make a Core Break, you lose.

Once you make a Core Break, you are awarded points for the number of outer Border Coins that were selected. Entry Coins do not add to your score. The selected Border Coins are then temporarily removed from the board for a period of three turns. When they return, they will reappear with a random value. The Border Coins that were not selected during that turn will have their values increased by 1. If a Coin with a value of 9 was present, but not used, it too will be removed from the board and will return later. Entry Coins are never removed from play.

There are two other ways to score points, and utilizing these bonuses will be essential to completing more diffucult matches. If, on a turn, you are able to make a Core Break using the same number of coins as you did on your previous turn, that creates an Echo, which will award a bonus point. The Echo Bonus will increase by 1 for each turn you manage to make a Core Break using the same number of coins.

You can also receive bonus points for making Core Breaks using the same multiplier as the previous turn. These are Multiplier Echoes, and will increase by 1 for each turn you are able to maintain this chain.

Maintaining strong Echo Bonuses will be critical to win the later levels.

Q&A

A few questions have come up since the release, and I've made every attempt to answer each one personally. This section covers those questions and more so that future users may find answers before they even ask.

Sometimes the Core number is the same 3, 4, even 5 times in a row. Why?

The Core number is random^*. As such, all things are possible.
^*random selections from java.util.Random core = 1 + rand.nextInt(8);
There is some question as to wether the original in FFX-2 intentionally avoids this. I've seen the same number twice, but can't recall a third occurrance while fact checking this project. If there is enough demand, I may try to stop the core number from being the same thrice concurrently.

When the phone sleeps, sometimes my match is still there, sometimes it's back at the title. What gives?

During a match, you can always press the red device button to send the phone to sleep. I have a G1. The color of your hangup/stop/kill button may vary =\. What happens when the active state is returned depends entirely on the the game timer's active status. If the clock is running, your match woudl have been killed off by the time the phone initially went to sleep. It could be seen as cheating to "pause" a timed game. If it happens that you were between turns and the clock is idle, then your game should return to where you had left it. This kill-off of a match also applies to other events that the phone may encounter that can interrupt a match. While extremely challenging in later levels,

What are the two numbers in the lower-right of the level selection screen?

Those are your number of wins against the number of finishes. A "finish" is a complete game. Abandoned or interrupted games don't count as finishes. That data is just there for your own reference — but one day, I may ask (via an optional preference in a future update) that you share this data with me, so that I can gauge the general progress of players.

Why is there no menu?

Quite simply, there was nothing to put there... yet. I have plans for additional preferences. (See next item).

What happens when I beat the last level?

I'll be honest, nothing happens. There is simply no next level. Unlike many games that can be completed in an hour, Sphere Break is expected to challenge players for a long time. Unfortunately, on the losing side of things in later levels. Even though I don't have much success in the later levels, I know that winning is possible. If I learn of a player finishing level 30, and I am visiting the town in which they reside, I am willing to wash their car. (It's that hard.)

What can we expect in future updates?

I'm generally pleased with the minimal approach to this project — and I'm not just saying that because I'm lazy. Things I didn't feel were needed, weren't added. That said, there are a couple of nice-to-have things that could be added now that an inital release is out there. Several of these things would fit nicely in a Preferences screen accessible throught a menu item. These are a few of the things on my mind:

• Lefty-mode. This would move the match info to the right side of the screen, making way for a user's left hand.
• Vertical-mode. Currently, all screens are forced into a landscape mode. That was probably just lazy on my part. Layout tests are showing that the game is perfectly playable (on smaller screens, G1) if the phone were vertical and the info were layed out differently along the top edge. The other screens would need some looking at.
• Next Level. After winning a match, this would be a button to quickly start the next level, if there is one. I skipped this intentionally with the belief that a user should be able to change their entry coins before every match — and that selection is made at the initial screen. Friends of mine are stating that they have their favorites when it comes to their entry coins, so I'm liking this idea.
• Progress Tracking. I may ask (via a Preference) that the game periodically send me your win/finish numbers so that I can see where players are. A privacy policy should accompany that addition.

Site Template

When making a site/page for a project, I like to use a free website design template. This one is metamorph_glowing, by metamorph and was found on Open Designs.