User:Abcboy/History of The Blockheads

The Blockheads started development in September 2011. It, at the time, was only a sandbox. It later evolved into the game we see today in early 2012. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidFrampton/20131012/202246/Postmortem_The_Blockheads.php

Removed features

As stated on Twitter and on the forums, death was once a feature in the game. According to majicDave, it was "too traumatic", so it was removed from the final version of the game.

Removed items

As seen in this picture, an item called "stone bricks" were originally present. It may simply have been an alternate name for stone.

This picture shows in the third and last item slots from the top a tree stump and a wood block, respectively.

According to an email with majicDave, he originally intended to have additional weapons, along with armor. They were later added in version 1.4.

2012

April 22

First post on Twitter account.

April 23

First image

TouchArcade reports the announcement of The Blockheads. The first image of the game, shown in the article, shows a preliminary user interface. Like later beta images, it uses a similar Time Crystals counter. It also has the same graphical glitch with the tool bench as a later image. The inventory appears different as well.

April 25

Facebook account was created.

April 26

Page for The Blockheads on the official Majic Jungle Software website first crawled by the Wayback Machine. Note the image containing illustrating an early version of the game.

May 1

Image A

Image A features a Blockhead in a stone castle. It shows that the inventory and left-hand Blockhead icon were originally translucent and also shows a different form of the Time Crystals counter. It does not show the Health Bar and the Happiness Bar under the Blockhead's name or the pause button. The inventory here features eight slots with the lack of the hand slot. Two other details not in the final is an item called "STONE BRICKS" and a stack of 100 flint and a stack of 100 sticks. Stacks of items only go up to 99 in the final version.

May 3

This blog post to the Majic Jungle Software blog was posted.

May 4

Tweet: "About to add the first friendly animal. I'll give you a hint: It's not a chicken, cow, sheep, or pig."

The only friendly animals in 1.0 were the donkey and the dodo.

May 6

Tweet: "Each blockhead only has 8 inventory slots to start with, but this can be extended by crafting baskets or bags."

Baskets remained in the final, but bags did not.

May 7

Tweet: "Also my current plan is to have a free server app in the Mac App Store. Sound reasonable?"

No server app materialized at release. The Mac Server App was later released alongside version 1.3.

May 13

Tweet: "The world is currently 16384 blocks wide by 1024 blocks high. So it will be quite a large image."

World size finalized.

May 15

Tweet: "Adding the ability to interact with (stab) NPCs. Then I get to add the first nasty creature. Fun times!"

NPCs were not in the final version. "Nasty creature" presumably referring to dropbear.

May 17

Tweet: "@mguniverse but I do hope to add electrics later, after it's released. I'm a big fan of Industrialcraft."

Electricity was later added in version 1.4.

May 22

Tweet: "Added the ability to pinch to zoom in and out today, and finally added some wood crafts. Wooden doors are number one on the todo list now."

Zooming added.

May 26

Tweet: "Thinking of giving the blockheads free will. Would add a lot of personality to the game, but might annoy control freaks like myself."

The tin foil hat was similar in effect, giving Blockheads limited AI.

May 27

Image B

Image B features a mine shaft lit by torches. It also features the same UI as the former images with the exception of the Blockhead icons, which features the health and happiness bars as in the final version. In the inventory, two kinds of wood are shown.

Tweet: "@Freerunnering haha :) the difficulty will be configurable, so if you don't want any trouble you will be able to play it that way."

No difficulty settings were in the final.

June 2

Image C

Image D

Image C features pines and maples during the season of fall. Like the former image, it shows the same user interface. It also shows that a plus sign (+) was used to show where a basket is instead of an arrow.

Image D features a Blockhead in a building made of a material that appears similar to stone in the final version and different from the aforementioned stone bricks. It also features windows and flax bushes. Like the earlier images, it features the same translucent UI.

June 7

Image E

Image E features no UI, showing an untextured sea, coconut trees, an oil lantern, and sand.

June 14

Image F

Image F features the same UI as the images released on June 2. It features a Blockhead on a mountain during a blizzard. It features a translucent character status window. It is the earliest image featuring a Time Crystal counter similar to the final one. In the dirt, red/orange lumps can be seen, which presumably is clay.

June 29

Image G

Image G features a lake leveling itself out. No water spray appears in the image.

July 13

Image H

Image H features a Blockhead about to eat food. It also shows the red/orange lumps seen in Image F and also features the eating screen. Unlike prior UI elements, it is not translucent. The orange to be eaten appears to only restore hunger, not health.

July 19

Tweet: "The first alpha went out a couple of days ago. It has been very well received, people are loving it, and they can't stop playing!"

First alpha went out.

July 31

Tweet: "My young cousins didn't like playing as girls, so I've added the ability to customize the sex, name, and look of new blockheads :)"

Character customization added.

August 15

Tweet: "Working on animal breeding now. Am intending to use the availability of a particular food per species to drive population size."

Animal breeding began to be implemented.

August 20

Tweet: "The second alpha went out to testers today. Lots of great stuff added, and hopefully the next version can be called beta :)"

Second alpha went out.

September 5

Image J

Image K

Image J features a Blockhead using a carrot on a stick to ride a donkey. The image appears identical to what would appear in the final version.

Image K features the menu for crafting items at the woodwork bench. In this build, reinforced platforms cannot be crafted at the woodwork bench. Windows are crafted at the woodwork bench instead of the kiln. Items that can be crafted at that crafting surface appear orange in the list. It also features a bug with the tool bench's textures.

October 10

Tweet: "Added chillies to the game :) they have a hot red glow that melts snow and gives Blockheads cold resistance when eaten."

Chillies added.

October 15

Tweet: "Just made it so Blockheads can meditate. While meditating they get happier, and don't get hungry or sleepy."

Meditation added.

November 27

Tweet: "The website is up! Feel free to join the forums and ask questions. http://theblockheads.net"

The official website at theblockheads.net went up.

December 10

Tweet: "THE BLOCKHEADS IS SUBMITTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Blockheads was submitted to the App Store.

December 21

Tweet: "Approved! The Blockheads will launch on the 10th of January! http://TheBlockheads.net"

The Blockheads was approved by Apple. Release date confirmed.

December 27

Tweet: "We're giving away one promo code every day until launch on the 10th of Jan! RT this for a chance to have & play The Blockheads today!"

Promo code first given away.

2013

January 2

Tweet: "The first #TheBlockheads video is up! 'Build' is the first of 7 daily teaser videos for the iOS game, watch it here! http://youtu.be/71ffx50zY_c"

First teaser released.

January 10

Game released.

January 19

Version 1.0.1 released.

January 24

Tweet: "@eekfuh :( I'm fixing that in the next update. in 1.0.1 items already float, and in 1.0.2, dropped chests won't expire."

No update 1.0.2 ever was released.

January 28

Version 1.1 announced on the The Blockheads Forums.

February 5

Update contents announced on the The Blockheads Forums.

February 7

Version 1.1 released.

February 9

Version 1.1.1 announced on Twitter.

February 11

Version 1.1.1 released.

February 14

Tweet: "The new safe saving introduced in 1.1 caused some lag problems for quite a few of you. 1.2 will fix them, it's a LOT smoother and faster!"

Version 1.2 announced.

February 20

Tweet: "Good news to those of you with Android devices :) @NoodleCakeGames is now working on bringing The Blockheads to Android!"

Android version announced.

February 25

Contents of version 1.2 announced.

March 11

Version 1.2 released.

March 18

Tweet: "@iPodTouch_5G a bug fix update (1.2.1) should be out within the next couple of weeks. 1.3 will be a while off yet though."

Version 1.2.1 announced. First mention of 1.3.

March 27

Version 1.2.1 released.

April 3

Article on the future of The Blockheads linked to on Twitter.

April 16

Tweet: "Hard at work on version 1.3. It will focus on multiplayer, with new persistent server based worlds hosting lots more players at once!"

First tweet confirming work on version 1.3.

April 17

Tweet: "@micky181202 a few things, yes, though 1.4 will focus more on adding new stuff."

First tweet about version 1.4.

June 18

Contents of version 1.3 announced.

June 25

Version 1.3 released.

July 5

Version 1.3.1 announced and released.

July 18

Version 1.3.2 announced and released.

September 24

Contents of version 1.4 announced.

Android port is confirmed to launch with 1.4.

October 10

Version 1.4 released on both iOS and Android.

October 12

A The Blockheads postmortem posted on Gamasutra.

November 10

Today. Nothing new has happened yet.