Medial (Playdate)
A downloadable game
*** Medial 3.2 has just dropped! Thousands of new levels, hopefully enough to keep all those players who have loved the game but finished the main mode entertained! ***
What would happen if you mixed a Sudoku style game with Minesweeper and Picross? Why not try this game and find out!
Medial is best described as a variant of Sudoku which uses Picross style hints, but with elements of Minesweeper in there too.
Place one of the 3 shapes in every row and column of a 5x5 grid, using the 'Medial' hints on the sides and the Minesweeper-like number clues inside the grid to find the only possible solution.
Features
- 3 Difficulty levels
- Thousands of levels
- Played on a 5x5 grid so it's well suited to the smaller Playdate screen.
- Play through the main 'Curated' level mode and see how many of the 450 levels you can complete. Or play a 'Random' level from our store of 2,000 randomly generated levels.
- Every level has only one solution.
- Multiple variations of the central game type.
Update: thanks for all the positive feedback, it means a lot :-).
In response to those saying the game has too few levels I've added over a hundred new levels to the 'Curated' levels section (the ones that are individually designed). I've also created a random level generator and chosen my favourite two thousand from that, so you can play one of these levels chosen at random any time you want too.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- 3.5 ReleasedMar 30, 2024
- 3.4 ReleasedFeb 12, 2024
- v 3.3 releasedJan 12, 2024
- Major update v 3.2 has been releasedJan 07, 2024
- v 2.2 ReleasedNov 05, 2023
- V 2.1 releasedJul 21, 2023
- V 1.1 ReleasedNov 19, 2022
Comments
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Incredible game, so glad I found this. Truly a hidden gem on the Playdate and one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played. If there’s one piece of feedback I could give is the presentation, the gradients don’t work too well on the 1-bit screen and the music gets very repetitive. But these are nitpicks in an otherwise amazingly designed game. Just finished all 100 hard levels and will go back and do the rest of the easy and medium levels because it’s so fun.
hey really loving the game, but stuck on Hard 23, sure it’s correct? There’s only one way to solve the first column, but this results in everything else breaking!
I just tried Hard 23 again and the solution seems to be fine for me. I can help you track down the issue if you like (though I don't want to post full solutions).
First of all can you verify that this is the level you're having the problem with?
Yes that’s the one, Still stuck, I start from the first column, then the middle row, then I face the issue with the last column, because of the hexagon placement of the first column. All via following hints. Hope you understand what I mean without giving too much away.
We seem to diverge on the position of a shape in the 2nd column pretty early on.
We get to here using the same logic (I think):-
But then after that my next move is:-
This is where our solutions differ. As far as I can see the only place the black circle can go in that 2nd column is in the middle, next to the 4. But you put a white hexagon there. This is what's throwing off your future placing of other hexagons.
you’re totally right! Ingenious! I was too quick to think there’s only one solution to the first column!
Well I do like my hard levels to be pretty sneaky :-D
This game has got me hooked to my playdate. Thanks for such an awesome game :D
Thanks for your kind words Sukikaede, they mean a lot :-)
hi Stephen, loving the game so far, how many levels are there for each of the difficulty? I’m on 152 easy and not sure if I should finish it before going to normal.
Hi MattAces,
there are
200 easy
150 medium
100 hard
2,000 random (ranging in difficulty from easy - medium)
There's always a ramp-up in difficulty in the first 10 - 20 levels of a difficulty so you shouldn't initially find medium any harder than easy.
And you can always go back to Easy and finish them off later, progress is stored for each difficulty individually :-)
Hi Stephen! I absolutely love this game. It's brilliant... and I just discovered you have 2 other games on Playdate :D
Is there anywhere I can follow your work in addition to itch, like Twitter or BlueSky or wherever?
I don't really do anything beyond making the odd Twitter tweet. I was really only writing Playdate games as a hobby but now I've got one of them on the catalog I should probably put more time into promotion, etc.
I've got a 4th game almost finished, you should see it released on itch about a month from now.
Right on! I'll keep an eye out and I appreciate the response! I will probably make a Playdate game at some point.
You totally should Sean. There's virtually no downside to writing a Playdate game,.You get a choice of languages, you don't need to pay for any resources to write / test / release etc (though Panic's Nova IDE makes debugging etc a breeze), and the community's always ready to help. Best of all you get real feedback from the people who play your game and I love how heavily weighted the community is towards positive feedback. I'm sure there's people who didn't really like Medial, but I'm only hearing from the people that did (which doesn't mean I don't get piles of *constructive* criticism / new ideas). I've found the whole experience very positive.
Well that sounds refreshing as heck ❤️. It’s officially on the list now!
Love it! I just “finished” the last curated level. Finished in quotes because I skipped a few I got stumped on.
Is there any indicator that a level has been skipped? I would love to go back to ones I skipped with a fresh set of eyes. If not any plans to add one?
Marking skipped levels has been mentioned before. I could certainly see it added in a future release, but I'm not sure when that would be.
Just wanted to say how much I adore your game. It has become part of my morning routine now and often features in my nightly wind-down, too!
It is such a unique twist on a familiar puzzle style that (once you get to grips with the significance of the clue tab) serves up its own bite-sized (but oh so tasty!) take on makes minesweeper and Sudoku so appealing.
A game where due to the size of scale, the linchpin is often staring you right in the face, yet it can still be so challenging to find!
Hard has been a perfect level of challenge vs frustration thus far and I love that I am still learning more advanced techniques to employ to solve puzzles 60+ levels in.
Notes:
I think that I have finally reached a couple of levels * that have multiple solutions. It is awesome that both alternatives pass the level so you don't have to guess what the game wants you to input as the "real" answer!
* Level 62 and 75 on hard for those playing along at home.
Out of interest, my I ask why you opted for 2 circle looking shapes (circle and hex) rather than a square?
I'm so stumped on Hard LVL 93😅
The only thing I can pin down is that the bottom right corner contains a shape (*), what am I missing??
I've been trying to solve it for hours now and I can't find the solution!
I'm going to give it another day, but if I can't find a logical solution soon then I'm going to create a new level 93 for my next update.
Thanks for highlighting this one for me generic125 :-)
Came here to say I'm stuck at level 93 too. I've made all kinds of sketches on paper and I can't even see the first sure move... :- )
Also came to say I find this a super clever and rewarding puzzle game so far!
I've got a new version of 93 worked out. It's still super-tough but I can prove it's solvable.
I'll get an update up there soon.
I'm loving that so many people are getting through to 93 by the way. I really didn't know if anyone would have been that invested in the game :-)
I was also looking for a solution to level 93. Thought I would have missed some pro strats to solve this. Glad I'm not alone and an new version is on it's way!
That's the new version released on itch. I'm getting the new version up on catalog too so you should be able to update straight from the device soon.
Sorry for releasing an unsolvable level, but thanks for pointing it out to me so I could get a new version of it out. The new 93 is essentially the same level but with a couple of extra hints. It's very difficult, you might still need to get out pen and paper for it, but it's achievable.
I just wanted to chime in on how much I love this game. I've always enjoyed the puzzles this was inspired by, but the combination is definitely better. I'm currently on level 93 and looking forward to having all the (curated) random levels yet to play.
Am I correct in thinking that some puzzles have multiple solutions? For instance, I've had a few levels where there's only a 2x2 space left empty, and there are two of the same shape left to place, where any configuration of them is valid.
Am I also correct in thinking that there are some times you have to guess, if you can't think ahead 4+ moves? I've worked out a lot of placement strategies, but I've had maybe 5-7 levels where I couldn't see a way to move forward without just placing something and seeing where it leads.
I do have a bug report or feature request, sort of related to that last question. The B button is supposed to be an undo, right? Shouldn't it just undo a single change? I'm always scared to use it because it doesn't seem predictable how many changes it will undo. When it undoes 4-5 changes, it can be frustrating, because it takes a while to work out the harder puzzles and I can't always remember those previous moves.
Hi Baratheon,
all puzzles including the random ones should have only one solution, even when you get down to the last couple of moves. If you find a similar situation please take a note of the level number. In the random curated levels there are seed numbers printed on the bottom right which would serve the same purpose. I hate process-of-elimination puzzles with more than one solution and would not want such levels in the game.
The undo problem appears to be related to the asterisks, I believe they're not being seen as moves in their own right but as extra hints to help make future moves. I'll fix that in a future update, I can see why it would be annoying to lose multiple asterisks (and crosses too maybe?) with one undo.
I bought your game on catalog and came here to say how awesome it is! Best Sudoku/KenKen/Binario style game I played on playdate.
Also nice that you want to fix the undo annoyance, looking forward to it!
Is there any video demonstration for this game?
am I a complete dunce? lol. Level 3 easy seems to have several 50/50 spots and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make it solved without some level of cheating (trial and error)
Hi Dex. I just played Easy level 3 again and I could see no points where I had to guess. I think there are some new strategies you need to work out in level 3 and if you miss one of them that could cause you issues.
For example, level 3 relies on you working out that if there are 2 Xs in a row/column and that row / column has a medial hint, then the medial hint tells you exactly where that shape has to go (as there are only 3 spaces left there's only one square the shape can go and still be in the middle). Did you take that into consideration?
hey sorry for the delay, I was confusing a fundamental rule in the game and I figured it out with some help in the play date discord. I missed a slide in the tutorial apparently lol. It’s all good. Thanks for replying!
Minor bug report.
Impatiently pushing 'a' multiple (5-10) times when prompted at the startup 'definition' splash screen results in system crash.
Catalog build 3.4
Playdate OS 2.3.1
Love the game, unfortunately, when I quit to the main playdate menu, then come back to play more, my playdate crashes and needs to be restarted :/
Hi Xelias. I haven't been able to replicate this one. Does your Playdate crash every time you try and play Medial now?
Notveverytime, I'll try to docyumentvit next time it happens. I'm going through the easy levels, and it seems that after a crash, the next one works.
That's so weird. I can't think of any reason why coming out to the Playdate menu would encourage the game to crash next time.
Are you playing other games on your device? Do any of them crash?
Hi, the game seems very cool and I bought it. However, whenever I get to the point of choosing difficulty (I see only „tutorial” option), the game crashes. I tried multiple times, and nothing changes. Please help.
Very sorry about that anommal. I found the bug and have released version 3.3. If you download the update this should fix your issue.
its working now, thank you! :)
Thank you for the update!
I absolutely adore this game and haven't found anything quite like it. Have you thought about changing the grid size to create even more variation?
What is the inspiration for this game? I like it so much I've been searching for more versions of it, including traditional pen & paper versions!
Thanks for the great reply scaryugly!
I played a version of this on pen and paper in uk, which had the basic gameplay. A 5x5 grid, three (I think it was the letters A, B C) and 2 spaces, with some letters and empty spaces already filled in.
Adding the minesweeper like number hints and the definitely occupied wildcards were my own additions.
I'll try to find if the version I've played before has an official name.
I like keeping to the 5x5 grid as it makes it very easy to see on the Playdate screen. I'll look into adding other variations in future updates.
This is the puzzle game I've played before, they're called 'ABC puzzles':- http://www.thepuzzleclub.com/abc-logic-puzzle.php
I realised that making the hints on the side refer to the middle letter / shape was better, as you could get away with not having hints on both sides of the grid (saving on screen real estate). Beyond that its a very similar game.
Amazing! Thanks for taking the time to respond in detail :)
I can absolutely see the 5x5 and hints being perfectly fitted to the playdate screen, similar to how Sketch, Share, Solve can't be more than 15x20 without requiring some UI/scrolling.
I'm really glad I know the name of the puzzle now, scratching the sudoku/minesweeper itch at the same time is such a trip!
Appreciate the $0.96 sale price! (Not complaining about the $0.04, but itch.io told me that the minimum purchase is 100 cents, so I had to round up. :)
I'll try to remember to cap the price to $1. I wasn't aware itch.io did that.
👍
Ha ha! I never even noticed that! Yes, on Nov 19 Medial will be a year old!
Basically I'll keep making updates and improving any game that's still up for sale somewhere. Not fair on paying customers to do otherwise.
HECKKKKKK YESSSS... Almost exactly I year after purchase and its STILL getting updates!
This game is GREAT. Like, seriously, it iterates on logic puzzles like Sudoku, Picross, Minesweeper, etc, but is all its own.
I had to go through the tutorial multiple times to really understand the 'medial' hints, but once it clicked, I've loved every moment I've spent with the game.
BUG REPORTS
I can echo though, like others have said, that pressing 'B' to try and go back to the main menu from the puzzle set selection screen crashes the console every single time, AND as an additional bug, if you have more than one profile, the option on the title screen to swap profiles is rendered outside of the viewable screen. Being able to delete profiles on the device would be nice too!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I'll make an update for the bugs, hopefully will have it tested and up on itch.io before long.
..and as I'm getting towards the end of the game, feel free to add some more puzzles too!
(Seriously though, all three of your games are great and deserve big time success on this little handheld!)
That should be the bugs fixed in release 2.2 :-)
Amazing! Sideloading now. Last little request - maybe something on the Level select stage that says which levels have been beaten vs skipped? Perhaps a little star or something if it's been beaten properly? And then maybe something which logs overall progress (ie. 20/100 etc).
Congratulations again though, I can't stop playing Medial!
The game crashes when you press B to go back to the title screen.
Very good ! I had finish the game and i love it ! Just a little detail, i can t close the in game menu ( where you can choose shape or del) without select an action, i have to choose anything and delete it later. It would be great if we can close this with B . Thanks a lot for this game !
B to close the menu? Yes I like that! That'll go into a future release.
Hi there !
Very nice game here !
Just to let you know, I found out that, on the difficulty screen ("Tutorial", "Easy"...), if you press B, on the second time the Playdate crash.
The log points out a nil value in 'bBtn' in "difficultyScreen.lua" (line 207)
Thanks, there'll be a fix for this in a future release.
It's a real shame this hasn't been fixed yet! It's a small thing but it makes an outstanding game feel less polished than it is!
Really fun - thank you!
Glad you like it :-)
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious but I hit "skip level" by mistake and it moved on to the next level. However, I now can't find a way to go back to the previous level which I skipped by mistake? Thank you in advance!
Aye sorry, if you skip a level you can't go back until the whole lot loops back round again. I might add some way to choose levels in a future update, if the feature is popular.
Hi John, there's a new 'Choose Level' screen I've added in version 1.1, should help if you ever get this problem again.