Hey, everyone! How’s it going?

It’s been pretty busy lately, with us working on our next project. We’re not too sure when it’ll be released, but in the meantime, Eets: Chowdown players can enjoy the new puzzle pack we have in store!

This puzzle pack, Eets in Space lets you guide Eets through 20 tricky levels while letting you use new items such as the Pink Bud (sound familiar?) and the Marshopump! Get it now for only 200 Microsoft points!

What a long weekend for the people here at Klei!

Great news to share! First off, Puzzle Pack 1 for Eets: Chowdown has been released on Xbox Live! For only 200 Microsoft points, help guide Eets solve 20 new puzzles in the Marshomines and use new items such as the Choco Mines and Bud Bomber! Why don’t you give it a try?

And oh yeah, congrats to Jamie (BigFoot) for getting married over the weekend as well!

BigFoot’s on vacation this week, but that’s where CheesyRamen comes to the rescue!

One of the cool things about our upcoming puzzle pack are the levels in it. Combined with all the neat little items we’ve come up with, lots of challenges await!

Here’s one of the levels that’s going to be in our upcoming Puzzle Pack.

… I wonder what those giant chocolate chips do?

Coming to a Puzzle Pack near you! I’m really looking forward to launching our new downloadable content for Eets: Chowdown — some of the items definitely make for interesting play.

Later this week I’ll post a screenshot of a new level. In the mean time, I wonder if you can guess what this blue thing does?

We’re currently hard at work on an expansion pack for Eets: Chowdown. While we’re not announcing the details, I thought you might like a sneak peek at the artwork that’s coming in for it.

This is a sample background for our upcoming Puzzle Pack.

There are also 3 ways to multiply your score:
1) Don’t use all the items. The less items you place on the screen, the bigger the multiplier.
2) Grab the “x2″ item. If Eets grabs the “x2″ item on screen available in some levels, your entire score is multiplied by 2.
3) Complete the level in under Par Time. Time is computed by the time between pressing Play and getting the Puzzle Piece. If you complete the puzzle under Par Time, you start getting bonus multipliers. The more you are under Par, the greater the multiplier.

In this way, it becomes a fine balancing act to maximize your score. You must get enough base points by activating stuff in order for your multipliers to matter, but you must also complete the level in the minimal amount of time with the fewest objects and the best path to maximize your multipliers.

With that in mind, I think I can answer some questions:

Why don’t the hints and solutions hurt your score?
At Klei, our one driving design philosophy is that you never punish the player — you reward them for doing great things. Sure, you can pass the game using the solutions, but they are not even close to the top score you can get in each level. We don’t want players to never use solutions and get stuck on a level forever because it causes irreparable damage to their score, but we also wanted to give a way for the top players to continually show their powress.

To sum it up: Players who just want to have fun, and move on when they’re stuck, can and won’t be punished for doing so. Players who want to get the best score can spend forever tweaking their set up to determine the perfect balance of all things Eets.

I’ve found an infinite loop of points!
Actually, each object in the world can only be activated a limited number of times per play before they stop giving any more points. Also, you might want to be careful with that — loops will increase the time you spend on a level, decreasing your time multiplier — is it worth it?

Why isn’t there a leaderboard per level?
In Eets: Chowdown, we released 123 levels. That would be 123 leaderboards to update, plus more if we continue to release content packs. Technical difficulties stopped us from doing this

I hope that answers some questions! Feel free to keep peppering us — we love the feedback.

We’ve also released new screenshots and a couple HD trailer movies available here.

Official press release here.

Questions?

With Eets: Chowdown set to be released sometime “soon”, and us already set to work on our next project, a lot has happened with Klei lately.

Especially this week!

What’s happened so far, you ask?

Well, starting this week, we’re working at our nice, new, BIG place (complete with stable Internet and 24 hour A/C!) While our previous place was better than the original basement complete with orange couch, our new place is in our minds, WAAAAAY better than the tiny office space we were trapped in.

So, at our new place, we’ll have lots of working space to make those games you just love and adore!

Klei Office, ver. 1.0. Complete with orange couch!

Klei Office, ver. 2.0. A real office, but kinda small . . .

Klei Office, ver. 3.0. Our new office. Movin’ up in the world . . .

Speaking of games you love and adore, this week is also significant for another reason - it marks the 1-year anniversary since we released Eets!

So to celebrate, let’s all have some marshmallows and enjoy in some good Eets fun!

It’s an Eets Anniversary!

(And who doesn’t want to play another Eets Puzzle? )

My latest Puzzle!

Check out Cheesy Jumping 2!

Since I’ve still got some ideas I still want to try out, I’ll be releasing a Puzzle every Eets Weekly. However, if there’s something Eets-related you’d like me to talk about, feel free to let me know! Until then, more puzzle goodness!

Oh yeah, if you haven’t checked out Horatius’ version of Cheesy Jumping, I suggest you give it a shot! A nice improvement over the previous Cheesy Jumping!

Sometimes, I just want to sit down and make a level.