Marktrita changelog

Honestly no level was really hard anymore - once you found the first pair, everything else was just speed. So from level 321 the shelves are stocked several rows deep, and a pair often waits on a third copy you can't see yet. Sehr schwer levels now hold 90 products and should feel borderline impossible sometimes. The power-ups are how you get out.

California rolls, a big tub of strong mint gum, a black water bottle, Cabo cards, a model plane and a globe are in the shop now. They show up in levels from 250 on, so I re-tuned every level from there to 1000 so the difficulty still holds.

From level 250 the shop keeps moving every 50 levels now - Amuri, our favourite pasta place in Munich, then Verona, Mitrovica, Times Square, Hamburg, Dumbo, a cinema and Bushwick. Verona gets a thunderstorm at night, and in Times Square the screens get even brighter after dark. In the cinema you're sitting in your seat with your popcorn.

Every product in Marktrita now has its own pin that levels up from Bronze to Platin the more of it you put on the shelves, so 50 Brezn makes you a Brezn-Fan and 800 Corgis makes you a Königlicher Hundehalter. When one levels up mid-level, the timer pops open into a little tag and the pin smashes onto it with confetti and a shop-door bell. I tuned the numbers so you get the last Platin pins somewhere near level 1000, and if you were already playing, your old levels count too.

Past level 250 the phone used to just pick any board it could solve and guess a timer, so nobody had checked how hard those levels were. Now every level up to 1000 gets a board and a timer the bot has played through and tuned, same as the first 250. If you're deep into the game, the late levels should feel as fair as the early ones.

Added popcorn, nachos and bubble tea to Einräumen. They show up from level 100. Before that, adding a product quietly reshuffled almost every level I'd already tuned, so I froze the product list levels draw from. Levels 1 to 99 are exactly as they were, and 100 to 250 got re-tuned.

If you cleared the last triple in the final moment, the clock could still run out and you'd get Ladenschluss on an empty shelf, streak gone. That's fixed, and leaving mid-level can't win or lose it behind your back anymore. Levels past 250 now always have a way through - before, some were stuck before the first move. Also no more stray sounds after you leave the win or loss card.

The little yellow price tags on Marktrita's shelves used to be decoration. Now each one shows the price of what's in that shelf's front row, and every triple you clear pays a cent for every two euros on its tag, so a Corgi triple is worth more than a bunch of bananas. I took the same amount out of the time bonus, so you don't earn more overall. The money just leans towards the expensive stuff.

Marktrita now moves to a new city every 50 levels - Munich, Lago di Como, Prishtina, the West Village and then the Financial District. Each one is a painted picture behind the home screen and the shelves, with a night version for dark mode. When you reach a new city, a little welcome screen opens the new store before the next level starts.

Dropping a product now keeps the speed of your finger, so it slides into the shelf instead of easing in from a stop. Triples pop sooner and the next row slides in while the pop is still fading. I also fixed a bug where a quick drop right after a triple just flew back home, which honestly felt like lag. Frozen shelves show their thaw again too.

I kept buying 30 more seconds whenever the clock ran low, so the timer basically stopped mattering. Now the first Länger offen in a try still costs 4,99 €, but each one after that doubles - 9,99 €, then 19,99 €. The hard levels actually feel hard again.

I kept winning every level on the first try, so the hard part had to change. Every tenth level is now Extrem - every product is visible and the obvious move is usually the wrong one, so you really have to plan it out. The old hardest levels are now called Sehr schwer, and from level 100 the clocks got a lot tighter.

The win screen was getting crowded, with everything smashed into a little card. Now it's just the stars, the money and your streak, centred on one line. When you earn a power-up the gift box actually opens and goes away, and the power-up stays where it was.

Arita and I played into the 90s and kept getting stuck on levels that felt impossible - turns out you could walk into a dead end and the game never told you. Now it says Sackgasse and offers a rescue, and there are 250 checked levels. I also made Pfand scarce, swapped the boring power-ups for a barcode Scanner and a full-screen ALLES MUSS RAUS nuke, and win streaks now fill a stash of free ones. Plus a new icon, a little corner shop.

The timer now shows your three stars, and the one you're about to lose wiggles for a few seconds before it falls off. Win three levels in a row and the next one starts with a bit of extra time - five in a row and Mischen is free too. Lose one and you watch the flames go out with a big GERISSEN! stamp, which honestly stings a little. I also took the leftover-items count out of the top bar, it was just clutter.

I pulled my own play log off my phone and saw I was using about a fifth of the timer on every level, so the clock was basically decoration. The timers are now tuned to how fast we actually play, and every tenth level or so is an Extrem one you probably won't beat first try. There are two new shelves too - sealed cartons you can't see into, and products with a security tag that won't move. Winning is one quick card now with stars, the Pfand ticking up and a big Weiter button.

I renamed the grocery sorting game to Marktrita, so the home screen and the logo on the start screen say that now. It's also on TestFlight for the first time - a couple of friends get to try it once Apple's beta review goes through.

Levels were starting to feel the same, so I added two new shelves. A Kassenband carries products along the top row, and a frozen shelf only thaws once you clear enough triples elsewhere. Winning now gets confetti and a fanfare, and quick clears set you on fire for extra time. Dropping and merging also feel a lot snappier - that part honestly took the most rounds.

I let a bot play every level of Einräumen before we do, and it turns out level 3 was basically unwinnable. Now every level can be won without power-ups, and the hard ones say SCHWER with an easy one right after. Wins print a fuller receipt with stars and a Treuekarte stamp, and there's sound now. All 29 groceries got realistic pictures too, including Lebkuchen, Knoblauch, Salz and Lemon Brownie.