Android puzzle game
Game Design + Graphics Notes:
Hi there! Emma here with some cool notes about STYLE and DESIGN! The atmosphere we're going for is something spacey and calming. Since some among us are against putting up time limits or clocks, that removes the option of making more of an intense, fast, competitive game. Instead, what we can do is keep a reward system that is not based on the speed at which one solves each puzzle, but instead based on some other unit of efficiency. Without time, it may be a bit difficult to decide upon what that unit might be. I'm thinking perhaps taking the minimum number of moves, but we can decide upon it at a later date (comment: Actually, I think any hamiltonian path is going to require exactly as many hits as number of nodes: unless you mean number of moves to manipulate the graph itself. Personally, I think time is a good idea; we wont have a hard deadline with a ticking clock or anything, but time would be an extremely useful parameter for scoring. That said, feel free to add ideas if something occurs to you. -Aditi)
START MENU: The first thing that someone will see upon opening the app is the start menu. This menu looks like the image provided in the Linurit start jpg, with perhaps some extra animation if time provides (I'm thinking of adding some cool swirly constellations) When any of the buttons are clicked, a pleasant dinging sound clip will play, and the screen will fade to white of increasing opacity The white will then fade away, revealing the selected screen of either Play, Levels, or Themes The Themes screen should be the last to implement, as it's most important to get a playable game The first screen implemented should be Play, where we just make one playable level to test with
GAMEPLAY: This is the section that describes the actual game where you manipulate the constellations. To drag a node, one must first select it by tapping on it Then they can move it by dragging their finger in whatever direction they wish to put it Even if they didn't drag starting at the node's location, the node will still move the correct distance and direction There should be a reset button in order to bring the constellation back to how it looked at the start. There should also be an undo button that possibly deducts points Most importantly, there should be a play button that starts the simulation of bursting each node in proper order SIMULATION: For the simulation, there will be a clearly marked starting node at which the simulation begins. For later levels, there may be more than one for an added level of complexity. Each small segment along the dotted line to the next node will light up to indicate progress along the line. I will add a gif called burst-progress.gif to show what I mean. While a node that is connected to two or more nodes will show progress along both lines, the progress will stop along the other lines once one of the nodes is reached. WIN CONDITION: In order to win, the simulation must progress in such a way that all nodes are reached, but only reached once.
PLAY button: If it is not the player's first time with the game, the last level the player was working on should appear Saving the data of how they manipulated the graph last would be ideal The screen showing the constellation should have a small levels button in a top corner s This should take you to the levels screen, with the last level you worked on centered in the middle
DESIGN THEMES: All large text, such as major buttons or simple instructions, should be shown in the font DJ Stitch Regular This font will be not a stark white, but a near-white tint of the background color gradient There should be a slight glow outside the font, to make it more readable One option is to make the glow slowly increase and decrease in brightness, for a dynamic look It is most visually pleasing to have something changing on the screen, even when the player is not moving something themself I'll probably end up programming the themes menu later on. In beginner mode, the nodes each look like circles In advanced mode, they look like squares In expert mode, they look like triangles In each mode, the selected node will glow a bit brighter than the rest and rotate around its center point
LEVELS SCREEN: Three options of Beginner, Advanced, and Expert lie arranged vertically (These words can be changed to sound more thematic) When one is selected, the other two options fly off the screen, and the selected option moves to the top of the screen as the header for the array of sublevels that you can play. You can see all the sublevels you've unlocked so far arranged just like the constellations you play in each game Every time you unlock a new constellation, or set of constellations, you can manipulate them
SUBLEVELS: This is the place you will spend the most time within the levels screens. It shows another constellation graph, but this one represents different sublevels instead of simple nodes