Matchy Star™ Systems
Matchy Star™ is a match 3 puzzle game with a Match-Them-All™ design. We have talked about concept and gameplay so far, now let’s revise the design so far for the map.
Matchy Star™ main map is called Galaxy Alpha and there are 11 important areas to explore. Each area has levels, some have few, some have many – difficulty varies according to the grid and the specific pathways given. There is also another important factor to consider, that will add to the scenarios – which is called Speed.
There are three ships to use: Zippy, Skippy and Bob – they move from tile to tile collecting matches in each level. The arrows on the grid tell the 3 Ships what direction to move in, they will always follow the directions of the arrows on the grid but on each level it takes different amounts of time for the ships to progress from tile to tile. At the top of the level you can see the speeds for all 3 ships.
This speed determines the time it takes for each ship to move 1 tile. I wanted to include the rate at which the ships moved and tweak it on difficulty, for that I came up with a simple math take on this to assign a variable that describes speed. Taking the number 10 as a base number, an even natural number that is easy to utilize becomes the dividend to determine the speed quotient. You divide 10 with a divisor that determines the difficulty, meaning 10/10 will result in 1 second for a ship to move from tile to tile. Something like 10/20 means it will take a half second to move from tile to tile.
The formula for calculating how long each tile takes is: 10/Speed = Seconds Needed To Visit Each Tile
As an example, if the speed is 15 then it will take 10/15 or 667 milliseconds for the ship to move from one tile to the next. So the numbers you see on each map will explain the speed of the puzzle, it varies at different points.
This is the current design of the game. It might change based on player feedback and tweaks! We might revise how to display this information to make it more user friendly in game, but the important thing to take away from this is : the higher the divisor, the faster the ship goes – it adds challenge.
Matchy Star™ 11 Star Systems
1) Alpha System:
This is the basic tutorial system with 2 levels based on Earth and Mars. In these levels the “breaks are on” meaning that the ships will wait until you move a gem to progress making it much easier to think about what move you want to make. Also in these levels only Zoot drops in the bubbles to collect. There are two levels in Alpha System.
2) Starbase:
We designed five levels for Starbase. This is the home base of MatchyGotchy™ and you can still see earth from here. The special tiles in this level affect the ship’s speed. Sometimes the tiles slow down the ships and sometimes the tiles speed the ships up. This means you have to get very big matches when the ship is moving slowly and you need to try to survive when the ship is going fast. (The double fast forward arrow speeds up the ship and the line and triangle slow icon slows the ships.)
3) Asteroid:
These are three levels in Asteroid, these levels are just changes in the grid and have no special tiles. While this provides interesting paths to deal with for each level, difficultly allows for you to enjoy doing the most matches and hunting for items to collect.
4) Red Giant:
This introduces the “Split” tiles which randomly choose between two paths when the ship hits the splitter. This means players will have to plan ahead to deal with the random path in case the ship goes the wrong way. In the image below the split tile is in the middle right with the up and down arrows. When the ship reaches the split it might loop back around the top of the screen or head to the flag at the bottom. Red Giant has five levels.
5) Asteroid II:
Another set of levels based on different movement patterns without any special tiles, allowed for a quick rest stop and accumulating matches and items. There are three levels just like Asteroid I, this set of levels has a fast ship speed so you have to set up the matches quickly or get an item to slow your ships down.
6) Black Hole:
Black Hole has three levels. These levels involve missing pieces from the game grid and require moving the Stars around the holes so you have to plan how to organize the different paths the Stars take. This will require extra strategy in logical thinking trying organize big matches and harder work to find bonuses.
7) Gemini:
In the Gemini system you will find five levels and Zippy, Skippy, and Bob have split into doubles. This means you have to keep two ships fueled through the level at once. The ships move a bit slower here to help deal with the issues of fueling two ships at once. Also if two ships hit a match at the same time they both get the fuel for it and its double score.
8) Nova:
When your ships hit a nova tile they collect all the matches that exist on screen even if they aren’t near your ship. This means you can get a big score by building matches anywhere for the nova tiles. Pathway and grid design demands for a different strategy in finding ways to clump up your matches. In Nova there are five levels.
9) Constellation:
The constellation involves complex paths and requires a very high score to proceed. True test of logistics and strategy – speed will grant you time, but pathway will work against you. Ideally, matches would not be complicated as long as you familiarize with the pathway to optimize your chances.
10) Nebula:
The Nebula has a combination of different tiles from the previous systems. Difficulty will peak on speed, making conscious choices of your path important to not run out of fuel. There are five levels in Nebula, and the variations from these make for a different difficulty set to tackle.
11) Xanadu:
There are five levels in Xanadu. These levels have combinations of special tiles in the same level. For example, in this one, there are splitters and speed changers meaning there is a random chance the ships will move faster or slower. These levels require a lot of item buffs to be able to do or a ton of skill. Itemization at the end of the game is quite important because it will allow the player to turn these things that might work against them as part of their skills to complete these match 3 puzzles.
All of this has been coded in the game already, we are still working on the itemization and system bonuses – also, redefining UI changes to make it easier more user friendly. So expect some changes included in the final build.
