GCPP:Proposal-Mummichog
Puzzle Codename: Mummichog
| Contact | |
| Username: | Tcarr |
| Additional contact info: | on Midnight as Lordkalvan, otherwhen@frontiernet.net |
| Project forum thread: | Forum Thread |
Game concept
A variation of Memory that does not necessarily have a perfect solution.
Objective
Match pairs of tiles, trying to remove as many from the board as possible. The essential goal is to make consecutive matches, not necessarily the fewest number of moves.
Gameplay
The initial board contains a grid of tiles, each face down. The faces of the tiles have been chosen completely randomly among the possible tiles. The star is a wild card which will match any other tile. The player clicks any two face down tiles on the board, which flips the two tiles face up (at the same time). Both tiles remain face up for a given number of seconds, during which time an animation plays if there is a match and the score for that pair of clicks is recorded. At the end of this time, if the tiles match they move to a pile in the corner of the board. If they do not match, they are turned face down again. Large bonus points for clearing the board.
Scoring
Two points are lost for each pair of tiles flipped. If the tiles match, XXX points are scored (scaled on difficulty). Bonus points for consecutive matches, which scale with each additional match. One point lost for each tile remaining on the board, unmatched, when round ends.
Tentative formulas: Using the lobby difficulty slider (d), XXX above would be (d - 2). So on the easiest level (4 faces plus the wild card), making a match will score 3 points. On the hardest level (7 faces plus the wild card), making a match will score 5 points. If we add extra faces and higher difficulty to trigger them, this should scale.
Tentative bonus points for consecutive matches: (n - 1)(d - 3), where n is the number of consecutive matches.
Variability
Three consecutive matches causes one face down tile at random to be flipped for a given number of seconds (a sneak peek). If "extra stars" is checked in the lobby, then four consecutive matches changes a random face down tile into a wild card, and displays a sneak peek. Each additional consecutive match will generate another wild card, until nothing is left but wild cards. Note: using a decent strategy and "extra stars" makes the game way too easy with the number of face cards we have at the moment. If there were 16 or so face cards, the extra stars would likely be needed.
End criteria
When no possible matches remain on the board, the game ends.
Difficulty scaling
Higher levels will have a larger number of images. This makes building combos more difficult, which in turn makes it much harder to completely clear the board.
Crafting type
Will work with any craft. Sample game will use images from bilge, which can be easily replaced later.
Known problems
Using images of the various commodities for a given craft causes problems for color-blind players unless text also appears on the tiles. Adding the text to the tiles requires larger tiles, resulting in a smaller maximum number of tiles that will fit on the board. This sample program will avoid the issue by just using bilge pieces.
Notes
Play testing will be needed to determine what are reasonable numbers for the difficulty scaling. It might be better to add additional possible images to the mix for difficulty scaling, rather than using fewer initial tiles. This game will be coded quickly so that it can be used as a sample program, to help other coding teams.
Game is now available on GameGardens Mummichog.
Images
