GCPP:Proposal-Sprat
Puzzle Codename: Sprat
| Contact | |
| Username: | Wrmacrae4 |
| Additional contact info: | Wrmacrae on Midnight or wrmacrae4 on the YPP forums |
| Project forum thread: | Puzzle Codename: Sprat |
Game concept
Inspired by Isinglass and Mad Virus, a player is trying to dye fabric to make sections of each color which could be sold as cloth
Objective
Create large groups of color. These may be required to be Triangles, Rombuses, Trapazoids, or Parallelegrams, or that might come as a bonus
Gameplay
There are two things which can happen in the game to change the pieces:
- A move by the player, this is where the player clicks on a piece, and the 6 surrounding hexes rotate around it. Players would be able to left- or right-click as in alchemy to switch between clockwise and counter clockwise.
- Either at the players choice, or when triggered by a time-limit or a certain number of the previously discussed moves, the dyes bleed so that if a hex has 3 surrounding hexes of a certain color, it changes to that color. (This is changeable in the prototype, but I would recommend 3).
Scoring
This is the part of the game which is still under construction, but the general idea would be that the larger the group or shape you create, the better. The following would be methods of getting bonuses:
- Clear several groups all after the same move
- Clear groups "in a row", with only one move in between each
- Do #1 or #2 with the same colored group
- Do #1 or #2 with four groups, one of each color
- If shape is not required, forming a triangle, rombus, trapazoid, or parallelegram
Variability
The game starts on a completely random board, so each game would be completely different. Additionally, when groups are cleared, they would be replaced by a random assortment of pieces.
End criteria
One of the following will end the game:
- The player has cut out enough sections to fill the order (this would be shown on a meter, which would count the number of pieces cleared and show it out of the total number needed)
- Enough brown pieces (see below) cover the board that it is impossible for the player to clear another section, and the order cannot be finished. This results in a Booched rating.
Difficulty scaling
I have provided 2 sliders in the prototype that modify difficulty, and there are several other ways that it can change as well.
- Browns: This is the only way that one can play in the prototype, but by using an alternative method to the creation of browns, the puzzle becomes a good bit easier. A brown is a piece which is formed because it meets the requirements to change to two different colors at the same time. At the standard viscocity of 3 (see below), this will only occur if the surrounding hexes are a group of exactly two colors, with 3 of each color. Once a piece turns brown, it will not change colors again. Being surrounded by 3 browns, however, will not change a piece. Browns will not be able to be used in a group, so they can be quite problematic. In order to make the puzzle easier, it could do one of the following when a brown would be created:
- Create a golden (or white) "wild" piece, which is exactly like a brown, but may be used in a group as any color
- Randomly pick from the eligable color changes (if surrounded by 3 blues and 3 yellows, there is a 50% chance that the hex turns blue)
- Simply don't change colors, so that in order to change a piece, there must also be a plurality of color or pieces will only change if there is just one color change possible.
- Viscocity Slider: Although one cannot label one end as easy and the other as hard, I have found that when dealing with Viscocities of 2 or 6, it is very hard to create groups. At 2, most groups of pieces will continue expanding until they collide with another group. The chances of getting a brown piece are, therefor, much higher. At 6, moving all of the pieces around something takes a while, and is easy to mess up.
- Number of Colors: The default color number is 4, but that can go up to 5 or 6. I find that the higher numbers make it a little harder because you start with fewer pieces of each color. Obviously, getting a bonus for creating a group of each color would be much harder. Having more colors is particularly challenging at higher viscocities, but at a viscocity of 2, it actually can give you a pleasent break from getting browns.
- Shape Requirement: It is much more challenging to form triangles, rombusses, trapazoids, and parallelegrams, so difficulty can be greatly increased by requiring sections to be of a given shape.
- Unwanted Spreading: If instead of the player choosing when pieces spread, they do so automatically, it becomes harder, and could be made more difficult by decreasing the time or number of moves between spreading.
Crafting type
Weaving. Could theoretically be tailoring, but the tailors don't actually dye cloth.
Known problems
These are both problems and feature requests:
- Scoring
- Clearing
- Automatic Spreading (after an amount of time or moves)
- Bonuses
- Wrap-around bleeding (pieces on the outside will occasionally change colors when they shouldn't)
Notes
To play:
Images
