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LCom6 years ago(+1)

I love this - I'm always on the look out for new competitive puzzle games (I was also inspired by the GB puzzle game streams for one of my earlier Giant Rom entries!)

All the pieces are there and working, but it's not quite a great versus game yet. Best move seems to be get a perfectly vertical bounce locked in and then wait for the other player to goof themselves.

Plus the part where it takes an inhuman accuracy to play the puzzle part with any accuracy. I feel like this idea might work better with Zoop mechanics (the ball has a color, goes thru and removes any color matched blocks, but swaps colors with and bounces off differently colored blocks), or go the other other way and make it Scorched Earth based (input angle and power to try and bounce / arch the ball onto a specific brick in the grid, maybe even on a shared board).

it's novel. I love experiments like this!

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D W O'Boyle6 years ago

Thanks!!!

I definitely agree with your thoughts on the puzzle element at the moment. While I like the current chaotic-ness of it, I wish I had more time to implement and test so of the other key mechanics. Even just limiting the randomization would help would make the puzzle element more active. Right  now the only manipulation to the RNG I have is when POW blocks spawn (3rd from the start, then every 5), but it would probably be a good idea to make where they're going to spawn more predictable.  Also having specific sets of blocks that spawn that's biased based off what's in your field instead it being completely random.

The other big thing was actual powers that can manipulate both play fields. Basically the idea was there would be a bit of UI in the center that would say something like "Next Power" and it would go to who ever hit a POW block next. Then you'd be able to trigger when the power gets used via the face buttons.

They would be a mix of pretty standard Arkanoid styled power ups, stuff you'd see in games like Tetris Battle Gaiden, and some ideas I haven't quite seen elsewhere (but they've probably been done before to be honest.) Each power could be used on yourself or your opponent with slightly different effects depending. 

So the whole strategy would be almost more about managing powers and knowing when to use them on yourself for points or protection or using them offensively to trip up your opponent.

As for the strategy you mentioned. It certainly wouldn't be a very high scoring method as your combo resets each time your ball hits your paddle. But in the current form there's not really much room for strats other than "yo, be good at breakout!"

But yeah, it was definitely a lot of fun to work on and I'm thinking about ways to expand on it.

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LCom6 years ago

I find in games like this it doesn't mean much to have a score, because "I was the only one not to die" is such a clear victory condition people would ignore any other ways to look at it.

I can see how having powerups to fight over would add way more depth to the game, and give a lot of ways to play with mechanics both on offense and defense. But then also at that point you'd have to work to make that match 3 aspect really matter again. I could see it mattering if you tied the block spawn patterns to character selection and/or garbage block mechanics. Like if blocks came out already somewhat sorted, and then a good combo / power just shuffles the board and makes clearing it take time again.

If you do get to expand it I'll be sure to come back and see how far you get!

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