Tangle is a colour-matching block breaker game. Its theme is knitting and wool, and it's made to be a quick and satisfying game.
The game's mechanics are inspired by colour match games like BattleCamp which are quick and have a high skill ceiling, whilst also being casual fun.
You can break the blocks like a regular brick breaker, it will take 3 hits, but the skill aspect comes into play concerning the colour matching. Each hit of a block will change its colour between red, green, and blue (or three other colours, not yet decided, the colours may even be randomised). When the block breaks, all blocks touching it with the same colour will also break, and so will blocks of the same colour touching those. The level designs will aim to allow players to set up big combos if they want, or to simply play it for quick casual fun.
There will be difficulty customisation in the game through the player being able to choose between a few ball speeds (most likely: tactical, normal, and challenging). However most importantly the player will be able to choose between different paddle shapes which will change the way they play the game. A flat paddle will allow for safe but inaccurate play, a rounded paddle will allow for accurate but more challenging play, and a knitting-needle paddle will be a choice for those who want to laugh at how difficult it is to use.
Knitting-themed features:
- Colourful yarn backgrounds
- Brick breaking ball = ball of yarn
- Bricks = wool
- When the bricks are broken, they zip down into the background and leave an imprint of their colour
Player score is counted according to the highest number of blocks of the same colour that are broken. So if a player finishes a level with 5 broken green blocks, 4 broken red blocks, and 12 broken blue blocks, then their score for that level will be 12. Remember the blocks change colour on each hit, so the player needs to tactically change surrounding blocks to the colour that a central block will break on, and then break that central block to match colours. The blocks cycle through a predictable colour cycle so you will need to set up the blocks around a block that you know will break on their same colour.
Points will be useable to acquire different shaped paddles, and the faster and slower ball speeds. The player starts with a flat paddle on normal speed, and will then be able to purchase tactical (cheap) and challenging (expensive) speed, and round (cheap) and knitting needle (quite expensive) paddles. This is so that the player can gain more points faster over time with these upgrades, but will have a little time to get used to each change before they make the next purchase. The upgrade purchases are just there to give the player a sense of progression and something to work towards that actively changes their experience, and so they will not induce a grind (maybe one well-played level will unlock the cheaper upgrades, and the more expensive will take two or three levels).
See below some prototype gameplay with placeholder assets. Currently the game is in the scripting stage before I start designing the levels and making some artwork.
