OverLight is an addictive game with an unique concept using glass blocks and laser beams - you break the right blocks, lasers get redirected and intersect, overheat and explode the blocks for which you receive points. You can even chain the explosions into combos, but you must think fast, the clock is ticking! Your goal is old classic: Get as many points as possible. The game also contains various other features to enhance the gameplay and make it more rich and varied - special blocks, power-ups, power-downs (nasty pests!) and variety of levels in several game modes.
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Cheese and Game Modes | Locked | |
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Dec 2 2012 Anchor | ||
So, as stated, currently only the basic glass blocks and 2 lasers are implemented at fixed locations. Due to the existing game mechanics, this creates certain zones which are potentially better or worse for scoring (and getting big combos). I've made a quick overlay to describe this in terms of the four quadrants of the screen:
So this got me thinking: how can this problem be solved? The ideas that have been mentioned for block variants could certainly help. By having blocks differing in value and ease of destruction, the value of regions of the playing field itself fluctuate. Blocks that require re-routing the laser go even further by creating a need to target more areas of the board. However, the base state of the playing field will still have the same optimal and low-priority regions.
I think some things of this sort would allow the optimal region of the board to constantly change in a predictable manner, both removing the ability to cheese one region and giving more importance on being "two steps ahead". Later levels would more easily be able to be made more difficult by combining these variants with the different blocks and power-ups/downs. It'd also be re-usable to allow for some interesting puzzles (e.g.: laser moves up every time a block is broken manually). Edited by: nurotasama |
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Dec 2 2012 Anchor | ||
Wow! Thanks for extensive feedback. The laser positions are adjustable (they are defined per level) so I'll be tweaking them to adjust the difficulty, although this gave me idea to put another mechanic to change them even during single gameplay somehow, perhaps by swapping their heights (left and right) at some point. Also the blocks and their ratio in the game have significant effect on the difficulty. For example with only three-sub-block "corner" blocks in the level, it was very difficult to play. Perhaps also cause small chance for the overheat to break some other blocks in the surroundings (but without receiving any points for them) too, that way it would cause the structures to collapse and reshape. Perhaps break a random block(s) with each overheat as well. I mean, whole screen flashes with the boom, so why it can't take a few more blocks with it, even though there are no laser beams going through them, right? :3 Thanks again for your suggestions, it's very helpful. |
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