Color Sort Master

Color Sort Master

This is an experiment. I will try to refine the game idea here on apptivate.ms and once I'm happy with the concept (and Game Dev Tycoon is done) I will try to implement the game in one single 24 hour hackaton.

Game synopsis

The player uses swipe gestures to 'flick' little colored blobs into the correspondingly colored zones. The game starts out slowly but then becomes more hectic as more colors are added and special elements are introduced.

Basic layout

The player likely interacts on the entire screen so we should leave as much space as possible. There is a need for a status bar showing lifes, current score and special abilities. Since special abilities are likely activated during hectic gameplay we will need big areas where the player can easily activate them. I have attached a mockup of a basic play screen.

Simple gameplay

You start out with just two colors: red and blue. Bubbles come up from the bottom of the screen and you need to flick them to the right side before they reach a line near the top of the screen. If you get it right you gain points, if you get it wrong you loose life points or it's game over.

Advancement

• Bubbles will increase in speed and amount.
• Over time more colors and corresponding zones will be introduced.

Special features:

• At the minimum I want to include a special time-freeze feature which slows down time temporarily to allow the player to cope with hectic situations.
• There could also be a while ball which turns all colors white for a bit of time and then you can flick them anywhere you like.
• The opposite could be a black ball which could vacuum up all bubbles which means you can relax but you also don't get points for these.

Technology

Working on Game Dev Tycoon I've had some great experiences with CreateJS and this project seems a perfect fit for it.

random idea dump (most of them will probably not work)

color zones could be aligned in a large circle rather than on the edges which means the target zones could start to slowly rotate. This means that the player not only needs to flick the colors in the right direction but he/she also needs to keep in mind where the current color zone is.

There could be special bubbles that need to be treated in a special way:

• bombs cannot be touched (a bit too close to fruit ninja though)
• spiked bubbles cannot collide with any other?
• some bubbles could maybe be combined to create a new color?
• water bubbles could destroy any colors that pass through
• player might be able to hold a bubble by touching it, thus he/she could use multi-touch to get on top of a hectic situation.
• zones could shrink suddenly making it harder to hit.