Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Moving columns
Well, there are columns in the game that can move if pushed by the player's finger;
without any external impact, they stand still. Let's turn it topsy-turvy. After that, the
columns always move down. Being infinite lines, they have various speeds, so a
stream of tiles is not regular. A player can stop any of them by touching them. How
can such a bizarre concept be turned into a real game experience? Everything is
simple: the player should apply the brakes to each column at the right time so they
assemble a tile sequence. An automatic align procedure can be developed. It looks
like slot machine mechanics, but it is not based on fortuity alone; the player can see
the flow of tiles and choose the right moment to tap the screen by himself. We call this
mode
Moving columns
.
As soon as all columns are stopped, the roll call function is called, and after that
the game operates like an ordinary match-three puzzle: sequence outlining, point
counting, element eliminating, and so on. The following screenshot shows the Moving
columns mode with coherent control:
Undoubtedly, the control mechanism is pretty important in this case. If there was talk
about asystemwithout multitouch, coherent control couldbeused:theplayertouches
columns one by one, and each click means that a column is stopped until the match-
ingprocessisfinishedortheplayerpressesitagainandunchecksit.Itisprettysimple
and reliable. The game process can be made more complex by introducing a timer
to pause the column. In other words, once the player has pressed and stopped one
line of tiles, he should hurry to apply the brakes to other lines or the timers for the
first ones will run out of time and the columns will begin to move again. The timer can
be expressed as a semitransparent scrollbar that covers a pressed column. One of
the advantages of coherent control, based on single touches, is the possibility to work
with wide game boards, that is, 6, 8, or 10 tiles in a row.
Nevertheless, this type of input is a bit sluggish, is not very exciting, and does not
feature vast support to multi-touch paradigm. Let's try to make something more funny,
