Puzzles - iPhone Game Blueprints - page 157

Obstacles
Various types of obstacles can make gameplay more diverse. This is a good way to
increase the difficulty of a game process as well. They may appear in a game one-by-
one with the increase in the player's abilities. A situation in which a game is trying to
correspond to players who become more trained from level to level is known as neg-
ative feedback . The term means that new rules, features, opponents, game speed,
and other factors of the gameplay are trying to grade players' statuses forcing them to
evolve more. Because of the negative feedback paradigm, the next game levels are
always more complicated than their predecessors; otherwise players can loose their
motivation and interest because they always need a challenge. There is also such a
thing as positive feedback ; as you might guess, it describes situations when game-
play becomes easier for players. Usually, such mechanics are a part of dynamic sys-
tems helping players to escape contexts when they are stuck in games. For example,
if a player cannot defeat an enemy for a long time, a game can simplify the AI of the
enemies and their fire accuracy, or some hints or solutions can be displayed. Posit-
ive feedback is quite important because in many cases players drop games because
they do not see any ways to resolve problematic gameplay situations. Beside the pos-
itive feedback implemented in games directly, there can be so called offline positive
feedback —some solutions and walkthroughs published on the Internet (for instance,
on the developer's website or YouTube channel).
Obstacles are tiles with special properties that influence the behavior of the array.
Some examples:
• Rock : This is a tile painted in black or dark gray. It cannot be eliminated from
the array as it is a monolithic structure that does not participate in matching
calculations. Being accidentally assembled in long sequences, like in walls,
rocks can be very obstructive of player's actions.
• Brick : This is a destructible version of the rock; the tile is painted gray or light
gray. It can be eliminated, and the conditions depend on the game type. In
the Shooter mode, the player needs to shoot this tile several times. In other
modes of the game, it may disappear after a specific period of time.
• Empty : This is one of the most harmless obstacles—simply an empty tile
colored white. Sometimes it can impede the assembling of tile sequences, but
it can also be easily defeated when a tile is inserted into its position after a
recalculation of the array.