Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Rock
: On the contrary to previous fragments, this particular one is not a part
of the ship but a fragment of the asteroid. It is useless and dangerous be-
cause it cannot be eliminated only by shooting or explosion.
•
Container
: This is a very rare type of fragment that contains some useful bo-
nuses, a weapon, for example. It should be hit by a gun.
The following figure shows the various fragments we covered:
The game mechanics of eliminating tiles from the screen is pretty similar to the
Shootingmode.Theplayermayeithershoot(orexplode)them,ortapthesequences
to remove them. Then the differences appear. When a fragment is hit by a shot or
explosion, it sinks into oblivion without any trace; the player only gets some points
and prepares the way for the space lifeboat. But in case he taps the sequence of
fragments, he gets them as useful resources. To illustrate that fact, a brief animation,
showing the space lifeboat's mechanical arm collecting the fragments can be used.
Here is the dramatic dilemma: the player can spend the resources to fix the space
lifeboat (a long-term investment) or make some weapons (a short-term investment).
He decides what to choose by himself. Of course, the golden rule is effective: some
portion is used for repairs and some for current purposes. We only need to find a
well-balanced proportion. The following screenshot shows screen layouts for various
game situations:
All the fragments become dangerous and harmful when they approach the bottom
line of the window; the space lifeboat is affected by them and it begins to collapse.
The player can try to save it by spending his resources on repair.
The damage system is quite predictable; each type of fragment hitting the shell of
the space lifeboat takes one unit of corresponding resource. For instance, if a Metal
