Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
When the player presses Go, the ball is launched (at the same angle and velocity every time), and then is
subjected to gravity. If the ball hits point B, the player receives points and moves on to the next level. If the
ball goes off screen, the ball is returned to its original resting position and is allowed to go again until the
player hits point B. In order for the ball to get to point B, the player must position a set of modifiers to guide
the ball there. The possible modifiers include a wall, a bouncy wall, a speed booster, a speed reducer, and a
gravity flipper. Each level has between one and five modifiers. The ball
must
interact with each modifier in
order to pass the level. Additionally, a modifier becomes invisible or non-interactive once it has been used.
There are 18 levels in all. The levels start out with only one modifier and eventually progress up to a set of
five. The player can obtain a maximum of 100 points each level. The way the scoring system works is that
a player starts with 100 potential points. With each failed attempt, the points available decrease by five.
Essentially, if a player wants to score any points at all, he must get the ball to point B in less than 20
attempts.
Influence and inspiration
A to B is actually derived from a piece I created a year earlier called “Infinite Loop” (see Figure 2-2), which
was essentially a criticism of certain online games. The entire “game” consisted of a ball that you need to
drop through a loop to hit a target. Every time you hit the target, you would get a point. The game would
continue forever until the player quit. The experiment was to see how long people would actually repeat
the boring task simply to receive points.
Figure 2-2.
Screenshot from the game Infinite Loop
