Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
There's always a path that the player can follow from top to bottom, but the player can also
reshape the structure of the level by blowing up walls and floors or attaching ropes to climb
into inaccessible areas. Each set of four levels has a distinct theme, with different enemies and
hazards as well as special areas that always appear, such as a room with a golden idol that
triggers a huge rolling boulder when taken. These semi-fixed elements create a reliable but
varying structure that weaves an authored story into the emergent experiences that are unique
for every playthrough.
Platform:
Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Price:
Free (Classic Version for PC, Mac) or $15 (HD Version for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation)
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Verbs, Resistance
Triple Town
starts with a premise that will sound familiar to players of “tile-matching” games
such as
Bejeweled
,
Dr. Mario
, and
Puzz Loop
. You're tasked with making groups of three or more
matching objects. The creators of
Triple Town
, however, intended to create a new genre rather
than a variation on existing games. In this game, three or more adjacent matching objects
combine into a new object at the spot where the player placed the final object. The new object
is an “evolution” of the earlier ones: three grasses combine into a bush, three bushes into a tree,
three trees into a wooden hut, and so forth. The goal of the game is to reach as high a score as
possible without running out of space in the tightly constrained playing area. Players have to
plan well in advance to place the 27 grasses needed to create a house, which only represents
the fourth of nine tiers of objects!
The game's resistance is shaped not only by the limited playing area, but by the fact that the
player is given a random new object to place each turn and sometimes must place a “bear”
object that can move around, disrupting her plans.
Triple Town
takes the simple action of plac-
ing a randomly dealt object onto a board and a few rules to create a complex system with many
possibilities and strategies—even player-driven goals. The game offers many ways to “build up
a town” that all result in a different arrangement of buildings, flora, and mischievous bears.
Platform:
Windows, Mac (unlimited version). Web, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire (free version with
premium purchases available)
Price:
Free (Web, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire) or US $10 (Windows, Mac)
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