E. Tiles: Now with Graphics!

I've added some temporary graphics to Elemental Tiles to replace the old text-only interface.  This may make it easier to tell what's going on.  The tiles still don't animate; I eventually want them to slide to their new location (again, similar to 2048) instead of just instantly appearing there.  Also, I'm in discussion with someone who may agree to be the artist for my first game.  That will most likely be either Elemental Tiles or Overflow.  Either way, I do eventually want to finish this game, including finished graphics, and when I do have prettier graphics it should be simple to replace the stand-in graphics.
So, want to see the new prototype?  Take a lookie!
http://bit.ly/etile_p2
Like before, you'll probably need to allow plugins to run on the page.  And as always, I value all feedback!  I'll add this new prototype to the alpha bundle sometime in the near future; whether you sign up before or after the update is added, you'll still get it.

Elemental Tiles Look and Feel

Cryptica screen shot from Google Play Store.

The current prototype is working quite well.  Multiple playtesters have told me though that it's tricky to get the hang of what tiles are supposed to interact with each other when everything is just text, and I agree.  I'll be working on adding some stand-in art next, and in the meantime I'm taking a closer look at the artistic direction of Elemental Tiles and looking to other games for inspiration.

I was immediately reminded of another tile sliding game I've played called Cryptica.  The mechanics, rules, and objective are all different from the game I'm making, but I like the look and feel of this game.  The stone tiles motif matches what I was thinking for my own game, as well as the sound effects of stone sliding against stone.  It gives it a feeling of being ancient and mysterious.

Pokemon energy symbols by bagleopard

As for the symbols that would be on the tiles, I want them to be simple and iconic so they'll be easily recognized by the players.  I immediately thought of the symbols used to represent different types of energy in the Pokemon trading card game.  For most of them you can take a pretty good guess at what each symbol means.  And for the ones that aren't quite as intuitive (like psychic, dark, steel, and dragon energy) once you learn what that type means, it's easily recognizable in the future.  There are other examples that can be drawn from as well, such as the elemental symbols from the show Avatar: Last Airbender and even simple symbols from ancient hieroglyphics and pictograms.

Avatar symbols by FourMoons

Though simple, I want the tile and board designs to be well done.  I could probably whip something up myself, but I'm hoping to work together with a digital artist to produce the graphics for this game.

Elemental Tiles Alpha Now Available!

I've decided to allow those who would be interested to join the "Alpha Team" for games that I'm working on.  The webplayer version will continue to be available for a good while; maybe even indefinitely.  But for a small contribution (pay what you want, $1 minimum) you'll receive the executable version that you can play on your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine.  You'll also be entitled to receive all updates during production as well as the final version for the computer.
To join the Alpha Team, click this link:  https://gum.co/cYdk

E. Tiles First Working Prototype

My first working prototype for Elemental Tiles is now up and running!  You know what that means:  Usability Testing!!  So, for those new to this little game I'm making, here's the basics:

1. Use the arrow keys to move the tiles.  They all move at once and keep moving until they hit a boundary or another tile (a la 2048).
2. When two elements are pushed together and one is stronger than the other, the weaker one disappears.  If they are opposites, they both disappear.  Nothing special happens if two of the same element are pushed together.
3. Note:  Two elements may be next to each other without reacting; you need to actually push them towards each other for the reaction to occur.
4. You get points for each tile that disappears.  The more tiles that disappear in one move, the more points per tile you will receive.
5. After every move, a new, random tile is added to a random location on the board.  If the board is full when this would normally happen, the game is over.  Try to get as many points as you can before the game ends!

My wife and I have both been playing it a few times, and it's kind of a fun little puzzle I think.  I can usually get around 100 points before filling the board.  This prototype is text only, but it is functional.  So I welcome anyone who would like to play it to click the link below, and pretty please leave a comment in this blog letting me know what you think.  And be honest!  I know there are flaws in the gameplay; it's just hard for me to see them as the developer.  Some things to think about:

• How easily do you get the hang of the game and how it works?
• Is it too easy/too hard?  Does it get more difficult as it goes along?  If so, does the difficulty increase too fast or slow?
• How long did you play?  If you lost, did you feel like playing again to beat your last score?
• And most importantly, is it fun?!

Thanks to all who take the time to play and comment; it really is very helpful!  My next step is to determine the look and feel and get some actual graphics working.  Until then!

Click the link below to play.  You may need to install/allow the Unity Webplayer plugin.  Don't worry, it's legit.
http://bit.ly/etile_p1
Some browsers block plugins like this by default, so make sure you check for that.  Chrome for example shows a little "blocked" icon in the upper right corner of your browser; click it to allow it to run.  Also, if nothing happens when you press the keys, make sure the game has focus; click somewhere on the game and it should accept input.

Element Strengths

I've decided to greatly simplify the mechanics of my game Elemental Tiles.  Instead of having to figure out a bunch of different interactions that could happen like before, the goal now is to simply make the tiles disappear.  This happens by pushing different elements together that cause some kind of reaction.

There are now eight elements to play with:  Fire, Wood, Earth, Electric, Water, Metal, Air, and Sonic.  Every element is strong against one element and weak against another:  Earth is strong against Electric and weak against Wood, Metal is strong against Air and weak against Water, etc.  Also, each element has an opposite:  Fire's opposite is Water, Metal's opposite is Wood, etc.  You could think about the elements as being positioned on a wheel in the order listed above.  Elements directly across from each other are opposites and each one is stronger than the one directly to its right (or left I suppose, if you're in Australia).

When you push two tiles together, a reaction occurs if one is stronger than the other, or if they are opposites.  A stronger tile causes a weaker tile to disappear, and two opposites cancel each other out, causing them both to disappear.

I'm really liking this idea.  One of my concerns though is that the reactions make sense.  Most of them do; I think the opposites are intuitive enough, and with the order I placed them in I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the strengths already make some sort of sense:  Fire burns Wood, Wood consumes Earth, Earth grounds Electric, etc.  There are only a few reactions that I'm not so sure of:

• Electric and Sonic as opposites - Sonic means sound waves or vibrations.  It sort of seems to make sense that it would be the opposite of Electric, but I'm not sure why.  I suppose at a really deep level you could think of it as the difference between particles and waves (Electric being electrons which are particles, Sonic being vibrations or waves) but maybe that's a bit too complicated to be intuitive?
• Metal beats Air - Why would Metal be stronger than Air?  I can't really think of any good reason, other than it just happens to turn out that way when you arrange the elements on the wheel.
• Air beats Sonic - This kind of makes sense; without air you can't have sound waves.  It's not as obvious as most of the other reactions though.
• Sonic beats Fire - Again, this is just the order it came in, and I'm not totally sure why Sonic should be stronger than Fire.  Unless of course you blasted a fire with sound waves that were strong enough to completely blow it out... which may be pretty cool actually.

I'm hesitant to change any of the elements or their order on the wheel, because that would then disrupt the other elements that already make sense in their current positions.  But maybe there are other elements that could be considered natural opposites to those that already make sense in their current positions.

I welcome any ideas that you think would make sense, as well as general feedback about the game design.  In the meantime, I've made a prototype of the game that is almost finished.  I'll post it here when it's ready to play!

Elemental Tiles: Paper Prototype

I haven't come up with a catchy name yet; for now I'm calling it Elemental Tiles.  It's similar to the game 2048 which you can play here:  http://2048game.com/  2048 is a very simple game in which you slide numbered tiles around on a board and try to put matching numbers together.  The catch is, all the tiles move at once and they move in the direction you press until they run into a wall or another tile.  Also, new tiles are constantly appearing at random.  (Play it for a minute or two; you learn quick what it's all about.)

Elemental Tiles has similar mechanics, except instead of numbers, the tiles show elemental symbols for things like water, earth, fire, plant, lightning, etc. and different tiles react in different ways when they come in contact with each other.  For example, when a fire tile touches a plant tile, the plant tile burns up and becomes another fire tile.  When a water tile touches an earth tile, the water disappears and the earth becomes a plant tile.  Etc.  Part of the game will be learning what different tile combinations do.

Below is a simple animation showing what a round of gameplay might look like, followed by an explanation of each frame:

1. The start of the round.  We have 1 fire, 1 water, 1 plant, and 2 earth tiles.
2. If we're playing on a device with a touch screen, you slide your finger anywhere on the screen in the direction you want the tiles to move.  So sliding our finger up causes all of the tiles to move up until they hit something.
3. The fire moves up to touch the plant and the water moves up to the top boundary.
4. The fire burns the plant tile, which disappears...
5. ...and is replaced by another fire tile (essentially, the fire is spreading).
6. Now we make our second move, and swipe to the right.
7. The tiles move all the way to the right until they can't move further, bunching up against the right boundary.
8. When fire has nothing left to burn, it dies.  Earth doesn't burn, so both fire tiles disappear.  At the same time, the water tile is now touching an earth tile.  Both tiles disappear...
9. ...and the earth tile is replaced by a plant (the water soaked into the earth and caused a plant to grow).

And so on.  In just two moves we went from five tiles to only two (though just like 2048, other tiles could be randomly popping up during each round).  There could be different playing modes with different objectives, the simplest being to play for as long as possible without the board filling up completely.  Other modes may have specific goals, such as removing all of a certain type of tile while keeping others in as few as possible moves.

Elemental Tiles is meant to be an easy game to play and would be a good candidate for mobile devices.  It will have a simple look and feel, with the tiles and game board appearing to be made of stone and stone-like sound effects as tiles slide around and bump into each other, as well as other sound effects that match different element interactions (fire burning, water splashing, etc.).