Limitless Beads | RLIZA’s blog

type

status

date

slug

summary

Design Background and Rules

The theme for this CIGA Game Jam is "Infinity". I wish to explore the concept of infinity to its fullest extent, much like the cascading combos in a match-3 game. I aim to capture the distinction between the infinite and the finite, as well as the reasons for this divergence. I am reminded of "Splash Back," a Flash game from over a decade ago, where the gameplay involved clicking on water in a grid, causing it to splash to adjacent squares and triggering a chain reaction. This unique and exhilarating gameplay captures the essence of infinite transmission. The water droplets can propagate infinitely until they encounter a boundary, at which point their journey is abruptly halted. This perfectly illustrates the transition from the infinite to the finite. So the rule of my game is the same as Splash Back, players must click on the grid cells to increase their water levels until they reach a threshold, after which water droplets are emitted in four directions. When these droplets encounter other cells containing water, they increase the amount of water within those cells, but they do not affect empty cells. The game's objective is to deplete all cells of their water before the water supply runs out; failure to do so results in a loss.

I was the main game designer, programmer, and artist, and I completed most of the game and collaborated with a good friend who had been a designer in a game company. I think the game is relatively experimental and interesting, and it has allowed me to experience the joy of emergent design and has the potential for further development.

Design Approach and Content

Control Method

The control method is very easy, players just need to click the cell to increase the amount of water and find a good position to turn a void cell into one containing water to make it easier to transmit the droplets.

All Types of Cell

(For all types of cells below, when they reach the threshold of water levels, the amount of water that can be used will be increased by one)

Normal Cell

All the normal Cells have 2 states: the void and the one containing water. When the normal cell absorbs water and reaches the threshold(4 units), it will emit droplets in four directions (up, down, left, and right) and turn into a void state.

Random Emitting Water Cell

Having finished the basic prototype, I started to think about how to utilize the depletion of water to embody the finite concept. What if we introduce some chances or randomness? When a cell filled with water emits one droplet in each direction respectively, there is no reduction or loss of the total amount of water, however, it will be different if a cell can emit water droplets with a certain probability, or for more turns. With this thought, I designed and achieved a kind of cell that emits water droplets in different directions with a certain probability and possibly multiple rounds.

After that, I found this kind of cell a bit boring. Although this type of cell could affect the total amount of water, it didn’t combine chances/randomness with skills, which means there are no other elements reflect the random outcomes of this cell, or rather, there aren't enough cells to help players make decisions: should they click on this random cell immediately, or save it for later? Players cannot weigh the pros and cons of their actions. Therefore, we need to introduce a variety of cells to assist players in assessing the situation around the random cell.

Water Bomb Cell

Considering that regular water cells can only splash droplets in four directions without affecting surrounding cells, I decided to design a water bomb cell with a higher threshold (nine units) compared to regular water cells, capable of increasing the water level by one unit in the adjacent eight cells upon explosion. This type of cell allows players to influence the surrounding cells and creates a one-time explosive beyond the ordinary cells (ranging from 0 to 9, transforming into a regular cell after the explosion), providing players with more strategic options.

Dry Cell

Having designed the water bomb cell, I needed another type of cell to block the spread of water droplets and increase the depletion of water. Thus, I created a dry cell that reduces its aridity when water droplets come into contact with it, starting at 3 and decreasing step by step. When the aridity reaches zero, the cell returns to a void state. Furthermore, considering that water bombs can also increase the water level of other cells, I decided to allow water bombs to reduce the aridity of these dry cells as well.

After completing all these cells, the issue of mismatched randomness and skill has been partially addressed, but another problem remains: there is a lack of a method for quantitatively analyzing the loss of water volume. After much contemplation, I realized this is because we only accounted for the increase in water volume when it reached the threshold within the cells, without considering the number of droplets that reached the boundaries. In other words, we need to incorporate this into a holistic system—a simple scoring system.

Scoring System

This scoring system converts all droplets that reach the boundary into points, which are then added to the final water volume which can be used. This allows us to analyze the overall changes in water volume within the level.

The former number is the score of droplets, and the latter is the score of the final water volume.

Existing Problems and Feedback

Still, the mismatch of randomness and skills is not completely resolved. Some levels are sort of boring and repetitive, and level elements seem insufficient.

We should consider whether to design towards enhancing the sense of satisfaction, making the game goal to achieve the highest possible score, or to strengthen the strategic aspect, turning it into a puzzle game. These two distinct design directions will lead to different level designs and core enjoyment, thus it is a relatively significant question.

Possible Iteration Directions

Continue to develop various cell types to increase the clickable options for players and make the random cells more strategic. Additionally, the placement of cells and level design requires further optimization to encourage players to make each move more cautiously.

Taking cues from Peglin, a pinball-style turn-based battle roguelike game, we could evolve our game into a turn-based combat game where the goal is to direct as many water droplets to the edges in the fewest turns possible. These droplets, when multiplied by a factor, could then be converted into damage against enemies to defeat them. By incorporating a tower-climbing system and enhancement mechanics similar to Slay the Spire, we could refine the in-game loop and introduce an out-of-game economic system. This direction for iteration seems quite intriguing, though it would necessitate a substantial investment of time for development and validation.

Summary

In this development cycle, I experienced the joy of emergent design and the significance of development direction through the interplay of various level elements and attempted to quantify the impact of specific variables on the whole system. Although this is a relatively early prototype, I believe the game has potential for further iteration, and with a clear development direction, we can further refine the level design and enhance the core gameplay experience.

💡

Welcome to leave a comment to exchange thoughts together!