Adding a Personal Bests Tab : Flip Tile Runner

posted in AntHillPlan
Published November 20, 2021
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The Dev version Flip Tile Runner for testing on Itch.io as Flip Tile:Runner

I added a tab to show the best scores for each theme and avatar. The Polyhedra theme shown in the play area is what I will be basing the redesign on.

New PB tab

Design

First, some more details on my redesigning goals.

I am redesigning Flip Tiles around a single theme instead of the current 7 themes. Also, I am targeting it as a paid app instead of free to play with in app purchases. I may keep the option to watch ads to get extra gems in the mobile version but will try to keep them unobtrusive and not watching the ads will give the same gameplay and advancement speed as the desktop version. I have lowered the number of gems needed to get a new character as part of this change. I plan to increase the number of levels and avatars also. Currently, there are 7 levels and 60 avatars. This design came from what low poly avatar assets were available in different themes. The single theme will have avatars based around polyhedral avatars, which are within my modelling capabilities so I can make as many as I need. The design of the paths affects level difficulty so I will have multiple path designs. Straight paths ( mall theme)are much easier and faster to follow visually than curved paths (peasant theme ). Flat paths (peasant theme) are easier to follow than arched paths ( chess theme). Finally, sparse paths (chess) are easier to follow than dense paths (dwarf theme). Currently, only tiles with paths that cross have arches but I can also add arches on non-cross tiles for added difficulty. The direction the whole board shifts affects difficulty also, with vertical shifts being easier since it means the leading edge where new tiles appear and the trailing edge where players die are farther apart. Another option is to have the direction change throughout the level.

Path comparison - mall, peasant, chess, dwarf

There is little to no new coding to make new levels now but new assets and level tuning will be needed. So there is still a lot of work for each new level. So I plan to have about 10 levels for the initial release. If the game is mildly successful I can add more levels later. For now, I think I will drop down 3~5 levels and work the difficulty curve.

PB TAB

As part of my level tuning, I realized it is difficult for players to see their progress in the game. So I have added a Personal Bests tab. This also helps to track which levels are difficult for me as a player which is important for tuning. This is just a tree UI using vertical layouts. I still need to track and add real time to finish 100 rows. I would also like to be able to click on an avatar in the PB Tab and have it make that the leader of the party over in the party panel.

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