One thing to note about this kind of endless runner games is the scoring system. Everyone uses the system "get as much points as possible in one run, each run starts from zero". But that forces people to slog through the early parts each time, and also makes them more likely to stop playing after an especially good run. I thought about this for a while, and came up with the idea that a better system would dock points for mistakes. The run would continue, a misclick would just give you a short breather and set you back fifty points or so.
I made some prototypes like that and the effect was striking: you stick with one run for a long time, falling into a kind of meditative state, never wanting to stop. Eventually you find an equilibrium where wins and losses balance out, and keep playing there, at the best of your ability. If I ever release an endless runner again, it will use that system.
It took me a while to understand what was going on with your game. Once I got it it was fun, though!
For anyone else confused: the goal is to keep the light colored "snake" moving through the dark colored "tunnel". When the snake stops moving, it's because it's at a junction in the tunnel. You're goal is to tell the snake which direction to go (either left or right) _from its perspective_.
Wow, that's a great test of spatial reasoning (or something akin to spatial reasoning). You kind of have to rotate the shape in your brain to figure out which direction to turn from the line's perspective. I've driven with people who can't follow GPS directions unless it's in "first person" mode, e.g. if the line is moving "down" but then heads to the "right", you actually need to turn left, but they think you need to turn right or are just confused in general because the orientation is different - and I wonder if they could train their brain to work that way by playing something like this.
I really like your idea for solving the "endless runner problem." I guess the reason we haven't seen mobile games adopt this already is because each restart is an opportunity to show you an ad. :/
Not that I endorse it, but you could do some (or all) of the following to preserve the suggested system while still having everyone's favorite size of transactions:
- Ads after X failures
- Spend Fun Points to avoid ads and prevent misclicks from subtracting your score
- Fun points can be bought
- or obtained by watching an ad
- or obtained very rarely through regular play (e.g. by spending many Fun Coins)
- Spend Fun Coins to customize your ball and background
- Fun coins can be bought
- or obtained by watching an ad
- or obtained infrequently through regular play
- Daily bonuses which scale with number of consecutive days logged in
- Fun Points and/or Coins obtained by referring a friend
Aw nah, I hate it when people bootleg really good MODs and ruin th--
Oh.
Oh ok. This is whatever the opposite of a bootleg is. It's something entirely new.
So I think this might be my new favorite thing, if for no reason than that I honestly cannot think of anything as straightforwardly and equivalently awesome. Perhaps the Bad Apple stop-motion PV (https://youtu.be/240Vq6tIxio) is vaguely in the ballpark.
Cool game! I can definitely see the Super Hexagon inspiration :) Took me a few tries to get the hang of it (you need to reason from the perspective of the line, not the screen).
I thought the same while playing this game. When I reached 200 points I wondered how the play experience would change if by losing I just lost 100 points or so.
One thing to note about this kind of endless runner games is the scoring system. Everyone uses the system "get as much points as possible in one run, each run starts from zero". But that forces people to slog through the early parts each time, and also makes them more likely to stop playing after an especially good run. I thought about this for a while, and came up with the idea that a better system would dock points for mistakes. The run would continue, a misclick would just give you a short breather and set you back fifty points or so.
I made some prototypes like that and the effect was striking: you stick with one run for a long time, falling into a kind of meditative state, never wanting to stop. Eventually you find an equilibrium where wins and losses balance out, and keep playing there, at the best of your ability. If I ever release an endless runner again, it will use that system.