Welcome to the Pitch! The first of a series of articles from the infinite cortex brain trust. This is going to be a weekly exploration of casual game design concentrating on mobile and web apps. I’ll be concentrating on mechanics and flavor at first, trying to pare down scope and eventually be producing small scale games bi-monthly based on the best pitches.
So here’s the Pitch! Cirque Mechanique! A steampunk flavored juggling game. Essentially a combo of Tetris and Breakout, the curved swipe motion takes advantage of the most interesting part of the touch interface, and a randomized element helps let players externalize blame for losses fueling interest in continued play.
First the mechanics. Juggling is the act of catching and throwing multiple objects into the air and not dropping them. It provides a fun reflex based challenge and the first place to create player rewards. Points are awarded for successfully catching an object, so as long as you’re playing you’re scoring points. Too many dropped objects lead to the end of the game. Further rewards are given for hitting specific targets (more on this when we talk flavor), and the challenge scales easily simply by adding more objects to juggle.
The player would tap->swipe, the tap tells the hand where to catch, the swipe swings the hand and releases the object. For practicality’s sake the objects would be confined to the space of the screen, bouncing off the sides if they contact. The juggler’s hands would automatically alternate, so the player can tap anywhere for the catch and not worry about how the catch is going to actually happen.
By varying the puzzle goal, and randomizing to some degree the objects a player is juggling, the player is given a psychological out, if the successes can be traced to their skill, but a certain percentage of the losses be blamed on bad luck, the player has a way to read continuous advancement into the process.
Mmmmm delicious flavor. The Cirque Mechanique! Needs to setup. The riggers are putting up the big top but they need you to toss them their tools. Juggle the tools until a worker calls for something then toss it to them. End game tool to be tossed? Flaming axes! What does a steampunk work crew need a flaming axe to build? I have no idea, but it must be awesome right?
So Ball or Strike? Fair or Foul? Do you wanna be juggling flaming axes on your ipad?