Switching between work, family, and Kabonk! has kept us busy, but we're excited to share some new developments with you and speaking of switches... let's dive into the flip-flops.
Flip, Flop & Pressure
One of the core mechanics in the game involves solving puzzles and finding clever ways to clear levels as quickly as possible. But more on speed later.
The interaction mechanics include switches, buttons, and pressure plates—three different interactables with slightly varied outcomes. Pressure plates are only active when something is on them, while switches can be toggled on and off. Buttons function similarly to switches but are limited to a single interaction. These obstacles provide players to complete levels in different ways.
On the Other Hand...
We've been exploring the idea of making this a one-handed game without a traditional UI. This means you should be able to play from start to exit with one hand, leaving the other free for a snack, drink or a scratch on the head.
The challenge lies in implementing pause, continue, and exit functions. We've got the exit function mostly working, but pause/continue is proving more difficult. Pausing without a UI requires an in-game interaction system that allows movement and animation while the game is paused. However, pausing typically means no tick functions, no physics, and no animation so we need a more custom solution...
Leaderboards
We're still in discussion on how to implement a possible leaderboard and what the score should be. Hitting bricks harder lead to more points? Have special bricks that should be cleared as fast as possible? Or a more straightforward idea of rank it by time to complete levels.
And another idea is to have a leaderboard for each level (and maybe have the results next to it!) or an overal leaderboard.
So much choice.
So, there's still a lot of work to do and time is running out... Until next time!