You’re in for a surprise. I have original video game ideas too. And this year, I’ll be sharing twelve of them, six smaller ones, and six larger ones. I’ll be starting out with the one I actually tried working on the Unity engine.
Light Panel Shutdown is a mobile puzzle game where you control a cyber ship to turn off light panels. This game is inspired by the Club Penguin mini-game Thin Ice, but with a Tron-esque theme instead of the Arctic theme or winter theme.
Story:
Although a puzzle game doesn’t need a story, I did think of this as a possible story:
A greedy phishing scammer has stolen millions of dollars from many people and is hoarding the money from society. And some hacker began to hack into the scammer’s computers to steal all of the money he owned and give it back to the people who rightfully own the money. But the scammer has a tough security system, which is represented by the light panels. If the hacker can shut off all of the light panels as he goes to his destination, it would open the floodgates.
Gameplay:
The game is quite simple. Every level is a puzzle with blue light panels and walls. You control the cyber ship, which represents the hacker. You start at the entry gate, and your goal of each level is to get to the destination gate.
General:
To move the cyber ship, you must tap the arrow buttons. The ship will move the direction the arrow button is pointing. It moves one space at a time. However, the ship can only cross active light panels. It can’t pass through walls or go over open gaps. Once it passes a light panel, the panel will shut down, thus open a gap. And here’s an important part: If there are no nearby light panels, and you’re not anywhere close to the destination gate, the ship will have nowhere to go, thus shutting down and resulting in you failing the level.
Once the ship reaches the destination gate, you will have completed the level. Getting to the destination gate may be the goal, but there are two other goals you have to focus on:
- Light panels may be the only way to reach the destination gate, but you want to shut down all of the light panels. If you shut down every light panel in the level, you will have solved the whole level.
- Each time you shut down a light panel, you will earn points. The sooner you get off the light panel, the more points you will earn. Each level also has a target score. It’s possible to beat the target score without shutting down all of the light panels, but not if you complete the level while clearing out as few tiles as possible. It’s also possible to miss the target score and shut down every panel.
When you complete a level, you will earn stars. Each level has three stars. One of them can be earned for completing the level. One of them can be earned for solving the level. And the other can be earned for beating the target score. The more stars you earn, the more level packs you can unlock.
Not like the source of inspiration for this game, there are limited lives, with five lives at the start. If you have to reset a level, or if you fail the level, you will lose a life. Lose all of your lives, and you will be locked out of the game. That is, until enough time has passed to replenish your lives.
You can also use hints, which can provide the solution to the level. They will help you solve the level, but using hints will shut off the scoring, thus making all tiles worth no points no matter how much time you stay on a panel. Also, you only have a limited number of hints, and this is something you cannot watch ads to replenish (that’s because I hate ads). However, you do get one free hint daily.
Gameplay Items:
Throughout your journey, as you move the cyber ship, you will witness many strange items or tiles. Here are what you can find in the game:
- Blue Light Panels – these are the standard light panels. If you pass them once, they will shut down. Each blue panel counts as one light panel.
- Cyan Light Panels – these are double light panels. If you pass them once, they’ll turn into blue panels, which in return will shut down after passing twice. Each cyan panel counts as two light panels.
- Holographic Gates – these animated holograms occupying spaces restrict the cyber ship from passing to certain areas. To shut them down, you’ll have to collect green stars.
- Green Stars – these spinning stars are the keys to the holographic gates. If you collect them, they can shut down the holographic gates. There’s one star per gate, and one gate per star.
- Yellow Stars – these glowing stars are bonus stars. They only appear within the first couple of seconds when you start a level, but then disappear when time runs out. If you get them before it’s too late, you will earn additional points.
- Purple Stars – these growing/shrinking stars are teleporting stars. There are two per level. If you land on one, you will teleport to the other space with a purple star, as both stars disappear afterwards.
- Dark Spaces – holes in the grid that the ship cannot pass.
- Light Blocks – blocks that the cyber ship can push. If a light block lands in a dark space, it will turn into a wall tile.
Levels/Level Packs:
I haven’t decided how many level packs there will be, but there are 30 levels per level pack. The theme/motif of the level pack can influence what kind of levels there will be, such as:
- Basic – only blue light panels exist in the levels. The focus of the level is the shape of the map.
- Basic Bridge – same as basic, but with the inclusion of cyan light panels.
- Green Screen – mazes that are completely made of cyan light panels. You’ll have to pass every light panel twice to shut them down.
- Security Breach – all levels have a holographic gate or two.
- Digital Galaxy – all levels have teleporting stars.
- Pusher – all levels have a light block and a dark space.
Some level packs require paying to unlock. The ones that are free are the ones with the star lock, where you have to collect a certain number of stars to unlock a level, which can be awarded if you complete more goals for each level.
Helping Me:
Although I can make this entire game by myself, I would be open to having better graphics than my Microsoft PowerPoint generated graphics. If you are interested into helping me on this project by giving me better graphics, I would appreciate that.
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