Plan for Michael "Evic" Wales

A diversion from my original plan and heading in the right direction now...

After a lot of thinking I realized I have been wasting a lot of time. I've been sitting around designing my game, working on art, developing the website for it, all without thinking of one simple fact: Torque2D can't support it right now, and neither can I.

I've been spending a lot of time on stuff that should be done after the game has at least been prototyped out first. I guess I could sit around and work on all of the art, and have the website ready, so when Torque2D does finalize it's network support and what-not I could just start making the game. But wait, I haven't had much practice with this new engine (aside from a few small things) and I would not only be learning a new engine but developing a product I intend to earn money from (albeit in a round-about way, but still).

So, I have decided to turn around, run back to the fork in the road, and take the rougher path as it will get smoother at the end. I've thought of a simple puzzle game that I feel is original (at least I think it is) and should be able to teach me quite a bit about the engine.

So, here go a few quick images and explanations from my upcoming game "Hue Hitch."

The object of Hue Hitch is to connect like colored tiles on the game board, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. At the end of a chain you will clear these tiles from the board, all tiles will compact in, and you continue until all colors are gone or you can no longer make a move. Levels will be set in place by increasing the size of the game board by 1 row/column of tiles both vertically and horizontally (Level 1: 2x2; Level 2: 3x3; Level 3: 4x4; etc). The longer your chain of tiles is the more points you will get upon clearing it (2 tiles: 10; 3 tiles: 25; 4 tiles: 50; doubling each time from there). The potential for special tiles (bombs to clear areas of blocks, lasers to clear columns/rows, etc) are abundant, but will be implemented after the first prototype is set in and I let you guys test it out. A simple left-click to select/deselect blocks within a chain, and right-click to clear the currently selected chain is more than sufficient.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? My intentions are to release it as a free game for Torque2D owners as have a lot of other T2D owners with their learning projects (and as is appropriate).

So, without further delay (I tried to say a-dew, but couldn't spell it), here are my concept images:

A New Game Board - Level 2


The Player Has Selected a Chain of Tiles


The Tiles Have Been Cleared, and Compressed to Bottom Left