Closed Alpha for Colour Matching

[brutalexcess]

Colour Matching, a game that is currently in Pre-Alpha progress is underway. For those of you who do not know what Colour Matching is, it is a game made by Colour Enterprises and Versilian Studios - Yes, I have collaborated with Samulis, Troisnyx, Nimble and Skye Wintrest for the music along with my real-life friend Jordan for the graphics and myself as the developer.

What is Colour Matching?
Colour Matching will become an action-strategy game with elements of role-playing put in for good measure, involving the original concept of matching colours and adding new elements to its predecessor (http://colourmatching.codeplex.com/). Its predecessor involves matching colours, in this newer version it will involve a whole lot more, including combination of colours, destroying the timer using activated spells and getting the highest score possible to compete with others on the Newgrounds network.

However, this game is far from finished, and the foundations have only just begun. I have spent the past 2 months designing and planning the game, now I am ready to develop it! It is being designed in Stencyl - as a programmer that comes from a Visual Studio background, it is hard for me to get into Flash; however, with Stencyl that hassle is removed and it offers great design tools and techniques that I can use for making this game.

Colour Matching Progress
Colour Matching is being developed - sorry, designed - in my free-time so I will not be able to dedicate as much time as I would like. Early next month, I will be going on holiday for a week, I will be visiting my dad for a week before I never see him again (he is going to India and may never come back) and then near the end of the month I will be going to London to visit the EuroGamer Expo - then sometime either before October or within I am going back to college to complete my second and last year of Level 5 Business.

September is a rather busy month for me, and when I go back to college, I will not be able to spend as much time on the game as I would like. However, that does not mean I will not be making it.

I will be posting updates here, on Facebook or on Twitter (check my signature for links) on the progress of Colour Matching. Also bare in mind that other people in the team have commitments as well.

Colour Matching Technical Specs
I am unsure of resolution details for Colour Matching; however, I am currently working on 1280x720 for it and I hope Flash doesn't kill itself in that resolution - so far my low-end laptop does quite well with it in its current state, but that may change as I add more actors to the gameplay scene.

Interested?
If you wish to get involved in the Alpha, then please send me a message and get in touch. I will respond only to messages, so please do so. Communicate here if you wish to discuss anything related to the game. I would love to post a link to the current written plan of Colour Matching, unfortunately MEGA (my preferred service) links are never very friendly on this website, and more often than not this website decides to remove half of the link.

From an alternative perspective, you may copy and paste the following link into your web browser to read the document relating to Colour Matching (the planned version). This plan/manual will change from time-to-time as the game is developed:
https://mega.co.nz/#!RRshVRYT!BAxKW0DqWYJcyHT6oonQYDjXQfEmDxaOVOiUzcCxY94

This is an old version of the PDF so Versilian Studio's is not present in the credits, I will be modifying the plan/manual later and maybe even turn it into a full-on guide if necessary.

What is in the plan has already changed - for one thing, Profiles are non-existent in the game, yet non-existent in the plan. Please don't be misled by this information - I will be rewriting the entire Manual for the Web version later, for now I am using it as a reference to make the game.

Closed Alpha entries are limited, I am reserving a few spaces for friends of mine who are willing to test the game start-to-finish, and of course for people who are actively involved in this project. Consequently, the amount of other testers I will accept is up to 30.

Because of how limited this is, please be quick, but also make a convincing message that I am going to accept, because I want active feedback from you during the development phase. Consequently, this game will be 50% community-driven, but the original concepts will not be removed for the purposes of the core mechanics - I will make changes where necessary.

Still Interested? Good
As I said earlier, discuss about the game. Please also try out the open source version over at Codeplex if you are interested, and let me know what you think of that in the threads below. There may be 1 or 2 minor bugs in the open source version, but the code is so terribly bad that I really cannot be bothered to go back to it. The code makes me cringe, really bad coding practices - Colour Matching was the very first program I wrote in Visual Basic!

Here's another link if you missed it: http://colourmatching.codeplex.com/

Thank you for your contributions and commitment in advance. Please remember that this testing is voluntary!

A Pre-Alpha version should be done and ready to test by, at the latest, the end of next week.

[brutalexcess]

I would edit the original topic, but can't. Okay, well, here are the things included in Colour Matching.

Story
In the heart of the storm raging across the earthen planes of planet Zolok, a creature of waste and disaster performed mastery across the planet in an attempt to overturn Mother Nature’s tides, relax the tornados and crush his enemies. For a long time he was desperate for redemption, he waited a long time until he finally got it – the crystal shard from his long rival goddess Seryne. Stealing from her the riches from the corrupted crypts of Maron, the creature unleashed his horrors across the burning chasms from within Volcano Rethlor and made it his home. He waits there with the crystal shard in the hope to empower it with evil, using it as a way to find all other shards and combine to create the Master Crystal, Glacion. Without the other shards, however, he will use the power of the storm to pillage the hungry, uncover the elementals from the Underplanes and unleash havoc across the world. Seryne, in desperate need of Heroes, feels there is not much left to fight for until her final hour ticks – until then, people must fight for their lives.

Items and Attributes
Your character will have items that are worn by default, which can later be replaced by better items such as cosmetics or actual upgrades. Each item offers certain attributes and there are six main attributes that are colour co-ordinated.

Primary colours are assigned to basic attributes which are determined by the game mode you select when you are about to Game.
Red – This is primarily an offensive colour and uses offensive attributes according to the game mode.
Green - This is primarily a healing colour and uses healing attributes according to the game mode.
Blue - This is primarily a defensive colour and uses defensive attributes according to the game mode.

There are also secondary colours which define other attributes which will also depend on the game mode.
Yellow – This is a colour used to be offensive as well as heal. In some game modes, this may be commonly used as a critical chance indicator.
Aqua – This is a colour used to be defensive as well as heal. In some game modes, this may be commonly used as a speed indicator.
Purple – This is a colour used to be defensive and offensive. In some game modes, this may be commonly used as a damage reduction indicator.

Your inventory will contain certain items that you pick up on your adventures, this is also where crafted and bought items appear by default. The types of items you can obtain are:
Armour – Used mostly for cosmetic but can be used to upgrade attributes.
Weapon – Used mostly for cosmetic but can be used to upgrade attributes.
Consumables – Used in-game to temporarily boost you.
Orbs – Raw energy that can be combined to make a shard.
Shards – Energetically fused collections of orbs used to upgrade armour and weapons.
Tokens – Used to unlock tiers and new crafting armour and weapons.
Enchantment Scrolls – Used to permanently increase character attributes and sometimes unlock new character perks.

Character Customisation
You can customise your character to your liking, which also includes being able to swap armour cosmetics with other armour without having to replace upgrades or base stats.

You can also customise the actual character, including changing the gender from male to female and vice versa.

You will be able to change the following character features:
Body Size
Hair
Eyes
Mouth
Upper Body Size
Lower Body Size

Crafting
Crafting items is the only way you can obtain cosmetics or upgrades to existing armour. Crafted armour and weapons cost shards, which are made from combining collections of orbs. Orbs come in different sizes, and each size of orbs corresponds with different types of shards used to craft weapons and armour.

Small Collection of Orbs (6 orbs) – Minor Shards
Regular Collection of Orbs (32 orbs) – Major Shards
Large Collection of Orbs (96 orbs) – Superior Shards
Massive Collection of Orbs (160 orbs) – Elite Shards
Gigantic Collection of Orbs (256 orbs) – Excellent Shards
Enormous Collection of Orbs (960 orbs) – Champion Shards

Along with shards, you will need a paint bucket that will paint armour and weapons in certain colours or themes. Some paint buckets can be acquired from completing objectives, and rare buckets can only be acquired from completing all objectives from a zone.

In crafting are three tabs at the top which are Items, Shards and Paint Buckets.

Skills
As you progress through the Arcade you will gain skill points and rank. Your skill points are like the experience of the ranks. When you reach a new Rank, you can get new skills that improve your abilities, mostly in matching colours. Here is a list of the Ranks you can achieve:

100 points – Apprentice
250 points – Journeyman
450 points – Artisan
700 points – Veteran
1000 points – Grand Veteran
1350 points – Master
1750 points – Grand Master

Since there are 7 ranks, you can have a maximum of 7 out of 15 skills that improve your abilities in matching colours. Once you have a skill, it stays passive and is a permanent bonus – skills can be reset, at a cost, depending on the amount of skills you have.

As well as Skills, here you can upgrade and buy new spell sets. Spell sets are purchased with your coins; others may be purchased with Diamonds. Most spell sets are cosmetic, but others may have some special traits. In each spell set, you have the following:

2 Spells that inflict damage
2 Spells designed for control and immobilisation
1 Spell designed for defence
1 Spell designed for healing
1 Spell designed to deal area of effect for multiple purposes

Spells in gameplay need to be readied before it can be activated.

Upgrading spell sets requires shards which are crafted. Assigning different shards will improve certain abilities within that spell-set. There are 3 Main Upgrade components which are bound to each spell. Upgrading spells with a specific shard will increase the effectiveness of that spell according to the colour you bind it to. A green orb will either increase the effectiveness of a healing spell, or add healing ability to a spell which does not have that effect.

Spell sets can only be upgraded when you level up that spell set - the more you use that spell set in battle, the more you can upgrade it. You will be able to apply cosmetics to spell sets similarly to the way armour can be upgraded.

In-Game Item Shop
This is where you can purchase consumables using coins to improve gameplay. All consumables can be activated from within gameplay.

All consumables either give temporary effects to either you or the enemy to improve your capabilities in combat. You will find more information on these consumables later.

[brutalexcess]

Pre-Game Options
There is currently only one game mode in the Alpha of this video game, which is Classic.

Currently, you are able to modify the difficulty settings of the game mode before going into it, as well as to pick the background and foreground theme of the game mode.

1. There are four pre-set difficulties available: Easy, Moderate, Challenging and Almost Impossible.
2. Timer Movement Speed – This option affects the movement speed of the timer in-game.
3. Timer Starting Interval – This changes the starting time of the game.
4. Sudden Death – This allows the Timer to use Sudden Death, preventing you from matching colours for a certain time period.
5. Sudden Death Timer – The period of which you cannot match colours – default 3 seconds.
6. Sudden Death Penalty – The amount of mistakes you make before the timer uses sudden death.
7. Clever Timer – Checking this will give the timer intelligence. It will know how to fight back and defend itself against player actions.
8. Combo Interval – Changes the number of points you need to fill each combo section.
9. Burst Interval – Changes the number of points you need to fill Burst.
10. Timer spell set – Change the timer spell set to act in different ways.
a. Random – Randomly select a spell set.
b. Aggressive – Uses an aggressive spell set used to punish time as much as possible.
c. Beneficial – Uses spells that temporarily benefits the timer from player actions.
d. Passive – Uses spells that deals no real threat but designed to confuse the player.
e. Defensive – Uses spells that prevents the player from increasing the timer or slowing it down.
f. Colour-oriented (Troll Mode) – Uses spells that temporarily changes the colours of the matchers to annoy the player and cause mistake.
11. Show Timer Casting – The player is able to identify what spell the timer is about to cast 3 seconds before it casts it.
12. Enable power-ups – Checking this will enable in-game power-ups that can be picked up for benefit for the player.
a. On – Power-ups will appear every 10 seconds, and all power-ups are available.
b. Limited – Power-ups will appear every 15 seconds, and only a certain randomised amount of power-ups are available.
c. Off – Turn off all power-ups.

In addition to Difficulty settings are also objective settings, objectives can also be modded in for variety. The current objective settings can be turned on:
Score Reach – Reach a certain score before the timer runs out. – Reward: +10% Exp, +10% Coins, +4% score
Double Trouble – Last double the length of time the timer was set at the beginning of the game. – Reward: +25% Exp, +20% Coins, +9% score
Survive Sudden Death – Don’t ever make the mistake of mismatching colours. Only enabled when Sudden Death is on. – Reward: +50% Exp, +40% Coins, +18% score, 10% chance of Enchantment Scroll
Orb Collection – Collect a certain amount of orbs of each colour before the timer reaches 0. – Reward: +20% Exp, +15% Coins, +7% score
Flawless Victory – Don’t ever let the timer use a single ability during the match. Disabled if Clever Timer is off. – Reward: +50% Exp, +40% Coins, +18% score, 10% chance of Enchantment Scroll
Burst Horror – Unleash Burst three times during a single match without letting the timer defend from it. Reward: +50% Exp, +40% Coins, +18% score, 10% chance of Enchantment Scroll

Objectives may also be theme-specific, giving more variety in objectives. These objectives if all completed will also give the player a Rare Paint Bucket.

Boss Objectives can also be achieved when you have completed a set of objectives in a certain theme, most themes will require that you complete all theme-specific objectives before you can confront the Boss Objectives. Completing Boss Objectives will give twice the amount of additional experience from all standard objectives including Boss objectives. Bosses will also drop Tokens when successfully defeated (by completing all objectives before the timer reaches 0) which will give you the ability to upgrade weapons and armour.

Gameplay
Before the game starts, you will be given the option to confirm your PRESENCE! Actually, you will confirm that you want to start the game, which supposedly means you are present… Anyway, upon confirming a start timer will initialise giving you time to prepare for the start of the game.

During gameplay, you must focus ALL OF YOUR ENERGY on matching colours – actually, don’t do that, it may cause OCD. To match colours, simply click on the Matchers, or use the corresponding keys, with the Colour to Match. Sometimes a secondary colour may appear, like aqua, purple or yellow. You should match these with one of the two primary colours that mix to make that secondary Colour to Match. Successful matches will increase the charge of the corresponding ability bar and also increase the combo bar.

They will also fire orbs at the timer, depending on the column the player character is in at the time. If the Timer is not in the same column when the orb is fired, it will miss the timer you will not gain any orbs.

Unsuccessful matches will reset the combo and nothing will be fired at the timer, however none of your ability bars will be reset. When your ability bar is filled, you can activate the ability – again, if your player character is in the same column as the timer, it will hit the timer with additional power. Abilities consume combo to strengthen the power of the ability. Combo is divided into three chunks, and more chunks will increase the power of the ability, it will also give you more burst. When burst is filled, it can be activated to unleash a powerful blow against the timer. Burst affects 3 columns instead of 1 and deals twice as much affects as all abilities. Combo and ability charge is consumed along with the Burst, and if all abilities are charged with maximum Combo, Burst damage will be at maximum power.

Successful matches will also increase your skill, score and personal experience. You will need to manage moving your player character, matching colours along with abilities, use consumables when needed and know when the timer is going to use abilities. In addition, Timer also has the ability to fire its own abilities to immobilise you and prevent you from attacking. Many other abilities may be designed to decrease the time.

To complete the game, you need to complete all the objectives you set yourself when setting up the game.

When the Timer reaches 0, the time you spent during the game is added as bonus to your score to give you the additional experience you gain. In addition, the following values are conducted to add to your rewards:
Orbs collected (from successful hits in each colour)
Time Activity Penalty – this is the amount of times you were unsuccessful at defending timer abilities, this goes against your final rewards.
Accuracy – the number of times you successfully hit the timer as a percentage relative to the total number of colour matches.
Score – accumulated with successful colour matches, decreased by unsuccessful matches.
Skill Points – the number of skill points you accumulate for successfully matching, avoiding/defending from timer spells, and being accurate.
Experience Gained – Score * Skill Points Accumulated – (Time Activity Penalty * ((100% - Accuracy) + 1) * 100) + Successful Objective Additional Experience
Coins Gained - Score * Skill Points Accumulated – (Time Activity Penalty * ((100% - Accuracy) + 1) * 400) + Successful Objective Additional Coins
All-time Score – Score at end of game + Successful Objective Additional Score

Disclaimer
Any and all parts of this information may change from time-to-time during Alpha and Beta stages. This was also part of the original plan for Colour Matching for its current development phase.