Hi all, so I sometimes scratch my head to make a match 3 game because that's something which can be done in realistic time. I know good graphics are a must have for such a game but beside that, what would you like to see in a match 3 like game? The reference might be Candy Crush Saga, where I'm amazed that such a (basically) simple game works so well and is fun indeed! And further more, I know this market is highly saturated and I don't expect stellar results but what do you like about match 3 games and what not? Do you prefer the swap mechanism (like in Candy Crush) or do you prefer the collapse style like in Diamond Dash? One idea about this would be this: I would like to do more chain reactions. In the classic match-3-scheme you just combine 3 and they collapse, you combine 4 and you get some "special" jewel, combine 5 and you get something more special and so on. An idea would be to differ from that. So 3 jewels together won't collapse immediately. If you add a fourth one it starts to "react" a bit (shown as pulsating), if you add a fifth and more it starts to become instable. So it's more a matter of time. The more jewels of the same kind are together the more unstable this block becomes till it collapses by itself. You can always collapse a block by tipping on it (like in Diamond Dash or Collapse). So the goal would be to combine as much of the same jewels as possible until they collapse due to their mass. It's more like a nuclear reaction where you just add and add till you get the critical mass. Don't know if that is clear? I mean that way you have some "time pressure" to build up large blocks. Look, 3 jewels together would be stable, 4 would take for instance 8 seconds to collapse, 5 jewels 6 seconds, 6 jewels 4 seconds and so on. The larger you get it the more points you get!... Or for a collapse kind of game, how about using the sensors of the mobile device as another input? I mean consider a collapse type game where you collapse blocks of equal colors on a quadratic field. Now you can rotate your device (from portrait to landscape) and all blocks just react to this new gravity location and fall down to the new "bottom" which was the side before. How would you like that? Could it be fun to include device rotation as another "input"? Thanks and cheers!
I like the idea of rotating your device to alter the gravity. There have been a couple of PC match 3's that allowed the player to rotate the board by pressing a button to alter the way the gems fall but I don't know of any IPad games that use the device itself. It could be universally fun if it's not a overused mechanic, if device flipping is something that's done every five seconds then it would be best suited as an iPhone only game , used sparingly it could work great on both tablets and phones. It's a good idea though and if you implement it well along with the build/collapse mechanic it could be a really neat take on the match 3 genre. Another idea could be switch up gem matching mechanics at random intervals during the same level if you like both the collapse and swap mechanisms, my favorite m3 method is twisting a section of gems made popular by bejeweled twist and to a lesser extent Gyromancer although some despise that mechanic. A very player friendly option would be to allow the player to turn on/off different gem matching methods in the options menu if their not fond of a particular way of doing things if you decide to go that way. However you design the game, best of luck in making your match-3 game. ##
