Lights On!

Story

After a bizarre series of solar flares the power randomly goes out in homes and businesses across the world. The player takes on the role of an electrician tasked to fix people’s power problems. However the strange event that disabled the power in the first place seems to still have left some lingering influence, making this task quite a challenge.

Overview

The game takes advantage of the Ultrabook’s locational sensors to calculate the player’s position and provide a list of real life locations that are nearby. (3g/4g is preferred since the game requires an internet connection, but the game will feature an alternative map based “travel” mechanism for those who are tied to Wi-Fi locations) Each location will generate a random puzzle that remains static for that location and any other players who might come along. Players advance through the game by traveling around, setting up shops, and solving puzzles. As certain benchmarks are met, special “simulated” locations become available that the player can visit to play through specifically designed levels, advance the story, and unlock new advanced types of gameplay. Even after the game’s story is completed the player can continue to play random levels to improve their score, as well as gain access to a “level editor” that allows them to design their own puzzles and post them to special locations for other players to discover and experience. Regular gameplay extensions and updates are planned down the road.

Basic Gameplay

The objective of “Lights on” is to restore power by turning on all the lights within a 5x5 grid presented as a building. Each puzzle begins with some lights already on and some lights already off. The player interacts with the game by touching a darkened window to turn that light back on. However, turning the light on in one window will switch the state of the windows above, below, left, and right. The challenge is to get all the windows on at the same time.

Advanced Gameplay Types

Once more gameplay modes become unlocked the player will be able to choose which type of puzzle to beat at each location. Some of the alternative puzzle modes include diagonal affecting windows, semi powered states that require an extra “flip” action to turn on all the way, grid layout modifications, are more.

Metagame

Each location will receive an evenly distributing difficulty rating that will affect how hard the puzzle will be that is generated at that location. The first time the player beats a location under a specific gameplay type he/she will receive a reward in game money based on the difficulty, and a single point to their overall score. The play can use money to purchase and place “repair shops” on the map that the player will then be able to instantly travel to and play from as if they were actually there. Vehicles will also be purchasable which will increase the range of places the player can “see” from their location. A “global power situation” gauge will also run to track the player’s story progress. As the player clears locations the global progress bar will fill-up. Once it is full a special “story” location will become available to test the player’s skill in the current gameplay type, uncover more of the story, and then introduce tutorial levels for the newly unlocked gameplay type.

Social

Global and regional high score lists will allow players to compare their accomplishments against others. Players will also leave a “tag” at each location they beat that other players may encounter if they visit the same places. Players will also be able to bookmark and share a fixed number of favorite locations that can be shared with friends who also play the game.

Wi-Fi

If the player can only play from a Wi-Fi or a land connection, an alternative game mode is available which will allow the player to select a destination, wait a period of time based on distance, and then play at locations near that destination. It would essentially play as if they had a “repair shop” at that location, except travel is very slow to encourage players with alternative internet options to take advantage of them and actually explore their town.  Another method will be to place one of a limited number and time sensitive marker tags while the player is at actually at that location but offline. The player will be able to then travel to and play from that location once they connect to the internet again until the tag expires.

Platform / Category

This game is a Windows 8 desktop application for now and is entered in the "games" category. Although, I will eventually want to make a Win RT port since the game is also well suited for pure tablets and mobile phones.

*More technical details to follow soon. I just barely got started on this project but I should have some sample artwork, playable gameplay engine, and some fun code snippets to share in the next few days.