Prototype of URO

General Setup

Game is played by two players and third person plays role of "computer".

Paper pyramid, on the top of which celled game arena is located. Obstacles in form of walls are painted on flat arena and occupying certain amount of cells. Power-ups are distributed randomly in form of buttons. Red buttons - mines, blue - fuel, white - cubify and yellow - invisibility.

On each side of pyramid there are "smooth" stairs by which RO can slide down without any damage. If RO falls from big steep stairs, it is considered as dead and opponent wins the round. Once descended RO can not ascend back on top level

Around pyramid there is a "free zone" without obstacles, but bounded by mountains (aka books)

As it was not very convenient to play with balls black caps are used instead.

Game Rules

Time discretized on steps

• Round lasts 20 steps
• On each step player chooses moving direction (8 moving direction) and acceleration option (accelerate, keep velocity or slow down)
• Each player writes his next action on a card, not showing to opponent
• Cards are revealed simultaneously
• “Computer” calculates current velocity, direction, damage and alien energy.
• According to calculated data, “computer” tells on how much cells players should move.
• At each moment alien may generate energy shield
• Energy shield damages Mayan engine and burns alien energy and lasts 3 steps
• Power-ups (cubify, etc) last 3 steps
• If one player picks cubify power-up his opponent can not change moving direction and may fall from big stairs

Cards

What we have learned from prototype

• If the detailed arena is too small, then Mayan will escape from it very quickly and alien will not be able to find it.

To improve the situation, we did following modifications. All players start with small amount of fuel. But in the detailed arena there are fuel power-ups, in the outside terrain there are no fuel power-ups, that will encourage Maya not leave top level too quickly and gather some fuel. Alien’s radar will have infinite scope with error proportional to the distance, so that alien will have a guess where the Maya is.

• If outside arena is infinite Maya can move on straight line, with maximal allowed acceleration and therefore never will be caught by alien

To restrict it we added bounding mountains (In case of gameplay with limited fuel if RO has enough fuel it can rise on mountain and automatically win the round, but it will be extremely difficult to achieve)

Playtest fun

It was fun, especially rolling down from slides and forcing opponent to fall into steep stairs.

Pics

Pyramid revision

Current State

We plan to finish functional minimal in around 1.5 weeks.