A game about trying to climb up ladders that you position and grow in real-time, using a single button/touch.
Goal
Get as high into the level as possible ( = score the most points)
Gameplay
- A ladder moves side to side (or, rather, a player holding the ladder probably)
- When you tap the screen, it stops moving and the ladder starts growing.
- Release to fix the ladder at its current size.
Once a ladder is completed,
- Your player does a quick animation to walk over it.
- At the top, the ladder is removed and the player “falls down” as much as needed to reach the platform below.
There are two wrinkles needed to actually make it challenging.
- Ladder/Wood is a resource. Making ladders that are too long means you waste it and might not have enough later. => I can just calculate the minimum/average ladder length needed per level and base it on that.
- Fall damage => if you fall down too far, you die/lose a life.
Implementation Notes
- This is purely a vertical stack. We just need to keep track of the current highest platforms, and when your height changes, generate a few new ones that are reachable above it.
- Until X rows above screen height …
- Scan the area below it.
- If distance is good enough (to previous platform), place a new one.
- Prefer streaks of 2/3/4 of these in a row, as it looks nicer.
- Efficiency => only need to check collision against platforms inside range of player row
Alternative: Endless Runner
You could also make this an endless runner (like Subway Surfers), but now it’s an endless climber over a few lanes of “ladders” (side by side).
Should allow a 1v1 mode (or 1+1 = coop) too. You simply can’t be on the same ladders, and powerups can be shared/applied to the other.