Locktown

The puzzles are randomly generated by a simulation. But that’s not a requirement; they can easily be hand-crafted.

I created a working prototype when the Corona virus was running rampant (guess where the idea came from). See the screenshots below.

As I explained at other puzzle game ideas of mine, the idea worked well, but I stopped developing mobile games (and that’s where such a puzzle game usually belongs/makes money) and as such abandoned the idea.

Objective

You win when nobody is infected (after the last turn).

Later, secondary objectives will appear. Although it’s better if these goals automatically emerge through gameplay.

Examples:

You must have enough money
Not too many people must be unhappy.
Not too many people must have died.

Input Method

Send people from location A to location B. (Click on A, click on B.)

By default, you’ll send all people. Many locations, however, forbid certain people from entering or will split the party.

Levels

A randomly generated city/town/terrain. This is a (fake) hexagonal map.

Dots on the map represent locations.

Locations can have a special building type, a general property (such as a number that can be used by the building), and any number of people.

Between locations are lines that represent connections.

Most connections follow the hexagonal grid, but sometimes they do a special connection (and can overlap).
You can only send people from location A to B, if they have a connection and there are people to send.
Some connections are special. (They can be railroads, or one-way connections, etc.)

People have the following properties:

Base type (normal, tourist, etc.)
Infected (yes/no)
Infection time (the exact turn when your infection started, so you can auto-heal or auto-die)
General property (depends on the base type, if used at all)

Connection

This is an overview of all connection types. These are saved by number. (0 = regular.)

Railroad => a traveler will use the first (available) railroad at the end of each turn
Highway => a bus driver needs to be present for a group to cross the highway

Buildings

This is an overview of all the special buildings, ordered by String id. Some notes:

The first few buildings are mostly meant to reduce possibilities.
By default, buildings have a max capacity of 4 people
By default, you move everyone from a field

An alphabetical list:

a. Nothing. b. Hospital = only sick can enter, cures them instantly - ?? (reverse hospital) = only healthy can enter, infects them instantly c. ?? (unlocker) = removes lock when someone enters from empty state (following quarantine rules), becomes locked if left empty - ?? (locker) = removes lock when left empty, becomes locked if entered from empty state - “from empty state” = necessary? Or not? Even properly implemented??? d. ?? (bubble) = don’t enter if there are other people - ?? (crowdy) = don’t enter if there are no other people e. ?? = splits the group; healthy people go, infected people stay - ?? = splits reverse; infected people go, healthy people stay f. Supermarket = hungry people must visit to become “normal” - ?? = when normal people visit, they become “hungry” g. Test location = tests people, already tested people can not visit - Airport/Immigration = Untests people, untested people can not visit h. Airport = only tested and healthy people enter (splitter) - Only untested and unhealthy people enter??? i. (New) Hospital = when vulnerable people are on it, their infection countdown “stops” - ?? j. Percentage Splitter = only the first A% ( A = param) of people will move to it - It just reverses the percentage on the building

Problem 1 = there’s only one way to cure infected people. In all other cases, they just spread and spread. That’s why something like a timer or immunization (after a while) would be super useful early on.

Problem 2 = after using a hospital, people are just … sitting there doing nothing.

Solution = locations can, by default, only hold X people maximum
Solution 2 = people are automatically ejected from the hospital. (But how to do that in a systematic way?)

Quarantine = whenever there are at least X infected people in a location, it goes into quarantine.

Alternatively, if more than half of the board is infected, everything goes into quarantine? (Or you just lose instantly?)
Alternatively, there are “government people”, which will start quarantine when they visit a spot.

Supermarket = all hungry people must visit the supermarket

Or simply … “all” people must visit the supermarket? Is that too hard to keep track of and solve??

Tourist = wants to end the game on a tourist destination

Alternatively, it automatically disappears when it visits. And then you can’t win if any tourist is still on the board. (This is way cheaper to calculate and check!)

Special location ideas:

Bank/Open Stores: this is where money comes from?
School: young children must be sent there, otherwise they become unhappy or something
Research Center: send infected people here to find a vaccine
Hospital: send people here to cure them or just help them. (Later on, you might need to discover a vaccine first?)
Dock: at the end of every turn, a new person arrives there (immigration/emigration)
Airport: people can travel from there to any other airport on the map (but … ?)
Train Station:

People

This is an overview of all the people in the game. Some notes:

Being infected, or not, is a separate property (that anyone can have)
Some people have a specific function and look distinct, such as money.

An alphabetical list:

a. Regular b. Hungry c. Doctor = heals one person (at the end of each turn) on its location d. Elderly = immediately dies when infected e. Vulnerable = dies after X turns, unless saved by a hospital f. Traveler = if they can, they take the first available railroad at their location at the end of each turn g. Bus Driver = needed to cross highways, can not drive if sick h. Someone that takes up no space, or someone that increases the max space of a place, or someone that decreases the max space of a space i. Someone that can “flip” locations to their twin! j. Tourist k. Young l. Elderly m. Unfit n. Unhappy o. “The Toucher” = whenever they move across a connection, they actually infect the connection, causing everyone who moves across it to become sick p. “The Distancer” = whenever infected, they get a timer and will automatically heal when it’s up. (NOTE: In simulation, I should just save when the timer started, and then check if it’s up yet. Much more efficient than updating all counters, every move.) q. Money r Builder s. Government t. Researcher

Miscellaneous Ideas

Core Game Loop

Keep people moving (and not dying)
… but keep infected people away from the rest
… and cure them quickly if necessary
… to keep spread of the virus contained

Main Mechanics

Idea #1: Literally everything is represented by people.

Regular people: normal, sick ( = red?), cured/immune, unhappy, unfit, elderly, child
Sending money = a yellow shiny person travels with you
Building new locations = a builder person travels with you
Initiating quarantine = send a government person to a cell

Idea #2: many locations determine how people are moved.

XX: send 1 person to each connection, clockwise, until exhausted. (In that case, people should be ordered on their destination, so you know what will happen.)
XX: whenever a person is at this location, or a person is young, they will move at the end of their turn. (Whether you like it or not. Perhaps there’s a special cell to contain those people.)

Idea #3: Different virus properties! At the top of the screen, you can see different properties and special abilities of the virus. (Only introduced much later in the game, of course.)

Also, virus mutations, though that might be hard to implement well.

What’s important? For the simulation to work effectively, many options should be shut down from the start. Ideas for that:

Quarantine mode: nobody can go in or out that place
Locked fields: these are inaccessible (and start empty, maybe not?) until you unlock them
Empty fields: these do nothing special, until you send people or build something here

Simulation? It mostly works the same as “Square Ogre”.

I create a random set of points, with random connections, and random starting people.
Then it tries all moves, time after time, until it hits all the objectives. (Set a minimum and maximum number of moves.)
Whenever we do a new move, we copy the board and clone any cells/connections/people that were modified. (Otherwise, we keep reference to original, to save a lot of memory space.)
For the vaccine, however, it just decides on a random moment to use it? (It counts how many “research” points you have and sets that as the apparent “threshold” for a vaccine.)

Notes & Naming

Land of Lockdown? The Quarantine Quest? (Or something else with the word “quarantine”)

A scaled-down, simpler, cartoony, mobile game version of Epic Medics.

(Should find a better name. Virus will only return antivirus apps. Pandemic is overused. Plague is a well-known established game. And LockTown is already an escape room …)

A puzzle game about healing one town after another. Every turn, you click two locations, and it sends all people from location A to location B. Sick people will infect even more; healers will heal people at the new location. The puzzles are randomly generated by a simulation. But that's not a requirement; they can easily be hand-crafted. I created a working prototype when the Corona virus was running rampant (guess where the idea came from). See the screenshots below. _As I explained at other puzzle game ideas of mine, the idea worked well, but I stopped developing mobile games (and that's where such a puzzle game usually belongs/makes money) and as such abandoned the idea._ ![](first-locktown-puzzle.png) ![](locktown-bigger-field-lower-max.png) ![](locktown-new-design.png) ![](locktown-new-special-connections.png) ![](locktown-simulation-checks.png) ## Objective You **win when nobody is infected** (after the last turn). Later, secondary objectives will appear. Although it's *better* if these goals automatically emerge through gameplay. Examples: - You must have enough money - Not too many people must be unhappy. - Not too many people must have died. ## Input Method Send *people* from location A to location B. (Click on A, click on B.) By default, you'll send *all people*. Many locations, however, forbid certain people from entering or will split the party. ## Levels A randomly generated city/town/terrain. This is a (fake) hexagonal map. Dots on the map represent **locations**. - Locations can have a special building type, a general property (such as a number that can be used by the building), and any number of people. Between locations are lines that represent **connections**. - Most connections follow the hexagonal grid, but sometimes they do a special connection (and can overlap). - You can only send people from location A to B, if they have a connection and there are people to send. - Some connections are special. (They can be railroads, or one-way connections, etc.) **People** have the following properties: - Base type (normal, tourist, etc.) - Infected (yes/no) - Infection time (the exact turn when your infection started, so you can auto-heal or auto-die) - General property (depends on the base type, if used at all) ## Connection This is an overview of all connection types. These are saved by *number*. (0 = regular.) 1. Railroad => a traveler will use the first (available) railroad at the end of each turn 2. Highway => a bus driver needs to be present for a group to cross the highway ## Buildings This is an overview of all the special buildings, ordered by String id. Some notes: - The first few buildings are mostly meant to *reduce* possibilities. - By default, buildings have a max capacity of 4 people - By default, you move *everyone* from a field An alphabetical list: a. Nothing. b. Hospital = only sick can enter, cures them instantly - ?? (reverse hospital) = only healthy can enter, infects them instantly c. ?? (unlocker) = removes lock when someone enters from empty state (following quarantine rules), becomes locked if left empty - ?? (locker) = removes lock when left empty, becomes locked if entered from empty state - "from empty state" = necessary? Or not? Even properly implemented??? d. ?? (bubble) = don't enter if there are *other people* - ?? (crowdy) = don't enter if there are *no other people* e. ?? = *splits* the group; healthy people go, infected people stay - ?? = *splits* reverse; infected people go, healthy people stay f. Supermarket = hungry people must visit to become "normal" - ?? = when normal people visit, they become "hungry" g. Test location = tests people, already tested people can *not* visit - Airport/Immigration = Untests people, untested people can *not* visit h. Airport = only tested and healthy people enter (splitter) - Only untested and unhealthy people enter??? i. (New) Hospital = when vulnerable people are on it, their infection countdown "stops" - ?? j. Percentage Splitter = only the first A% ( A = param) of people will move to it - It just reverses the percentage on the building **Problem 1 =** there's only *one way* to cure infected people. In all other cases, they just spread and spread. That's why something like a *timer* or *immunization* (after a while) would be super useful early on. **Problem 2 =** after using a hospital, people are just ... sitting there doing nothing. > Solution = locations can, by default, only hold X people maximum > > Solution 2 = people are automatically ejected from the hospital. (But how to do that in a systematic way?) **Quarantine** = whenever there are at least X infected people in a location, it goes into quarantine. > Alternatively, if more than half of the board is infected, *everything* goes into quarantine? (Or you just lose instantly?) > > Alternatively, there are "government people", which will start quarantine when they visit a spot. **Supermarket =** all hungry people must visit the supermarket > Or simply ... "all" people must visit the supermarket? Is that too hard to keep track of and solve?? **Tourist** = wants to end the game on a tourist destination > Alternatively, it automatically disappears when it visits. And then you can't win if any tourist is still on the board. (This is way *cheaper* to calculate and check!) **Special location ideas:** - Bank/Open Stores: this is where money comes from? - School: young children must be sent there, otherwise they become unhappy or something - Research Center: send *infected* people here to find a vaccine - Hospital: send people here to cure them or just help them. (Later on, you might need to discover a vaccine first?) - Dock: at the end of every turn, a new person arrives there (immigration/emigration) - Airport: people can travel from there to any other airport on the map (but ... ?) - Train Station: ## People This is an overview of all the people in the game. Some notes: - Being infected, or not, is a *separate* property (that anyone can have) - Some people have a specific *function* and look distinct, such as *money*. An alphabetical list: a. Regular b. Hungry c. Doctor = heals one person (at the end of each turn) on its location d. Elderly = immediately dies when infected e. Vulnerable = dies after X turns, unless saved by a hospital f. Traveler = if they can, they take the first available railroad at their location at the *end* of each turn g. Bus Driver = needed to cross highways, can *not* drive if sick h. Someone that takes up *no space*, or someone that increases the *max space* of a place, or someone that decreases the *max space* of a space i. Someone that can "flip" locations to their twin! j. Tourist k. Young l. Elderly m. Unfit n. Unhappy o. "The Toucher" = whenever they move across a connection, they actually *infect* the connection, causing *everyone* who moves across it to become sick p. "The Distancer" = whenever infected, they get a *timer* and will automatically heal when it's up. (NOTE: In simulation, I should just save *when* the timer started, and then check if it's up yet. Much more efficient than updating all counters, every move.) q. *Money* r *Builder* s. *Government* t. *Researcher* ## Miscellaneous Ideas ### Core Game Loop - Keep people moving (and not dying) - ... but keep infected people away from the rest - ... and cure them quickly if necessary - ... to keep spread of the virus contained ### Main Mechanics **Idea #1:** Literally everything is represented by people. - Regular people: normal, sick ( = red?), cured/immune, unhappy, unfit, elderly, child - Sending money = a yellow shiny person travels with you - Building new locations = a builder person travels with you - Initiating quarantine = send a government person to a cell **Idea #2:** many locations determine *how* people are moved. - XX: send 1 person to each connection, clockwise, until exhausted. (In that case, people should be *ordered* on their destination, so you know what will happen.) - XX: whenever a person is at this location, or a person is *young*, they *will* move at the end of their turn. (Whether you like it or not. Perhaps there's a special cell to contain *those* people.) **Idea #3:** Different virus properties! At the top of the screen, you can see different properties and special abilities of the virus. (Only introduced much later in the game, of course.) > Also, virus mutations, though that might be hard to implement well. **What's important?** For the *simulation* to work effectively, many options should be shut down from the start. Ideas for that: - Quarantine mode: nobody can go in or out that place - Locked fields: these are inaccessible (and start empty, maybe not?) until you *unlock* them - Empty fields: these do nothing special, until you send people or build something here **Simulation?** It mostly works the same as "Square Ogre". - I create a random set of points, with random connections, and random starting people. - Then it tries all moves, time after time, until it hits all the objectives. (Set a minimum and maximum number of moves.) - Whenever we do a new move, we copy the board and clone any cells/connections/people that were modified. (Otherwise, we keep reference to original, to save a *lot* of memory space.) - For the *vaccine*, however, it just decides on a random moment to use it? (It counts how many "research" points you have and sets that as the apparent "threshold" for a vaccine.) ## Notes & Naming Land of Lockdown? The Quarantine Quest? (Or something else with the word "quarantine") A scaled-down, simpler, cartoony, mobile game version of Epic Medics. (Should find a better name. *Virus* will only return antivirus apps. *Pandemic* is overused. *Plague* is a well-known established game. And *LockTown* is already an escape room ...)