Some of you have had your hands on ROLLAB in person, but I wanted to get a few screenshots up for everyone else to see. (At some point I'll post a series of progress screens so you can watch the evolution from our very first working prototype to the finished product.) Even though the game's not nearly complete yet, the transformation from where we started is really dramatic.
On the left is the unfinished initial splash screen. That screen will definitely be revised before launch (and knowing me, it'll be several revisions). On the right is an actual gameboard. It's not a working level - more of a test platform. Functionally, though, it's probably 80% complete.
So here's what you're looking at:
Along the top of the gameboard, there are binary and numeric counters for time and moves. Since ROLLAB is a puzzle game, players will work to solve each platform either as fast as they can or in as few moves as possible - or both. Some stages will have a set time limit and some will have a set number of moves in which to solve the level, but most will be open-ended with no time or moves limit. The game saves your best time and fewest moves for each level, and once you've completed a stage, you can come back at any time to try to beat your best score.
To the right of the counters is your health meter. Ahh ... the health meter - virtually ubiquitous in every game that isn't Tetris. For our purposes, the meter will let you know how healthy your ROL material is. As you ... wait. What is ROL? Oh yeah, I might have forgotten to mention that.
ROL is an acronym for Recombinant Organic Liquid (a stretch, I know). The premise of the game is that this genetically-engineered liquid is actually made up of living organisms that respond to different stimuli. We give you a sample droplet of ROL for each level, and you use its unique properties to solve the puzzles.
As such, you'll be able to heat the ball up, freeze it, make it nearly solid, and "teach" it do a few other cool tricks. But those tricks come at a price: every time you heat the ball or freeze it, you'll kill some of the ROL organisms. You're hurting the living cells in your ROL. And thus the health meter.
You'll only be able to alter the state of your ball so many times in the course of any stage before the ball dies - so you have to be smart about it and take care of your ROL.
The test platform itself is pretty straightforward. There's a green entry port where your ROL sample enters the level. There's a red exit port, which is your goal. The yellow injector port is where you'll be able to change your ROL's status by heating it or freezing it, etc.
And then ... there are the tiles.
Right now, all the tiles are blank, but soon they'll be much more interesting. The tiles are really the heart of ROLLAB's puzzle mechanic - sliding and arranging them in order to navigate your ROL to the exit port. But some tiles will be immovable. Some will be electrified. Some will be breakable. It's up to you to make the best use of the ROL's abilities and your own quick wits to navigate each test platform successfully.
We've got lots of little extras in the works to keep the game interesting and fun, too. You'll uncover power-ups, unlock new status abilities for your ROL, find ways to wind the clock backwards in time, and other nifty play mechanics.
As you progress, you'll be "teaching" the ROL material new genetic tricks. The further you get, the more resilient the ROL becomes, and the better it will perform for you. How you play determines the course you take through the game.
I know it still doesn't look like much, but it's already so much more than I imagined the game would be. By the time its ready for release, ROLLAB is going to be something Adam and I can be really proud of. Man, it's already something I'm really proud of.
The next post will be a little more development-oriented, as I want to get into some of the technical challenges we've faced so far. But hopefully you've gotten a good little taste of this dream project of mine.
Any thoughts?
