Number Match

Start by just lining up three numbers in a row - then get fancier combos as you upgrade your abilities!

Number Match is an experimental falling block puzzle game that allows the player to spend their points on upgrades in a skill tree as they play. These upgrades will allow the player to combine the number blocks in new ways, helping them keep up as the speed and difficulty increases.

The main design goal was to provide a clear reward loop to an otherwise simple arcade-style formula. The use of numbers allows for multiple types of patterns to be found within the blocks, patterns that are unlocked with the upgrades of the reward loop. In this way, the reward loop directly affects the core gameplay.

This project provided interesting problems for me to solve with both programming and design. All the blocks needed to detect each other at the appropriate times to ensure that the player could match number patterns. At the same time, the difficulty curve needed to be managed meticulously so as to increase at the right rate that upgrades didn't make things trivially easy for too long. This need for further difficulty led to the design of different blocks, such as double blocks and blank blocks, which mix up the gameplay.