User manual ABOVE BRICKS PONY GAME

A Pixel Pony Game Manual Table of Contents Getting Started Controls Game Menu Basic Gameplay Singleplayer Gameplay Multiplayer Gameplay Power-ups Game Screen Credits Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 5 Page 5 Page 6 Page 8 Page 9 2 Getting Started PC System Requirements: At the moment Bricks from Above has the following requirements to run properly: .NET 2.0 (Please make sure that you have it installed before starting the game. The installer is located in the game folder. You will also be offered to install it during the game's installation process.) a Pixel Shader 2.0 capable graphics card · · Installation Run the BfA_Setup.exe to start the installation process. Follow the instructions. Starting the Game Double click the 'Bricks from Above' short cut from the desktop or click the shortcut in the start menu. Controls Controls Player1 W S A D L-STRG SPACE Additional Controls ESC Exit Game Player2 / Singleplayer UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT Num-0 R-STRG Action Rotate clockwise Move down Move left Move right Activate power-up Drop power-up from array 3 Game Menu Singleplayer To play Bricks from Above singleplayer games, left-click this menu button. Resume Game To resume a running game, click on the Resume Game button. Multiplayer To play multiplayer games, left-click this menu button. Highscore To view the highscore tables, select this button. Help To take a look at the help screen, click on the Help button. Credits Talented people worked to bring you Bricks from Above. Click this button to see who they are. Quit Game Left-clicking this button will close Bricks from Above. 4 Basic Gameplay Bricks are dropping from above and are falling down. You can move and rotate the bricks to get them into a position you like. At the bottom of the screen you arrange these bricks with the goal of forming a solid line entirely across the screen. When such a line is formed, it gets removed. The bricks above are moving down. If the stack of bricks reaches the top of the screen, the game is over. The next brick is displayed in a preview window. Singleplayer Gameplay The singleplayer part offers the basic Tetris core gameplay with the addition of 3 power-ups to help you. (Line Remover, Lucky Bastard and Magnet. For further details read the power-up section further down.) Multiplayer Gameplay In a multiplayer game, you and your opponent are sitting at the same PC and compete in split screen mode. Your goal is to defeat your opponent by removing lines and clever usage of power-ups. The game is lost if the bricks reach the upper screen line. There are two ways to beat your opponent: · Removing Lines: By successfully completing lines they are removed and get shoved into your opponent's field. There they appear under the bottommost line and lift up the already existing ones. Power-ups: There are two types of power-ups: Positive (green) and negative (red) ones. Positive power-ups are used to help yourself whereas the negative ones are used on your opponent to hinder his game. · 5 Power-ups For every 5 bricks placed, a power-up appears. Mightier power-ups are less likely to appear than weaker ones. They enter the playing field as part of a brick. Each one has a characteristic icon on it, to hold them apart. The preview window is showing the next brick as well as an appearing power-up. If the line containing the power-up is removed, the power-up enters the power-up array. There it stays until it is used. The array has 3 slots to store power-ups. Once every slot is taken, no additional power-up can be received, until you use a power-up or drop one from the array. Only the left slot can be activated. When used, the power-up vanishes from the array and the remaining ones are refilling the gap. You can activate power-ups with the 'action' key. (NUM 0 or L-STRG) Only one power-up can be used at a time. After usage a cool down is started. While it is lasting, no new power-up can be activated. You can power-ups drop power-ups from the array by pushing the SPACE bar or R-STRG. Dropping a power-up adds 2 seconds to your current cool down. An on screen message displays the name of the activated power-up. (see pictures 1 and 2) Picture 1: InGame Feedback 'Inverter' Picture 2: InGame Feedback 'Line Remover' 6 List of Power-ups: Line Remover: The last (bottommost) two lines get removed even if they are not fully completed. You still receive the full score of two completed lines. The cool down is 4 seconds. Magnet: Fills in holes in your playing field. Now completed lines are being removed but you do not receive points. The cool down is 8 seconds. Lucky Bastard: Your next appearing brick is an 'I'-brick. The cool down is 8 seconds. Dropper: Your opponent's current shape is snatched away from his control and gets dropped immediately. It drops at the position it was, when the Dropper is activated. The cool down is 10 seconds. Grabber: Steals your opponent's current power-up and places it in your first array slot. The cool down is 8 seconds. Confuser: Your opponent's controls (only movement) are inverted for 7 seconds. The cool down is 7 seconds. Inverter: Your opponent's playing field gets inverted for 7 seconds. The cool down is 7 seconds. Delayer: Activates your opponent's power-up cool down for 10 seconds. The cool down is 5 seconds. Line Adder: Adds one line to your opponent's playing field. The cool down is 2 seconds. 7 Game Screen When you enter a game of Bricks from Above, you see the Game Screen. It contains the following elements: ( 1 ) Playing Field: Most of the screen is dominated by your view of the playing field. ( 2 ) Preview Window: At the top right corner of the screen is the preview window, where the next appearing brick is displayed. ( 3 ) Score and Finished Lines: Beneath the preview window are two smaller windows displaying your score and finished lines. ( 4 ) Avatar Window: The bottom right corner of the screen shows your Avatar. ( 5 ) Power-up Array: In the bottom centre is the power-up array, where your collected power-ups are getting stored. ( 6 ) Ingame Feedback: Displays the the names of activated power-ups and the time a power-up effect lasts. 8 Credits This project was realized in the context of the GD I 06 course. © GAMES ACADEMYTM All rights reserved. http://www.games-academy.de Sylvius Lack (Project Supervision) Bricks from Above is a Pixel Pony Game. Pixel Pony are: Olliver Heins (Project Lead) Andre Beccu (Programming) Matthias Brunner (Lead Game Design) Nils Carstens (Lead Artist, 2D-Artist) Sascha Herfort (3D-Artist) Jens Heinrich (Game Design, Animations) Special thanks to Sebastian Voigt and Studio Funk Berlin. http://www.studiofunk.de Manual written by Matthias Brunner. 9