Game Design: Puzzle game

The game designs I've written about before on here haven't been very recent ideas, but here's one that's brand new.  Because I'm really interested in trying this game out, it'll almost certainly be created.  I haven't written any code for it yet, but if I get really into coding it, it might be playable in a few days.  Otherwise, I'd guess it'd take a week or two.

I thought all the strategy and the mind games and the skills required to play Puyo Pop at the highest level looked really cool.  Unfortunately, you need to be at a very skilled at the game before you can even implement those high level strategies effectively.  What if, what if I could make a multiplayer puzzle game in which all those strategies could be used effectively, but which had a simpler matching/chaining scheme?  That thought was the driving force behind a game that I'll call for now (for a lack of a better name): Pipelining.

Initial tile design

The general concept behind the game is that you place pipe blocks so that they connect together, and then you can drop something into a pipe to set off a chain.  At first, I thought it seemed really simple, so to make it harder, I would make it where you couldn't rotate pieces.  But then I thought, well, maybe rotating should be allowed, but the chain can only enter from one side of the pipe block.  Now I'm feeling like both of those ideas would make the game really tough; it'd be interesting for single player or a hard mode, but that wasn't the goal of this game.  The normal mode should probably just allow rotating, and allow entry from any side.

The plan now is that there will be the 5 basic blocks (half line, L, full line, T, and cross), along with a garbage block that only goes away when a neighboring block is destroyed, and a destroyer block, which destroys the block it's dropped on.  The ability to trade with a save piece will also be included.  For starting combos, after every 5 (or maybe more) moves, you'll get a "starter drop."  You can store up to 3 of them, and then use them whenever you want.  When you drop it into a pipe it sets off a chain.

I'm expecting to use some kind of scoring method similar to: 25*(1+.5*H+.1*(M-1))*M*C, where C is the chain number (the number of steps in the chain so far: multiple blocks being destroyed at once only counts as 1 step), M is the match size (the number of pieces being destroyed at the current step), and H is the number of half line blocks being destroyed (the one in the bottom right corner of the example).  [I might increase the 25 or the .1, or both.]  The amount of garbage sent will be 1 block per 100 points.

While I can't know for sure yet, this game looks like it will satisfy the goal (of creating a puzzle game where those Puyo Pop strategies can be used) really well.  It might not be simpler in the chaining aspect though, but I'm fine with that.

What Puyo Pop strategies do I mean?  Well, first, here's an example of some of the best players playing:

Before I explain anything, I have to mention that I'm not a high level Puyo Pop player.  As such, everything I'm saying could be wrong.

The game is focused around building a main chain, but if you send off your really big main chain, it takes too long and your opponent can make a bigger chain and beat you.  So then to attack you send quick smaller matches, and if your opponent can't defend it, they get covered and you send more pieces to make them fill up before they can uncover a bigger chain.  If they defend it by sending a big match or something that messes up their main chain, then you send your main chain to beat them.  Which brings up the topic of defense.  You have to be aware of your opponent's screen all the time, knowing what options they have so you can be ready to defend and counter their attacks, or so you know when to send your own attack because they can't defend against it.  And you also have to know when your opponent's in a position where they can't make a bigger chain than yours, so you can win by sending your biggest chain.  To do all that takes strategies of piece placement and setups, such as building two separate chains that can be connected to form one big chain if needed, or setting up pieces in such a way that you can take a full load of garbage blocks and still counter attack, things like that.

I'll do my best to make those kinds of strategies apply to this game as well.  It looks like it'll work out nicely, but even if it doesn't use those strategies, I'm still interested in seeing how this game will turn out.