A Minning/crystal gathering mini game

BigDave

Hi again its me, BigDave.

For the Orcs game another Mini-game is needed.

Context:
In the Crystal Mines you could gather a couple of crystals through quests.
But players will need more to forge their weapon upgrades.

There are 3 types of Crystals (colours):

-Purple (common)
-Blue (rare)
-Yellow (epic)

Setting:
Down in the Crystal Mines. This is the start screen where the current amount of each crystal is shown.

Purpose:
+Gather the crystals

Design outlines of the Mini-game:
+It gets harder/difficult the longer you play in one shot
+Get more and more valuable crystals as the difficulty rises
+Losing/failing does reset the flow level, resets difficulty and reward rate

Question:
How would you imagine such a mini game?
Any references that come to your mind?

Toque

1PAC man concept but instead of power ups they are crystals.

2Mario bothers bonus coin scene.

3Crystals appear at random on bottom of screen. Just move left right to collect. Avoiding rocks falling from the mine roof above. Falling rocks more frequent as time passes.

4Jumping over rolling barrels. Donkey kong ish.

BigDave

@Toque thanks buddy

Toque

5) tossing (flick) gems into a mining box or mining cart. If they get in they keep.

7)dropping rocks. Bad guys are carrying gems away. Drop a rock on their head and steal the gems.

8) matching. Match two game. Flip cards. If you get two same crystal colour cha Ching.

hybrid

i image like a grid of rocks, and you have to tap them (like mining), one have crystals and other nothing. Maybe have a specific number of tries, or keep playing until you tap an empty rock.

PhilipCC

@Toque Wow, you just gave away 8 game ideas!

@BigDave
You invite a young lady down into the cave to show her your crystals (heh, heh, heh >:) )but an ogre snatches her away and makes off into a maze of caves filled with creatures and demons you must fight or avoid. You use the unique powers of each coloured crystal to thwart them, but if you run out before you rescue her, you must backtrack through the gauntlet to retrieve more crystals. The ogre keeps on the move, so each attempt requires a different route.

Do you find her?

Then settle down and live happily ever after... hell, I don't know it's your story?

But, I can't wait to find out.

BigDave

@Toque
epic! I actually like the memory(flip two) idea but it conflicts with the scaling up.
mine cart catching crystals could work.

@hybrid
Yeah true that would make sense, also would work with Toque's memory suggestion

@PhilipCC
far out dude!

BigDave

Or can a skill based time pressured memory game work ? I also just have 3 different colors and the should also be of different rarity, appear more or less often.
hmmmm!

Feels like the limited amount of colors breaks the idea.
But maybe not you would have a high success rate but get mostly purple crystals.
And the others are trickier to find the specific counter part.

ok a grid of 14 spots would be the minimum to define the rarity difference I want between each color.

Contains
4 * 2 = Purple = Common
2 * 2= Blue = Rare
1 * 2=Yellow = Epic

BigDave

So now the game should become more and more rewarding as longer you play it and you have the risk of losing the bonus by doing a mistake. I also think about letting them re-pay for the mini game if they lose the streak. As the mini game has an initial cost right now, an investment in the outcome.

BigDave

The component luck is big tough.
And I can not break the "flow bonus" on the first wrong couple as it is a part of these type of games to first create a mental model of shooting in the dark

BigDave

Showing them the whole board before would be too easy as there are only these 3 colors.

BigDave

Maybe some kind of mini game energy/currency like "Initial Picks"
So you get like 4 initial picks on each board reset.

Possible outcomes:

+Got 2 couples right and reduced the board from 14 picks to 10 picks.
+Got none couple right but knows 4 crystal locations and colors.
+Got 1 couple right and knows 2 crystal locations and colors.

Purpose:
Giving them more control over the outcome.

But the worst case is actually that they have 2 couples directly because than they and up on the shoot in the dark again.

BigDave

either I have to accept they are dependent on luck.
Or change the mini game idea

BigDave

play tested it with paper clips it makes fun, i do this