This is the devlog for Viper Piper, the illegitimate lovechild of Snake, Pipe Mania and Pac-Man.
After becoming somewhat burnt out working on my previous puzzle game
Deduction, I wanted to take a break and prototype a (hopefully) simpler idea I've had swimming around in my head for years. This is that idea.
The game will play in a similar style to Pipe Mania (or Pipe Dream for our American friends), with the player placing down pipe tiles onto a (mostly) empty board, but rather than guiding water or goo through the pipes you'll be guiding a snake.
As the snake travels through previously untouched pipes, it will eat food pellets, with each one consumed very slightly increasing its speed. At regular intervals, as in the game Snake, a large food pellet will appear in a random position on the board. When this is consumed, the snake will grow by one unit. Points will be accumulated through eating, with your current speed and length factoring into the number of points you gain.
If the snake comes to a dead end, or collides with its own tail, it's game over.
There will also be special food which triggers effects such as freezing the snake in place for a short time, giving you more time to build pipes ahead.
I'm currently making good progress and am trying to get the look and feel of things how I want. I'm aiming for a retro look, but all graphics are created with high-resolution vectors.
I'm hoping to have this in a playable state within a few weeks, and hopefully this will be a fun side project which will encourage me to go back to my previous work on completion.
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