QBX

François PESSAUX (AKA Didou)

Rules

Introduction

QBX is a thinking game in which the aim is to make lines in a 3D cube 5x5x5-sized.

Shapes will be submitted one by one. Each shape comes from above and can only be translated forward/backward and left/right.

The cube, can only be rotated around its 3 axis.

The shape does not fall automatically. Hence, you have time to place it. Then you chose when you want it to fall. Then, it will go down in one shot.

You have to move the shape and rotate the cube in order to make the shape going inside the cube to make lines. Any line made of 5 little cubes will then disappear.

Game types

QBX proposes 4 game durations. They can be selected from the welcome screen.

• "Endless" : unlimited duration. You go on playing until you can't place anymore the submitted shape.
  Note: the game does not determine for you whether it is possible to place the shape. If you feel convinced that it is not possible to go on playing, you are in charge of invoking the pause menu in order to abandon (START button).
• "5 minutes" : the game ends after 5 minutes.
• "10 minutes" : ... after ??? 10 minutes ! Yep !
• "15 minutes" : I'll let you guess.

Moreover, the welcome screen allows consulting the 5 best scores performed in each category ("SCORES" button) and configuring the game (button shaped like tools).

Controls

To move the shapes and rotate the cube, keypads are used (up/down/right/left) and (A/X/Y/B). This choice can be configured.

The bottom screen also proposes 5 big buttons (to be able to lay our big thumbs, full of chocolate) allowing to :

1. Drop the shape (like the SELECT button),
2. Zoom in,
3. Reset the zoom,
4. Zoom out,
5. Drop the shape (this, way, left-handed and right-handed won't have to complain).

Note: on my mind, I strongly advise to activate these buttons without the stylus, thumbs are really convenient and prevent from picking, laying down, picking, laying down ... the stylus ! 

The START button allows invoking the pause menu.

Scoring

Each dropped shape weights 10 * the number of cubes it is compound of.

In addition, when line(s) is (are) created:

• 1 line scores 200,
• 2 lines score 200 * 3,
• 3 lines score 200 * 6,
• 4 lines score 200 * 10,
• ...,
• n lines score 200 * n * (n + 1) / 2 (that is, 200 * the sum of the n first integers).

The pause menu

This screen can be reached during the game and shows 3 buttons:

• "Continue" : Resume the game. As long as the pause menu is displayed, time is stopped.

• "Hibernate" : Save the full state of the game in order to continue it later. Once hibernation is performed, you can turn you Gameboy off.
  When you will turn it on, the game will be automatically reloaded and hibernated data destroyed. This hence means that you can't use this feature to cheat, reloading several times the same game at the same state. However, feel free to play a game, hibernating, then turning the Gameboy on several times.

• "Abandon" : Give-up the current game. You will have to chose yourself this button in "Endless" mode when you get convinced that you can't play anymore.

By default, the B button allows resuming the game (like "Continue").

End of game

Once the game is over, the bottom screen remains visible to let you watching your score until you press the B button or the screen.

If you got a highscore, you are prompted to enter your name. The input system is based on graffiti, instead of a virtual keyboard. The bottom screen reminds the shape's path of each letter. The red spot indicates the starting point of the drawing. You may handwrite you name up to 10 characters, starting your drawing in the black board zone (however, it can ends anywhere on the screen area). Once your name entered, click the bottom right button to end (or press the B button).

Finally, the highscores table of the game type you played gets displayed. If you got a highscore, then a little smiley will applause just in front of the line showing your score. If not, then ... nobody will applause :). You can navigate between the scores tables of the various game modes pressing the 2 upper arrow-shaped orange buttons or the R and L buttons.

The configuration menu

This menu allows choosing what buttons-crosses to bind to the cube's rotations and to the shapes' translations.

You can also erase all the recorded scores by using the button shaped like a "bomb". Confirmation will be asked before the effective deletion of all the highscores.

Once you have performed you choices, you can go back to the welcome screen by using the button shaped like a "door" or by pressing the B button.

History

• 08 July 2006 First release.
  No sound yet.
• 12 July 2006 Second release.
  Update for compatibility with M3 who had screens flipped.
  Changed some ugly textures.
  A few animations added.
• 15 July 2006 Third release.
  Changed again some ugly textures.
  Add randomizer init at startup.
  Changes in the scoring system.
  Changed fonts digits.
  Added a few animation for hibernation screen.
  SELECT button bound to "drop shape".
  Added a smiley showing score rank (in case of highscore ;)).
  Sounds ... (may be not final).
• 04 August 2006 Fourth version
  New sounds.
  Names in scores with the handwriting recognition system (partially, currently only letters from 'a' to 'g').
  Various bug fixes.
  Documentation.
• 11 August 2006 Version 1.0
  New additional sounds.
  Bug fix in the highscores saves.
  Handwritting recognition for all the letters.
  Player's name in highscores.
  Input "black board" now has the graffiti for the 'w' letter (that was previously missing).

How to reach me

For any information, suggestions, flames I can be reached by email at :

francois_pessauxHATyahoo.fr

address in which, of course, you will straight replace HAT by the character @ (it's just to prevent automated mail addresses scanners from registering me one more time, I still receive enough spam !)

You can also consult my WEB page at: http://francois.pessaux.neuf.fr/ (my main page).

Thanks

QBX is a freely distributable game. Its sources are (will be, once the Neo Summer 2006 Contest is over) also available. However, this game would not exist without:

• the free software community (Emacs, GIMP, GCC, Linux, Cygwin),
• Darkfader' great work to allow us coding on NDS,
• the NDSlib's creators (Michael Noland (Joat), Jason Rogers (Dovoto), Dave Murphy (WinterMute)) and other contributors,
• the various tutorials and info available on the sites PlayerAdvance, GbaDev, Nehe and a lot of other ones...
• the DevkitPro,
• Steven Glanville for his Anim8or 3D modeler (http://www.anim8or.com),
• Sylvain Rochette for his Wav2Raw sound-to-C-code-converter
• Ethos for his pcx2tex image to binary texture converter.

For sure, I forget tons of other people, but I appologize...