Power Pairs

Power Pairs is the classic game of Memory with an RPG twist. Match cards to win points. Spend points on powerful attacks that lay waste to your foes.

Made in LÖVE 2D.

How to Play

Controls

This game is controlled exclusively with the mouse. The keyboard is not used at any point in the game, although you may quit the game any time by pressing the Escape key.

Objective

Prince Perry, the young prince of Produce Isle (your player character) is going up against versus Lord Edsel Von Brussel's fierce army of Sproutlets. The goal of the game is to reduce every enemy's health points (HP) to 0. If Perry's HP reaches 0, the game is over.

On the title screen, you have the option of engaging in one of three battles, each one more difficult than the last; Battle #1 has one Sproutlet to fight, Battle #2 has two, and Battle #3 has three.

Battle

The battlers are thrown into an arena: enemies on the right, Prince Perry on the left. Battlers will take turns choosing actions and attacking each other. The player always goes first. Before Perry can attack, he will need to acquire Action Points (AP). You need AP to execute actions, such as attacking an enemy. How do you get AP? By playing the Match Game.

The Match Game consists of a board with a bunch cards on it laid face-down in a grid. This is how it works:

• When battle begins, the cards turn face-up for a few seconds- giving the player a chance to memorize their locations.
• The player flips over two cards.
  • If the cards match, they grant the user 1 AP and they get to flip two more cards.
    • AP Cards can have one of the following icons: a circle, a triangle, a square, or a pentagon.
    • If they don't match, the Match Game disappears and the Action Menu appears. The player can spend any AP they've won up to that point.
• If the player did not acquire ANY AP at all during the Match Game, their turn will end and control will go to the enemy.
• If all of the cards are cleared, the Match Game will refill the board with new cards and show their locations for a few seconds.

Action Menu

This is where the user can select an action and the "targets" (i.e., enemies) they want it to affect. Some attacks can hit only one enemy, and others can damage every enemy onscreen. Most attacks and items cost AP to use, so it behooves the player to match as many AP Cards as possible.

AP resets to 0 when the player's turn ends for any reason.

Behind the Scenes

The next few sections dive into the various design aspects, programming decisions, struggles, and lessons I learned while implementing this game.

Game Design Decisions

Power Pairs is a variation of the standard turn-based RPG. This project draws inspiration from the Paper Mario series of games. 

The portly parchment-paved plumber's influence can be seen in the following ways:

• All statistics are intentionally scaled lower; health is in the tens instead of the hundereds and attack/defense points rarely exceed the single digits. This makes the game easier to balance.
• The damage formula is very simple: damage = (attacker's attack points - target's defense points).
• There is no "speed" stat; the player's character always moves first and the enemies second.
• Characters have a base attack stat. Each of their attacks adds some amount to that stat.

Other Bits of Trivia

Power Pairs started development as a Paper Mario fangame, with jumping, hammer attacks, Fire Flowers, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and the like. As I continued to iterate upon the concept and get more of my ideas into writing, I opted to use an original cast of characters instead.

Had I continued using an existing intellectual property, people would've been too busy warning me about Nintendo's lawyers instead of learning more about the actual game. Creating a game based on an existing franchise (especially one that you've been a fan of since childhood) is a fun way to practice programming, but it just isn't as fun as making an original world full of brand-new characters that you can truly call your own. This doubly rings true for ideas that you believe are daring, innovative... or just plain weird and unorthodox like this one.

When thinking of a title for this game, my mind went to "Match Battlers," then "Pexeso Power" (Pexeso being another name for Memory), and finally "Power Pairs." I looked at the word "pair" and realized that it was a homophone for "pear," which got me thinking about fruit. Then I came up with a bushel of pun-filled names themed around produce foods. I came up with the Prince Perry character and the rest was history. These puns were too good to pass up.

Next Steps for Development

There are lots of things in Power Pairs that I would've loved to implement but did not get a chance to. Real life and deadlines always tend to get in everybody's way.

I enjoyed working on this project and I feel like I can make something truly special if I put more work into it. Development of Power Pairs will most definitely continue sometime in the future. Here is what I plan to add later:

• New types of cards to add to the Match Game: HP Cards that restore health, Attack/Defense Cards that boost the player's Attack/Defense points, Joker cards that trigger crazy effects in battle, and a few others.
• More types of monsters, including boss monsters with higher HP and stronger attack power.
• A hint system in which the player presses a button to turn all of the cards face-up for a few seconds.
• Monsters also having the ability to flip cards on the board, controlled by AI.
• Additional party members with their own stats and moves that assist Prince Perry in battle.
• Action Commands (more influence from Paper Mario); when the player presses a button at the right moment during an attack, they'll inflict a bit more damage.
• Graphics beyond just rectangles and squares.

This game was made using LOVE 2D, but I've been thinking of moving development to Godot.

Credits

• Assets
  • Fonts
    • LanaPixel font created by eishiya (https://opengameart.org/content/lanapixel-localization-friendly-pixel-font)
    • Roboto Black font acquired from Google Fonts (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto)
  • Music Sources
    • International Superstar Soccer; developed/published by Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka (Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1995)
    • Kirby's Dream Course; developed by HAL Laboratory, published by Nintendo (Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1994)
  • Graphics made by myself
  • Sounds generated by bfxr
• Libraries Used
  • hump
  • knife
  • SUIT
  • Nata
  • push

Game by Mr. Scallion.