POLYGON is a fast-paced evasion game.

The goal is very straightforward: You play as a rounded square and avoid being hit by any other shape. Try to survive as long as you can! In-game options allow you to customize the player and background colors, the control style, and which screen you play on. Before the game starts, you can set which enemies spawn and how fast, as well as toggle the MetaCube - a red, green, and blue cube which acts as a power-up.

Enemy types

POLYGON currently features six different enemy types, each which behave in a different way.

• Reflector: The first enemy you'll usually encounter, this is a red circle which moves quick and bounces off walls.
• Pointer: A green triangle which tracks your position and slowly progresses toward you. Its weakness is that if many of these exist, they may gather in one spot trying to catch up.
• Roamer: A yellow, round rectangle which moves slower than a Reflector but faster than a Pointer. It chooses a random position to move to every time it reaches its previous destination.
• Translucent: A light-blue parallelogram which moves in the same way a Reflector does, but occasionally becomes nearly invisible.
• Hopper: An orange hexagon which places a target to indicate where it will next move. After three seconds, it "jumps" to that target but does not pose a threat while above the player.
• Scaler: A purple octagon that moves the same way a Roamer does, but changes in size every time it moves.

MetaCube Power-ups

The MetaCube gives the player a random power-up out of seven based off of the enemies in POLYGON. All power-ups last sixteen seconds except for MATCH, which has an instant effect. Some power-ups will be disabled depending on Custom Spawn settings.

• PUSH: Reflectors and Translucents that get too close will bounce off of the player, as long as you don't move too fast toward them. Disabled if Reflectors and Translucents are disabled.
• FLIP: Pointers will move AWAY from you instead of toward you. Disabled if Pointers are toggled off.
• MATCH: Not exactly based off of the Roamer, but this changes all enemies on-screen to a random enabled type. Disabled if only one enemy type is enabled.
• VANISH: The player becomes nothing but an outline. This gives you a 75% chance to not get a game over when hit by an enemy, and Pointers will not track you down while this power is in effect.
• JUMP: A trail animation follows the player, and the player can instantly travel to any point on the screen by tapping there. While using circle pad controls, the touch screen still must be used.
• MINI: Every enemy on the screen shrinks to half their normal size. Scalers will be unable to change their size while this is in effect.

Instructions:

By default, the touch screen is used to control everything (except for the PRESS ANY BUTTON screen on startup). Tap PLAY to go to the pre-game options screen, or OPTIONS to change your colors and controls. The red X in the top left corner ends the program.

GAME OPTIONS screen

The SPAWN RATE option determines how many seconds it takes before another enemy spawns in the game. Tap and drag the arrow above the bar to set it to anything from 20 seconds (green) to 5 seconds (red). The CUSTOM SPAWN option enables or disables specific enemies, so you can decide which ones you want to see. Tap the blue button to open the menu up. A darkened enemy is disabled; enemies are toggled by simply tapping them. Press the blue arrow in the top-left corner to exit the menu. Lastly, the METACUBE option toggles the power-up. Tap the ON/OFF button to toggle it. Once you have customized the game to your heart's content, just click PLAY to begin the game!

Game Controls

Gameplay controls are straightforward - slide your stylus or tap where you want to go. Be warned, though: simply tapping anywhere has a delay when moving, so if an enemy is in your path it's game over! While playing, the screen that you are NOT playing on displays your score, as well as your spawn rate, enabled enemies, and the MetaCube if it is on. In the GAME OVER screen, the lower screen will display your score and game settings. The button with the blue arrows lets you play again, the gear takes you to the game options, and the yellow list goes to the main menu.

OPTIONS screen

Next to PLAYER COLOR and BACKGR COLOR, there are two color bars. The top one for both options is the hue, while the one underneath that is the brightness of the color. BACKGR is the background color option for when you get to playing the game. Note that the brightness bar shows the actual color that will be used. PLAYER COLOR also sets the color for the cursor. The button next to CONTROL TYPE is a toggle - the style is shown on the button. SCREEN is also a toggle button. The darkened screen shown on the button is the screen that the game will take place on. SAVE will save the current options so that they will already be set next time you play, even if you quit the game and come back later. It saves the game options like spawn rate as well. Lastly, the crossed-out gear will reset all options to their defaults.

Circle Pad Controls

The circle pad will move the cursor and the player. Press A to interact with buttons, and hold A while using the circle pad to move the cursor to change a slider's position.

Notes:

Version History

1.1.0 (Planned, "Musical Update")

• To be developed after BitByte MML
• Add music and visuals to the music
• Add two new enemies, the Charger and Pinwheel
• Add two new power-ups, SHIELD and WIND
• Add more sound effects

1.0.2 (Bug Fixes)

• Fixed some minor graphical glitches such as score interface being drawn on the gameplay screen

1.0.1 (Minor Additions)

• Added control type and gameplay screen options
• Added file "OPTIONS.DAT" which automatically loads and sets values for available options. Also made it possible to revert to defaults
• Added enemy indicator which points to newly spawned enemies while off the screen
• Changed MetaCube power-up system to give more relevant power-ups
• Added additional effects to VANISH power-up
• Slowed down most enemies to balance difficulty
• Fixed a few bugs and made it impossible to play with all enemies disabled

1.0.0 (Initial Release)

• Basic game introduced, with the six original enemies and power-ups.