First in... Line? Manual

May 15th, 2024   •   first in... line?

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Synopsis

“It’s opening night, and our lead star dropped out! Can you memorize these lines REALLY quickly?”

This play is running super behind schedule, and to make it even worse, the lead had to bail! You’re the back-up actor, so you’ve gotta step in and perform in his place. Problem is, You Forgot Something… YOUR LINES!! No time to rehearse, just memorize them as well as you can and get out there! The show must go on!

In this endless game featuring multiple modes, pass and “play” between 2 people, and on-line leaderboards, take to the stage and try not to anger the crowd too much as you fill in for the lead role, only finding out the lines as you go! Compete for a high score, and break a leg while you shoot for the prestige spot in back-up actor stardom!

Gameplay Basics

Controls

The d-pad and A and B buttons are required to play this game. These buttons are used to navigate menus, and are mandatory in main gameplay.

During gameplay, there are additional control methods you can enable, to be used randomly:

• Crank — These inputs include cranking clockwise, cranking counter-clockwise, docking the crank, and undocking the crank. (This option is enabled by default.)
• Shake — This input requires shaking the Playdate, and utilizes the console’s accelerometer. (This option is disabled by default.)
• Mic — This input requires yelling into the microphone, the ••• port located at the bottom of the Playdate. (This option is disabled by default.)

You can toggle any of these input methods via the in-game Settings menu.

Gameplay

When you start a new play, you’ll be presented with a page of lines — a sequence of buttons. Memorize ‘em, and memorize ‘em good! When you think you have your lines down, press the A button to go on stage.

As the act starts, you’ll walk on-stage from frame left. When the spotlight turns on over your head, that’s your cue to speak your line! Repeat the sequence of buttons you just memorized, and try not to make any mistakes.

If you complete the sequence of lines without losing, take a bow — you just delivered a great performance! But there’s not much time to celebrate, because you’ve gotta get ready for the next act! You’ll be presented with a new set of lines, and you’ll keep performing until you lose.

Modes

Arcade Mode

Arcade Mode is the basic gameplay mode in First in… Line?.

In this mode, you have a maximum of three Misses per act before you lose. A Miss is added to your total whenever you make an incorrect input. If you make it through successfully, your Miss total is reset for the next act.

One-Shot Mode

💡 This Mode is only unlocked after playing Arcade Mode five times in total.

One-Shot Mode plays similarly to Arcade Mode, with a couple key differences. Hints are not allowed in this mode, and — crucially — you’re only permitted one miss before losing in this mode. This is the ultimate test of your back-up acting skills! See how far you can go without making a single mistake.

Timed Mode

💡 This Mode is only unlocked after playing Arcade Mode ten times in total.

Timed Mode essentially plays just like Arcade Mode, but with one huge difference: you’re on the clock! There’s a constantly running timer, and you’ve gotta try and get as far as you can before it hits 0. When it does (or if you flub the normal way), you’ll get caned off the stage and it’s game over.

For every round you successfully complete, you’ll earn some additional time on the timer to keep you afloat. See how far you can go in this time-based sprint!

Multi Mode

Multi Mode is a variant of Arcade Mode, adjusted to best optimize pass and “play” local multiplayer with 2 people.

Multi Mode plays similarly to Arcade Mode. However, two players take turns completing acts, back and forth. Each player will get an attempt at the same line before the play progresses. The player who doesn’t get caned off-stage is the winner!

⚠️ Scores are not saved or submitted to any on-line leaderboards in Multi Mode.

Difficulties

Easy

Easy is the default difficulty, and is unlocked from the start.

In Easy difficulty…

• You have as much time as you want to review your line before heading on-stage.
• Lines are preserved between acts — one new input is added onto the end in each new act.
• When you reach a line length of 24, the show will keep going. You’ll be presented with a new line of 4 inputs in the next act, and the play will continue from there.
• If you wait around for too long†, you’ll receive a hint from the director, standing off frame-right. There’s an unlimited number of hints you can use. (Hints are not enabled in One-Shot Mode.)
• In Timed Mode, you start with 60 seconds on the clock. Every successful act gives you an additional 20 seconds.

💡 †You’ll only receive a hint if you’ve just completed a successful input.

Hard

💡 This difficulty is only unlocked after reaching a score of 21 or greater in Arcade Mode.

If you manage to complete an entire page of lines without flubbing it majorly, you’ve proven that you’re the ultimate back-up actor! It’s time for an extreme challenge. Relative to Easy, Hard difficulty features a lot of changes to punch up the challenge.

In Hard difficulty…

• You only have a limited amount of time to review your lines. This timer starts at 10 seconds, but increases by +10 seconds for every 10 points on your score, up to a maximum of 30 seconds. (You won’t see this when playing in Timed Mode, though — the whole game’s timed then!)
• On top of the line’s length increasing by one input, the entire line is randomized and re-generated in each act.
• When you reach a line length of 24, the show will keep going. You’ll be presented with an entirely randomized page of 24 inputs for every act afterwards.
• If you wait around for too long, you’ll get heckled from a particularly rude member of the audience. This counts as a Miss on your score.† (Heckles are not enabled in One-Shot Mode.)
• In Timed Mode, you start with 45 seconds on the clock. Every successful act gives you an additional 15 seconds.

💡 †You’ll only receive a heckle if you’ve just completed a successful input. You also won’t be heckled if you’re only one Miss away from losing.

On-line Capability

About on-line play

This game connects to Playdate’s on-line leaderboard API, to enable sending and receiving of high scores among players across the globe. To use on-line functionality in this game, make sure your Playdate has an active Wireless connection.

Submitting your scores

To submit a new score to the global leaderboard, simply complete a game. When you reach the ‘Game Over’ screen, your score will be submitted to the proper leaderboard automatically.

⚠️ Scores are not saved or submitted to on-line leaderboards in Multi Mode.

Viewing global scores

You can view global scores using two primary methods:

1. Visit the First in… Line? game page in your Web browser, at play.date/games/first-in-line. From here, you can view all available scores in the Scoreboards section. You can see top 10 scores in every available board.

2. Enter the ‘High Scores’ menu within the game, accessible from the Title screen. When in this screen, you can use the A button to toggle difficulty, and the left and right buttons on the D-pad to switch between Modes. (On device, you can only view leaderboards for modes and difficulties you’ve already unlocked.) From here, you can see the top 9 scores for the currently-highlighted board, as well as your own score and ranking (if available).

Control schemes

Different control combinations are allowed for accessibility reasons (see Controls for more info.) Within the on-line leaderboards, you can see which control combination a player used to attain their best score. Just take a look next to a player’s score to see what inputs they used!

Here’s a pro tip! If you wanna take the edge on a leaderboard but a score seems insurmountable, in some cases you don’t actually have to beat it to take a higher rank! By using a bigger combination of buttons, you can obtain a decimal “bonus” that will eke your score over an opponent’s. Here’s a handy guide:

• 0 - Buttons only
• 1 - Buttons and Crank
• 2 - Buttons and Accelerometer
• 3 - Buttons and Microphone
• 4 - Buttons, Crank, and Accelerometer
• 5 - Buttons, Crank, and Microphone
• 6 - Buttons, Accelerometer, and Microphone
• 7 - All inputs enabled.

Don’t worry if you can’t or don’t wanna use any of these more involved inputs, by the way! They only make the difference in the event of a tie. If you definitively beat someone’s score, you’ll get a higher rank no matter what.

💡 When viewing scores in your Web browser, you can also determine what control combination was used. Take the last digit, and refer to the chart above to see what they used. For example, a score read-out of “304” would be a score of 30, using Buttons, Crank, and Accelerometer.

Credits

• Art n’ Code — Rae
• Music — Kevin MacLeod; CC BY 3.0
• SFX — pixabay.com; License
• Addtl. SFX — Rae
• Sasser Slab — Neven Mrgan; CC BY 4.0
• Tanuk library — Toad & Schyzo; MIT
• Shaker library — Dustin & Dave
• Thanx — Paul, Voxy, Mag, Toad, Axo, 3D

Additional Notes

This game was originally made for PlayJam 5, hosted by PossiblyAxolotl.

The original version was completed in just a weekend, being first published on itch.io on April 21st, 2024; and wound up winning 4th place overall in the jam.

The game was originally submitted to Catalog on May 1st, 2024. It was approved for release on May 6th, and was initially slated for Catalog release on June 4th; though I pushed it back to the following drop where it eventually released on June 18th.

It was super fun being able to prove to myself that I can actually complete and release a quality game that I feel confident people will enjoy, let alone under such a strict timeframe. I hope to participate in more jams in the future!

From me to you, thanks for playing, and break a leg! 💖

Changelog

Version 2.2.1

August 13th, 2024

• Timed Mode - capped timer at 60 seconds maximum
• Timed Mode - added logarithmic scale to timer progression
• Hard Difficulty - fixed some timing bugs relating to moving back to title screen
• Multi Mode - hopefully fixed a bug that wouldn’t re-set player position properly

Version 2.2.0

July 1st, 2024

• New Mode — “Timed Mode”! You’re on the clock; get as far as you can before time’s up.
• Fixes and adjustments to controls
  • Mic input is now less sensitive
  • Crank input deadzone was adjusted, to make switching directions easier
  • Consecutive cranking in one direction will now only count as a max of one input
• Meta adjustments
  • Barrier to unlock Hard difficulty has been reduced from 24 score to 21 (a full page of lines)
  • Barrier to unlock One-Shot mode has been reduced from 10 Arcade plays to 5
  • The game will attempt to send an on-line score on game over, regardless of if the obtained score is a new high.
  • Your score (if applicable) is now shown in rehearsal as what Act you’re on (current score plus one)
  • Locked modes now appear in the Title screen, with instructions on how to obtain them.
• Bug fixes & tweaks
  • SFX button in Settings had its corresponding sound flipped from the actual setting
  • Removed some extra fonts that weren’t being used in game
  • Added some memory optimization to prevent piled-up garbage
  • Removed some extra white-space in the Buttony font
  • Removed the “Miss” graphic in One-Shot Mode
  • Moved the timer graphic down in Multi Mode (Hard), so it won’t get obscured by the banner
  • Removed version read-out from the Credits screen
  • In Multi Mode’s end screen, the “back to title” slide menu option was accidentally labeled “to settings”
  • “back to title” in-game pop up is disabled if the scene is currently transitioning
• Misc.
  • Lowered score barrier for a “good ending” image in the Game Over screen
  • Added game manual nudge to Settings screen
  • Added an extra screen in Multi Mode, prompting the player to pass the console
  • Added cast members: “tree”, “wet floor”, “frog”, “bubbles”, “sunglasses”, “dog”, “cat”, “rowbot”, “cast”, “horse”
  • Added costumes: “magician”, “bowtie”, “trick glasses”, “sunglasses”, “baseball”, “propeller”, “queen”
  • Removed cast members: “airplane” and “argument”

Version 2.1.0

June 18th, 2024

• First version release in Catalog!
• Dampened the punishment for an erroneous dock/undock. Now, either action provides a maximum of one miss between correct dock/undock inputs.
• Added default username check when fetching leaderboards
• Added results images for Multi Mode. Honestly a complete oversight.
• Re-enabled crank docking SFX.
• Added controls indicators to leaderboards & scores.
• Bugsmash: In Hard Mode, the timer will now pause if you trigger the Back to Title prompt, instead of continuing in the background.
• If a scene transition happens while the Back to Title prompt is open, the game will now patiently wait until and unless you hit “Keep Playing” to trigger the transition.
• In Multi Mode, the music will now fade properly when starting a new game from the results.
• Fixed brief “Player 2 Wins!” display bug in Multi Mode’s results, as well.
• Adjusted directional arrow behavior in the title screen.

Version 2.0.2

May 21st, 2024

• Added directional arrows to title screen and High Scores scene
• Reduced sensitivity of microphone input
• Fixed a bug where the One-Shot unlock toast wouldn’t display properly
• Catalog - fixed leaderboards to scream at proper endpoints

Version 2.0.1

May 17th, 2024

• Reduced sensitivity of console shaking to acceptable levels
• Catalog - removed debug print statements in High Scores scene

Version 2.0.0

May 15th, 2024

• Added support for separate game modes, as well as two new ones!
  • Arcade Mode — the classic First in… Line? gameplay, same as it ever was.
  • One-Shot Mode — an unlockable; in this mode there are no hints or heckles, and you only get one miss per round.
  • Multi Mode — pass and “play” fun, optimized for 2 people to take turns on the stage!
• Shortened the time you gotta wait for hints and heckles to show up.
• You can now see missed inputs as whispers in your line. Now you’ll never have to wonder what the hell you just pressed instead of what you meant to.
• More inputs were added to the game — cranking forwards, cranking backwards, docking, undocking, shaking the Playdate, and screaming into the microphone.
• Disabled crank docking SFX.
• Added a Settings menu, for changing game options.
  • Music and SFX are now toggle-able.
  • All new control inputs are toggle-able.
  • Credits screen has been moved in here, too.
• Bumped up the Hard difficulty threshold from 10 to 24 (completing an entire page in Easy).
• Changed the pause image to reflect new behavior.
• Added support for on-line leaderboards

Version 1.2.0

May 1st, 2024

• Added a timer to the “rehearsal scene” where you memorize your lines! In Hard mode, you get anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds (increasing as the game progresses) to memorize the line laid out before you. In Easy mode, there’s no time limit imposed. Also, Hard mode has to be unlocked now — obtain a score of 10 or higher in Easy mode to access it! (If you crossed the threshold before, it’ll be unlocked on start-up :3)
• Added… [pause for ironic effect] …pause logic! If you go silent for too long, something will happen. In Easy mode, you’ll get some stage direction from frame right. In Hard mode, however, wait around too long and you’ll get heckled by some rude guy in the audience (+1 MISS). On that note, removed the ‘MISS’ text when you have no misses under your belt.
• Spruced up the look of a TON of stuff all around. New log assets, and new launcher stuff to match (and now there’s even an exit animation — hooray, polish!), new hand-drawn curtains, beefed-up animations, and new variants for tons of things all around. Even cute roses when you win! Awww.
• Sped up the general game flow quite a bit, allowing you to totally biff a game embarrassingly early faster than ever. Also changed some timing so that your turn starts as SOON as the spotlight turns on. Before, it’d start a little bit after, and that caused some problems from what I’ve seen.
• Fixed a crash where a high score variable wasn’t being updated properly. Thanx Paul!

Version 1.1.0

April 21st, 2024

• Added an Easy mode! This mode just adds onto the same pattern between rounds, in contrast to the previous standard mode (now “Hard mode”) which give you an increasingly-long completely-randomized pattern each round. Scores are saved per mode — and your best score from v1.0.0 (if you’ve got one) will still be kept as your Hard mode score. Woohoo!
• Speaking of stats…added a “total misses” count, as well. I meant to, but just forgot.
• Added some more graphics to the game over screens! Also, added some randomized costumes and extra stage members inside the gameplay sequence. Keeps it interesting! I also added a quick “How to Play” segment inside the pause menu, just in case — plus, you can now back out to the title at any time from said pause menu, even during gameplay.
• Your character also now makes noise when you press correct buttons! Honk, honk, honk.
• Bunch of minor tweaks and fixes — adding wrapping paper to launcher, new itch.io page art, bumping the FPS up from 20 to 30, adding some misc. SFX I forgot, and showing the version number on the title screen for posterity.

Version 1.0.0

April 20th, 2024

• Initial release, for PlayJam 5.

Buy First in… Line? in Catalog