Puzzle Game Story Mode

For the last year, the story activity in my puzzle game was just a little slideshow the player could flip through to get the little back story that I made up for the game's visual setting. It was pretty lame and kind of misleading since when people see "story modes" they generally think there is going to be some sort of level setup and not just a couple images explaining things. So, I went back and I significantly expanded the story mode. Now there are 10 levels the player can play, each with a specific game mode and a target score. If the player beats the target score, they pass the level and can move on to the next. I've made it so that initially, only "Classic Mode" is available in the game through the normal play menu. By beating a certain levels in story, you gain access to the other game types. Beating all of the 10 levels awards you with a Scoreloop achievement.

Using some of the path modifier stuff I've learned by working on my scrolling shooter, I've made a cool little navigation setup. It's kind of like moving around levels in Super Mario Bros. in that you have a little player sprite, and going in the direction of the next level moves the sprite to the next level area and the camera follows. To explain the story, I still have something similar to the "slideshow" I mention previously, but now that is brought up on the screen by tapping a little circle with an "i" in it, which is a common symbol for 'additional information'. You flip through the slideshow using the same previous/next buttons that you use to move your character through the level. It still isn't the greatest way to get story elements across to the player, but the 10 challenge levels is something that I'm really happy about adding to the game.