Scramble manual!

Credits

I feel this belongs at the top of this document, because without these people this wouldn’t have been possible!

Carter Temm and Sam Tupy for their crucial technological help. Yes, I coded the primary features and the implementation of the game, but they helped with encryption, packaging, and security, as well as some quite significant behind the scenes leg work, and without their help who knows how bad off I may be! Sam is also to thank for sound designing for the game. Carter also continues to maintain the account system, keeping everything server side running smoothely.
My entire beta team. Allie, Lucas, Alec, Malia, Carter, Ivan, Sam, Liam, Paul, and Baylee. Without their constant enthusiasm, support, and willingness to put up with frustrating errors and data resets, this game wouldn’t be half of what it is today! Thanks for everything you guys did to make this possible!
Liam Erven of L Works, for recording all of the voices for the game! Without your help, we’d still be using crappy eloquence prompts that not everyone can understand. Thank you for stepping in where needed, without being asked!
Finally, I’d like to thank the audio gaming community for their support, and willingness to play this game! Though I create these games for my own enjoyment, your motivation and enthusiasm is a driving force to keep going!

Demo mode limitations

Before purchasing Scramble, you have access to a demo mode, which is strictly limited but allows you to try out some features of the game before buying. For information on how to buy, see the purchase and activation section

Every time the game launches, you are informed it is in demo mode, and asked if you want to launch the purchase page.
You have access to only 1 variation: normal mode. You cannot unlock the others. Also, points you earn in demo mode cannot be used to purchase variations once the game is unlocked. You will start your unlocked game with 0 purchase points.
You are given a top 10 local score table, found under scores in the main menu. This is strictly for practice, and so you can keep track of your progress, but you cannot post these scores. You cannot see the stats for Normal mode itself, however.
You will get a full stat screen at the conclusion of your game, however you do not unlock any badges. You also are told your ranking in your local top 10, but as said previously you can’t post the score.

Purchase and activation

Below are the steps to purchasing an account for Scramble, and activating your machine!

Go to the purchase page and follow the instructions for purchasing and activating your account.
Launch Scramble, and select activation options from the main menu.
Select activate this machine, and enter your account details in the prompts that follow.

Enjoy the game!

Introduction

Are you ready for fast paced action the likes of which has rarely been seen before? Are you ready for round after addicting round of intense, high speed, and riviting chaos? Are you ready… to Scramble?

Welcome to the latest arcade title from Steven D, developing under the name Stevo! Race against the clock of impending doom to accumulate the highest score possible and leave a legacy of respect by showing up everyone on the scoreboards!

Collect items, avoid high speed cannon balls and lethal flying bricks, and Scramble to grab as many items as you can, all while avoiding a merciless, rapidly expanding pit that threatens to eventually consume everything in its path without yield or consideration! Fight intense battles for just a few more seconds to struggle to beat your high score as the odds stack higher and higher against you! Run, jump, and climb your way to success! This, and more, is what you’ll be doing, as you climb the ranks in the world of Scramble.

Unlock various game modes to provide new, exciting opportunities to challenge your skills like never before! Show your reflexive, attentive, and strategical prowess by bosting your greatest accomplishments on the scoreboard, complete with detailed statistical logs so everyone can see just how skilled you really are! Discover tens of badges and achievements for every good thing you do and every mistake you make. Challenge yourself to do better, and keep track of your progress with comprehensive stats systems, and local score listings for each variation! And finally, if you’re really up for it, unlock the obscure minigame, and prove to us all that you can succeed in diversely hellish environments. This, and more, is what you will get with Scramble, resulting in countless hours of addicting fun!

Playing the game.

Objects and obstacles

The following are everything you will encounter during your rather brief… stints in the world of Scramble!

The field. This is what you play in. It’s the entire Scramble world!
Platforms. A platform is a mini-grid, 10 by 10 feet, that is propped up 10 feet off the ground. These can be positioned randomly anywhere around the Scramble field. You will hear ladders, (the sound is in the learn game sounds menu), which you can walk up to and climb to get on and back off the platforms. You’ll know you’re standing on the ladder because you’ll be walking on metal, and the platform has a wooden surface. If you fall off a ladder or jump off a platform, you will lose health and possibly die. When you’re on a platform, though you cannot walk off the edge, you can jump off if you’re not careful. When jumping, a warning sound (a metal step) will play at the edge you are moving towards to let you know you’re getting close.
Cannons. These are ground enemies, because they are sitting on the ground or a platform, and launch balls that roll away from them. These can target players, so when they shoot, no matter what direction you are from the cannon, that ball is coming! If a cannon is on a platform, it will only target players on the same platform as it, thus assuming the role of guardian. If it’s on the ground, it targets players within a 20 foot radius of it.
Cannon balls. Launched by cannons, these will careen very quickly until they smash into a player, a wall, or they fall into the pit or off of the platform. Trust me when I say that you really really really, don’t want to get hit by one of these!
Rock throwers. You’ll never find one on the ground. These either sit atop platforms, or hover in the air. They have a tendency to chuck rocks, downward, at players, and their aim is impeccable. If a rock thrower is on a platform, it will only chuck rocks at players who get too close to the platform. Once they get up there, the thrower is useless. If the thrower is in the air, it chucks rocks at players within a 15 foot radius of it. Rock throwers only throw stuff at players below them.
Rocks. These are somewhat swiftly moving, whistling projectiles that, if you get hit, can do some pretty significant damage. Though they are easily avoided, they tend to come fast, so not paying attention has its consequences. These are neutralized once they hit the ground, or a player.
Items. Described in more detail later, these are the primary objective of the game. Walk over one to pick it up.
The pit. This, can affectionately be named doomsday Danny the destructive. It is a massive mud filled void that, when it appears, already starts out stretching all the way from the left, to the right wall. As the game progresses, this pit moves forward ever so slowly, consuming the field row by row. Since the pit stretches from the left to the right wall, you can think of it as every time the pit expands, the bottom edge of the field is just falling off. This pit will consume items, platforms, cannons, rock throwers, you, and eventually the entire field when it gets there. Falling into it at any point is a most definite death wish!

Everything has a sound letting you know where it is, this of course being an audio game. To let you know if the object is behind you, in all cases except for the pit, the sound of the object will lower in pitch.

Items

Below are the types of items. To collect any of these, simply walk over it and it’ll be yours!

Scoring items

Scoring items are the items scattered all over the ground. You’ll hear these as soon as you start playing, because the game always spawns them. Picking one of these up will cause it to disappear, and reward you with one point.

The powerups

Generally, if you grab 3 items within 8 secondds, a powerup will spawn. You’ll know that the powerup has spawned given the sound, found in the learn game sounds menu, that the game will play letting you know.

During your time playing, you can get a number of these powerups. They can be good in many cases, but in some cases… maybe not so. Below is the list of powerups, if they’re exclusive to one mode, and what they do.

Expansion. This will expand the field forward 20 feet. So even though the pit is steadily cutting off the bottom edge, Expansion gives you more room, and thus more time before the pit consumes the world. It will slightly speed up the pit expansion speed.
Fortune. Lasts 10 seconds. This is a delayed start powerup, meaning that if you get it off a platform, it will not take affect until you reach the ground. Once you reach the ground and it starts, it will make a bleeping sound. This is because with Fortune, once it takes affect, you have 10 seconds maximum to grab 3 items. Grab 3 items in this time though, and: a new platform will spawn, the field will be expanded 20 feet forward, and the pit will actually be slowed down a little bit!
pit speed increase. Pick this up, and suddenly the pit will be noticeably faster! This will increase the interval at which the pit expands by one second! There is of course a cap on this, it won’t ever get faster than 2 seconds.
Super speed. Lasts 15 seconds. This is also a delayed start, since it’s only temporary, and so it’ll start once you get to the ground. This temporarily increases your speed significantly for 15 seconds after it takes affect.
Gods attention. Got a problematic cannon or rock thrower? Let’s hope God destroys it! Pick this up, and 1 to 3 random cannons or rock throwers will be selected, and promptly wiped out of existence! For modes where cannons or throwers persistently spawn on a timer, this grants a bit of relief from the timer. In addition, a special item will spawn if there is a platform on the map.
Health increase. Since many of this game’s hazzards such as cannons, rock throwers, and falling take health, this powerup will restore a significant chunk of health (40 points) back to you.
Satans attention. Exclusive to rigged mode and those unlocked after it, this does… quite the opposite from God’s attention. Pick this up, and 2 or 3 enemies will spawn. This is completely random – so you could end up with 2 or 3 cannons, 2 or 3 rock throwers, or a combination of the two. If you pick this up in Flat Scramble though, it won’t be random; you’ll only spawn rock throwers. You don’t want to grab this.
Insanity. Lasts 30 seconds. Exclusive to rigged mode again… this is one you would do well to stay far the hell away from! Collect it, and this happens. You’ll have 5 seconds of calm, before a loud clap of thunder roars, and 4 cannons appear on the ground, and 6 new rock throwers in the air! You must avoid all the projectiles that are launched as a result, while collecting items. Thankfully the items on the map tripples during this brief time. After 30 seconds, you’ll hear a softer rumble of thunder and: all the cannons and rock throwers that spawned as a result of insanity will be destroyed, but the surplus of items will disappear as well.
Rock Capacity Increase. Introduced in Showdown, increases the number of rocks that can be held at once.
Rock supply reload: Introduced in showdown, automatically gives you all the rocks you can hold without you having to go find a rock thrower.

Note: when they do, powerups always spawn on platforms, unless there are no platforms. If there are no platforms, they spawn on the ground. For delayed start powerups like superspeed and fortune that spawn on the ground, they will immediately take affect since you’re already on the ground when picking them up.

Also, each platform can have a maximum of 2 powerups on it. So if every platform in the game has 2 powerups on it, another will not spawn until you go and get at least one of them. So basically, if there are 3 platforms, you can have a maximum of 6 powerups on the map at once, 2 on each of the platforms.

And finally, regardless of if you got 3 items in 8 seconds, there is a condition wherein powerups will not spawn. I tried to make this system as balanced as possible, completely eliminating redundancy from the powerups. So if there’s ever a time where a powerup is not necessary, it will not spawn. Example: you’re playing normal and

You already have super speed.
You already have a fortune.
Your health is already high enough.
There are no rock throwers or cannons on the platform.
The field has a lot of room already (not in immediate danger of being consumed).
The pit is expanding as fast as the cap will let it.

In this case, you don’t need a powerup, so none will spawn. In addition, if a powerup still exists and you grab another one that makes it redundant, it will disappear.

Special items

Special items are not powerups. These are regular scoring items that either spawn on platforms, or higher up on ladders. In other words, a special item is a scoring item that would put you in danger to go get it. These sound like scoring items, but the pitch of their sound is higher. They will reward you bonus points (a max of 5 for picking them up), instead of just 1.

Rules

Your goal in Scramble is to collect as many items as possible before you are killed by falling in the pit, being hit by a projectile, or by falling to your death.
Picking up a scoring item gives one point. Picking up 3 of these within an 8 second time span spawns a powerup. Picking up more than 3 of these within an 8 second time span will award you bonus points; 1 bonus point for each item after the 3rd picked up. So if you pick up 4 items within 8 seconds, you’ll be rewarded 5 points instead of just the customary 4. Pick up 5, you get 7 points. Pick up 6, you get 9 points. Pick up 7, you get 11 points. And so on.
Powerups spawn. Pick one of those up and you get one point, but you also get whatever that powerup is (see above for the types).
Rocks, cannon balls, and falling off of platforms or ladders all take away health. If your health is 0, you die.
Falling in the pit at any time, whether you accidentally ran into it or it consumed the field, kills you.
Walking on the normal ground sounds like grass. Ladders are metal. Platforms are wooden. Step too close to the pit though, and you’ll be walking on mud. If you’re stepping on the mud, this is your warning to walk forward, away from the pit.
A successfully completed, or won, game is when the entire field was consumed by the pit, therefore you would have had no possible way to continue the game because there was nowhere to go.

Game modes

New variations can be unlocked with purchase points. Each point you earn in Scramble is added to your total number of purchase points. This means every point you earn in game, I.E. your total score at the end of the game, is added. You can also earn 25 purchase points for each badge you will unlock, and you will be informed of this along with what the 25 points brings your purchase point total to.

Each of these variations can be unlocked within the variation selection menu. You just click on it and if you have enough points, it’s unlocked! I’ll include the prices for each in their title heading. The variations are sorted below in the order that they are unlocked. Note that this list is not necessarily comprehensive.

Normal mode: the variation you start out with

Starting on a 50 by 50 foot field.
At the beginning, the pit will expand at a rate of 7 seconds.
There will be 3 platforms. All cannons and rock throwers will be confined to these platforms.
No harmful powerups aside from pit speed increase.

Rigged! Costs 1000 points.

This mode is rigged against you! It wants you to die!
Starting out on a 65 by 65 foot field, so somewhat larger than the normal field!
There will as a result be 4 platforms to start out with.
Pit expansion starts out a bit faster, at only 6 and a half seconds.
Slightly more items are scattered around the map than in normal mode, so you have the opportunity to earn a better score!
The game will periodically check and insure that there is at least one cannon on the ground at all times.
Cannons and rock throwers are most definitely not, confined to platforms.

Insanity! Costs 1800 points

This mode is insane. It is not meant to be super fare; try your hand at it if you dare. See how long you can survive!
Launch rigged mode. Grab the insanity powerup, and play! Then, take that and turn that into an entire game mode! You thought Rigged was bad? This is quite literally insane! This mode is meant to challenge you to the greatest extent possible, and could possibly be considered the most difficult mode in Scramble!
Starting out on a 50 by 50 grid.
Starting pit expansion rate is the customary 7 seconds.
Unless the pit is literally seconds away from consuming the field, a minimum of 3 cannons, and 3 rock throwers will be on the ground and in the air respectively. This does not include the platform guards.
There can be a maximum of 20 items on the ground, and they won’t be as spread out as the last modes! This will likely be a mode of quick games with higher scores.
I get it. Stop crying like a little baby. Health increases are more powerful with a healing power of 50, not just 40 points!
Satans attention can spawn up to a certain point. There is a cap, don’t worry. Also remember, anything that Satan’s attention spawns isn’t permanent, it too will be sucked down by the pit soon enough.
Guess what can’t spawn though? God’s attention! Mwahahahahahaha!

Flat Scramble! Costs 2500 points

This is completely flat, meaning that there are no platforms to contend with! So if you don’t like climbing, this is your lucky day. If you want an easy mode though? Yeah… not so much. Sorry dude.
Starting out on a 40 by 70 grid.
Platforms do not spawn. Because of this, you must collect 4 instead of 3 items to spawn a powerup.
There are 10 items on the map at all times.
Pit expansion starts out kind of fast, at 6.5 as opposed to the traditional 7 seconds.
You can get all powerups except Insanity, God’s attention, and Fortune.
Satans Attention will not spawn cannons here. You already have enough of those!
You are on a rectangle grid, with a row of cannons dividing the left and right sides, directly down the middle. These cannons are spread 23 feet apart. The row will expand for each 23 feet of room on the board. So if there are 92 feet between the pit and the north border, there will be 4 cannons spaced out in that row. If there’s 69 feet between the pit and the north wall, there will only be 3 cannons. If there are 46 feet, 2 cannons. 23 feet, 1 cannon. Less than 23 feet? 0 cannons in that row.
Rock throwers spawn, and Satan’s attention will exclusively spawn them!

Survival! Costs 2800 points

Almost identical to rigged mode.
Players only have 20 health points, and no health increases spawn. One screw up will kill you!
Survive an insanity powerup though and you get a bonus of 40 points.
Oh yeah. And cannons behave… well, a bit differently here. I mean the ones on the platforms are completely the same… but you better watch out for the ones on the ground.

Showdown! costs 3000 points

As the final unlockable mode in Scramble, Showdown aims to provide you with a uniquely addictive experience that, while not straying too far from the game’s intended purpose, challenges you in unique ways you have yet to encounter!

In addition to scrambling to collect items, showdown brings forth a new goal: make sure you don’t get overrun by cannons! Starting out, every 30 seconds a new cannon will spawn on the map, out of your control.
What’s worse, multiple cannons can spawn on one platform! Let too many cannons accumulate on one platform though, and something… well… special happens.
Thankfully, though still dangerous if you’re clomped in the head by one of their unforgiving flying projectiles, rock throwers are actually your friend! Let a rock thrower throw a rock down, but make sure it doesn’t hit your head. It will land on the ground, and you have the next 2 seconds to pick it up! Should it land on a ladder or platform instead, I get it, it takes longer to get up there. So, you have 5 seconds to run over and collect it. Fail to collect the fallen rock in time though and it disappears! The sound for a rock on the ground that you can pick up is in the learn game sounds menu.
You can hold, at one time, a maximum of 5 of these rocks. If you have 5 rocks and a thrower throws another, the new rock will not spawn a collectable item – since you don’t need it. You can check your rocks with the X key or in the pause menu.
To destroy a cannon, run close or up to it, turn towards it, and throw rocks! You press control key (either one) to throw a rock, and you can throw them as fast as you want. Beware though, because you can still be shot with that cannon until it is completely broken, and you should also be mindful of other dangers while destroying a cannon. Should you succeed in the cannon’s destruction though, you’ll be rewarded 10 points!
Beware though. I said you can throw rocks as fast as you want, but make sure you’re hitting the cannons! You lose 2 points for each inaccurate rock you throw – and that’s the first time you ever lose points for anything in Scramble!
You also have a stat called throw strength, which determines how far and fast you can throw rocks. At the beginning this will not be very high, so you’ll have to get pretty close to the cannon to do damage. Bear in mind that like in the real world, the impact of the rock decreases the further you are away from a cannon.
If you collect 4 items in 8 seconds, in addition to the powerup and bonus point you’re given, you will hear a new, chiming sound. This is in the learn game sounds menu, and signifies that: your throw strength has been increased a little bit, but the cannon spawn time has decreased. Example: start the game and your throw strength is to where you can throw a rock 12 feet, and cannons will spawn every 30 seconds. Collect 4 items in that first 8 seconds though and you hear a chime – and now your throw strength has increased so you can throw further and faster, but cannons will now spawn every 28.5 seconds. There is a cap on both of these stats though, so you’ll never get cannons spawning every 2 seconds or something crazy like that.
You can also destroy the throwers, but this process is not as complex. If you find that one is annoying, and decide to be an Angry Alec about it, you can wipe that rock thrower out of existence – and it will rain on you no more! To do this, you have to get a cannon to aim at it. Hint: the cannon aims at you. The cannon also only shoots at things within a 20 foot radius of it, or on its platform. Figure out the rest yourself.

Carefully balance cannon destruction with item collecting. Focus too much on one, and you’re screwed. Scramble to grab items and powerups, lengthening your time and increasing your score, all the while keeping the more frequently spawning cannons under control and collecting those 10 point bonuses! Can you do it? Do you really think you have what it takes to Scramble… in more ways than one this time? Do you really think, you can best everyone, in the final showdown of Scramble?

If so, you best be able to prove it!

Keys

Global keys

up/down arrows: scroll in menus
Enter: select something
F2: turn down music
F3: turn up music
f5: turn down the volume for the whole game
F6: turn up the volume for the whole game
Escape: back out
Tab: information key. In games it tells score and game status, in the variation menu it tells you how many game points you have (that can be spent on unlocking new modes).

In-Game keys

F1: disallow music
f2 and f3: turn down, and up the music respectively.
f4: toggle whether you can hear items that are far away from you or not.
f5 and f6: turn down and up the game volume respectively
F7 and F8: decrease or increase the pitch difference between items in front or behind you.
W, A, S, D or the arrow keys: walk in the 4 directions. W is forward, S is backwards, and A and D are left and right respective. Hold down a combination of these keys to diagonal walk.
Q or E: Snap turn left or right respectively, to the nearest 45 degrees (north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest).
Shift Q or Shift E: more precise turning. Hold these keys down to turn left or right respectively. Useful when trying to strategize a shot at a cannon or something.
Page up, R, page down, F: climb up or down respectively.
Space or enter: jump
Left or right control: Throw rock
G: announce the last powerup grabbed, in case you didn’t understand the voiceover.
H: check health
P: pause the game. Brings up a pause menu. Press p while in this menu to unpause the game.
T: announce the amount of time until the pit consumes the entire field, thus most assuredly ending your game.
X: if playing showdown mode, tells you how many rocks you’re holding.
Z: report the direction you’re facing.
Escape: rage quit the game.

A note about turning: it is not strictly necessary. You can play the game perfectly fine without it. However, once you reach showdown mode and start destroying cannons by aiming rocks at them, turning can help greatly.

About me

I am Stevo (Steven D). I am the primary developer of these games and the soul coder, and any other individuals assisting me are 3rd parties. Stevo is an online name for myself; it is not a company or corporation. You can visit me on the web at www.stevend.net, where you can find this, as well as my other game Oh Shit, my podcast, and my blog.

Thank you for your interest and support, and happy Scrambling! I hope to see you on the boards!