Sphere Beacon

Sphere Beacon - a timing game built around a single horizontal meter and a marker that slides along it from side to side. A tap anywhere on the play area, or on the round control at the bottom of the screen, locks the marker where it stands at that moment. A stop inside the green band adds ten points, and a stop on the bright centre line of the band adds twenty five. Consecutive clean stops build a series, and the series raises the value of each following stop up to five times the base value, so a long run of accurate stops counts far more than the same number of scattered ones. Every third successful stop makes the marker move faster and makes the green band narrower, and the band also appears at a new position on the meter after every stop. A stop outside the band takes one of the three lives shown under the counters, and the round ends once all three are gone. The counters at the top of the play area hold the current score and the top result, and the panel that appears at the end of a round shows the score of that round next to the top result before the round is repeated or the menu is opened. The progress screen keeps a list of the six highest results, sorted from the highest down, and the list is filled from finished rounds. Settings hold the top result with a reset control next to it, a difficulty switch with three positions - easy, normal and hard - that changes the starting speed of the marker and the starting width of the band for the next round, a vibration switch for the short response on stops, and an effects switch for the screen shake and the flying particles. A separate screen describes the rules of the round in a few lines. Difficulty, both switches and the whole list of results are saved on the device and are read back at the next launch.