Scoring system (3 Variables)

Question

I'm writing a mobile game where the player has

1. a limited number of clicks to direct their avatar to the bottom of the map
2. into a bronze, silver, or gold basket
3. land on his/her feet, head, or side.

I'd like to take each of these into consideration when determining the score.

On level 231, the lowest possible clicks to get into the bronze is 2, silver is 4, and gold is 7, with a limit of 10 clicks.

So let's say the score is calculated like so:

• Basket: 1 point for bronze, 2 for silver, and 3 for gold.
• Landing: 3 for feet, 2 for head, and 1 for side.

That means the possible outcomes are:

• Bronze: 1, 2, 3, or 4
• Silver: 2, 3, 4, or 5
• Gold: 3, 4, 5, or 6

Now that's all good because I can make a 1 star 3, a 2 star 4, and a 3 star 5 or 6.

But now, the remaining clicks come into play: I originally wanted them to multiply the score. 2x for 1 click left, 3x for 2, and so on. That means getting a fast bronze is better than getting the harder-to-reach gold. Raising the base scores to 1, 2.5, and 6.25, respectively, messed up the other levels.

Does anybody has a solution I could try? I don't care if the points go into the hundred thousands. I want to reward players more for gold, with other elements to keep them interested and feeling accomplished after player a level.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you use the baskets as multipliers, ie

• Gold: 4x

• Silver: 2x

• Bronze: 1x

No matter how you score the everything else, the biggest reward will always be for gold.

With your current landing score taken into account, the breakdown is thus:

      Gold    Silver  Bronze
Feet  12      6       3
Head  8       4       2
Side  4       2       1

Then, multiply the number of clicks divided by the maximum (or par) clicks, then multiply that by 1000 and drop everything after the decimal point.

basket * landing * (clicks/max) * 1000 = score

This is where spreadsheets come in handy.

Answer 2

Instead of operating off the minimum clicks to calculate a multiplier, you could have a par number of clicks for each basket. If the player gets in the basket under the par you can use that difference as your multiplier. For example, if it is 2 clicks minimum to get the bronze and 7 to get to gold, the par for each basket respectively could be set at 5 and 10. If the player get the bronze in 4 clicks it is a 2x multiplier. If they get the gold in 9 clicks it is a 2x multiplier. If they get the bronze in 3 clicks they would get a 3x multiplier, likewise, if they get the gold 8 clicks.