The "Amazing Dare-Dozen" is a surprisingly simple -- and devilishly hard -- top-down scrolling game where the player attempts to toss an egg from one basket to another. The baskets are arranged in three vertical tiers, and as the player manages to toss from bottom to middle to the top nest, the background scrolls, making the top nest the bottom and revealing two more higher nests. A timer keeps track of how long the player has been playing, and score counts successful tosses at the rate of 10 points a piece.
The player's goal is simply to rise through the ladder (metaphorically, or the tree in "reality") as far as possible through successful tosses before running out of eggs. As is explained in more detail in the game mechanics section, each level represents a discrete challenge which the player must overcome to "level up", so put succinctly, there is a goal of overcoming each level's obstacles [created by game designer]. Finally, some of the levels make play with the desire to not have to wait for nests to pass each other at a later opportune second time, and thus temp a "skill-shot" from the player, so there is an objective of avoiding boredom. It is an effective tactic; even though I hate the idea, it is used effectively as a constraint in tons of games. Theoretically, the player could play forever.
Rule number 1: The user can play only by doing one thing, 12 times: Pushing the mouse button (or space bar) at the exact moment that seems best to toss the current egg into the next basket. This must be done very precisely. Just getting the egg to overlap the nest as it passes by is not enough. It must fall into the open aperture of the target nest.
Rule number 1: The player may click (or space) whenever they want, whereever they want (within the game screen if clicking), exactly 12 times.
Time constraint: None. Well, almost none. The user may wait any as long as they want to time and execute each shot. They are reminded of the passage of time by the timer, but little more than shame and boredom compel them to toss.
Clicking location constraint: None. The user is free to mouse over and click anywhere within the game screen. This can be used to help time and line up shots. Recommended, although advanced players prefer to trigger the toss using the space bar.
Each level is thoughtfully arranged as a challenge, and is not random. Nests can be moving at a range of speeds, at a variety of different ranges of motion, or not moving at all. Each nest does not change its behavior (with the exception of bouncing from one limit of motion to another).
Designs within these simple constraints play with several different ideas. If the target nest is moving and the tossing nest is not then the player is "just" waiting for the target nest to come back around to shoot at it. In higher levels the player is sometimes made to anticipate the target nest bouncing off a wall, so the motion of the target nest is not all in a single direction. In an even harder case, both nests are moving in the same direction at the same speed -- anti-intuitively this is still possible using the wall to return the target nest to the egg. Other variables which are commonly used to created different tossing challenges, are speed and relative speed, differing ranges of motion, and lack of motion. At one point the user is teased with the realization that both nests are stationary and they game is merely awaiting the inevitable conclusion that the only thing that has to happen is the player pushing the button.
At all times, the motion of the thrown is exactly the same, although it's relative position slows down at the top of its arc. Each nest is at exactly the same vertical height relative to each other. Players are forced to watch the egg plummet to their doom from failed attempts.
To me this game is nearly perfect. I like that it has only ambiant sounds; the music in many of the games is distracting and often adds nothing to game play. I like the stylization of the assets, particularly in terms of their simplicity. There really is no visual fluff in this game -- i.e. no arbitrary throbbing red ball as an enemy, etc.
Obvious choices for enhancements would be to vary the height that the nests from one to another. Allowing a user to catch a missed throw could be interesting. Creating a "hurry-up" like a death-timer (i.e. shot clock), or even better, in keeping with the metaphor maybe a bird that would fly out and peck the egg (a tribute to the pterodactyl in Midway's Joust) would be cool. Something with lasers. Just kidding. Maybe a shot-clock counts down a bonus for each throw, so that faster throwing scores more. Maybe some eggs hatch and give birth to jousting griffon riders. Wait that's joust again. (Maybe I just like this game because it reminds me of Joust).
I wouldn't mess with the toss animation (i.e. allowing users to power up the egg or direct it in any way). That would just be chaos. Maybe making the player play the whole thing backwards after getting to the top of the tree would be cool.