Put your audience's reflexes to the test with this skill-based game. The "Falling Objects" game involves catching the falling elements on the screen, making sure they don't hit the ground. You can even add more excitement to the game by including negative elements that, if caught by mistake, will deduct points. With the "Falling Objects" app, players will test their skills by trying to catch the falling elements and score as many points as they can.

The tutorial is organized as follows:

1. Description of the game

2. How is the user participation flow?

3. Create the promotion

4. Configure the Falling Objects game

   • Step 1. Configure the gameplay settings

   • Step 2. Customize the board game design

   • Step 3. Instructions screen

   • Step 4. Score screen

5. Customize the design and finish the settings

6. Manage scores and publication of the winners

1. Description of the game

Falling Objects is an online skill game that involves catching the falling elements on the screen. As players catch the elements and while the game time lasts, they will accumulate points. The player must stay focused because agility is key. Besides the time limit, the game's difficulty also depends on the speed of the moving elements and whether negative elements that deduct points if catch have been included.

In this tutorial, we detail the steps to create and customize the game. The Falling Objects game is characterized by the following features:

• You will be able to customize the falling elements on the screen with images of your logo, products, or any other image.
• You can adjust the game's difficulty by configuring the following gameplay options:
  • Gravity: determines the speed at which elements fall on the game board.
  • Number of elements: sets the number of elements that will appear on the screen and fall down the board.
  • Game time: you can limit the time that the user plays (from 30 to 90 seconds).
  • Enable the "Rotate while falling" option: allows configuring elements to rotate as they fall down the screen.
• You can activate elements that deduct points to add excitement to the game and make it more fun. Users must NOT catch these elements or else they will lose points.
• You can display the "Super OK," an element that gives more points than the rest, and the "Super KO," which wipes out all the points accumulated up to that point.
• Multiple options to reward participants: you can assign prizes to participants with the highest scores, hold a drawing among top scorers, randomly select a winner from all participants, etc.

2. How is the user participation flow?

What will the user's participation experience be like? The promotion consists of different pages that the user will go through while interacting with the promotion to participate, such as: the initial welcome page, the login and entry form pages, where the user will register with their information, the page where the game is presented, etc. Together, these different pages will form the structure of the promotion and the participation flow that the user will follow to complete the promotional mechanics.

Additionally, as the administrator, you can select which participation flow you want users to follow. Specifically, there are three different participation flows available: the Identified Mode, where the user must identify and register before playing; the Visitor Mode, where the user plays first and then identifies and registers; and the Anonymous Mode, where the user participates without identifying or registering. The choice of one mode or another will determine how participation and the user experience in the promotion will unfold.

Learn in this article how each participation flow works, as well as the different pages that make up a promotion.

3. Create the promotion

To being configuring your game, create a new promotion and under the Games section, select the Falling Objects application.

Discover more about the first steps to create your promotion.

4. Configure the Falling Objects game

Next, you will find all the steps to create the Falling Objects game. First, enter the editor of the promotion. 

Access then the Participation section, and click on edit to start configuring the game.

Now you can begin customizing the game from the "Falling Objects" tab, where you will find the following customization options:

Step 1. Configure the gameplay settings

1. Basic Gameplay options

First, you will find the options to customize and configure the game. Specifically, you will be able to customize the following aspects:

• Gravity: allows you to adjust the speed at which items will fall in the game. You can select the speed between the following options:
  • Weak
  • Normal
  • Strong
  • Black Hole 
• Number of items: allows you to determine the number of items that will appear on the screen and fall across the board, with options to choose from:
  • Less elements
  • Medium
  • More
  • Inferno
• Game Time: allows you to set the time you want to give users to complete the game (between 30 and 90 seconds).
• Rotate while falling: have the items rotating while crossing the board game.

2. Customize the items that will fall in the game

Next, you will find the "Items" section, which allows you to upload the images of the items that the game will have, i.e., the items that will fall on the screen and that users will need to catch.

To add more excitement to the game and offer more gameplay options, the system allows you to upload 4 different types of items:

• "OK": this is the item that users should catch to earn points. 
• "KO" [optional]: this item subtracts points if the user catches it.
• "Super OK" [optional]: this item gives more points than the "OK" item if caught.
• "Super KO" [optional]: this item eliminates all the points the user has earned so far.

Image Specifications:

• Number of images that can be added:
  • "OK" item: Maximum of 3 different items. You can upload a different image for each OK item.
  • "KO" item: Maximum of 3 different images.
  • "Super OK" item: Maximum of 1 image.
  • "Super KO" item: Maximum of 1 image.
• Image size: 300x300px.

Step 2. Customize the board game design

Next, click on the "Design" tab to customize the layout and style of the board where the game is presented. Here you will find the following customization options:

1. Image to catch the elements

This option allows you to load an image of 200x120px, which will serve as the object with which the user must capture the elements.

To facilitate the creation of the image, we facilitate a template in PNG format, which you can use as a reference to create your own image. The template will need to maintain the proportion, structure and key elements that will be present in your final design.

Click here to download the template in .PNG format.

How to use the template?

• Create an image with the specific dimensions (200x120).
• Place the element that will "collect" the objects falling into the black area of the template.
• Add elements within the maximum dimensions to decorate the image as you like.

Example:

As shown in the example, the element responsible for collecting the objects is located within the black area of the template. The other elements are decorative and are intended to shape the image.

2. Background Image

This option allows you to upload an 800x800px image that will serve as the background where the items will fall.

3. Background color

Alternatively, you can select a solid background color for the game.

4. Disable Sounds

This option allows you to disable the different sound effects in the game.

5. Sound Effects 

If sounds effects are enabled, you can configure the sound that will be played every time the user collects one of the items.

Step 3. Instructions screen

Under the "Instructions" tab, you can customize the screen that will appear before starting the game. This screen presents a summary of how the game works, aiming to inform users about how the game will function and how to score the most points before they enter.

Additionally, by default, it displays a legend showing the points that can be earned by catching each item, as well as the points that will be subtracted if the game also includes "KO" type items.

You can customize this screen with your own description, an image, as well as the text of the button where users will click to start the game.

Step 4. Score screen

Under the "Score Screen" tab, you can customize the colors and texts that will be displayed on the screen the user will access after completing the game, which provides a summary of the game with the final score obtained. You can customize the following elements:

• Success threshold: In this section, you can set the minimum score that the user must obtain to reach the OK screen. 

Note: don't forget to customize the two screens. The OK Game for users who reach the minimum score  and the KO Game screen for those who do not.

• OK Game: You can configure a feedback text that the user will see once the game is over if they reached the threshold and obtained the minimum of points required to consider the game "successful". Under the same subsection, you can also edit the following options:
  • Image: You can upload an image on the OK final screen.
  • Background Color: You can set the background color of this screen to match the corporate colors of the brand.

• KO Game: Customize the screen that players see if they did not obtain enough points to consider the game successful. There, you can also edit the following options:
  • Image: You can upload an image on the KO final screen.
  • Background Color: You can set the background color of this screen to match the corporate colors of the brand.

• Hide score summary: You can hide the score summary of the user's game, if you do not want users to see the details of the points allocation. 

5. Customize the design and finish the settings

Once you have configured the Falling Objects game itself, the next step is to finish the configuration of the other options of the promotion, such as customizing the design template with your own colors and texts, introducing the legal bases, the viral content settings, etc.

Check the tutorial to finish the configuration and customization of your promotion.

6. Manage scores and publication of the winners

The scoring system in the game Falling Objects game works as follows:

1. If an OK item is collected, 10 points are added to the user's score.
2. If a KO item is collected, 50 points are subtracted.
3. If a Super OK item is collected, 50 points are added.
4. If a Super KO item is collected, the user loses all points earned so far and returns to 0 points.
5. If an OK item is NOT collected and falls on the ground, 5 points are subtracted.

How to publish the winners

Easypromos provides a complete Prize and Winners Management system that will allow you to create the prize or prizes that you want to give to the users who participate in the game, as well as configure how you want to assign the prizes and select the winners.

Specifically, you have three ways to assign the prize to the winners, depending on your preference:

1. Assign the award to the player in the first position of the Ranking. In this case, follow the steps of this tutorial that explains how you can assign the prize to the best player.

2. Carry out a giveaway among the users who have obtained a higher score. Follow the steps of this tutorial that explains how you can create the prize to be raffled among the players with the highest score, for example, the 10 players with the most points.

3. Carry out a draw among all the users who have participated in the game. Follow the steps of this tutorial to create the prize and raffle it among all the participants.