My proposal for TMaze player progression

[StepGamesOfficial]

Let me start by stating the following:
A software needs to be one of the following:

• Useful
• Fun to use (play)

Since TMaze in its nature isn't necessarily useful (as other open-source software) I'd like to propose a way to keep people coming back by introducing a progression system, unlocks and other videogame-like components.
This means, treating this project less like an open-source tool, but rather like an open-source game.

A common argument might be:
Isn't this ineffective due to the software's FOSS nature?
If the progression is completely optional and bypassable, will people care about unlocking things the hard way? Well, there are real examples that this system works. There are plenty of videogames that have a completely client-side progression system, making it easy to cheat, where people are trying their hardest to unlock everything, even sharing their genuine progress with others.
Thus, I genuinely believe this will not be a problem.

How to determine the reward:
This game already has the variables to determine how well a player did in a maze: time and difficulty. Difficulty could be determined by the scale of the maze, and significantly increased when the maze is three-dimensional.

(We could also hard code the difficulty for the default maze presets, but if we were to allow rewards for completing CUSTOM maze presets, it would encourage the users to try out non-default presets and challenges)

A simple implementation would be:
DifficultyReward = x * y * z

The final reward would look something like:
FinalReward = DifficultyReward - sTimeSpent

For example:

DifficultyReward = 30 * 10 * 1 * => 300
sTimeSpent = 1m 15s => 75
FinalReward = 300 - 75 = 225  ==> 22,5 points
// or! maybe we could divide -> 300 / 75 =  4  ==> 40 points
// this ofc needs to be thought through, and very difficult mazes should give rewards no matter what.

This reward will be added into a persistent file, where our balance will be saved.

How to use this currency?
I propose a new "Store" tab in the main menu. This keeps simplicity and adds a new environment, where we can allow the player to see his progress:

This could also be called "Progression"

Upon opening the store, we'll be able to see our categories:

Upon selecting a category, we'll be able to select something to buy / equip:

• An equipped item could be [✔] while an available unequipped item could be [X].
• A question mark [?] could indicate a challege to unlock this item. F.e. "Complete a three-dimensional maze to unlock!"

Progression isn't just buying items.
After a certain amount of all-time currency gathered (all-time meaning even the already spent currency counts), the player could receive a level-up. This could indicate the skillset of the player, and could be compared between players.
Where to put this in the UI is a question, however.

I would also introduce a personal-best system, where you can see your best time next to the maze preset to compare with friends!

Stats are important!
People like to look at their statistics. It creates that "I really spent THAT long in the game? THAT long solving mazes? I solved 55 mazes? Wooah. "
Could be a separate item in the menu. Or this and Store could possibly be a subcategory of a "progression" menu.

That's it!
These ideas, if implemented correctly, will - in my opinion - give most people a very good reason to play the game!

[ur-fault]

Main point of this idea is to add reason for players to play the game, which is important. Receiving points for solving the maze is great way to achieve that so I'd like to add it, problem is of course with calculating the points, since we have multiple types of 3 mazes (tower and 3D). This will of course be though through.

Unlocking player characters and themes could be made too, but I'm not too keen on making colors unlockable, since it's one of main points of in-terminal games, but hey, maybe.

All of this will be made even more complicated with more gamemodes, but that itself should be part of the gamemode so we can solve it once they are prepared.

Since I want the game to be for anyone, I'd like to add option to remove progression altogether. But it's gonna be little harder, so I can just unlock everything if I don't want to go though that.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and feature idea.