Xianxia Pinball Gameplay

Xianxia Pinball Gameplay

Purpose

Use this skill as the game-specific layer below ai-mini-game-development, cocos-ai-automation-development, and cocos-ball-physics-gameplay for the xianxia arcane pinball mobile game.

Keep generic workflow, Cocos execution, and ball-physics troubleshooting in those broader skills. Keep this skill focused on this game's rules, art direction, reusable asset taxonomy, and implementation defaults.

Core Concept

Build a 2.5D vertical mobile pinball-like game where the player uses left and right hand energy fields to guide and rebound a magic orb through an arcane board.

Default first playable target:

• Fixed vertical 2.5D Cocos 3D view.
• One dynamic arcane orb.
• Dark stone board with gold rune paths, rails, energy nodes, and an abyss failure gate.
• Left touch controls teal-blue attraction/guide energy.
• Right touch controls gold rebound/return energy.
• The orb remains physics-driven; player fields influence, redirect, or amplify it without directly dragging it.
• Core loop: guide, rebound, chain hits, build overload, harvest safely, avoid abyss loss.

Workflow

1. Establish playable physics before high art.

   • Verify orb spawn, collision, wall rebound, field influence, failure gate, reset, and scoring.
   • Use simple debug visuals for force fields before heavy particles.

2. Layer style after mechanics are readable.

   • Apply dark stone board material, gold rune line material, arcane wall material, and abyss gate material.
   • Add energy trails, lightning links, hit sparks, activation rings, and overload effects as reusable effect atoms.

3. Keep visual and physical layers separate.

   • Use simple colliders for rails, walls, nodes, and abyss triggers.
   • Let ornate meshes, transparent planes, glow strips, and particles sit on top of simplified collision.

4. Validate on mobile assumptions.

   • Prefer a small number of reusable particles and texture strips over many unique animated effects.
   • Tune glow and bloom for readability, not concept-art density.

References

Read only the reference needed for the current task:

• references/game-rules.md: use when designing mechanics, states, scoring, failure, or controls.
• references/art-direction.md: use when generating materials, UI, VFX, color palettes, or asset prompts.
• references/cocos-implementation.md: use when implementing this game in Cocos with MCP, scripts, prefabs, materials, and validation.
• references/new-machine-bootstrap.md: use when setting up this game workflow on another computer, restoring synced skills/code, verifying Cocos/MCP, or resuming the project from archives.

Defaults

Use these defaults unless the user overrides them:

• Target: first playable prototype before high-fidelity art.
• Camera: vertical 2.5D fixed view.
• Controls: left half screen for teal guide/attract field, right half for gold rebound/return field.
• Art style: dark fantasy xianxia, black-blue stone, antique gold runes, teal/gold/purple lightning, red-purple abyss danger.
• Asset strategy: generate reusable material tiles, transparent strips, VFX atoms, and prefab modules rather than full-board concept images.

Stop Points

Stop for user confirmation when deciding:

• Whether to change the core control model.
• Whether to move from prototype visuals to high-fidelity art production.
• Whether to overwrite existing final assets or scenes.
• Whether to add expensive render features, complex shaders, or third-party VFX tooling.