[Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] Fish cascade powerups idea

[Fer C.]

I wanted to show an idea I've had for tuxtype to make it be more entertaining.

In the Fish Cascade game mode, there could be, at random, some words
that have some special kind of fish or object that will allow for some
different actions.

When you type correctly one of this words, Tux will pick up these
special objects and store them in a bucket, for example. Then next to
the bucket in the ground there would be a word for the name of the
object in storage.

The special will be stored in the bucket as much time as the player
wants.. and perhaps allow for storing up to 5 of this specials. When
the player wants to trigger the special action for one of the objects,
he can type the word of the special that's next to the bucket for the
special action to be performed (graphically, perhaps tux can pick the
bucket and throw it to the center of the screen).

Some of the objects that there could be, for example:

- snowflakes: (word: ice) when activated they freeze all the falling
fishes for a period of time so that you can type the words
- jellyfish: (word: zap) removes all the fishes in the screen, useful
when there are too much (you don't score the removed fishes, though).
- octopus: (word: ink) it changes the words of all the fishes in the
screen into permutations of "F" and "J" (the keys that are pressed
with the index fingers) so the player can just press this only 2 keys
alternatively for typing the words faster.
- algae: (word ivy) makes the words slow down for a period of time

Perhaps, to avoid the words being confused with fish words (maybe some
words start with "zap" or "ice") perhaps a "!" could be added at the
end of every special action

This would make the game more entertaining for kids, and also perhaps
a new mode with increasingly faster falling fishes (or more words at
the same time) for fast typists would be fun, to see how far can you
get.

--
Fernando