Pave Your Way

Aim

The civil mini-game named Pave Your Way is aimed at giving the players a basic and simple perspective of a part of the concepts and courses the players will be exposed to and learn in Civil Engineering, and raising the awareness of the players of building a feasible and cheap solution for traffic system with congestion controlled.

Objective

In Pave Your Way, in each level, there is a map with different landscapes and obstacles, where on the map there are queues of cars, such that each car is in a specific colour, trying to drive to a goal in the same colour on the map. The player is asked to use the given building blocks and a limited amount of budget to build a traffic system to make all cars being able to reach their corresponding goals in a limited amount of time when the player calls the cars to run when clicking on a button. The player cannot pass a level whenever there is a car that cannot reach its goal, or when there is a car that cannot reach its goal in time.

The score the player gets for the level is calculated based on both the budget remained and the time for all cars to reach to their goals. So the player will get a higher score if he or she can build a cheaper system that allows the traffic to run faster.

Budget And Building Blocks

For each level, there will be a dedicated budget the player can use to build and pave the building blocks. Each building block has a price, which will be deducted from the budget when it is paved to the ground. However, the player can also return a building block to get the money back. The player won't be able to overdraw the budget to use a building block that will cost more than the budget the player currently have.

The building blocks provided are: Road - a 1x1 straight road unit. Corner - a corner that connects two roads in two different directions to allow the car to turn. Three-way Intersection - a three-way intersection to join one road into another road in the other direction. Four-way Intersection - a four-way intersection at the cross for two roads in different directions.

Building A Road

The way to pave a building block onto the map is by dragging a building block from the corresponding building block factory and dropping the block onto a ground tile where the block can be placed on. For example, a bridge block can be dragged from the bridge factory and can only be dropped onto a river tile.

Rotate Roads

All the new building blocks created by the factories will be facing to North East shown on the screen, which is the z-direction in the isometric world dimension system. To rotate the building block paved on the road, use double click to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. To have a valid traffic system, the player needs to have all building blocks rotated to fit into other building blocks so that the cars can run following the building blocks. For example, a corner block should be connecting two roadblocks such that one end of the corner is connecting to one road and the other end connecting to the other road.

Obstacles

On the map, not all tiles are suitable for all building blocks. There will be obstacles such as trees, buildings, rivers, hills, and so on on the map that there can be no or only certain type(s) of blocks can be put on to. One example is that the river tiles can only have bridges built on them, while the ground tiles cannot have bridges built on them, and where a tree or other obstacles present, the tile cannot have any building blocks on them.

The players need to judge how to go around these obstacles. Should they build several bridges to go straight through an "island" surrounded by a river, or should they build a long road to go around it? Should they use a four-way intersection to link four roads coming from four directions, or using two three-way intersections? Different solutions will use different amounts of budget and result in different travelling times. How to make a balance between the budget and the travelling time is the key point for the player to pass a level.

Time Limit

To pass a level, all cars also need to drive from their queues to their corresponding goals in a limited time when the player clicks the run button. This requires the players to build traffic systems that can handle the traffic load well. Along with the limited budget given, the players are expected to use their knowledge and creativity to build systems that meet the traffic demands, and not using too many resources.

Gaming Controls

There are several controls for the player to control their game status.

A run button is supplied for them to call the cars to go. After all cars have reached the goal, or when all cars have stopped moving, but some cars haven't reached their goals, or when timeout, a dialogue showing either the player has won or lose the level will show up, on which there will be a next level button (in winning condition), a retry button, and a close dialogue button for the players to click.

A tutorial button (shown as the guardian avatar) is supplied for the players to go through the tutorials again. The tutorials will be shown automatically at the first level of the game.

A restart button is always present for the players to reset and restart the level.

And an exit button is present for the players to exit the civil mini-game and return back to the main game world.