Flight Beacon

Flight Beacon - a timing game built around a runway meter that sits under a plane on an airfield. A pointer travels left and right along the meter, and a single button below it registers a tap at the moment the pointer stands over the green band. A tap inside the band adds points, and a tap inside the narrow core strip at the center of the band counts as a precise hit and adds more. Every successful tap raises a series counter that lifts the value of the taps that follow, while a tap outside the band drops that counter and costs one of the three attempts given for the round. The band moves to a new place on the meter after each tap, and after every third successful tap the pointer travels faster and the band becomes narrower, so later parts of a round ask for tighter reading of the meter. The round ends once the attempts run out, and the closing panel shows the points of that round, the best result reached so far and the stars gathered during the round. Stars come from precise hits and from the points of a finished round, and they go toward three upgrades: a wider band, one more attempt per round, and a higher starting value of the series counter. Upgrade levels, gathered stars and the best result stay on the device between launches and are applied at the start of the next round. The menu also opens a rules panel that explains the meter and the scoring, and a settings panel that holds a switch for the impact effects, the current best result with a button that clears it, and a button that returns all upgrades and stars to their starting state.