Portal Switch

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Recreate a mobile-friendly 3D puzzle game titled “Portal Switch.” Use a soft, toy-like pastel presentation: the full-screen background is a vertical gradient from peach/orange at the top through pink to lavender at the bottom, with rounded cream UI cards, chunky Fredoka-style typography, orange headings, green GO buttons, warm drop shadows, and subtle translucent overlays. The playfield is a small orthographic/steep-perspective 3D maze viewed from above at roughly a 62-degree tilt. It sits on a thick peach-colored rectangular base. Build the maze from rounded cream wall blocks and slightly raised cream floor tiles with alternating pale peach tones. Use soft directional shadows, warm hemisphere lighting, ambient occlusion-like shading, and a clean cheerful arcade aesthetic.

The core game is deterministic grid-based marble routing. Each level is a rectangular ASCII grid: # is an impassable wall, ordinary cells are floor, S is the marble start, E is the exit, * is a collectible gold bonus star, o is a dark hole, / and % are purple mirror turners, and matching lowercase letters a, b, c, d are portal pairs. The marble begins at S and rolls automatically in the level’s initial direction when the player presses GO. It advances one grid cell at a time at a level-specific speed, with smooth interpolation and visible rolling rotation. At each cell arrival, resolve the cell before moving onward. The player can change the active portal pair at any time, including while the marble is rolling. Only the selected pair is functional; all inactive portal rings behave as ordinary floor. If the marble arrives on an active portal, instantly teleport it to the other matching portal and continue with the same heading unless the destination causes a wall interaction. Walls cause the marble to bounce: reverse direction if possible, otherwise try a perpendicular open direction; if no direction is open, stop. A slash mirror / turns the heading using (-dz,-dx), while percent mirror % turns it using (dz,dx). A dark hole makes the marble fall with a shrinking downward animation, then resets it to S and clears collected stars for that run. Reaching E wins the level. Collecting a gold star hides it and adds it to the run’s bonus count. A completed level awards 1 base star plus up to 2 bonus stars, for a maximum of 3; show alternate-route encouragement if not all bonus stars were collected.

Represent portals as colorful glowing rings laid flat on the floor with a colored translucent disc and rotating white swirl. Pair colors are: a/Blue cyan (#38c8ff), b/Orange (#ff8a3d), c/Pink (#ff5fae), d/Green (#7fd84a). The active pair should be bright, emissive, pulsing and have a visible corresponding selected color chip; inactive rings should be dimmed and their swirl hidden. Tapping a ring in the 3D world or tapping its bottom color-number chip changes the active pair. The chips are circular, white-bordered, numbered in pair order, and the active chip enlarges and becomes fully opaque. Portal switches create a small colored particle burst. Stars are small rotating extruded gold five-point meshes hovering above the floor. Holes are dark circular depressions with mauve rims. Mirrors are purple glowing beveled rectangular blocks standing/angled on their cells. The exit has a pale green circular pad and a small flag/banner model beside it; optionally include a small cheering alien mascot near the exit. On teleport, emit matching colored bursts at both portal locations and briefly squash the marble; on stars emit gold particles; on bounce and mirror turns provide small effects; on a win emit green/gold particles and a brief celebratory bounce.

Include these exact ten levels and their behavior:
1. “First Jump”, initial direction left, speed 2.1: ["#######","#E.**a#","#######","#a.S..#","#######"]
2. “Two Paths”, initial direction left, speed 2.3: ["#######","#E.a.c#","#######","#c**.b#","#######","#a.S.b#","#######"]
3. “Quick Switch”, initial direction right, speed 2.4: ["#######","#b*..E#","#######","#a.*.b#","#######","#..S.a#","#######"]
4. “Mirror Loop”, initial direction right, speed 2.5: ["#######","#E*.ba#","#######","#/b*.%#","#.###a#","#%.S./#","#######"]
5. “Mind the Gap”, initial direction right, speed 2.6: ["#######","#E.*.c#","#######","#c*boa#","#######","#b.S.a#","#######"]
6. “Crossroads”, initial direction left, speed 2.7: ["#######","#c.*.E#","#######","#/c.b%#","#a###.#","#%.So/#","#######","#b.*.a#","#######"]
7. “Detour”, initial direction left, speed 2.8: ["#########","#E.d*..c#","#########","#d.*.c.b#","#########","#.o.b..a#","#########","#a..S...#","#########"]
8. “Ring Road”, initial direction right, speed 2.9: ["#########","#c..*..E#","#########","#/..b..%#","#.#####.#","#a#####d#","#.#####.#","#%.oS../#","#########","#b.*cd.a#","#########"]
9. “Trap Door”, initial direction left, speed 3.0: ["#########","#d..*..E#","#########","#/.o..c%#","#.#####.#","#%.b.a./#","#########","#c.*.d.b#","#########","#a..S...#","#########"]
10. “Grand Switch”, initial direction right, speed 3.2: ["#########","#c.*..Ed#","#########","#/.d.b.%#","#.#####a#","#.#####.#","#%..o../#","#########","#c.*.bo.#","#########","#.o.S..a#","#########"]

The title screen should show a large glossy blue marble logo ringed in orange, the title “Portal Switch,” the subtitle “Flip the portal pairs. Guide the marble to the exit.”, a large green PLAY button, and a cream “How to Play” button. Add top-corner ? help and music-note mute buttons. PLAY opens a level-select card with a 5-column grid of ten rounded numbered level buttons, each showing its earned stars, plus “★ total / 30”; all levels are available immediately. Persist best stars and mute state locally.

During play, show a top HUD: home button, help button, centered cream level-name panel with “level number. name” and “★ collected / total · best ★★★”, pause button, and mute button. Along the bottom show the available numbered portal chips and a large green “GO ▶” button. After starting, the button becomes orange “↺ Reset ball”; pressing it resets the marble and collected stars. Show short dark toast tips based on each level’s tutorial text, and a first-use hint near the bottom explaining to tap GO and switch portals. Include pause, resume, retry, help/how-to-play, level results, next level, and final mission-completed screens. Results should show 1–3 animated gold stars, bonus-star count, time, number of portal switches, and “Try an alternate route for more stars!” when appropriate. The final screen should show “MISSION COMPLETED,” animated stars, total stars out of 30, and retry/levels controls.

Support touch and mouse interaction, keyboard shortcuts (Space/Enter for GO, 1–4 to select portal pairs, P/Escape pause, R retry, M mute, H/? help), responsive camera fitting for different aspect ratios, and a soft synthesized audio layer: ambient slow pad music, click/toggle/GO sounds, teleport sweep, bounce, mirror turn, star chime, hole fall, and win fanfare. Keep the game playable even if optional 3D asset loading fails by using simple geometric substitutes for the marble, rings, flag, and mascot.