White Lines is a new watch and repeat game from Kyle T. Webster, a web illustrator and designer with an eye for simplicity. This intended simple design element shines in White Lines via its uncluttered visuals and straightforward game play.
White Lines Pros:
- Smooth animations and nice fade-out effects
- Mellow music track fits well with the relaxed theme
- OpenFeint online leaderboard and 15 achievements
White Lines Cons:
- Maybe too minimalist for some
If you’re familiar with Simon Says and the plethora of similar memory demanding games, White Lines’ objective won’t be hard to grasp. Studying a displayed pattern, memorizing it, and then repeating it is the name of the game. What’s interesting is the way White Lines approaches this tried-and-true method. Brush strokes appear on screen in a prescribed order. Players must emulate the displayed pattern in the order it appeared. A pattern could be made up of one vertical stroke on the right, one on the left , and a horizontal stroke across the center. Yet, White Lines raises the difficulty meter by demanding that the player also recreate the direction of strokes. So, a right-hand stroke’s direction might be downward, the middle stroke toward the left, and so forth. Diagonal strokes come into play as well. White Lines indicates the beginning of a new pattern combo with a green dot on screen. A red “X” signals a wrong move. Players get two chances to replicate each combination. A second failure ends the game. We could see this app coming is handy for those learning Chinese Hànzì character calligraphy as these symbols are based on stroke order. This might be a nice White Lines spin-off game for the App Store.
Graphically, White Lines can be described as minimalistic. Animations of the strokes are smooth and incorporate a nice fade-out effect. Users can play their own iPod music library (if launched beforehand) or listen to the provided track. No sound effects are included, but we liked the ambient music accompaniment. An instruction screen gives a quick run-down of game play rules. Scoring is tabulated using point blocks awarded for each successful stroke. Point blocks vary per difficulty level starting with 5 points in Easy mode and maxing out at 100 points per correct stroke in Are You Nuts? mode. White Lines contains five levels of difficulty. All are unlocked and can be played from the get-go. However, graduating to the next level happens automatically within each level.
While White Lines is on the uncomplicated side of iPhone gaming, we did have fun with it around the office. Everyone loved the soundtrack and smooth visuals. Sound effects are on the repetitive side, but blend well with the musical score. Online leaderboards and achievements are available through newly added OpenFeint integration. Utilizing the online leaderboard and 15 achievements, players have reason to come back to White Lines. Multitouch gestures would also be a welcome addition. As it stands, White Lines provided a stylish, uncluttered twist on an old favorite. We draw 4-Dimples for this $0.99 app.
