Team Done Button vs. Team Wait — a SliceMaster Done Button Broadcast

The SliceMaster Done button is what you press after drawing your lines, but you don’t actually have to press it. If you lift your finger and wait, the game wraps the round up for you. This post puts a button-presser and a hands-off waiter into the same round and walks through the difference as a broadcast script. One of the differences touches your score directly.

S#1  Booth · just before the round

(A level banner fills the middle of the screen. Both players sit in front of the same round.)

Play-by-play Here’s today’s round. Player A presses the button when finished; Player B lifts the finger and waits.

Analyst When a round starts, the banner comes first. Until it fades and the object appears, there’s nothing to touch.

S#2  Booth · countdown

(The number ticks down. A finger hint hovers near the object.)

Play-by-play Three, two, one. At the starting line the two players are identical.

S#3  Booth · drawing

(Both players swipe the same way. A glowing trail sweeps across the object.)

Analyst You can’t tell them apart so far. You draw a straight line, and if you bend it, each bend adds another line.

Play-by-play But the trail vanishes the moment the finger lifts?

Analyst Yes. It glows while you draw and disappears when you let go, and the actual cuts are applied all at once after input ends. You only see the result once it’s over.

S#4  Booth · Player A’s hand

(Player A, lines all drawn, glances to the top of the screen. A blue button glows and pulses.)

Player A All drawn. Done.

Play-by-play Pressed! The input phase ends right there.

S#5  Booth · Player B’s hand

(Player B lifts the finger and rests both hands on the knees. The booth starts to buzz.)

Play-by-play Player B isn’t pressing the button, just sitting there. Giving up?

Analyst Not at all. If you’ve drawn at least one line fewer than the target and then stay hands-off for 1.5 seconds, the game treats it as if you’d pressed Done. It’s there so someone who doesn’t know about the button doesn’t lose the time bonus.

Play-by-play But there’s a condition, right?

Analyst Yes. With too few lines, the automatic finish doesn’t kick in. And it doesn’t check whether the pieces came out right. It only counts lines and ends the round.

S#6  Booth · the two side by side

Analyst Let’s put it in a table.

Play-by-play So the whole gap is 1.5 seconds. Can 1.5 seconds turn into points?

Analyst It can, because the time bonus is the remaining seconds, rounded down, times 1000. Say Player A presses with 11.9 seconds left: that’s 11,000 points. If Player B lifted at the same moment, the game ends 1.5 seconds later with 10.4 seconds left, so 10,000. Waiting 1.5 seconds can cost you 1,000 to 2,000 bonus points. Those numbers are made up for illustration.

S#7  Booth · replay

(The moment it ends, the screen changes. Both players’ rounds play out in the same order.)

Play-by-play Going to the replay. Whether it ended by button or by waiting, from here on you can’t tell them apart.

S#8  Booth · the time bonus line

(Once all the numbers are in, a blue line appears at the bottom of the screen.)

Analyst This line is the punchline of today’s comparison. It’s the remaining seconds times 1000. If Player A and Player B finish the same round with the same lines, this is the only number that differs.

Play-by-play Sum it up for us.

Analyst If you’re sure you’re done, press the button. If you’ve drawn everything but you’re busy and can’t reach the button, just lift your finger and the game presses it for you 1.5 seconds later. If you want to save every point, the button is 1.5 seconds faster.