In an effort to find what is fun and what can be extended into a game format, I've been playing around with scoring and how things work. Here's Version 18:
- Every time you move your cute mommy squid will let go of one of her cute little eggs!
- As everyone knows, squid eggs are not affected by gravity.
- Your cute factor will slowly increase with time (plus a few bonuses here and there)
- You will get style points if your cute squid eggs touch anything. Your babies want to see the universe! Help them explore!
- You get a style point bonus every time you move - this is multiplied by your cute factor, so the biggest points come from saving your ink for later!
- You have a limited amount of ink that's used in propelling you around. Touching objects will decrease your reserves. Squids aren't meant to breathe in the atmospheres of planets, silly!
- If you touch anything when you are out of ink, or if you lose any limbs because of rough handling, the game will end!
Try playing it here, and let me know what you think of this playstyle!
Posts
very cool Andy. I think the biggest sticking point for me is the control scheme.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that can be alleviated through making it more than just a line, and have it seem more like a bullet or thruster later on down the road, but I think the general control scheme gets in the way of what's interesting and that's the balance between keeping the squid out of contact with the planets while working to get the eggs to them.
That's a pretty tough task as it is, and right now it's hard to understand how to go about making the squid release the eggs. It's tough with these kinds of prototypes to separate the feel of the controls with what is possible since so many of these smaller physics based arcadey games are dependent on the game feeling really good.
Also, a more minor crit: I'd rather the ink be unlimited and just have a health-- for touch the planets.
nonetheless cool stuff.
Andy,
ReplyDeleteI love the physics in this game. Very nice!
I had trouble controlling where the eggs went. That is to say, I couldn't control them at all. So for me the game was pretty similar to v16: stay alive by not touching anything while conserving ink. And that game is pretty fun.
Is it possible for the squid to feel more alive by having him (her?) return to "normal" shape by him/herself over time? Sometimes I feel like I'm driving a corpse.
Looking forward to new versions!
Rob Shillingsburg
hmm, a phallic squid that humps planets and squirts out eggs. Interesting, very interesting. Is your next game about trains and tunnels?
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