LÖVE

I was just prototyping an idea, and I ended up with this super simple weird thing. The idea in the game is simple: You try not to move.

I had a game on my C64 years ago about winter olympics. You needed to shake the joystick right and left quickly to gain speed. I remember breaking joysticks while trying to move. Well, I could simply give up playing the game, but you know, I was a stupid kid.

In this game you try to stay where you are as much as possible. When you press right or left, the timer starts and your square starts to move and doesn't stop until you die. When you reach to the right or left side of the blue rectangle you die. You need to press right and left constantly and quickly to move as little as possible.

When you die, you can see how many seconds you survived. My personal best is 32 seconds.

I'm thinking about a game with a mechanic similar to this one.

Screenshot:
Here's the thing:

Pretty cool! Games that are super simple but still challenging have an interesting draw to them. I actually have a pretty similar idea that I might work on soon. How are you planning on expanding on this?

Tesselode wrote:Pretty cool! Games that are super simple but still challenging have an interesting draw to them. I actually have a pretty similar idea that I might work on soon. How are you planning on expanding on this?

Thanks! I'm not sure how I'm going to expand this mechanic. I'm not even sure if it needs to be developed further.

I mean, I have a game idea with a game mechanic somehow similar to this, but I'm not very sure if I should pursue that. Do you think the prototype is fun?

purplehuman wrote:

Tesselode wrote:Pretty cool! Games that are super simple but still challenging have an interesting draw to them. I actually have a pretty similar idea that I might work on soon. How are you planning on expanding on this?

Thanks! I'm not sure how I'm going to expand this mechanic. I'm not even sure if it needs to be developed further.

I mean, I have a game idea with a game mechanic somehow similar to this, but I'm not very sure if I should pursue that. Do you think the prototype is fun?

I don't know if I would call it fun...it's pretty frustrating and it makes your fingers hurt. There is beauty to its design, though, even if I wouldn't every play it.

Tesselode wrote:I don't know if I would call it fun...it's pretty frustrating and it makes your fingers hurt. There is beauty to its design, though, even if I wouldn't every play it.

Thanks for the feedback. It's hard, that's true. I could make it a little easier maybe by enlarging the blue rectangle or slowing down the square. But I think this prototype served its purpose.

This mechanic could be used as a mini-mechanic in a larger game. For example in Tony Hawks games, the balancing mechanic on rails is very similar. I could also imagine this in some sort of lock-picking minigame within a larger game.

micha wrote:This mechanic could be used as a mini-mechanic in a larger game. For example in Tony Hawks games, the balancing mechanic on rails is very similar. I could also imagine this in some sort of lock-picking minigame within a larger game.

Thanks for the feedback. I kinda need to think about it I guess.

micha wrote:This mechanic could be used as a mini-mechanic in a larger game. For example in Tony Hawks games, the balancing mechanic on rails is very similar. I could also imagine this in some sort of lock-picking minigame within a larger game.

Actually, I was a thinking about a mechanic, where you oppose to forces that pull or push you in some direction. You try to stay in the circle as much as possible. This is a prototype for that prototype I guess.

I should've done that first maybe.

I managed 10 seconds by spamming left and right as quickly as possible to negate the high-speed movements as much as possible.

I don't think key spam is a particularly rewarding mechanic. Perhaps a larger box? The score could be distance traveled rather than time survived so that my tactic doesn't produce much score?

lost_RD wrote:I managed 10 seconds by spamming left and right as quickly as possible to negate the high-speed movements as much as possible.

I don't think key spam is a particularly rewarding mechanic. Perhaps a larger box? The score could be distance traveled rather than time survived so that my tactic doesn't produce much score?

Thank you for the feedback.

Yeah, a larger box would make it a little easier, but I don't think it'd be more rewarding. I think I prototyped the wrong idea. The other idea I mentioned (opposing to forces to stay in the circle mechanic), as I imagined, wouldn't require too much keypresses but it'd require a good timing.

I will prototype that idea soon too.