Maxwell Rush by lanz

[raw]
made by lanz for LD26 (COMPO)
Hi all!
This is my first LD entry. Hope you'll have fun playing it!

Maxwell Rush is about being the Maxwell's demon. You have to sustain body temperature within acceptable limits using your force field to attract molecules and stop them from collisions with black walls(or to cause said collisions). Red walls are hot, they increase molecule's speed.

WHAT!
So basically in the top right corner you have thermometer with a black tick. When the tick reaches either end of the thermometer, game over. It goes to the left at a constant speed. Every bump of a molecule(blue ball) with any black wall pushes the tick a little to the right(the faster was molecule the greater the push). Bumping with a red wall doubles molecule speed. You can stop molecules with your body or push it in desired direction. Also press SPACE to pull molecules inside your forcefield (black circle) to you.
Press ESC to pause/unpause.
Blue bar in the top left will be getting smaller over time, so when it disappears you win!


It is written in C++ using awesome Qt4 framework and awesome Box2D engine.

To go to next level from the "Level completed" screen - click with the mouse.

Killer features:
-Become mighty ancient entity!
-Twiddle with physics!
-Science-y!
-Programmer art!
-Over 4 levels!
-Over 0.5 sound effects!
-Secret level!
-Earn stuff!
-The only game where you can earn respect!

Thank you all for voting and kind comments! .) Special for you here are POST-release version. Rate main entry, then be free to play
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14254457/Maxwell%20rush%20Pro.zip
It is ALOT easier, you can control demon with mouse("new-age modern"), also when you die, you restart at the level you died.

Ratings

Coolness 88% 2
Overall 3.14 584
Audio 2.00 931
Fun 2.90 637
Graphics 2.67 840
Humor 2.92 201
Innovation 3.60 205
Mood 2.55 889
Theme 3.15 917

Feedback

badlogic
29. Apr 2013 · 16:16 UTC
Fun idea and theme! Controls were a bit hairy, and i didn't get the goal of the game from the help screen immediately. +1 for using Qt :)
oskardevelopment
29. Apr 2013 · 16:33 UTC
Cool and very different! Couldn't figure out at what speeds the balls started to accelerate out of control though...
Hegemege
29. Apr 2013 · 16:37 UTC
Awesome game! "Heat is work and work is heat", check this youtube video about thermodynamics :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEqn-5XHpU

Nice work on the physics part, the awards were pretty fun as well. The dynamics of the game are really cool!
nseward
29. Apr 2013 · 16:41 UTC
Genius. I never thought of making that idea into a game. Physics nerds unite. Great game play.
FenrisWolf
29. Apr 2013 · 18:25 UTC
Very unique. Really fun.
Covenant
29. Apr 2013 · 19:31 UTC
Very cool, a bit too hard from the get go...
Control's could be tweaked to use the mouse, I think (like the mouse acting as an attractor to the big attractor thing)...
Very original!
Hertzila
29. Apr 2013 · 19:34 UTC
Very nice! The physics work well (only bugged out once) and the idea is great. Graphically it's a bit simple and there could have been more sounds. Overall, good work.
HelkeGames
30. Apr 2013 · 09:49 UTC
Nice game, very minimal ;)
fullmontis
30. Apr 2013 · 13:59 UTC
Took me a second to understand what's going on. Now I have to say I really like to concept! I'd dare to say that maybe mouse control would make it easier.
berkano
30. Apr 2013 · 14:03 UTC
Very original!! Found it quite difficult. Funny rewards :-)
pizzababies
30. Apr 2013 · 14:06 UTC
heh, I really like the reward system - that was really cute.
comrad_gremlin
30. Apr 2013 · 16:11 UTC
Had fun while playing it, the idea is definetely interesting :) You used QT really well, did not think it was capable of such things.
T800
30. Apr 2013 · 18:51 UTC
Very good entry, enjoyed very much!!! :)
JimmyLord
30. Apr 2013 · 19:32 UTC
Fun game. You earned a comb with hair! Level 5 is brutal... didn't see that coming.
Purplescape
30. Apr 2013 · 22:15 UTC
Once I got used to the controls, it was fun and interesting. I enjoyed it.
HuvaaKoodia
01. May 2013 · 12:56 UTC
Really challenging, but having to restart from level one every time got a bit tiresome.
JustinMullin
02. May 2013 · 13:47 UTC
Never seen anything like it before. It's very fun. I didn't catch initially that space controls the forcefield - that made it a lot easier! Still a good difficulty though, I think.
GranaDa
02. May 2013 · 14:13 UTC
Loved the awards. Controls are a bit hard but overall fun.
Proch
03. May 2013 · 09:34 UTC
loved it
Jod
03. May 2013 · 11:51 UTC
Quite clever! Love the physics of the thing, pretty cool!
sudorossy
03. May 2013 · 23:39 UTC
Interesting game, but It felt like nothing I did had any effect. I read through the instructions a few times, but I was still left quite confused.
rykounanba
06. May 2013 · 18:56 UTC
Fun idea, Fun game. Altough it seemed a little hard for me at times.
🎤 lanz
07. May 2013 · 15:48 UTC
Thank you all!
If you find it too hard, fell free to play post-compo version with mouse control.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14254457/Maxwell%20rush%20Pro.zip
Have fun!
Fabien Porée
09. May 2013 · 21:38 UTC
This is hard :)
Also very cool!
The end-level prizes are truly excellent.
Zim the Fox
17. May 2013 · 20:49 UTC
So my friend told me he wants me to make a game about Maxwell's demon and I said that I didn't think it'd work... Five in innovation and yay for physics! <3

And woohoo! I got re$spect.

The physics worked great (I should try Box2D in Python) though you can exploit them in level 4. Push a ball to a corner and hold it. Release to increase the temperature and hold it again. Finally, you should make MB1 attract in the post-compo version, and WASD still moves the demon.

Fantastic work!