SameOrb by Alink

[raw]
made by Alink for LD23 Warm-Up (-)
Classic match the color game, as SameGame, but with physics which allows to have special fancy orbs.

Click on them to activate. You can also push them around a bit, but it's tricky (on purpose, mostly, and easier with some). Try few levels to check the special orbs. Space to spend a life. 'R' to restart. 'N' to skip a level.

It is classic stuff but I always loved that kind of games and wanted to play safe for the warmup. I started with a basic Box2D-Haxe prototype moving a bunch of balls, mainly to test the library. Then I added the color matching to have an interaction and a goal. Since each level was the same, I introduced fancy balls for variety (and experiment with the physics parameters). After that, I needed to provide a solution when blocked, so I added lives and a tricky pusher-cursor. I like playing the result, even with its current flaws. I will probably come back to it after the LD, because many simple ideas and improvements were cut just for time reasons.

Feedback

gulaghad
16. Apr 2012 路 05:20 UTC
Nice idea and very polished.
I think you can add even more variation to levels with mechanics like screen tilting or shaking.
Jiyko
16. Apr 2012 路 09:30 UTC
Nice warm up! It plays well on my tablet too.
galman
16. Apr 2012 路 12:16 UTC
Amazing idea, great work!
uberneen
16. Apr 2012 路 12:33 UTC
This is a great take on a classic game. The physics cursor was a nice touch.
馃帳 Alink
16. Apr 2012 路 16:12 UTC
Thanks, glad you like it.
@gulaghad: yeah, I had many more ideas for this, but wanted to stop at the end of the weekend as a time management exercise. I will come back to it after the competition.

@Jiyko: good, I forgot to think about mouseless users. I hope that the pusher doesn't require to much precision.

@uberneen: "physics cursor", good name, I never know how to call this :)
Entity2d
17. Apr 2012 路 19:45 UTC
Rather clever use of physics in this game! Nice work!
sf17k
18. Apr 2012 路 05:13 UTC
This is incredibly fun. I actually like that you have to watch your clicks and time things right to not screw up sometimes. It never feels like the game's fault when I make a mistake.