Inertia - Super simple prototype

[bgordebak]

I was just prototyping an idea, and I ended up with this super simple weird thing written with LÖVE. 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:

inertia.love

(676 Bytes) Downloaded 228 times

[andrewj]

Phew, that is hard.

I managed 19 seconds.

[bgordebak]

Phew, that is hard.

I managed 19 seconds.

Thanks for trying the prototype. 19 seconds is good actually. I could make it easier by enlarging the blue rectangle or slowing down the square I guess, but this was just a prototype. I didn't try to optimize it very much.

But I think protoype did its job, because I can say that the game mechanic in the prototype isn't very good for a bigger game. Of course, I might be wrong about this.

Edit: Do you think the prototype is fun?

[andrewj]

It is fun for a minute or two. For such a simple concept, that is an achievement.

I think you couldn't really expand the concept much into a "real" game. It would be kinda cool if the square was a person, perhaps running up the screen (i.e. screen scrolls downward) and the goal is how far you can run before hitting the electric fence or laser beams ot whatever. Given the limited concept, that may not be worth the effort, though it would make a really good example game for the Lo"ve framework.

[bgordebak]

It is fun for a minute or two. For such a simple concept, that is an achievement.

I think you couldn't really expand the concept much into a "real" game. It would be kinda cool if the square was a person, perhaps running up the screen (i.e. screen scrolls downward) and the goal is how far you can run before hitting the electric fence or laser beams ot whatever. Given the limited concept, that may not be worth the effort, though it would make a really good example game for the Lo"ve framework.

That's what I thought.

Thanks for the feedback. That's much appreciated.

[Akien]

I guess you could also make the difficulty rise progressively:
start with a wide blue rectangle which stretches down to the size in your current prototype, and/or make the green square speed increase progressively.

[bgordebak]

I guess you could also make the difficulty rise progressively:
start with a wide blue rectangle which stretches down to the size in your current prototype, and/or make the green square speed increase progressively.

That's right, thanks. So players could play a little longer maybe.

[bgordebak]

I guess you could also make the difficulty rise progressively:
start with a wide blue rectangle which stretches down to the size in your current prototype, and/or make the green square speed increase progressively.

Actually at first I was thinking about a game in which you oppose to some forces that pull or push you in some direction. The goal in that game is to stay in the circle as much as possible. It wouldn't require this much key pressing. I think I just made a prototype of a prototype first.