I just noticed that Hemisphere Games have an alpha demo up for their IGF 2009 Seumas McNally Grand Prize nominated ambient puzzler, Osmos. The 7mb installer is here. It’s a game of cellular absorption, in which your self-propelled blob must absorb those smaller than itself to progress, while avoiding being absorbed itself. The trick is not to lose too much matter as your propel yourself. The resulting puzzle game is astonishingly soothing.
Trailer after the click.
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Looks interesting, similar to that PS3 game (flOw, was it? kinda like a germ version of Centipede). Can we zoom or is it automated to give us a better look of nearby cells?
And by Centipede I meant Snake. Also, can’t seem to edit posts.
Looks pretty sublime.
LOL, just a couple of hours ago I read the article/interview about it on the IndieGames.com blog (from the 16th, bad, baaad RPS!) and gave this one a try. I really liked the level with all the motes orbiting around a huge central one. Fun physics with lowering/elevating orbit by adjusting your speed. The other levels felt somewhat generic, though – hopefully when it’s not demo/alpha any more there will be more interesting ones.
Also: Diogo: both. And didn’t flOw start out as a flash game really? I remember playing that, though I have no idea which version came earlier.
Superb game. I like that it lets you drift around and become gigantic after the level is won, devouring everything in your path like Unicron.
And didn’t flOw start out as a flash game really?
Yes. It was released by Jenova Chen about a year before the PSN version (which has spiffier graphics but otherwise is basically the same game), as part of his thesis on adaptive difficulty in games.
In microbiology-related PC gaming news (!), have you seen the video Flashbang posted today ?
http://vimeo.com/2910568?pg=embed&sec=2910568
It’s a “first test” devoid of gameplay, but it looks niiiice
>> Soundtrack by Gas/High Skies, and Loscil
ohhh perfect <3 !
Played this a week or two ago – loved it to bits. I hope it does really well in the IGF finals. It’s such a ’softly, soflty, cathcy monkey kind of game’, very rare these days.
This was excellent. Really mellowing (though the last level was a little frustrating )
I really enjoy this game.
I played it once a some days ago. I liked it but I uninstalled it as soon as I had finished the demo levels. It didn’t strike me as something I would want to return to and I had already forgotten all about it until now. So, it’s worth a try but I’m not really looking forward to it.
PS: Funny fact: Tower of Goo gave me almost the exact same impression back when I played it for the first time so I guess my opinion of Osmos isn’t worth very much.
Well! That was interesting. Like Katamari, but without the time limit. (Also, it has physics.) I like that you can re-absorb your thruster-particles.
Let’s hope they manage some complex and varied levels, maybe with many different kinds of ‘motes’ competing for space and mass. And if they could do that in keeping with the mellow mood of their alpha levels, it could be very well 2009’s flOw.
Also, great soundtrack. Dyson and this introduced me to some fine ambient talents.
I gave this a try when going through the IGF submissions. Played the demo and then uninstalled. Not that I didn’t like it. Just that, well… meh…
A nice core idea, but the demo didn’t seem to suggest there was much more to it. Maybe they introduce more of these gaseous blobs, but I doubt that’d be enough – it just wasn’t fun – there is no level design, and the core movement dynamic just isn;t engaging enough.