By Alec Meer on May 31st, 2010 at 6:24 pm.
Speed is POWER. But speed is also DEATH. Gain power, gain speed, gain death. Alex Bethke’s Starfall, created for the most recent Experimental Gameplay Project contest (theme: High Velocity) is as simple as a videogame can be, and that is exactly why you’ll be playing it for hours.
Collect the glowing orbs to increase your score, but suffer an associated boost to your speed – during which you will struggle to avoid the nasty red orbs. Well, you won’t, you awful show-off, but the rest of us will be cursing the rush of deadly, precious speed.
Ever so simple, ever so thrilling and ever so tense: it’s like drunk driving without the absolute, indefensible idiocy.
Thanks to Michael Cook for the tip.
31/05/2010 at 18:29 Daniel Rivas says:
Oh, I see. It’s a bit like guitar hero, complete with what appear to be System of a Down lyrics.
31/05/2010 at 18:32 Tom OBedlam says:
Interesting, but sadly unable at the library on my touchpad :(
31/05/2010 at 19:52 Cooper says:
Same here. Keyboard controls pls k thx bai
31/05/2010 at 18:48 M says:
What I loved about this was that you got that sort of momentum feeling where the game was going ever so slightly faster than you could think. It was why I loved Mirror’s Edge when it really got going.
EGP always gives good talk.
31/05/2010 at 19:01 Mario Figueiredo says:
Impossible to play. Did like the mosaic artsy.
31/05/2010 at 19:12 westyfield says:
Ugh, I can’t play this. The dreams are all blurry and move very fast, which makes my eyes want to focus on them even more, and gives me a massive headache.
Plus I’m terrible at it.
The mosaic style is nice though.
31/05/2010 at 19:25 Devenger says:
Set a high score (at least, I think those are high scores). I expect it to last a whole 3 minutes.
Interesting stylistically, but pretty random gameplay-wise. When you are moving at any great speed, collisions become a happy coincidence, not a result of reaction or decision. Not sure how you’d solve that, though.
31/05/2010 at 19:41 Nikica says:
Daft Punk!
31/05/2010 at 19:43 robrob says:
Speed is also DEATH, the new game from Jason Rohrer.
31/05/2010 at 19:47 LukeE says:
Needs more responsive controls. A twitchy gridrunner-style racey thing might appeal to me. This just annoys me, every time I hit something bad, or miss something good because it doesn’t move fast enough to follow the cursor.
31/05/2010 at 20:02 Internet Friend says:
Play this thing for hours? Really? I must be missing something, it seems entirely unplayable.
31/05/2010 at 21:16 Flimgoblin says:
Wonder if this game’s playability depends on the scan rate of your monitor… an old school LCD would rock…
01/06/2010 at 00:15 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Would be better if it had more of a flow-like gameplay (as in: instead of blasting paralysing speed during which you can’t do very much).. but then, I’d suspect it’d be a different game.
As it is, it hasn’t much of a flow experience and it isn’t much of an arcade (dodger game?) game as well. Shame, really.
01/06/2010 at 00:55 windlab says:
You’ve had your five minutes. ;)
I found that focussing upon the orbs didn’t work terribly well, and that it was easier to hand it over to the subconscious and let things blur by.
01/06/2010 at 04:59 drewski says:
I basically concentrated on missing red things, and collecting whatever else happened to be where the orb was.
I got bored before the game finished.
01/06/2010 at 06:16 Tom says:
This is not a game. It feels more like of one of those annoying ‘gamelike’ flash ads.
01/06/2010 at 07:44 Snall says:
Too easy, could go for ever if u didnt get bored.
01/06/2010 at 22:01 Octacon100 says:
I gotz the high score!!!1
But really, it’s pretty fun. After you get the mask though, all you have to do is just go get a coffee while the game wins itself for you.
03/06/2010 at 06:13 luckystriker says:
A nice bit of fun. But like others have said, just too easy.
05/06/2010 at 04:53 gamer says:
garbage…