By John Walker on October 3rd, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
Ever since I couldn’t get past the third level of Marble Madness, I’ve found a real affection for rolly-ball games. Even Super Monkey Ball! So I’m intrigued by a project from Aussie devs, Impromptu Games: InFlux. It’s a puzzle platformer, of sorts, in which you roll a small ball around what looks to be extremely varied locations, defying and embracing gravity. It looks at once calming and complex – just like me! You can see a bunch of footage below.
Impromptu describe the game as offering “meditative exploration”, which I think means it has some nice ambient music in the background. From what I understand, you are a mysterious metal sphere that has fallen from the sky into a desert island, rolling around in occasionally luscious environs, betwixt glass houses that contain abstract puzzles. Well, ignore my words, let’s use moving pictures:
This is the overworld, which shows some really gorgeous use of the UDK:
And this is a glass house puzzle room, that makes me feel a bit daunted:
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this game, by the way. It was originally spotted by Lewie in Feb 2011, when it had the horrendous name, Ballin’ Out Of Control. Oh thank goodness they changed that.
They’ve just got themselves into the braying cockfight of Greenlight, but I can’t see why it would have much trouble getting onto Steam and elsewhere through the usual channels.
03/10/2012 at 17:17 Gnoupi says:
Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’…
03/10/2012 at 17:42 Mejwell says:
Or, perhaps, a little more relevant?
03/10/2012 at 17:51 John Walker says:
Correct : )
03/10/2012 at 18:00 Gnoupi says:
True, though not the first one which pops into my head on such topic, apparently.
03/10/2012 at 18:41 ChampionHyena says:
Soul Coughing? Walker, I wanna hug you now.
04/10/2012 at 01:59 Jackablade says:
Man it’s been years since I’ve heard hide or hair of Soul Coughing.
04/10/2012 at 03:15 stupid_mcgee says:
Yeah, I immediately thought of that song. What a great band. M. Doughty’s solo stuff is okay, but nowhere near as awesome as Soul Coughing.
04/10/2012 at 04:57 KaelWolfcry says:
Man, a soul Coughing reference. Now I gotta dig up that album…
04/10/2012 at 09:39 RaveTurned says:
I immediately thought of a different song.
I am broken. I know this.
04/10/2012 at 17:53 tyren says:
I scrolled past this title five times before I realized what it was referencing.
I remember a video for that song playing on Cartoon Network when I was a kid.
03/10/2012 at 17:29 Firewill says:
It sure looks gorgeous, it reminds me of Switchball this ball-puzzler-ambient thing, also the fact the ball iluminates the ambient the different power ups and ambientations.
Anyways the puzzles ( atleast from what I can tell from the Glasshouse one ) looks fairly more complex and creative, I’m going to keep an eye out for this one!
03/10/2012 at 17:39 felisc says:
“ballin’ out of control” :)
silly name indeed
03/10/2012 at 17:42 SuperNashwanPower says:
The devs are jolly nice chaps too. I had a mini-conversationette with them in the greenlight comments. Apparently it is open world exploration, and you discover locations and explore them. Sort of a rolly Skyrim.
03/10/2012 at 17:55 Telzis says:
Dragonball!
Edit: The game itself looks like a 3D NightSky, not a bad thing.
03/10/2012 at 18:03 yandexx says:
This reminds me of a little nice puzzle game called Ballance where you could change ball’s state to stone, wood or paper.
03/10/2012 at 18:37 Lekker Pain says:
Kula World.
03/10/2012 at 19:16 Ross Angus says:
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw … how does it go again?
03/10/2012 at 23:29 Greggh says:
waitaminute, this (type of) game is coming to the PC?!?!
What next? Katamari Damacy?? My! This is great news!
04/10/2012 at 06:46 emertonom says:
Did you not play “The Wonderful End of the World”?
04/10/2012 at 00:59 archagon says:
Within a Deep Forest 3D?
04/10/2012 at 01:42 Joe W-A says:
Thanks guys!
If anyone has questions about the game feel free to ask in here.
04/10/2012 at 06:03 kodx says:
It’s reminds me NeverBall http://neverball.org/index.php
04/10/2012 at 10:58 Laffles says:
First screen reminds me of mirrors edge. Looks interesting.