The real joy of bridge-building games is in the destruction. The challenge of making death trap bridges that will crumble at the slightest provocation. I can’t be the only person who puts effort into weakening bonds and lengthening rods, then laughing and clapping as a train nosedives into a ravine, can I? There’s room for many, many more structural puzzle games in my life, so I was pleased to find Sinking Ship Simulator, a game that understands the desire to watch the world crumble. Here it’s about the fun of watching 5000 springs wobbling, tensing, straaaaaining, before the inevitable point of no return, where it all goes a bit Poseidon Adventure.
There’s not much of a game in it, yet. Just a demo where you can plop a ship into the water and watch as the stress takes its toll. Well-made boats won’t start dropping until you begin plucking away at them: left mouse will crumble any of the structure beneath your pointer, enabling you to lightly distress the hull and watch the pressure spread out. The longer you hold it, the more stress you put on it, and you can even slice right through the whole ship. If that’s too benevolent, you also have control of wave height, strength, and frequency.
You can build boats by drawing them out in MS Paint and importing them into the game as a PNG, so that’s a little clumsy. I made the SS Buck, and it crumbled before it hit the water.
The sandbox edition is free to download via the Steam Greenlight page. It’s the testbed for a more complete edition that the will include challenges like building boats that can travel certain distances, or seeing if your build can survive a hurricane. Though that will only be made if the IndieGoGo money is met.
22/05/2013 at 11:14 Capt. Eduardo del Mango says:
YES. That looks superb, I shall download it promptly.
Incidentally, watching aircraft crash in Rise of Flight has a similar joy to it – because the physics model carries on working on all bits of the (extremely flimsy canvas and twine) aircraft it crumples in an extremely pleasing fashion, a little bit like a moth having been hit with a badminton racquet. Physics in action is cool when it breaks stuff.
22/05/2013 at 11:29 Gap Gen says:
This is actually horrifying to watch.
22/05/2013 at 11:37 baby snot says:
I think random snippets of dialogue and screams would make this splendid.
22/05/2013 at 11:43 Gap Gen says:
Maybe a string quartet playing on the deck, people falling off as it cracks in two.
22/05/2013 at 15:20 scatterlogical says:
Somebody call Celene Dion.
22/05/2013 at 11:49 sinister agent says:
Running crowds and a tiny string quartet.
Edit: Sunova
22/05/2013 at 13:43 Gap Gen says:
23/05/2013 at 00:17 sinister agent says:
I feel a strong kinship with the dude at 38 seconds in.
22/05/2013 at 14:31 Chaz says:
23/05/2013 at 02:09 terasjdbad says:
22/05/2013 at 13:34 LionsPhil says:
Needs more air bubbles escaping in big, gloopy bursts.
22/05/2013 at 23:33 pac0master says:
The ship will sink faster and will create debris and some kind of air bubble as it sink.
:3
22/05/2013 at 19:16 Carbonated Dan says:
I grew up in southampton and visited titanic memorials and museums quite often as a kid
watching it break in two was tremendously unsettling
22/05/2013 at 11:34 Skiv says:
According to this sandbox test, Titanic splitted into 3 pieces.. interesting.. Will have to test it once i get home from work
22/05/2013 at 23:37 pac0master says:
My fault. i broke some part of the bow by accident in the video. The new model i will release later on will not.
22/05/2013 at 11:39 jkz says:
Apparently, making the funnels out of jelly was a bad design decision.
22/05/2013 at 11:39 Bhazor says:
Oh an Xbox One simulator.
22/05/2013 at 11:47 guygodbois00 says:
They’d hit rock bottom with this one.
22/05/2013 at 12:13 Lumberjack_Man says:
Agreed, there’s Rockall here to interest me.
22/05/2013 at 12:23 Bhazor says:
I forsee a Titanic flop
22/05/2013 at 14:49 Grargh says:
If they don’t at least break even, it will tear me apart.
22/05/2013 at 15:23 scatterlogical says:
I’ll have a sinking feeling if this doesn’t make waves.
22/05/2013 at 15:28 Antonius says:
The idea of this game makes me wet…
22/05/2013 at 15:03 Gap Gen says:
Sonar, and yet sofar.
22/05/2013 at 15:43 phuzz says:
Oh Ship!
(go into ‘Options>Show’ and reduce the sea depth, and all of the debris on the sea floor will shoot up into the air, hilarious!)
22/05/2013 at 11:56 communisthamster says:
It’d be neat to see this tech just as a sidepiece to a game centred on other things. Like, you’re a little person on this ship, and the game is an adventure game, or something.
22/05/2013 at 12:25 FhnuZoag says:
Hmmm, a naval themed FTL-with-physics would be nice…
22/05/2013 at 12:06 Spoon Of Doom says:
A ship version of Bridge Builder? Can anyone not love the idea of that? I’m in!
Edit: Took a look at the Indiegogo. The 50$ tier looks especially interesting and unique, and I would probably buy that if I wasn’t rather broke right now (emphasis mine):
22/05/2013 at 15:32 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Throw in the bridges too. Then I can build a bridge and build a boat, and see if the bridge and the boat can survive a collision.
22/05/2013 at 12:21 jellydonut says:
WHY IS THIS SO MUCH FUN
STOP ME
ALSO I WORK AT SEA THIS SHOULD BE TRAUMATIZING, NOT FUN.
22/05/2013 at 14:43 solidsquid says:
BUILD THE SHIP YOU’RE ON CURRENTLY THEN SINK IT :D
22/05/2013 at 17:21 Sassenach says:
IF THE ONE YOU’RE REALLY ON SINKS TOO, THE SIMULATION WILL NEED TO BE TONED DOWN.
22/05/2013 at 23:39 pac0master says:
Woops ….
22/05/2013 at 13:40 Cinek says:
Looks rather unrealistic…
I mean… since when masts are made of rubber?
22/05/2013 at 14:42 Bhazor says:
Not the best sinking ship sim I’ve played but still a damn fine one.
22/05/2013 at 15:04 Gap Gen says:
Needs more Jazz Boatman.
23/05/2013 at 01:53 guygodbois00 says:
Yes, quite frankly, everything needs more of Jazz Boatman.
22/05/2013 at 18:40 Lev Astov says:
I love games like this. I remember playing Pontifex in college and after getting bored, making complex bridge destruction mechanisms.
After forgetting about the game for a year, a classmate of mine started poking around it on my PC while a bunch of us worked on a project in my dorm. He brought up a bridge I’d done and exclaimed at how elegant and simple it was, given the resources allowed for the challenge. Then the giant guillotine blade dropped from the sky, shearing the bridge and train clean in half. We all nearly died laughing.
22/05/2013 at 23:41 pac0master says:
Agreed, I had a lot of fun with bridge construction set and bridge building game. I hope you will have fun with this game too
22/05/2013 at 19:17 tumbleworld says:
It’s time for a remake of SCRAM!, the classic Atari nuclear power plant disaster simulator.
22/05/2013 at 19:21 Tei says:
A few coworkers and me have tried the techdemo, and had hilarious result. I think I remember games like Pontifex, that maybe simulate 8 nodes. This thing simulate millions nodes!.
At one point, one of my coworkers made a city made of Eiffel Towers and underground domes. It was fucking hilarious to see the whole city collapse. This thing is great.
22/05/2013 at 19:29 Tei says:
While doing experiments, we have discovered that by well placed C4 in ships we can save lives, by stoping a ship from sinking vertically making it sink at the same time on different parts. We also have learned to make something like “lifepods”, that are part of the boat that sink with the boat, but after a while float to the surface.
22/05/2013 at 20:22 hotmaildidntwork says:
After occupants, maybe the dev should model death by nitrogen bubbles? >:D
22/05/2013 at 19:43 junglist 69 says:
I cracked up when i watched this….
22/05/2013 at 20:19 JToTheDog says:
I love it. unfortunately I have a water glitch where it’s a solid colour. Either that or it starts blinking and giving me seizures.
22/05/2013 at 23:34 pac0master says:
I would like to thanks RPS for the nice review of my Game. You helped us so much, tons of people come and donated over goal i was aiming at in only one day. All the money over will also be used on the project. This mean, we will be able to give you new features never listed. Its all a surprise for you guys!
Thank you!
23/05/2013 at 01:19 Silenus says:
Not a single mention of the Silent Hunter series? Watching ships sink was both beautiful and horrifying. And the sound of the buckling metal giving way to silence as the ships slipped into the dark was always an incredibly solemn experience.
23/05/2013 at 17:55 maninahat says:
Reminds me of my Silent Hunter 3/4 days, wherein I’d sit by and happily watch a ship painfully break apart and drown in the sea. It’s an unspeakably horrific thing to think about for any length of time.