Physics based puzzles games have always been popular with gamers of all demographics. There's something about items in games behaving exactly like they would in real life that gives the game that little edge over everything else. It must be the added realism that allows the user to get more immersed in what is going on and not want to leave the game for a little bit longer.
Pixle Physics is no exception. Each level contains blocks of different sizes stacked on platforms. Your task is to fire projectiles at the blocks and knock them off the platform. Points are awarded for all blocks knocked down and taken away for knocking down "bad" red blocks. The puzzle element comes in the form of having to figure out the right power and trajectory of your shot. There is also a choice of different sized projectiles. The advantage of a bigger ball is more momentum which increases the chance of sending those blocks flying off the screen. However this extra power comes at the cost of points once the score is counted.
Judging by how even the simplest of physics games (such as this one) are popular its a surprise that there aren't more of them. There are only a handful released each month and few of them do anything ground breaking. One reason this may be is that the mathematics required to code the game is a barrier to entry that casual developers cant overcome. There are hundreds if not thousands of tutorials about making games online that any good student can follow and use to create half decent games. However the maths required to figure out trajectories, gravity, momentum, friction and make sure everything is obeying Newtons laws of physics is a lot harder than simple algebra. The coding has to be pretty accurate as anything that doesn't behave like the user expects will ruin the illusion and bring the player out of their immersion bubble.
It's a shame that Pixle physics doesn't expand on any game play elements that have been done before. There are potentially many things that can be thrown into the game such as a wider variety of blocks, perhaps some rope physics or walls that cause blocks to bounce or even gels that cause other blocks to stick. These extra feature however would all require more maths coding which might take the production time of these simple flash games up by weeks if not months. If all you want is a simple puzzle game then this wont leave you disappointed.
Hints and Tips:
As a general rule if you knock the bottom blocks out of a structure the others should fall down
The platforms are slippy, you don't need as much force as you initially think to make blocks side off
If you get stuck on a level try firing your ball in random directions to see if anything happens that inspires you.
You can find more flash game reviews as well as the games themselves to play for free at: http://www.eurogr.com/
No comments :
Post a Comment