Physics Games and Physics-Based Game Downloads

(Rate this game! 87 votes, average: 3.02 out of 5)

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Factory Pinball, “the ragdoll pinball game”, should really have just called itself Ragdoll Pinball. The name alone would perfectly communicate the game concept. Factory Pinball was created by XZM Productions, a team of three, for the Assembly ’05 game development competition. Although the game is a bit self-explanatory, here’s their readme.txt description for good measure:

Factory Pinball is a customizable ragdoll based physics pinball game. The objective is to hit the “ball” with the paddles and keep it from falling down.

Pinball Goodness!

Factory Ragdoll isn’t just a physics test with some paddles. The developers created a complete, if somewhat simplistic, pinball experience. You have a scoring system, bumpers, spinners, and various letters to light up. There are challenges, too–a switch could trigger “hit the crate 15 times in 90 seconds”, for instance. All in all it feels like a very authentic pinball experience (although no multiball?).

The physics are fairly standard. The simulation is stable, even at high speeds, and the ragdolls bounce around as expected. The “ball” starts out as a human ragdoll, and occasionally swaps to other ragdolls, such as a cow or giraffe. Although the various ragdolls have differing geometry, the net effect of their behavior is pretty similar. You don’t need to change up your strategy if you’re dealing with the cow rather than giraffe, for instance.

Visual Muddiness

What bugs me most about Factory Pinball are actually the graphics. Granted, they were done by one person, and probably under a brutally tight schedule, but the contrast is very muddy. It’s hard to visually track the character, and the obstacles blend in with the background. Sharper contrast would definitely serve the game well.

Included Editor

My criticism of the artwork is stopped short by the available editor, though. If I really wanted to change the art, or design new obstacles, or even an entire table, I could. The editor tool is a little clunky–no undo, no contextual menu, little documentation–but if one was determined to make something I’m sure it’s possible.

(Factory Pinball Game Screenshots)

Free Game Download

The game and its editor have been released as a free download, so check them out! Factory Pinball is a solid implementation of a neat concept. There’s certainly a lot of headroom in the design–I’d love to see the ragdoll pinball concept fleshed out even more.

Download Factory Pinball Game (10.5 MB) [mirror]
Download Editor (7.2 MB) [mirror]

The Factory Pinball webpage is awfully sparse, but here’s the link for completeness. Thanks to Ben Clark for emailing me the link!

(Rate this game! 188 votes, average: 3.89 out of 5)

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David Thorburn of the marvelous Teagames just released his latest Flash physics game, TG Motocross 2. It’s pretty much the best web-based trials motorcycle game I’ve seen to date. Let’s take a closer look:

Well-Tuned Game Design

The play mechanic in TG Motocross 2 is extremely well tuned. The rider and bike aren’t sluggish, but they don’t feel too jumpy and sensitive either. The game hits a very nice sweet spot where you feel like you’re rightfully in control of your own actions. It’s easy to control, yet still retains a high enough level of fidelity in the simulation to be interesting.

TG Motocross 2 utilizes controls similar to other trials games. Up and down correspond to accelerate and brake, and left and right fluidly control your rider’s stance. Properly controlling your rider’s position is the key skill for any trials bike game. It quickly becomes a matter of intuition, rather than deliberate calculation. You soon learn how to preload your rider for extra spring in jumps, how to climb hills, how to absorb the shock of landings, and so on.

Level Design

The level design in TG Motocross 2 is adequate, although slightly repetitive. What it lacks in variation it makes up for in quality; the levels have a very nice flow to them. The jumps are spaced just the right distance apart, and the bike has a very decent top speed (the mini-map really helps out for seeing what’s coming up).

Overall, I would’ve liked to see more technical sections. Some of the later levels in Trials: Mountain Heights are a great example of how to make insanely well-crafted trials levels. It’s difficult to make the levels hard to play without making them frustrating to play as well.

(TG Motocross 2 Game Screenshots)

One Click Away

TG Motocross 2 is a fantastic example of the power of Flash for game design. It’s a physics-based, fast-paced action game, and it runs right in your browser. I can’t wait to see what kinds of games Flash Player 9 will enable. The new virtual machine is said to be a huge speed improvement.

Play TG Motocross 2 here (free web game, Flash 8)

Or head on over to Teagames to check out their other physics-based Flash games.

(Rate this game! 159 votes, average: 2.94 out of 5)

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Bloboats is a neat physics game by Markus “MakeGh” Kettunen. He entered the game into the Assembly ’06 Game Development Competition. The competition has some other great-looking titles, so be sure to check out the other entires. I found Bloboats wholly enjoyable, even if it is a little sparse on polish. The readme.txt describes the game as:

Bloboats is a boat racing game in which the objective is to reach the goal as fast as possible, at least faster than your friend does. Perhaps the poor ship, MS Enterprise, is always in distress, or something.

Fun with Buoyancy

The physics modeling in Bloboats is rather straightforward. There isn’t a sophisticated fluid dynamics system at work or anything along those lines. When particles of your boat are underwater, they’re pushed upwards. Gravity and collisions work as you would expect. Your boat’s engine only provides thrust when it’s submerged.

Despite these simple mechanics, I found Bloboats a lot of fun to play. The mechanic had a nice toy feeling to it, and was decently controllable. It took a few minutes to learn how to keep the boat horizontal, but after that things were smooth sailing. The undulating waterline is a neat concept, although overall I think the game doesn’t live up to the potential of its design.

More Content Needed

Primarily, Bloboats needs more content in the way of coherent level design. The game has a fair amount of levels (17), but they’re relatively homogenous. I really would have liked to see the level design take on a more experimental edge, with very strongly themed levels. It’s hard to push this too far. Even gimmicky is better than repetitive.

There’s plenty of head room left to take a play mechanic like this to completely embellish it: weapons, enemy boats, power-ups, submarines, you name it.

(Bloboats Game Screenshots)

It’s Free!

Still, Bloboats provides a great amount of fun for a great price: completely and absolutely free. It’s a great example of an unexplored physics mechanic, and there’s even a hidden Bloboats Invaders game to boot.

Download Bloboats Game (8.2 MB) [mirror]

Be sure to check out the other entries in Assembly ’06 Game Development Competition.