Take The Red Orb by Gareth Jenkins

[raw]
made by Gareth Jenkins for LD26 (COMPO)
Take The Red Orb is an a minimalist action game that started off as a minimalist hidden object / point at the object type game. Original idea was to have a single red orb (or object at that time) in a sea of similarly-coloured objects. It's changed a little since then (more than one red orb, more of a focus on control and skill than on finding objects).

It's pretty simple: click on the red orbs to collect them, move the mouse to control the camera.

If you collect orbs quickly enough, you start accumulating score. At this point you need to continue to collect orbs at a consistent pace to not lose your score. All of this is pretty obviously manifest through the changing art and audio in the game.

Though at first it feels like you should be going for orbs as soon as you see them, to achieve higher score (by not making a mistake for longer) you'll want to hold on to some orbs while you plan a route (don't hold on to them for too long else they'll go away again).

This was bundles of fun to make -- about 4 hours design & basic controls yesterday, 2-3 hours of music making early this morning and then a solid 10-11 hours this afternoon & evening getting it all working right and integrated. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I did making (and playing) it ;)

* Note: the Linux version uses the Unity 4 Linux publishing preview -- I've tested it okay on Ubuntu but understand there may be issues on other distros.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.17 553
Audio 3.06 340
Fun 2.68 835
Graphics 3.55 249
Humor 1.64 980
Innovation 3.02 640
Mood 3.13 363
Theme 3.45 646

Feedback

Suese
29. Apr 2013 · 03:54 UTC
Psychedelic stuff man.
Jonatron
29. Apr 2013 · 07:13 UTC
Despite how simple it is, its actually hard to stop playing.
NiallM
29. Apr 2013 · 09:58 UTC
This is really effective. Love the visuals. It's a really compelling mechanic.
Nambew
29. Apr 2013 · 15:58 UTC
The game is fun and it's more difficult with my macbook touch pad.
nintendoeats
29. Apr 2013 · 16:45 UTC
Neat concept and looks quite nice. Sadly I am red/green colourblind...and cannot play this game with any level of skill.
iamorim
29. Apr 2013 · 19:38 UTC
What a trip! O.O Good work on this!
donan
29. Apr 2013 · 20:11 UTC
Reall physchedelic the camera xD. Its nice, but it needs some kind of effect when you click on the red spheres and some fx.
Galvesmash
29. Apr 2013 · 21:16 UTC
Great game!
multitude
29. Apr 2013 · 21:21 UTC
Awesome controls, graphics and sound. simply, yet hard master. i love it!
Liikeaturtle
29. Apr 2013 · 21:25 UTC
Very very cool
orangepascal
29. Apr 2013 · 21:25 UTC
almost claustrophobic ! love the looks of this one; simple gameplay, but fun
psychomonster
29. Apr 2013 · 23:30 UTC
hypnotizing :D
papa_troll
30. Apr 2013 · 00:02 UTC
Great sound, simple compelling play.
NuSan
01. May 2013 · 13:39 UTC
Simple but beauty. How to score is not realy obvious, but it add a little depth to it. I like the graphics.
kddekadenz
02. May 2013 · 16:24 UTC
Lags as hell for me: ~2 FPS (Linux Mint 12 32bit, 4GB Ram, 2x2 Ghz, Intel graphics chip)
Broxxar
02. May 2013 · 16:25 UTC
This I like. Seeing a lot of use of primitive shapes in unity being called minimalism but not achieving much. This however, just uses primitives and lighting to really create a cool environment.

My one and only suggestion would be to give all the spheres a pulsing animation, either translation, scale, or maybe both. Make the whole environment more dynamic.

Anyway, great use of theme, great mood created, well done.
EricTheCoolDude
02. May 2013 · 16:25 UTC
It is a thing of beauty! The gameplay is a bit simple for my tastes but the crazy amount of polish more than makes up for it.
dotteri
02. May 2013 · 17:16 UTC
Simple and addictive. Are we inside a giant molecule?
mrexcessive
03. May 2013 · 05:49 UTC
Great alien feel, quite creepy, love the music, game needs a bit more interest but I guess that would break the minimalism feel - maybe do something more with it now compo finished ? Would make a groovy screensaver for a wall sized whiteboard !
Hume
03. May 2013 · 15:07 UTC
Lots of polish, minimal gameplay. Unfortunately that combination is completely counter to my own priorities, but very very well executed.
lorancou
03. May 2013 · 15:13 UTC
Nice way of playing with the FOV! I find it a bit harsh that the score resets on the first misclick (max 35 for me... getting old). But still, nice atmosphere and nice game!
lotusgame
03. May 2013 · 15:23 UTC
Superb entry, it's beautiful and it fits very well the theme. Too bad there is no progression in the gameplay through time. The atmosphere is incredible. Bravo :)
elbowroom
05. May 2013 · 08:32 UTC
This was the best use of Unity I've seen so far in the competition. I have to say it would be a blessing if there was a clear indication of why you lose all your score (I've gotten up to 53 and then back to 0) as I read the instructions and did not seen anything in the HUD that shows how much time I have left between clicks and did not get a visual or acoustic cue that I lost my score because I clicked the wrong thing. Hope this helps (I did not detract points for this issue).
euwaku
05. May 2013 · 08:38 UTC
Never though I'd play an intestine simulation game on day.
FaBrito
05. May 2013 · 10:55 UTC
Really simple and well executed idea. It's intuitive but I would enjoy more audio and/or visual feedback when the chain is broken or when a new highscore is achieved...
the lights were well set, as sometimes it can make some misdirection about where's the red orb. Well done!
netmute
06. May 2013 · 12:01 UTC
Once I figured out how to get points it was pretty fun. Music was great, and graphics... come one, you already KNOW that the style is awesome! ;)
Pinkerator
06. May 2013 · 12:13 UTC
Wow very addictive game! Don't like that there is too little time to catch second red orb when you started combo, but anyway it's cool work :)
juaxix
06. May 2013 · 12:17 UTC
Trippy
someone
06. May 2013 · 14:35 UTC
The lights often made it impossible to see the colours properly.
Some feedback on hit/miss would have been useful.
Neat little game though.