Escape from Flatland: an Adventure of Two Dimensions by pdyxs
This game is somewhat of an adaptation of Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbot, though that wasn't really my intention going in.
My intention, instead, was to use the Facebook API and social network to create an asynchonous co-operative experience, where players worked together to complete the game and the story.
I've done this to the extent that the game is quite possibly impossible to finish alone, and still very hard to finish when working with others (note: the social aspect is hidden at first, but becomes consequential once you get to the later levels, and hopefully will become apparent).
This is pretty much an experiment, partly in story and partly in social media. I'd love to hear your takes on it.
(please note that for the social aspect to work at all, it requires you and one of your facebook friends to play. It also only really kicks in after you're both at level 10. This is something that the game would ideally flag more, but I didn't get around to it...).
More notes can be found on the webpage.
(for those looking at the source - note that I took the php files off the source viewer as they were being executed rather than viewed for some reason. They'll still be in the zip, with database info stripped out, of course)
UPDATE: Added commentary on youtube.
MORE UPDATE: Postmortem!
My intention, instead, was to use the Facebook API and social network to create an asynchonous co-operative experience, where players worked together to complete the game and the story.
I've done this to the extent that the game is quite possibly impossible to finish alone, and still very hard to finish when working with others (note: the social aspect is hidden at first, but becomes consequential once you get to the later levels, and hopefully will become apparent).
This is pretty much an experiment, partly in story and partly in social media. I'd love to hear your takes on it.
(please note that for the social aspect to work at all, it requires you and one of your facebook friends to play. It also only really kicks in after you're both at level 10. This is something that the game would ideally flag more, but I didn't get around to it...).
More notes can be found on the webpage.
(for those looking at the source - note that I took the php files off the source viewer as they were being executed rather than viewed for some reason. They'll still be in the zip, with database info stripped out, of course)
UPDATE: Added commentary on youtube.
MORE UPDATE: Postmortem!
Ratings
| Coolness | 15% | 22 |
| Overall | 3.77 | 26 |
| Audio | 2.76 | 137 |
| Community | 3.87 | 13 |
| Fun | 3.52 | 41 |
| Graphics | 2.97 | 194 |
| Humor | 2.22 | 157 |
| Innovation | 4.29 | 6 |
| Theme | 3.68 | 58 |
@N0_Named_Guy - yeah, the controls were done right at the start and I didn't really tweak them. I'm really confused as to how to publish it as a facebook app, it keeps asking me for different urls and then not telling me how to give it a name etc... do you know of any good guides?
@d_m Hmm - woulda been cool to allow you to go forward in any direction, but the controls'd get a little complex. You'll notice that the regular shapes are able to thrust in any direction, but isosceles triangles don't (as they have one, much pointier edge they always attack with).
-Have the triangle always face the mouse
-When holding down LMB, they advance toward the mouse.
-When holding space, they retreat away from the mouse.
Otherwise, a fantastic game, honestly.
@panzermancer - Yeah, mouse control would've been a good thing to implement (tbh i'd have probably made it a choice, as i mostly play games on my laptop and get annoyed when there's no keyboard only option :P)
@SusanTheCat - Yeah, that was a bug that got fixed the the updated version...
@Mjing - Your friends' stats only get updated on startup - it isn't the most graceful implementation, but I was wary of having too many server calls (probably unnecessarily...)
I think it would be easier to control the player if there was some momentum. Maybe it should control like asteroids, but with more friction, so that you can get some sideways movement, slide around and attack from the side.
Very different from most of the other games, innovative!