What is Digg?245 Comments
- Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38
So you start out like this guy here
http://www.prntscrn.net/img.php?img=Core_1.png
And after a few minutes you end up like this guy
http://www.prntscrn.net/img.php?img=Core_2.png
And after you've wasted a LOT of time, you'll end up something like this guy here
http://www.prntscrn.net/img.php?img=Core_3.png
I didn't actually make it to look like that last one, but that's what ended up eating me . . . - EmileVictor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37I'm not going to call this a rip-off of SPORE because:
1. Spore isn't released yet.
2. This is awesome.
3. It's for education! - bob7, on 10/12/2007, -6/+23Am I the only one that doesn't get it?
- dnthomps, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19For those of you that need the instructions and couldn't find the 'How to play?' link... here you go:
http://jenovachen.com/flowingames/implementations/flowing/flowhelp.htm
What am I suppose to do?
Dive deep into the space eat and evolve
Control
Use Mouse Cursor to guide your creature
Hold on Left Mouse Button to accelerate
Tips
Red makes you dive down
Blue brings you back up
Filling up your body to grow longer
makes your current body segment evolve
Move slowly to make smaller turns
BTW... who ISN'T copying somebody now in days? Yes it is BS but it is never going to stop. - breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19If you don't have flash 8 installed then not all the graphics are displayed. That's why a lot of people aren't "getting it." Very lame of the programmers not to do an automatic version check at startup or even mention the system requirements in the documentation.
- Sealab2021, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17LOL, i did lose track of time with this little game!
- aemaeth7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14That said, the source of the SWF is
http://jenovachen.com/flowingames/implementations/flowing/core.swf
Obviously CORE rhymes with... I'll let you figure that out.
A very nice. Something to lose yourself when you have nothing better else to do :) - n3xu5, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16I quit after I got 743,000 pts the second boss was tough.
- Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13
This is the result of nearly 45 minutes straight. I really do have a life, I promise. The game made me do it.
http://www.prntscrn.net/img.php?img=Core_4.png - Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13
UberCreature:
http://www.prntscrn.net/img.php?img=Core_5.png - cookiebearo, on 10/12/2007, -12/+241) like batterseaps said before he was sent to -digg zone, the idea of spore has been around for quite a long time.. there would have been more than enough development time for this even since the spore gameplay video was posted on digg a while back that showed almost this exact gameplay style as the first stage of the game
2) agreed; this is a fairly smooth/nice implementation of the idea, but it's still a copy
3) the fact that this is for a thesis just makes the situation worse, the guy posted this himself as a "game with a big design idea" -- it's a good one, but it's most likely not his. if he uses someone else's idea to get his masters, you think that's fair? what's different about that than copying someone else's thesis other than the fact that he had to program (or looks like had other people program) it also
reported as lame for the sake of fair education standards - spliznork, on 10/12/2007, -2/+131,2) So what? You've been brainwashed that any sort of copying is bad bad bad. Wrong. Derivative works have value. People can and should borrow, share, and blend to create new works. It doesn't matter if it's 95% "unoriginal". The additional 5% is new and interesting.
3) Using someone else's idea to get a masters? It's not only absolutely fair, that's /exactly/ what a masters is -- taking someone else's idea and implementing it, possibly with some slight twist. Maybe you're thinking of a PhD. Even then, a PhD still stands steadfastly on the shoulders of other peoples ideas -- just that you've taken some aspect within those ideas that has not been deeply explored, then deeply exploring it. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12ok i spent a long time playing this.. and i found out that theres all sorts of buttons you can press to.. do stuff.. such as 'G' makes you GROW.. 'B' produces BOMBS! (there's more)
- nundeeram, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11For those of you who dont get it, or dont feel like taking a long time to figure it out. Imagine you are starting at the top of a pool. Your little guy has a mouth; he can eat things. On each "level" in the literal sense, not the game sense, there are two special creatures -- one with a blue dot inside, and one with a red dot. Eating the red dot guys takes you deeper, and a blue dot guy takes you shallower. Every little thing you can eat other than that makes you bigger. When you start seeing creatures, fight with them by eating parts of them; the bigger the creature, the more parts you have to eat. Once you kill the creature, they release a bounty of stuff. Pay attention to the things with a cross in them...they help you evolve.
- TheWorkz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"Graduate student Jenova Chen from USC is currently researching on design methodologies for elastic video game experience for wider audience"
Is there really any reason for you to talk about yourself in the Third person. Just say "I". or create a bs account and post it third party..
As far as the game, very soothing, nice music, but needs to be a bit more entertaining for any sort of game addiction. - MartinBob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8This game was great, a couple things I noticed:
1. I read some comments before playing, and tried to keep myself from losing track of time. I lost track anyway.
2. Simple enough to catch on to, but not enough for me to quit right away.
3. The user(as in myself), explored the game's world without any need for directions at all, it kept transitions between depths feeling somewhat new, and allowed an immediate immersal into the game.
4. Not complex at all, but somehow gave me the 'feel' that it was.
5. Great music, although I was never really listening to it and was somewhat entranced by my screen, it set a nice background.
Overall, it gave me a reason to sell my PSP. If random suckers like this can pull off a game of this magnitude with Flash, I feel cheated with my investment in my PSP.(offtopic) - recursive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I think I played for like an hour. Honestly, I don't know. The only thing that got me out of it was that there are no deeper levels. This game is so dreamy...
- JenovaChen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This is my first digg, I was not quite sure if I should phrase it like a story or just like other places;p
- Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I dunno. Your boss would have to be pretty stupid to fire someone for making this game.
- martona, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7TO EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT "GET IT":
You need Flash 8 for this! With Flash 7 it will just display the word Flow on the screen and your creature won't be visible. IE will auto-update to v8, but Firefox won't. - kabz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I really like it. Your body gets longer as you catch plankton, and catching enough plankton sends out signals so that other critters know you are around.
It's like an action version of Plankton on the DS ;-)
The ambient music is great too. Digg! - JenovaChen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I guess you guys haven't read my thesis yet. It's not about little fish evolving but a methodology in game design based on psychology. :p
http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/flowing.htm - mgreenwald, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Isn't it okay for people to have their own opinions even if they might not agree with yours? I thought it was just okay, a 6/10 perhaps, better then most flash games but a little easy even when it came to the jellyfish creature towards the top of the world that was kinda hard to eat. Man it took a couple of tries and some visits back to the top to regain health but I finally killed it. Maybe I misunderstood your comment.
- yongfook, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Visually, it is either a blatant rip-off of (or a "tribute" to) the first stages of Spore. No questioning where they got their inspiration from as far as the look goes.
That said, nicely done flash game. - BlindIrishman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It doesn't matter what size you are, If a "creature" or whatever turns orange when you get near, you much eat the large solid circles in its body to kill it. If your solid circles get eaten, you are sent up a level.
- yongfook, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I don't think there are "rounds", I think that is precisely the kind of thinking that this experiment is trying to dispel. You discover more about the game as you go along - you can only eat certain things once you are a certain size, some creatures push you upwards in the flow, some creatures you can only eat by eating a certain part of them. It's more about individual discovery along a very simple set of game dynamics. It's a great idea and I'd definitely like to see more work in this vein.
- mdshort, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5OMG I just sat here for an hour playing like that...
No wonder it made no sense! lol - Jonhat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm pretty sure that it's pointless to point out whether you think someone is pointless or not.
"I hate flash anyway," is also the worst comment I've heard on the internet. Ever. Well done. :D - jaijai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You can zoom in/out with up/down arrow keys. As well as go up/down levels without chasing the red/blue dots by pressing left and right.
- zforrester, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5if give a negative digg to a comment, it usaully means the comment is either stupid, or so poorly worded as to make it barely possible to understand, like yours. If a comment is needlessly rude, uninformative, or uninformed, I will give it a negative digg. These are the laws I live by. And you get a negative digg on your comment, since it is off topic and inflamatory.
- klang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4cheats:
f - spawn food
g - grow bigger
c - grow smaller - ujin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Like many others, i spent around 30 minutes without even noticing it, and the music is very calming
- dj_sea2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I highly recommend downloading the offline version. then you can run it in full screen.
so much more immersive that way - cadpo76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This game is the destroyer of time itself.
- Mr.Nibbles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4that was sweet, i was totally absorbed!
but now there is nothing left.... i ate everything.... and now i will starve... - Legato, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6wow... i just lost a half an hour without even thinking about it! at first i was confused, but it got clearer and clearer, all without instructions or anything! the only thing that snapped me out of it was there being nothing left to kill!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Eya, or is is that eh or meh or.. well it was kinda dull actually. I didnt read the instructions at first and I was like "hey this is kinda cool, like the opening of a movie or something." but after a bit the novelty wore off and the game-play just became "eat those squiggly things and avoid being eaten by those other squiggly things."
- flashinfected, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Wow. This uses pretty intensive immersion techniques.
- zforrester, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I started playing, trying not to lose track of time. I dont think I played to long, but when I stopped again, it was 2:45 AM and i couldn't remember when I started. Help.
- opnotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I played so long... had the tenacles... then I bumped the right mouse button while holding the left... (naturally) ... this made the auto-gesture to go back to this page here. I hate you guys.
- Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3NES. Contra. 30 Lives.
- Mesach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I would get 3 levels down, then i'd eat one thing, and all of a sudden my creature would dissapear and i would have to start all over again.
- NineTailedFox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This is just stunning. I was speechless at first, because it took me a while to remember that I'm a man, not a... whatever they're called.
Suggestions? Visually, it's perfect. It would be interesting, though, if the audio developed as you went deeper; anything approaching a melody would be hideous, but deeper and darker pitches and timbres would match the change in colour. I've seen you mention possible story elements; this might give it wider appeal, but would also eviscerate what I (and, I gather, many others) found so compelling about the game. Microscopic aquatic creatures don't HAVE stories, and the regression to the kind of brainstem, instinctive feeding/hunting behaviour is what makes it so absorbing, I think. "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
I agree with other comments that the static number of creatures/morsels is a problem, but don't think that the solution is to have them endlessly respawn; far better would be for them to reproduce organically, perhaps themselves mutating and evolving along the way. The rate at which they did so would bring another element into the game; aggressively devouring everything in sight might allow one's creature to grow and evolve impressively within a relatively short space of time, but it would also leave it without sufficient food, so it would starve and start to wither away. The player would therefore have to find a balance between growth and sustainability.
Beyond that, more extreme and varied possibilities in the extent and nature of the creatures' evolution would increase long-term appeal, and do so in a way more in keeping with the game's current allure than would the (I suspect inevitably) contrived imposition of artificial narrative; pause and save functions, possibly with a timer revealed at save points, would also help. I think, though, that a conventional save function bestowing effective immortality on the creature by allowing the player to restore it to its peak state at any time would be a mistake; perhaps "resume" would be a more appropriate name than "save".
Whatever, this definitely, definitely deserves further development. I'd love a PSP version, but I'd need to buy extra batteries. Until then, I have the download on my laptop for any moment when being a higher mammal gets too stressful. - blah12345, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5up up down down b a b a start
- compressedaudio, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I felt like a fish.
- qster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Great game, mine pwns ;)
http://slowdown.co.uk/flow.jpg - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3T toggles the FPS counter... I'm not sure what C and F do...
- kimc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@tumnus: Where would we be today design and inventive wise if your opinions were that of the majority? I don't think it would be good for the evolution of creativeness...
- foxtwo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well yes people do have the right to their opinions, however that being said, the +/- does indicate what the majority of people feel. So overall the game seems to be fairly popular with the people who are able to play it. Just saying "fanboys" go to hell doesn't help very much either.
- neop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Those of you comparing this to Spore have not idea what you're talking about. This game is about the concept of flow in videogames, It is based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. The game is centered on the idea that a game should flow continuously so that the player does not get either bored or mad at the game. That's why you don't complete levels, you go up and down, that's also why you don't get killed, you are taken back up. Spore on the other hand is the ultimate Sim game, where you everything in the universe. Spore is all about customization. And if you want to say that this game is similar to Spore's initial stages, then you should probably also say that both of them are copies of the original and well known snake game. And there are thousands of games based on the snake game, what's important is not the core idea, but how this idea is developed. When a popular game designer like Will Wright does it, no one says it's a copy, but when a relatively unpopular designer does it, everyone says he copied the popular guy.
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