Osmos demo, comments and suggestions

[Ordonator]

While I was interested in the game from just reading about its concept in the Gamasutra interview with Eddy Boxerman, I was quite surprised at how much I really like this game. Osmos brought me to something of a sweet spot between sensory immersion and just plain fun. The artwork, which is nothing short of stunning, works wonderfully with the music to radiate a subtle magnificence. Also, congratulations on finding a great application of game theory to such fascinating, yet simple environment of physics. I know it's just a demo, but if you do anything with this game, add more to it. Gamepad support would be nice; the controls seem like they'd be a perfect fit for an analog stick. I find the intelligent motes very interesting, I'd love to see the other possibilities. And finally, have you considered multi-player?

[eddybox]

Thanks so much for the positive feedback folks! Great to hear...

To answer a few questions:

- There's more coming, and we're hard at work on the full version. Not sure yet if there will be an intermediate demo before then, but I'll post on the site as soon as anything is available.
- Meta, a little insider secret: for fine-tune control over the speed of the game, hold down [ctrl] and use the mouse wheel. (it's not really necessary for any of the demo levels, so there isn't any instruction about it, but it's already available.)
- It's true, some of the demo levels are quite easy. But... it's a demo! The full version will have levels to definitely challenge *all* players.
- Multi-player: that's probably the #1 feature we'd love to add, but which probably won't make it into the full PC game. (It would require a major architectural rewrite of the code.) But you gotta leave something for a console version!

Cheers,
Eddy

[dandelion]

FYI, it plays flawlessly on Linux using Wine. Just thinking, you could pimp the game to the Linux crowd as well (not that we have a lot of games)...

[Meta]

- Meta, a little insider secret: for fine-tune control over the speed of the game, hold down [ctrl] and use the mouse wheel. (it's not really necessary for any of the demo levels, so there isn't any instruction about it, but it's already available.)

Thanks for the tip!

I've done a new tour of the demo and the hunt for the scaredy was more enjoyable with this tip.
The vortex level was my favorite again, and it gave me an idea for a level : trying to pass through a asteroid "barrier" floating around a vortex. You start between the vortex and the barrier and you need to leave this zone, going through the asteroid barrier.

Count me in as a future customer!

[FluffyWolf2]

There is a Meta game in another indie game company that makes it very interesting to play, as you attempt to achieve and build up something. In this one you could have the "Orb" challenge. If you've ever played the game Spore, you have this little creature in the cell stage which evolves larger and larger. As this occurs you run into larger cells ready to eat you alive! In this edition, if you've also ever played the addicting game where you're a black square attempting to eat only the black objects (versus the red one's which if touched you lose the game) In this sense you could have an infinite level:

Level increases in size (zooming out with scroll would be beneficial)
Start in astroid belt.
Move to solar system with planets.
Move to star sizes.

Continuous build up of your orb to a point that you feel is difficult. A game your fans can post about and then say "I have the biggest orb!" where you measure their orb once your Meta Game finishes (They run into another object non edible, or if they shrink then leave the game their 'biggest' orb would be recorded.)

Just an idea.

Exploding stuff, orbs you nom and effect you in certain ways. Make you grow twice as big compared to it's size, make you eject more mass as you move, make you eject less mass as you move, one's you eat that make you bigger but over time make you shrink a little too. Fun things

[ernie242]

Wow, I've played the demo, and just literally loved it. Great atmosphere, after trying a dozens of games this becomes my fav!
One of the things I liked the most, is its ambient music.
So I want to ask, will a new songs/artists be introduced in final version of a game( like Loscil and ect). (lots of good ambient projects exists that will suit the atmosphere of Osmos). If yes, I could just buy this game for music itself.

[Tomo]

Just finished with the demo.

Great work guys, I absolutely loved it. The Newton quote at the beginning sums it up absolutely perfectly.

The gameplay is incredibly simple but like many awesome games you just build upon this to make something special - so introducing the 'Sun', the deflecting thing and the Scaredy are all simple additions that have a special twist. Chasing the Scaredy took me a fair while but I was determined, hehe.

I love the artstyle and especially the music. It's incredibly relaxing - the game is the perfect foil for more serious mainstream games, where I often find I'm just playing for the sake of playing. I just had plain fun with this.

Multiplayer would be great too, glad to hear you've thought about it too even if it's a bit of a mission at this stage.

Very much looking forward to the full release!

Congrats on the nominations at IGF too, much deserved.

[Tomo]

Oh, and when you told me to zoom out, my smile was beaming

[antoine1251]

Hello,

The demo is really great, and this games is certainly the most original since Kurushi or Kula World. A good idea should be to create a very very big world, with a star like the sun to absorb. A level with the exact sun system should be gorgeous too. The music's excellent. I'll be back to download final version !

Thank you very much. ( excuse my english, I'm french too ).

[Sanguinax]

Ouah ! I'am very impressed about this game !

I knowed this game thanks to the magazine Joystiq, I'm french and untill world of goo I've never saw an independant game as good as that !
I think that a multiplayer game would be the best for Osmos, even if it's in a split screen. But I know that it's very hard to make it.

For the gameplay, maybe you can add black hole which absorbe every matters in a radius.
Or also a solar wind which deviate the player from its trajectory.
Or a meteor whitch can collide with the others corps but witch cannot absorb them.
Or an objet witch repulse every corps around it .
...
Keep going !

multiplayer mod plz ?