Physics Games and Physics-Based Game Downloads

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

Loading...

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)

Loading...

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.