Physics Games and Physics-Based Game Downloads

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Ichor is an experimental physics game by Soylent Software. The developer’s concise description of the game does an excellent job, so I’ll just paste that:

Ichor is an action game based in fluid dynamics. Each player floats around the screen, trying to engulf his opponent with his own color.

Fluid Exchange

The beauty of Ichor is the simplicity of its structure. It immediately becomes obvious that if you touch the other color, you lose, and the goal is to cause opponents to touch your color. Basic movement keys represent the totality of the player input (mouse for single player, keyboard for two-player duels). It’s a very straightforward setup.

The actual experience of playing Ichor is much more complex, though. There are numerous strategies for “attacking” enemies. You need to be keenly aware of the fluid’s behavior. Aligning yourself upstream from an opponent and moving with a current will be much more effective than blindly bum rushing the nearest target. I found that, over time, my awareness of the fluid’s state became more complete and useful in making second-to-second decisions.

Objects to Think With

Ichor is fairly quirky, even for an indie game. I was curious about the intent of the developers, and after some research I found myself on the blog of the (sole?) developer, Namaste Reid. He makes an interesting observation about the lack of many distinct objects in the game:

In Ichor, you fight without bullets or guns. You are just there, in the fluid. Everything is subject to change at a moments notice. Compare this to games where you have units, terrain, weapons, textures, etc. These are all easily classifyable objects. I think that I can go further than Ichor, in countering object oriented gameplay, although I’m not sure it can be done with fluid dynamics alone. If it is possible, it will need to be a game where nothing isn’t fluid. I’ve been trying for a while, and have yet been unable to come up with a game design that is more purely fluid than the duel mode in Ichor.

(Ichor Game Screenshots)

Free, and Source Available!

Ichor’s single player game is actually rather difficult; the average game only lasts a few minutes. Still, there’s something about the game that insists you try just one more time. It’s definitely more of a high-minded experience than something like a hurt-the-ragdoll title, but if you approach it with the right mindset it can be a fun way to kill a few minutes.

Download Ichor Game (777 KB)
(be warned–the developer recommends a 3Ghz machine or faster)

The source code for Ichor and Soylent other titles are available from the Soylent Software website.

Aaron Rutkoff’s latest Time Waster column in The Wall Street Journal Online is all about Fun-Motion. I find this to be rather amazing. Aaron contacted me earlier this month about doing an interview; we talked on the phone and followed up with an email exchange. The output of his type-wizardry is available to you now!

Read the Fun-Motion WSJ article here.

p.s. Expect a flurry of new reviews and interviews soon!