Smoke.

posted in: Flash | 0

Work of Fiction is still chugging along, but it’s in the uninteresting parts of development right now, so I’m not going to waste you time by talking about it.  Instead, here’s some much more interesting babble about Fix.

At this point, I’ve tried three times to make a satisfactory smoke simulation for this game.  The first was bitmap based, and looked pretty good, but didn’t behave correctly.  The second was using a 2D fluid solver (Navier-Stokes equations) to simulate the entire volume of air in the area, and then solve density of smoke separately.  I didn’t get particularly far into it before realizing that the math was a little over my head and the results wouldn’t be consistent enough to be a central game mechanic.  Try out Plasma Pong for a demonstration of this:  It’s fun as hell and really pretty, but it’s way too chaotic to be used in a puzzle game.

This third one isn’t as fancy and doesn’t involve as many hip buzzwords, but it’s definitely my favorite so far.  It isn’t physically “correct,” but it’s already looking fantastic and in terms of usability in a game, it’s damn near perfect.  It’s stable as hell and incredibly predictable.  I’m gonna have endless fun figuring out ways to use this thing as parts of puzzles.

30 fps on my laptop, just like the virgin birth.

0 Responses

  1. …Fix?

    *searches*

    Company : Braid :: Fix : Limbo. Got it. Been a while; I forgot the name of that one. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where smoke was a key gameplay component. Sounds interesting.

    And by “interesting,” I mean “I don’t know what you would do with smoke besides obstruct vision [as a ninja].” I’m always open to new experiences, though. Let’s see it happen.

  2. Mybe you could walk on it before it expires, or direct peoples attention….. It sounds like a really unique idea……

  3. You’ve never made a bad game, 2D, and it looks like this game’s gonna meet expectations!
    Great work, as usual :)

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