I don't like following themes perfectly, so when I heard the theme, I started thinking of tons of puns to make a funny game. I thought of stuff like _Combine_ (tractor) toward incompatible genres, but decided that would be boring. Instead I thought of two things that were incompatible. I decided to go with oil and water. I wanted to make a puzzle game around it, so I decided to make a game moving around liquid metal inside water (magnetically). I mainly went with this idea because I really wanted to try making some fluid physics. It was annoying at times, because I did a lot new (played around with shader code etc), but I learned a lot.
How to play
The instructions can be found on screen as well.
To play, click on the screen to repel the liquid away, try to guide it into the holes.
There are two progress bars on the side, one tells you how much liquid you have left to push out, and the other tells you how much longer you can hold the mouse (you have a limit to make it difficult)
Don't hit into red areas.
Good luck!
How is this made
This is made with Lib-GDX, and the physics is done with Box-2D. The liquid is actually a bunch of circles simulated in the physics engine. To make it look like liquid, I blur the whole image a bunch of times in a shader to blend the particles together, then use a shader to not display pixels with a certain darkness, and display other pixels at their full brightness. (The source code is available if you would like to take a look at how it is done)
It might sound easy to implement (I thought it would be), but as always, I ran into so many issues trying to do so. But luckily, the game turned out great!
The idea was great but I missed having variable repelling depending on the distance to the metal liquid. Not a lot of levels but the progression was nice. Missed some music. Very well!
Awesome puzzle game! Now I want more levels! While the stages initially seemed like they were getting harder, it actually got easier for me. I could see future levels getting really wild, having maze-like walls and red zones within the tank. The physics felt great and the fluid blobs looked nice and juicy. Great job!
@Ajayajayaj I mean the velocity of the blobs is always the same. That forces to control all the blobs at the same time (which you clearly used to build the levels), I was hoping more like a magnetic effect, the closer mouse and blob are, the stronger the interaction is.
@Le-Slo I see what you are saying now. That would make it feel more magnetic, you are right. But, it might make it a little too easy.
@irwatts thank you for playing :) I really wish I could have created more levels in the time, but I definitely want to expand on the concept at some point on the future.
The graphics were nice and clean, I was impressed by how the liquid looked interacting with itself. The gameplay was a bit lackluster though, it could have been greatly improved by moving geometry or bouncy walls and other fun things. The game still came off as very polished though so good job!
This is a neat little puzzle game. It takes a bit to get a hang of how you're impacting the blobs, but once you do, it's just a matter of patience and herding. It's a cool mechanic, and I could see a lot more levels of it.
At the moment one has to wait quite the long time until the metal is in front of the holes. Maybe you could get a more "puzzle-like" game, if you have to place the black block at the beginning and then push it once. You could also offer different places to put it and one has to decide which one is the right.
Nice game! The graphics are simple and colorful, they tell you all you need to do. You got the liquid to look right and it is a nice puzzle experience. Nice work!
This is a very creative way to interpret the theme and a very creative way to simulate liquids! I do agree with @ Le-Slo about the variable speed, but it's not something that gets in the way of the gameplay.
The clouds in the background are a neat touch that liven up the game, but some audio would have helped. Perhaps a "swoosh" or a "blop" with the clicks, and maybe some background sounds. These are just minor things, though -- it's fun to play regardless!
@Lucas-Hoffmann looks like my game finally got to the first page of danger! Looks like one more rating for you, and you should be on the first rating. I'll go rate your game now.
This is a pretty interesting concept, but the game is really difficult! I got as far as the "extreme" level, but it's a little too difficult. The first level itself took a long time for me to get.
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@irwatts thank you for playing :) I really wish I could have created more levels in the time, but I definitely want to expand on the concept at some point on the future.
The clouds in the background are a neat touch that liven up the game, but some audio would have helped. Perhaps a "swoosh" or a "blop" with the clicks, and maybe some background sounds. These are just minor things, though -- it's fun to play regardless!
I made it to the end, glad I played it. It's a cool game, very original idea!
Well done!
Hey, looks like you're almost at 20 votes, good luck for that!