Procrastination Released
My final game of the year is done, and boy did I delay it to the last minute. “Procrastination” is an abstract experimental game, my attempt to communicate purely through game mechanics. It’s my tribute to Rod Humble, if you must.
Play “Procrastination” at Ludus Novus.
Astute fans will notice that I have only released eleven games this year, despite my resolution to do a game a month. Fear not; the twelfth game is done, but “Babies Dream of Dead Worlds” will wait until it is sponsored before it gets released. Does it still count? Sure it does. I set the rules for this thing.
My other work-in-progress, the procedurally generated metroidvania with the working title of “Millions of Space Stations,” will be released in early 2010.
Tags: game releases, my games, procrastination
The optimal strategy seems to be to press right and left reversing direction whenever anything is picked up. This strategy earned me the high score of the day (so far).
I managed to beat your score by just leaving the paddle on the right. Which makes sense, if you think about it.
Hm. I think I’m much more excited for your other games. Especially the Space Stations one.
Weird, the game seemed really really easy. Got the highest score of all time on my first try without having any idea what I was doing. I think I understood the “message” and I guess acted accordingly? Kinda fun but not that re-playable unless you are hyper competitive :)
Congrats on just barely beating the clock on this ’09 release ;)
Neat. It seemed to come down to optimally holding rates steady. I never found the best rhythm, but a little trial and error would get it. Or one could solve for it, but that seems like a lot of work, as much as I would love to make rate/effect graphs. I have to say, I didn’t even notice the white bar going down until it was halfway depleted. Whoops.
Um.. You’re not supposed to point out that you can change the rules at any time. Reader-people like to think they have an actual influence over your schedule through these sort of contests.
Contests? I set a New Years resolution for myself. I dunno what you’re talking about. The only prize here was given to me, by me.
Besides, I think anyone who cared caught on when I released my July game in August. :)
Love it! Your use of gameplay mechanics to represent an abstract concept reminds me of Jason Rohrer’s games. I really think this kind of stuff, more than anything else, is pushing the boundaries of gaming.