Level Suggestion

[kringelgnatz]

Osmos is a great game, I am almost done with all the levels.

My son - 7 years - also loves it. He suggested a "new level":

-- Become the smallest --

... surrounded by smaller (and smaller, even smaller) particles, your goal is to become the *smallest*
... when you try to move, you create motion within the surrounding particles which are "reflected" towards you and you eat them and become larger, but not (easily) smaller

I would love to hear your opinion on that. Thanks a lot in advance.

[Meal Worms]

Hi kringelgnatz,

Thanks for your post! Glad to hear you've been enjoying the game.

Sounds like your son has some game designer in him -- kudos to him for coming up with a new level idea! Here's something you can share with him: whenever you've got an idea for new gameplay, the first thing to do is to think through how you would approach that new situation, to see what kind of solutions exist.

In Osmos, basically the only action the player can take is to fire mass. Given the task of 'Become the Smallest', it seems that the easiest way to achieve this goal would be to fire off lots of mass to shrink the player mote. If the level is an Ambient level where the motes are fairly dispersed, I could simply fire mass in any direction without much affect (or, fire off mass in opposite directions to keep my mote in the center and my velocity still).

Now, what happens if the level is tightly packed, like the Impasse levels? Well, if the other motes are bigger than me, touching them would be fine, because they'd consume me, furthering my goal of becoming the smallest. What if I'm stuck in a soup of smaller motes? I don't want to eat them, so I could simply fire mass towards any motes that are near me, pushing them away while at the same time making them bigger than me.

Another strategy for becoming the smallest would be to eat everything in the world, then blow it all off to create another mote that's bigger than you.

So, given the mechanics of Osmos, it seems like a 'Become the Smallest' level would be a tricky to make very interesting, because it's really easy for the player to simply vent off all their mass.

Tell your son to keep using his imagination and thinking outside the box! Who knows what possibilities are still to be explored in Osmos

Cheers,
Dave

[kringelgnatz]

Thanks a lot, Dave, for your careful analysis and exhaustive explanation - I will share that with my boy, as well as your encouragement.

Best regards,

Jan