Cameltry!

[Larry Hastings]

Every year at California Extreme (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=3944) I see at least one wonderful "new" game I've never seen before. This year the game I'd never seen before was Cameltry (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=C&game_id=7263). I guess I'd describe it as Super Monkey Ball in 2D, but far, far more forgiving. You are a Marble-Madness-y ball in a 2D maze. You navigate the maze not by moving the ball, but by spinning the maze around the ball. The ball is propelled only by gravity, which is always towards the bottom of the screen, and by a "jump" button which always hops towards the top. It's more forgiving because you never "fall off"; the worst that happens is that you run into enough walls that you run out of time. But it was still quite challenging, as the time limits for each level became aggressive quite quickly.

I bet it would make a fine indie game. (Pity I already have so many in the pipe!) Your only controls in the original were a Tempest-like knob and a jump button. Substitute the mouse for the knob, and hey! it conforms to the "only one button" rule.

For the record, I played it on an Ultracade Taito Classics (http://www.ultracade.com/arcade/55/taito-arcade-classics) box, not on original hardware. But the knob they had was totally up to the task--it was great. It spun freely and had some momentum to it. I bet it would have played a wicked game of Tempest.

[ggambett]

I bet it would make a fine indie game.
Sounds like Slyder Adventures!

[Hamumu]

That's almost exactly like my favorite game from the first(?) Ludum Dare 48-hour contest, The Flame Game. Unfortunately, I do not know where you can obtain a copy of that at this time, but it's a good one, and has the same concept of spinning the world to fall along the blocks.

[Pyabo]

Yup, someone has indie-cloned it already. :) Saw it on Real (or was it Big Fish Games?) and immediately recognized it.

Definitely akin to The Flame Game, which I also quite liked, Hamumu.

[svero]

Another vote here for the flame game. Very interesting clever entry.

[Jim Buck]

Yup, it's Slyder Adventures.

[Fry Crayola]

It's also very much like the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Not in control, but it helps you imagine what the game would be like.

I wonder if that's where they got the inspiration... (Sonic Team, not the guys who made Cameltry)?

[papillon]

From the description, it sounds like something I started to build once, too. :) (Inspired by the Sonic bonus round and the key maze from QFG IV.) For no reason I can remember I got bored with it after making a one-level prototype, moved on to other things, and never got back to it...

[mahlzeit]

Reminds me of Bob's Bad Day (http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/3828/) on the Amiga.

[Sharpfish]

Reminds me of Bob's Bad Day (http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/3828/) on the Amiga.

Just what I was about to say ;)

[Robert Cummings]

the origin for all these games are the old amusements of the 18th and 19th century. In later years these became widespread around the country and at seaside piers: you'd put a coin in and guide the ball from one end to the other by tilting the maze. If it fell in a hole, you lost. In fact they were quite common in the fifties right up till present day but I haven't seen any in recent years, probably because everyone's into whizz bang big arcade machines now.

Certainly not an idea anyone in the game industry can take credit for. I find the ego trips of game developers completely pathetic because most ideas are out there, and done already. Someone better not dare patent this :)

[mahlzeit]

You mean like Tilt (http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/1501/). :)

[Anthony Flack]

Robert - it's a bit different from that sort of thing, in that these variants are played side-on, and rotate 360 degrees rather than tilt. Makes all the difference.

One of the minigames in Bishi Bashi Special is like this, too.

[TimS]

That's actually not too far off from our current project... Cameltry? I mean... I've got as much trouble coming up with a cool name as the next guy, but Cameltry? :confused: Yeesh.