Feb 16
Give a man a hammer
I’ve noticed that when programmers get a new tool, like, say, a 2D physics engine, they tend to start creating games which are basically example apps for the new tool, with a constraint or a goal condition attached. So with physics engines, it’s not at all unusual to see these games become about moving boxes or circles around, either using the mouse or via an elaborately physics-simulated device of some sort.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as the game’s fun.
But on reflection, those really aren’t the sorts of game I want to spend my time creating. The world already has enough “Behold, I have physics!” games without my adding to them. And it’s occurred to me that that’s exactly what Space Maze Express is, at its heart; it’s just another “move boxes around with physics” game.
I’m still going to complete it, as it’ll still be a great testbed for engine physics support. But in the same way that I promised myself that the next game I made wouldn’t have a time limit, I’m also going to try to avoid making “look, it’s physics!” games in the future. 
So I’ll be doing another Game in a Week next week. And I guarantee that the goal of that game will not be to move a box from point A to point B.
February 16th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I still love “Look, I have physics” games for some reason. Great when you wanna relax after work without having to use the brain.
Ever wondered about some kind of racinggame? I remember playing “slicks” for months some years ago. Simple 2D look from above racing game but with rather nice physics.
However. Keep up the interessting work. Stumbled upon your site just a week ago and I’m already hooked on the RSS.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Racing games can be a lot of fun! I don’t know whether I’d attempt one here; almost certainly not for a “Game in a Week”, since they require so much work on AI racers, to make them fun to drive against.
I’ll confess that I’m slowly working toward creating a platform game. I find it a bit bizarre that while I’ve been writing games for an awfully long time, but I’ve never actually written a 2D platformer, even though that has always been my favourite genre.. Maybe I find it a little intimidating to think about creating all the levels I’d need.
Still, I’ll get there someday, and probably not too far in the future. The next thing for VectorStorm (after physics is finished off) will probably be a data-driven object placement system, which would be almost essential for the creation of a content-based game, such as a platformer.