LittleBear
says: You're singing to the preacher.
01.12.07
Humpsters
How often do you get to type Humpsters? Humpsters, a “game about Humping Monsters”, is the name of the latest game “in under 7 days” by Petri Purho.
I like to think the name derives from Humpty Dumpty, maybe, as the body and limb-less heads you train are somewhat akin to the famous egg. Never mind that, though, as it might just be about “Humping Monsters” 
This is a game of exploring the rigid body physics of attaching various items to said head and then sitting back and watching it in a fight.
I do like this style of game, whether it’s writing a software robot, a “Rock, Paper, Scissors”* algorithm or whatever. In the case of Humpsters you spend a little time seeing just how your Humpster will move when you attach the weapons at different points. Your results will depend on just how much you figure out.
Unfortunately the game is a little short. Petri ran into a lot of last minute bugs that ended up hurting the game a bit. The challenge here is how to educate the player on what things work and what things don’t. As it is it’s over before you really have a handle on things. But, once again a solid and fun idea and a great test of how it works “in the wild.”
*The “Rockgollum” was nigh unbeatable, until sadly running into some early paper trouble…
Ryan said,
December 2, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I really enjoyed this fame. I named my character “The Mighty Sir Tuppins”. It had a similar arrangement to your character with wheels mounted to the short arms. Another interesting point is the way he stores his creatures. I might have to tinker with the loader and see if I can exploit extra parts.
Ryan said,
December 2, 2007 at 6:07 pm
EDIT:
You can easily create a super powerful character by editing the contents of the moster’s file. I really hope he continues this game. I think a radial arrangement is probably the best defense for the game right now. This allows for all the limbs to take damage while protecting the body. If too many limbs are connected, damage to the main “branch” defeats all connected parts. If the game were refined a bit more he should consider limiting connection points or the player could create a head with many flailing parts. I don’t see much advantage in connecting limbs to limbs at the moment. Great concept.
the2bears said,
December 2, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Being able to edit the files is a nice fixture in Petri’s games. Indeed, it’s partially responsible for the success of Crayon Physics (that and the fact it’s an awesome game
) A valuable lesson here for those wanting to see replay value in their games… look at the effect created with Petri’s editable files and the same sort of customization possible with Fraxy.
Bill
failrate said,
December 2, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Yar, I can’t imagine any small team indie game requiring the obfuscation of a proprietary binary format for game data, save files, etc. From my point of view, it’s just so much easier to parse and *read* ordinary, boring text. YAML’s a good one, with plenty of pre-rolled parsers. YAML is rock to XML’s scissors, and it HAS NO PAPER!
the2bears said,
December 2, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Never looked at YAML, but your description compels me to
Bill