reward​eternal​beauty​fractal​insight​warm​deconstruct

April 29, 2013 1:05 PM

Drop : Yesterday, Minecraft creator Markus Persson, aka Notch (previously), released a new (Unity-based) Web game in lieu of a contribution to Ludum Dare. Drop takes its inspiratation from Terry Cavanaugh's Hexagon (previously), the ending of Fez (previously), and Notch's own apartment ceiling.
posted by mrgrimm (25 comments total)

I'm waiting for someone to do a game based on the "pitch drop" experiment, which is due to let loose another one any time now.

But basing a game on someone's ceiling is pretty good, too.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:15 PM on April 29, 2013

Here's a youtube clip for those who don't want to install unity.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:24 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

He is finally out of hiding? I can't believe it,Notch is like Salinger and Pynchon rolled into one.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:25 PM on April 29, 2013

This game makes me anxious.
posted by R. Schlock at 1:27 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

It is fun for 40 seconds.
posted by zouhair at 1:27 PM on April 29, 2013

Reminds me of fifth grade typing class, but with more sinister music.
posted by echo target at 1:28 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Notch hiding? What are you talking about? Just three weeks ago we discussed the very intimate New Yorker profile.
posted by Nelson at 1:30 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Salinger and Pynchon rolled into one

Catchamarye D Maasy
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:33 PM on April 29, 2013

...having flashbacks to Mavis Beacon.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:33 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Interesting how it's easier to type faster when you recognize full words rather than just going letter by letter.
posted by Kabanos at 1:40 PM on April 29, 2013

Just three weeks ago

Three weeks is pretty long to go without a major Notch development. That is like 20 years in pre internet time.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:44 PM on April 29, 2013

I don't understand when I am supposed to hit enter/space.
posted by Perplexity at 1:58 PM on April 29, 2013

thanks notch for getting more people to install the unity web player, greatly appreciated.

For those of you that want to spend some time digging, there were 1885 games made for Ludum Dare this weekend, and they are all linked here. As someone on my twitter said, "if you link to notches game, could you also please link to some lesser known LD games?".

Here is a game with great music and totally bonkers visuals. Also a unity web player thing.
posted by jonbro at 2:02 PM on April 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

I don't understand when I am supposed to hit enter/space.

I don't totally understand that either, but I do it after a couple words. It seems the max bonus there is +20. If you do it after each letter you get +0, so it must be similar to a chain/multiplier bonus.

My high score is 273, which probably isn't that high. As usual, turning off the music helps a bunch.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:18 PM on April 29, 2013

this game concept looks exactly like a different game i saw on here earlier where a stick figure had to walk up a stairway of depressing words which i cannot now find
posted by rebent at 2:30 PM on April 29, 2013

I love typing games. I hate Super Hexagon. I have mixed feelings about this.

I'm waiting for someone to do a game based on the "pitch drop" experiment, which is due to let loose another one any time now.

This year for Ludum Dare, my teammate and I wanted to make a voyager satellite sim that starts at earth and slowly drifts out into space past the planets. My teammate vetoed the idea when I suggested it actually take a full 40 years of play time to get to its present-day location.

(Also, Ludum Dare is not over for Jam participants yet - teams, looser rules, more sleep compared to the Competition. I suspect the number of submitted games will increase a ton the next 4 hours.)
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 3:11 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love Super Hexagon. I type all day for a living (*sigh*).

I tried this the other night, and it wouldn't work on FF (Win7). I unloaded flashblock and adblock (the 2 usual culprits). I have unity installed (for my own games :)), and so I'm not sure why I can't get it to work. I'll try again.
posted by symbioid at 4:41 PM on April 29, 2013

In lieu of? Was he expected to give money or something? This seems like it should count as a contribution.
posted by jacalata at 5:06 PM on April 29, 2013

Probably because he broke rules. The main rule is that you cannot start making the game until the start of the competition, because you only get 48 hours. It sounds like he had started this one a while ago and just updated/released it during Ludum Dare instead of spending 48 hours straight on a new game.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 5:48 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I am having a lot of fun playing this game. I scored 599 before I realized you could "submit words" by pressing space. I see there are only about twenty words that ever come up - this makes it quite a muscle-memory challenge. The words that were chosen (e.g. reward, truth, eternal) are challenging to type when using proper typing posture.
posted by seiryuu at 6:14 PM on April 29, 2013

My vertigo is not liking this.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 6:27 PM on April 29, 2013

948 points here- I don't agree that making a typing test difficult to see turns it into a game.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:38 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is very neat :D

I participated in Ludum Dare for the first time this weekend and it was amazing. Having that strict of a deadline can really bring out the creativity and knowing that others are busting it doing the same is invigorating.

Here are some of the games I've enjoyed so far (Supported Platforms Vary):
Moonshine
Toom
One By One
Potato Dungeon
Feint Signal
and *cough Bezier Challenge *my game

Ive only just scratched the surface of the over 2300 games that were submitted... so I'll probably post some more!
posted by meta87 at 3:21 AM on April 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

rebent: "this game concept looks exactly like a different game i saw on here earlier where a stick figure had to walk up a stairway of depressing words which i cannot now find"

30 Flights of Loathing?
posted by curious.jp at 5:00 AM on April 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

In lieu of? Was he expected to give money or something?

I thought (part of) Ludum Dare was a competition. I did not think this was an entry. Could this be a winner? If so, sorry, please correct.

The main rule is that you cannot start making the game until the start of the competition, because you only get 48 hours. It sounds like he had started this one a while ago and just updated/released it during Ludum Dare instead of spending 48 hours straight on a new game.

And maybe that. I just didn't think it was an official "entry" per se. Sorry for any confusion.

I don't agree that making a typing test difficult to see turns it into a game.

What if you add music?

The words that were chosen (e.g. reward, truth, eternal) are challenging to type when using proper typing posture.

I think the limited dictionary size kinda kills it for me. It was worth a few plays, but I can only take so much gnosticeternalbeautyinsight.
posted by mrgrimm at 7:45 AM on April 30, 2013