The most relaxing game you will ever play

April 13, 2007 9:26 AM

It's almost better than bubble-wrap. Just touch your expanding dot to make contact with other dots. Clear an entire screen and you'll see Boomshine. Friday flash fun was never so gentle.
posted by squidfartz (66 comments total)

Nice. It's like a mellow, new-agey Every Extend.
posted by Dr-Baa at 9:37 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Takes for ever to finish it though.
And that final stage takes all the calmness you've collected and wastes it. Near the end, I was screaming "52, 52. You bastard!" at the screen.
posted by seanyboy at 9:40 AM on April 13, 2007

Virtual Bubble Wrap
posted by serazin at 9:41 AM on April 13, 2007

And boom goes the shine-a-mite!
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:46 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself about stage 12.
Nice one, seanyboy.
posted by squidfartz at 9:56 AM on April 13, 2007

Oooooh, pretty. I love this.

I think the trick is to click on a big empty space in the middle. Ideally then, you hit a couple of incoming dots, and create multiple waves of bubbly goodness at different places on the screen.
posted by selfmedicating at 9:59 AM on April 13, 2007

Apperantly I go up to 11.
posted by delmoi at 10:01 AM on April 13, 2007

AHAHAHAH I BEAT FUCKING LEVEL 12 PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT YOU FUCKING RELAXING GAME.

*pant* *pant* *pant*
posted by Plutor at 10:01 AM on April 13, 2007 [10 favorites]

Super relaxing.

Does anyone recognize the looping piece of music? I like it.

I played this last week for about an hour, in an attempt to divine some sort of strategy. I suspect that certain color-dots move at faster rates than others, and that it is possible to wait until there's a perfect configuration. I also seemed to have equal success either hitting dots in the middle of a tight cluster, or selecting an area where they were further apart and thus eliciting a longer, slower, but more effective chain reaction.

In other words, I really didn't figure anything much out.
posted by Miko at 10:02 AM on April 13, 2007

At level 12, you really need to start the reaction in the center when most of the dots are moving away but one or two is near enough to get it started.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:05 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

it wasn't *that* hard. i had to try twice on level 52. still a pretty fun game.
posted by sxtxixtxcxh at 10:10 AM on April 13, 2007

The closest I have come to figuring out a strategy is waiting for dots to converge and form "strings" across the screen -beyond that, I'm not sure.
posted by squidfartz at 10:12 AM on April 13, 2007

*level 12...

i wish this when all the way to level 52 :P
posted by sxtxixtxcxh at 10:13 AM on April 13, 2007

The music is by Tim Halbert. You can download it--and even get the sheet music--here.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:14 AM on April 13, 2007

got to level 20, it's a hard bugger took me proli 100 tries to get there.
posted by parmanparman at 10:15 AM on April 13, 2007

I am so relaxed right now. The trick to level 12 is to play it more than 25 times, given that there's about a one in twenty five chance of getting 55 and beating it. (And a far larger chance, it seems, of getting 53. Grr.)
posted by motty at 10:15 AM on April 13, 2007

"And a far larger chance, it seems, of getting 53. Grr."

Yeah, those 50-53 scores were damn annoying.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:16 AM on April 13, 2007

It was level 10 that really got me. I had to try that about 20 times, but then level 11 only took 2 tries, and level 12 took one.
posted by god hates math at 10:21 AM on April 13, 2007

I was stuck on 46 or so on the last level, and then suddenly...58. Woo.
posted by danb at 10:24 AM on April 13, 2007

Not to crap on the original post, but it's a take off (I think) on this game by Farry Halim:

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bugs.htm

IMO, much much nicer.
posted by crickets at 10:25 AM on April 13, 2007

Wait, they aren't exaclty the same, sorry.

Check out Bugs though -- it's very nice.

Linked version.
posted by crickets at 10:26 AM on April 13, 2007

I liked this.
posted by OmieWise at 10:42 AM on April 13, 2007

Fun, thanks. The trick is definitely to play this while on a boring conference call.
posted by Skorgu at 10:43 AM on April 13, 2007

Thanks, monju_bosatsu!
posted by Miko at 10:44 AM on April 13, 2007

Oh, I like bugs. It's like playing one of mrs. pants comics.
posted by OmieWise at 10:44 AM on April 13, 2007

How do I get the balls to move faster?
posted by Oddly at 11:17 AM on April 13, 2007

I'm still not getting a score higher than 256. So where are the cheats?
posted by Laotic at 11:24 AM on April 13, 2007

"We're sorry - this feature is not compatible with Macs."

Yeah... real relaxing...

(fuckin' idiots!!)
posted by jpburns at 11:34 AM on April 13, 2007

Oh... sorry...
That was the damn pop-up window that wouldn't work. Teaches me to stop blocking those damn things...
posted by jpburns at 11:35 AM on April 13, 2007

I think it's very much like

This One
(click the middle row to start)
The boom boom boom sound effects, are more fun for me.
posted by M Edward at 12:16 PM on April 13, 2007

The only non-relaxing thing to me was the music. By the tenth try on level 12, I was about ready to rip my speakers out. Except, I have an iMac, so that wasn't really possible.

And then I beat the damn thing and all of the happy little dots went away and left me sad.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:28 PM on April 13, 2007

The most relaxing game you will ever play

nope, sorry - that was tranquility.
posted by progosk at 12:31 PM on April 13, 2007

just needs a glass of red wine and a joint. actually, that'd make me totally paranoid. this games starting to totally freak me out.
posted by andywolf at 12:36 PM on April 13, 2007

Hmm, it may be relaxing with the music. When I first played it, no headphones, and no music. It was kind of stressfull.
posted by delmoi at 12:47 PM on April 13, 2007

I managed to finish level 12 after about ten minutes of total play.

There are two competing strategies that I can see. The first is to purposely try to limit explosions at the beginning to a small area to keep the reaction going as long as you can. The second is to try for a huge reaction at the start to eat up as much of the screen as you can.

The game reminds me of the arcade Missile Command, where a good matchbook effect could take out a entire wave of shots.
posted by JHarris at 1:26 PM on April 13, 2007

I liked it, and I've got to disagree, I didn't find level 12 frusturating, even though it took me a lot of retries to finish it. Nice all the way around.

Gotta wonder about that "Only 3.97% finish level 12" bit at the bottom though, are us MeFites just that much more badass than the general population, or do you think the designer is perhaps lying a bit? 'Cuz it looks like more than 3.97% of us commenting here finished level 12.
posted by sotonohito at 1:49 PM on April 13, 2007

Laotic: I'm still not getting a score higher than 256. So where are the cheats?

And unless I'm missing something, it's one point per bubble... which means if you played a perfect, "every bubble gone" game, you'd still only get 5 * (sum(1-12) ] which is 390. So how are people posting scores of 596?
posted by hincandenza at 1:55 PM on April 13, 2007

I wondered about that 3.97% too...during my experimentation last week it felt like I was finishing more than four percent of the games. But I didn't keep a tally, that's just an impression.
posted by Miko at 2:14 PM on April 13, 2007

progost: i tried tranquility just because of your comment. this game is very nice. it was not at all relaxing at first, but once I turn my mouse sensitivity all the way down and limit the frame rate it is very nice. thank you for mentioning it.

i liked the game squidfartz posted too. it took me about 25 tries to beat level 12. i would not have played so far if the music had not been so mesmerizing.
posted by headless at 2:57 PM on April 13, 2007

but now im going to play more tranquility.
posted by headless at 2:58 PM on April 13, 2007

I kept on thinking it looked like a really pretty epidemic model.

And I kept getting 53 on level 12...must...play...again...
posted by pernoctalian at 3:34 PM on April 13, 2007

Yeah, I'm getting 52, then 29, then 15, then 31...

Argh. It's amazing that a game which requires no skill whatsoever can be so aggravating.

And yet, I'm still playing it.
posted by quin at 4:08 PM on April 13, 2007

Wow...that was an awful lot of time just...sucked...away...

That's a really nice game. It's nice to have games where there's no time pressure and you can keep trying until you succeed at the level! (But 12 is tricky. And a lot of it seems to be luck.)
posted by leahwrenn at 4:11 PM on April 13, 2007

There's nothing more frustrating then getting the "you were one way" on level 12. Grr. Finally finished it though, after about 10 minutes on level 12.
posted by cell divide at 4:44 PM on April 13, 2007

266 was my highest score. Everytime I think I've devised a sure fire strategy, it fizzles and I burst only 3 bubbles. I agree that it's great that there is no clock ticking down on you.
posted by genefinder at 4:53 PM on April 13, 2007

271 after about 25 minutes of playing (most of it on level 10 and level 12 -- I think I got lucky on level 11. I'll tell you what, I was thrilled to see the screen finally change color on that last level).
posted by parilous at 4:56 PM on April 13, 2007

love this--it's so soothing....i'm stuck on level 12 tho...
posted by amberglow at 5:08 PM on April 13, 2007

ahhh! i just did it! : >
posted by amberglow at 5:09 PM on April 13, 2007

Huh, apparently the game programmer reads Metafilter, he changed the 3.97% statistic to say that its 3.97% of the games played at level 12 that finish, not the players.
posted by sotonohito at 5:36 PM on April 13, 2007

Ack. I suck.
posted by WaterSprite at 7:21 PM on April 13, 2007

Final score of 257 on the first run through. Took me forever to get 55 on that last one.
posted by blasdelf at 8:10 PM on April 13, 2007

I became quite addicted to the joyous brightening of the screen after the goal is reached. Nice game!
posted by of strange foe at 9:11 PM on April 13, 2007

got 285.... spent about 20 minutes on the last level.

54/55!
51/55!
17/55!
54/55!

FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING GAME! SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW!

59/55!
posted by tehloki at 2:26 AM on April 14, 2007

This reminds of some mediocre Sierra PC game from 1990 or so called, I think Harmony. Anyone remember this? There were a bunch of VGA gradient-filled spheres floating around the screen, and you had to move them in some sort of pattern. The whole thing was supposed to be soothing, but the touchy play controls just made it frustrating as hell to a middle school-aged me.
posted by HeroZero at 6:42 AM on April 14, 2007

And unless I'm missing something, it's one point per bubble... which means if you played a perfect, "every bubble gone" game, you'd still only get 5 * (sum(1-12) ] which is 390. So how are people posting scores of 596?

If you clear all the bubbles on a level, you get a bonus of 50 points. *kaff*
posted by Rumple at 1:36 PM on April 14, 2007

Why did I feel like a suicide bomber in Teletubbyland on Level 12?
posted by moonbird at 3:17 PM on April 14, 2007

I managed to beat Level 12, but only after a round where I got a spectacular 2/55.
posted by emmling at 11:42 PM on April 14, 2007

It's just as interesting to see how few you can get on the levels where the board is crowded, imho.
posted by nevercalm at 12:11 PM on April 15, 2007

267. It's about friggin' time.
posted by quin at 6:54 PM on April 15, 2007

HeroZero: "This reminds of some mediocre Sierra PC game from 1990 or so called, I think Harmony. Anyone remember this? There were a bunch of VGA gradient-filled spheres floating around the screen, and you had to move them in some sort of pattern."

The game you described might exist, but it wasn't Harmony. In Harmony (it was an Accolade game, actually), there were three different colors of spheres If you pushed two same-colored spheres together, they'd disappear. If you pushed two different-colored spheres together, they'd bounce off each other and spawn a miniature sphere of the third color. You could pick up the miniature spheres to give you a little time bonus, but if you didn't pick them up within a couple of seconds, they'd become full-size spheres. The goal was to clear each level. Some levels had dividers through the map or elastic bands connecting spheres.

Being about 8 or 10 or something at the time that I played it, I only had the patience to get through a dozen levels before I'd just drive around aimlessly, watching them collide, disappear, spawn, and bounce like mad.

*Goes off to write a Wikipedia article*
posted by Plutor at 7:02 AM on April 16, 2007

Obviously I'm not the first person to suggest a similar game (e.g. another game inspired by Every Extend), but if you liked this one let me humbly guide you to Pretty Pretty Bang Bang.

It uses the same basic game mechanic, but with a very different pace and tone. Also there is no randomness and there is a boss named Aromatic Sycophant.
posted by churl at 7:48 PM on April 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

I got to "suffocating cheesecake" and I was laughing to hard to play, as I watched the walls close in.
posted by tehloki at 8:44 PM on April 17, 2007

Great game. The music is great too, but FWIW, for some reason it works really well with the music turned off (click the speaker icon at the start) and Pet Sounds playing in the background. The game's bell sounds really seem to complement the music. But maybe I'm just nuts.

Also, what does this "boomshine" you speak of look like?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:20 PM on April 19, 2007

I suspect that it's the screen changing color to indicate that you have successfully cleared the level. I know I was happy to see it when I finally cleared level 12.
posted by quin at 5:38 PM on April 19, 2007

Patience: I got me that Boomshine after 12 days.
posted by taosbat at 9:40 PM on April 24, 2007

And then, the game wouldn't continue after I clicked to pass the next level. So, I had to reload the game to make it work and my Boomshine did me no good at all. Bookmark deleted.
posted by taosbat at 10:07 PM on April 24, 2007