The game is called Replicate. The goal is to collect the particles which are attracted to your pointer and replicate them by blowing them up. 2 particles blown up make 3, while 4 makes 6, 10 makes 15.... So particle growth is exponential, but be careful because your racing a linear clock. This creates the just in time feel at the end of the game when it seemed like you would never win at the begging.
I set out to make a fun addictive psychedelic game that would be simple. Being this was the first project I used it to get used to the tools I would be using and set the bar at an appropriate height. I wanted to code some simple game interactions, like balls bouncing off the wall, combining with each other, and blowing up.
I started out by making two objects, one was the board which held the state of the game and the other was a ball, which is the only particle in the game. Each ball has a position, a speed, a mass, and a color. When balls combine they make a new ball which has the mass of both balls added together and has a new color based on the color of the original balls and their respective masses. When balls blow up they shoot out in random directions and speed, although this does not conserve momentum, it appears that momentum is pretty much conserved because of the number of particles.
I wanted to make a clicking game where the goal was not to get rid of all the particles on the screen, or to collect the particles, or sepearate the particles, but rather I wanted the goal to be make more particles. This creates an experience where the winning scenario actually has more entropy than what you started with, which is counter intuitive to these types of games.
I am pleased with the results. I think I created a game that is simple, interesting, psychedelic, and fun. One unexpected result that I achieved is an intersting optical illusion when the game is won. Because the particles are constantly being sucked in towards the mouse when everything is halted when the game is one the center of the screen appears to get bigger when in reality it does not. Try to notice this effect when playing
If I were to work on this game longer I would incorporate a series of levels that make the game more difficult. Not only would I decrease the amount of time provided, and increase the number of particles necessary to win, but I would also play with the constants in the game. I would change the gravitational constant and the constant that controls the speed of particles when they are blown up. This would create a series of interesting and unique levels