Jul. 18th, 2007

jack: (Default)
Narbacular Drop is ingenious.

It's a free computer game. It's based in a simplistic 3D world, made out of orthogonal surfaces in one of two or three textures (so far) with a few objects.

The twist is that you can cause a portal to be connected between any two points -- aim at a wall, and open one end, and aim at another wall and open another end. That *sounds* like it would make getting anywhere trivial, but it's rather hard.

The portals are elegant. It doesn't feel like teleporting from A to B, but rather causing A and B to become topologically joined. You can see through, you can move in either direction, other things can come through. The portals can be anywhere, wall, floor ceiling, and gravity switches when you come through; there can be a moment where you see yourself running in your original orientation relative to the portal before reorienting and falling.

(It wouldn't quite work in real life because walls aren't impervious and objects aren't atomic. And actual wormholes raise questions about continuity of gravity, etc. But it fits here perfectly.)

(I always wanted to achieve that effect with penultima rules, warping the board rather than the pieces, but couldn't quite manage it.)
jack: (Default)
I realise my latest conception for a story could best be described as comic vampire detective space opera courtroom, and think I may be taking cross-genreality too far. But I started letting ideas flow until I eventually pounce, rather than littering my life with fifty beginnings, so I can't complain.

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