Fluid Dynamics as game mechanic
There are a lot of systems / simulations / techniques that have come of age and been embraced into the folds of gaming once the environment has been made fertile for them to go mainstream, usually when the required power or technology becomes widespread enough to allow them to go stellar. When CPU’s became powerful enough, we saw Wolfenstein/Doom with their faux-3D raycasted environments, and the move to true 3D graphics was led by Quake among others. For rigid-body dynamics it was HalfLife 2, and for A.I. we had games such as the Sims series, Halo, and Black&White.
If theres one simulation thats just crying out to be exploited and incorporated into a game mechanic, its fluid dynamics, something that has been practical to use for years. Its one of those things thats been sitting on the sidelines, crying out for a poster boy, a landmark game to realise its potential. There have been occasional commercial games to incorpate Fluid Dynamics (the Wave race series, particularly Blue Storm come to mind) and a few indie/homebrew games (such as Liquid War and Plasma Pong), and here comes another from Soylent Software, name Ichor.
I love this game. It plays like the stoned cousin of Geometry Wars - laid back, ambient, abstract and fun to just play. The rules are starkly simple and instantly understandable and it creates a play-space that feels genuintely refreshing. Download, play, enjoy. And perhaps even peruse the (open-source) code so that you can get the ball rolling and create the amazing fluid-dynamics-based landmark that lurks around the corner.
You can download Ichor here. Thanks again to fun-motion for the link.
