FLOP

FLOP is a physics based multiplayer death match game. The player can utalize varius traps, meele  weapons and guns to kill the other players. The game ends when one player reaches the kill count for the match. 

FLOP was a university project for me and four other students. The game was made as part of our university course. We began the development of the game when the game “Humans Fall Flat” was at its peak popularity, which was a big inspiration for the game. 

The original vision for the game was to create a game similar to “Humans Fall Flat” and build on it by having more game modes and features. We dedicated much of our efforts towards our physics based character, the networking code, making assets and we even had a level editor.

But the game had too braod a scope for what we wanted to achieve. The game was meant to be “Wacky physics game”, but what is the main goal of the activities you do with the wacky physics. Was the game a platformer? Obstacle course / racing game? Fighting game? Etc. The game was meant to be used for all thease things. Which led us to not focus on anything with serius dedication. With one month and half left we had a physics game with a ton of assets and finished levels, which had no clear gameplay loop.

In the end, we had to scrap together what we had into a playable product for the end of the semester. The best thing we could make with the time we had left, which we thought would be the most fun and use the most of our assets was a deathmatch game.

The deathmatch game works and has some fun momments. But it dosen’t utalize the physics based character to its full potential and we had to simply parts of it to make the game playable. The character controls are also a bit to wonky and stiff for a deathmatch game.

The FLOP game flopped. But it was very good lesson in why having a clear scope and a solid design direction is so critical for a game success.