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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGamesAnimal Games with Interesting Controls
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Author Topic: Animal Games with Interesting Controls  (Read 6352 times)
tiglionabbit
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« on: August 02, 2009, 01:43:11 AM »

I like animals, and I really like games that do something special to reinforce the fact that you are playing as a non-humanoid animal.  So I figured I'd ask what's out there that I'm missing, and provide examples.

In commercial games:

Rolo to the Rescue.  Five playable animals must work together.  Each has their strengths and weaknesses: the rabbit can jump high, the squirrel can climb up walls, the otter can cross water, the mole can dig through dirt.  Rolo himself has a lot of momentum and slippery controls, because he's an elephant.  But he's the main character, so you have to use him to rescue the others on each level.

Ecco the Dolphin.  Great fluid swimming and jumping.  This game really impresses me.  Also the use of ramming as your primary method of attacking.

Twilight Princess: Made pretty good use of scent mode. Also fast transportation as a wolf.

Indie Games:

Knytt Stories.  I don't know what kind of animal you are, but you can climb walls and that's really cool.

Nothing.  I don't know where to find this little metroidvania anymore, but you played as a purple quadruped who could swipe at enemies and howl.

Triachnid.  Control a spider's legs individually.

Gish.  I know it's not quite an animal, but it is a very interesting control scheme, really accentuating the fact that you are made of liquid.  Perhaps I should have just called this topic "Interesting control schemes", but animals are cute.

What else can you think of?

-------------

This is somewhat unrelated, but...

I sometimes fantasize about playing a realistic squirrel game, where you can climb trees and leap amongst the branches, perhaps glide like a flying squirrel, or burrow and slink through tiny passages like a ground squirrel.  This could go a lot of directions, like a silly acrobatic "steal from the bird feeder" game that gets progressively more like The Incredible Machine as humans set up more obstacles for you.  Or perhaps a nice relaxing platformer like Knytt already is a great example of what with all the climbing around.  Or something 3D that's free-flowing and immersive like Flower or Cloud or Mirror's Edge, with procedurally generated branches and power lines for you to hop between and run along.
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Iamthejuggler
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« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2009, 02:04:22 AM »

http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/

You play a deer. It's really bizarre. I used to love ecco, but not the actual game (which was way too hard), i just loved swimming around and jumping over islands.
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bigbossSNK
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« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2009, 03:08:17 AM »

WolfQuest: Amethyst Mountain is a wolf life simulator (online multiplayer, free, Mac support). Currently you can roam free in Yellowstone National Park, hunt small animals and find a mate.
The second episode, Slough Creek, is scheduled for fall 2009 and will allow you to mark and protect your territory, have pups and build a wolf pack.
You're better off waiting till fall, but don't let that stop you if you're curious.
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AuthenticKaizen
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« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2009, 04:15:44 AM »

theres also dogs life for ps2...havent played it but it got pretty good reviews

wild earth: photo safari is pretty good.
its basically a chilling fps with nice graphics were you have the mission to make photos of different animals while walking through several nice landscapes.
(and also learn a bit about these animals)

you can check out the demo
(if you should decide to buy it: the game is pretty affordable. about 12$ on amazon)
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« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2009, 04:50:13 AM »

Deadly Creatures for the Wii.

You control both an arachnid and a scorpion in this game (one at a time, obviously).

Its a bit like god of war only that you are a small animal.  :D
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Fifth
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« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2009, 07:53:24 AM »

Yes!  Animal games are where it's at!

Here is the page for "Nothing", by the way.  Sorry for the boring HTML.

As for other games, I really liked the "soul of wolf" powerup in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  It wasn't a big part of the game by any stretch (I don't think you ever actually needed to use it), but it was really fun to use, to just run through the larger rooms and leap off of stairs and the like.  It was also one of my main inspirations for how quadruped movement could work in a game.
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Shade Jackrabbit
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« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2009, 08:04:25 AM »

I sometimes fantasize about playing a realistic squirrel game, where you can climb trees and leap amongst the branches, perhaps glide like a flying squirrel, or burrow and slink through tiny passages like a ground squirrel.  This could go a lot of directions, like a silly acrobatic "steal from the bird feeder" game that gets progressively more like The Incredible Machine as humans set up more obstacles for you.  Or perhaps a nice relaxing platformer like Knytt already is a great example of what with all the climbing around.  Or something 3D that's free-flowing and immersive like Flower or Cloud or Mirror's Edge, with procedurally generated branches and power lines for you to hop between and run along.

Oh my god, that is totally my dream game too! That would be so awesome.  Tears of Joy

Deadly Creatures for the Wii.

You control both an arachnid and a scorpion in this game (one at a time, obviously).

Its a bit like god of war only that you are a small animal.  :D

Also kind of like Mortal Kombat. I can't help but yell "FINISH HIM!" whenever the buggies kill eachother.  Grin
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« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2009, 10:20:04 AM »

words
Oh my god, that is totally my dream game too! That would be so awesome.  Tears of Joy
ditto
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Zhal
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« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2009, 02:36:26 PM »

There's something... relaxing (for lack of better word) about playing as an animal, especially a well animated animal. Shrug Tiger (GAH! The shrug arms should be separate emoticons)

I'd definitely play that squirrel game too.
Also, are there games where you play as a tiger? I like TIGers. Big Laff
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tiglionabbit
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« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2009, 04:11:47 PM »

I'm playing through Nothing again -- such a pretty game.  When are you gonna give it some sound effects?  I'm also eager to get to play as all those other critter variations in the preview.

Couple more commercial games I could have mentioned:

Majora's Mask has some nice swimming and flying mechanics as Zora and Deku Scrub.

Graffiti Kingdom lets you put together whatever you want to play as, and it procedurally generates some very nice quadruped walking animations for the models you doodle in it.

I guess I have to mention Spore, though it was a big let-down when it didn't actually handle like the version they showed off at E3.  Byebye chordable motions and individuality.

This one doesn't have revolutionary controls, but I want to give a shout out to Whiplash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash_(video_game).

Dog's life looks fun -- I'll see if I can find it.

Deadly Creatures looks totally awesome, though a little unrealistic combat-wise.  Tongue

I'm glad everyone likes the squirrel idea.  Now we just need to make it!
« Last Edit: August 02, 2009, 04:15:15 PM by tiglionabbit » Logged
poorwill
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« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2009, 06:43:53 PM »

Kolibri?





(Note:  Turn the sound down, it's way too loud and the guy is annoying as hell.  Somehow this is the only video I could find on youtube)

Also:

http://www.vectorpark.com/etc/spider.html
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« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2009, 10:34:29 PM »





This wildly underrated and fairly difficult to find Gamecube game had you controlling increasingly complex animals seemingly made out of cardboard boxes, with paper-sheet limbs configured in ways that mimic various different kinds of animal locomotion (snakes, quadripeds etc). The best parts of the game made you feel like you were in some sort of vast cardboard-box sahara, simultaneously hunting and being hunted.
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poorwill
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« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2009, 10:56:46 PM »

Cubivore is a great example.  It also delves into the bloody nature of, um, nature.  Survival of the fittest!  But it has some tender moments as well - controlling the tiny, tiny baby around the massive corpse of my previous king-of-the-jungle form was sad/sweet.

Also for your consideration:  The snake game.  There are some interesting, more realistic variants out there too:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/realistic_snake/
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« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2009, 12:28:54 AM »

The squirrel idea (especially with a gliding squirrel) sounds appealing. I also think a 3d, sideways-walking crab game would be neat. I don't think I've ever seen a 3d game with arthropods that have nice per-foot collision and proper turning (not spinning like a top), and I think it would look incredible in motion.

I think there are a few controllable birds out there, but off the top of my head The Wind Waker's seagulls are the only example I can think of. They can turn and climb freely, with a cap on rate of ascent and descent. There is also a limited energy meter for wing flapping. Every once in a while the seagull randomly squawks. Grin

Flywrench is also worth mentioning here. It has a really well tuned wing-flapping control scheme, probably the best feeling example of it that I've seen.

Fifth-
I would love to talk with you about how you did the motion in Nothing. I just spent all day animating a segmented horse and am curious about the techniques you used.
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« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2009, 04:22:08 AM »

Lemmings. 'nuff said.
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« Reply #15 on: August 03, 2009, 05:42:58 AM »

William and Sly!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/503833

This game features an animal protagonist and has really nice, smooth controls. Its a joy to just run and jump around the expansive open world environment as the fox, regardless of whether you follow the objectives or not.
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« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2009, 10:31:10 AM »

well...the topicstarter has asked for a game with a squirell.

here is one freeware 3rd person platformer game with a squirrel as the main character.
made with blender by the same developers that hve also created the free short movies elephants dream and big buck bunny

Yo Frankie!
120 MB (version 1.1)
http://www.yofrankie.org/




havent checked it out properly.
only a few minutes but it seems to be ok so far.




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« Reply #17 on: August 09, 2009, 12:05:05 PM »

The horseriding in Shadow of the Colossus is pretty simple, but I think it has an interesting feel to it, different from travelling on foot.
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« Reply #18 on: August 09, 2009, 02:12:07 PM »

The horseriding in Shadow of the Colossus is pretty simple, but I think it has an interesting feel to it, different from travelling on foot.
it is not too simple. I have seen other games with horses, and they feel like a car, SotC feels more natural.
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« Reply #19 on: August 12, 2009, 09:41:18 AM »

Don't get me on SotC, I could go on for ages.

But yeah, in it horseriding is purposely made to feel more realistic (with some minor gamey elements, like being able to maintain momentum just by holding the kick button) and for me that really helped the game. It felt great to just ride around the place.
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