Things That Suck About the Magnetic Butterfly Public Prototype

I released a prototype of my Unity-made physics game prototype: Magnetic Butterfly. It sucks. It's also about a butterfly with an enormous wrecking ball attached to it.

Basically, it's a prototype game design and it needs comments and feedback.

Trent Polack, Blogger

March 4, 2009

2 Min Read

This is, more or less, the first thing that I've designed/developed using Unity and one of a game design that I wasn't sure about the gameplay viability of. It's a heavily physics-focused game about a butterfly who is born with a giant wrecking ball attached to it. This prototype was developed in about three weeks. Before I go much further, I feel the need to point out that not only is Unity one of the greatest indie-priced engines I've seen or used in my time as a game developer, but the community around it is absolutely superb. And I'm totally not angry about the engine's Indie license not having post-processing shader support.

That said, there are a number of things that suck about the first public prototype for Magnetic Butterfly. Let's talk about those things.

It's very much a prototype; it's not at all a "game" yet.
The butterfly is composed of a capsule primitive and two awful wings. These wings do not flap (or flutter).
IfWhen you fall off of the platform and find yourself falling into an abyss there is nothing you can do. You will fall forever. You will fall until you refresh the page. Or close the browser.
There is no incentive to risk your butterfly's life to grab the point spheres other than the score number going up. Then again, score served as the sole incentive for games for years.
There are no enemies implemented.
The tuning on the butterfly and wrecking ball system is not awesome (yet).
The existence of the score combo system is unknown to everyone but me. That said, this sounds like the basis for a new religion.

That works for now. If you feel like installing the Unity web player then you will find the following controls useful: W/A/S/D for movement and the space bar controls the butterfly's magnetism. While magnetized, the player has about two seconds of charge (at its maximum) and this will keep the butterfly locked in place for the duration of the magnetism. So, uh, have fun with the prototype, I guess? Any feedback is not only recommended but welcomed and appreciated. Click the link below to play:

Magnetic Butterfly Prototype