Osmos is a game I worked on with a friend: Eddy, that is currently being submitted to Microsoft for Live Arcade. I did the graphics.
It was also submitted to the Independent Games Festival but unfortunately didn’t make it to the finals.
Here are some of the nice words we got from the 2008 Independent Games Festival Judge:
“Osmos scored best in: Visual Art
And scored worst in: Technical
“After playing this, I felt like I’d sat through one of those PBS documentaries on cellular mitosis. OK, that didn’t come out the way I’d intended. The whole notion of absorbing enemies (and using bits of your structure to propel yourself) worked amazingly well. A unique take on the simple, yet difficult to master action game. A good deal of fun. In some ways, it reminded me of Flow. And like that game, I do want to point out that the choice of audio for Osmos is perfect in setting the vibe.”
“Very cool game. I like the simplicity of it, and especially like the levels where you are propelled around a large mass.”
“I’d love to see it adapted to gamepad.”
“I hate flow, and I like this. I think the varying objectives are a big part of what make this work as a game.
Presumably it’s been tried and rejected, but having to jam the mouse button to propel feels antithetical to the rest of the slow and ambient style — was holding down the button for a boost too difficult to control? I might like to try it with analogue propulsion.
Otherwise, apart from it being occasionally a bit too easy to get into a really rough situation with the other cells gaining their own size advantage, the idea and the slowed sound are elegant, the style is nicely done, and fantastic choices for the music (yay for Loscil!). —-”