Comments on: Phyta

Phyta

juv3nal — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:19:18 -0800

Phyta. Downloadable (windows, linux) interactive thing. (via PlayThisThing)

I hesitate to call it a game because you can't really lose and it just loops on the last level forever as far as I can tell. But boy is it pretty. Bonus linkage: the next installment of shift is out. (previously)

By: anomie

anomie — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:11:07 -0800

Totally beautiful and fun, plus it runs on Linux! Now, if I could only figure out how to beat the guy who can go through your vine... Fantastic game.

By: OverlappingElvis

OverlappingElvis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:17:26 -0800

Yeah, that's pretty wonderful. Is it possible to beat level 3?

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:26:32 -0800

Is it possible to beat level 3? Yep. Ooh found a better, though lower rez, screenshot: these guys are the last level that keeps repeating, so if you haven't seen them yet, you've got further to go.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:35:09 -0800

What a fucking gorgeous... thing. Boy is it pretty is right.

By: lumensimus

lumensimus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:08:26 -0800

Unreasonable critiques and suggestions follow: All of the angels (well, maybe not the first one or two) should break through the vine -- the permeability of the level 3 and 4 vine is far more intuitively designed, pretty to look at, and unfrustrating than the rules governing whether or not an earlier angel can fly over the level 1 or 2 vine. I didn't like the game at all at first because I couldn't do anything with the little square stars (Pac-conditioning, perhaps?), and since the angels were content to flit around without visibly bothering the vine, I figured I was supposed to leave them be. Make the stars edible and the angels (very gently) malign, and I would play this a great deal. Perhaps eating a star or two might very vaguely (but visibly, with the slightest flaking of leaves) increase the thickness or spawn rate of new branches, and angel-nudging could very vaguely decrease it?

By: lumensimus

lumensimus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:12:32 -0800

Enough of a spectrum of feedback to make doing well feel like something one ought to strive for, but not so much that it's no longer relaxing, fun, or easy. Shadow of the Colossal Beanstalk, perhaps? ;)

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:43:11 -0800

I felt bad watching them turn red and die.

By: phunniemee

phunniemee — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:11:19 -0800

Has anyone had any luck getting this to run on Vista (I assume that's where the problem lies)? I want to see the pretty, too...

By: Flashman

Flashman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:43:33 -0800

It works fine for me in Vista. At least, I think it's working as it's supposed to...

By: Narual

Narual — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:01:35 -0800

Now there's a great game. I did way better tabbed out of it than I did actually trying to control it. Controlling it I got stuck on level 3, after about 10 minutes of not catching a single thing, I tabbed out to work, and was on the last level when I got back.

By: agress

agress — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:32:39 -0800

phunniemee I'm on Vista Home Premium 32bit and it runs just fine, both in Windowed and Full Screen modes. No need to turn on any compatibility settings or anything. Also: The level 5 "angels" are complete bastards.

By: PueExMachina

PueExMachina — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:29:06 -0800

Crashes on startup on Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit with the message "appstub.linux signal handler 11".

By: musicinmybrain

musicinmybrain — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:49:30 -0800

Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit (NVIDIA 8600GT, compiz enabled): ./PhytaFullscreen: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit, but running the Windows version under Wine: Unhandled Memory Exception Error Oh, well. It sure looks shiny.