GDC 10: Faraway, by Steph Thirion

_{Each year, Gamma entrants are asked to make games under certain constraints. This year, all Gamma4 entries must be controlled with a single button. I plan to write up my impressions of all six Gamma4 games.}

If you own an iPhone and don’t have Eliss, first of all, you really should. There are probably less frustrating games on the App store, but Steph Thirion’s unclassifiable game is probably the only thing I’ve ever played on my iPod touch that actually needed to be played with a touchscreen. After playing Eliss, every other iPhone game felt like a halfhearted port.

Being the Eliss fanboy that I am, then, I was more than a little excited to check out Thirion’s entry in the Gamma4 competition on the GDC showfloor. His game, Faraway, is a sort of space exploration/pattern creation game — Stars Over Half Moon Bay meets Strange Attractors, maybe.

Hit the jump for my impressions.

I can see myself accidentally playing Faraway for an hour. Thirion’s game is so well-paced, and so addicting, that I’d love to carry a version of it around on my iPod touch.

The basic premise: you’re a comet, or spaceship, or something. Doesn’t matter. You want to explore the galaxy, but you’re constantly running out of time. In order to get more time, you need to fly your ship to constellations: by pressing the button, your ship will orbit around the nearest center of gravity, allowing you to build up speed and slingshot yourself forward by letting go.

Once inside a constellation, you need to fly your ship/comet/whatever around the individual stars and create a neat little pattern of your own making (hence the SOHMB comparison). Your timer recharged, it’s then time to shoot off toward the next constellation, and so on and so forth until you run out of time.

It probably sounds boring the way I’ve described it, but the fluidity of control and the your ship’s brisk speed prevent Faraway from becoming yet another Zen game along the lines of Flower or Osmos. Faraway is a fast-paced arcade game through-and-through, though an oddly graceful one: the stress-inducing countdown timer doesn’t diminish the elegance of your movement, or the method by which you activate constellations.

Despite the intrinsic “oh shit oh shit get to the next constellation maximize that score oh shit” emotions Faraway thrives on, there’s something to be said for the way your ship careens around the galaxy, occasionally smacking into asteroids (bonus points) and twirling around stars like an overexcited dance partner. There are no enemies in Faraway, and nothing to hurt you beyond the ever-diminishing timer. An average playthrough feels elegant, without being dull; fun, without being overwhelming.

I’d need to spend more time with it to be absolutely sure, but Faraway may be my favorite game in the whole Gamma4 collection. It’s not out yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as it is.