![]() ![]() When the trucks are spawned in at the start of a level, their movement is not consistent. ![]() But when you play the game, the developer’s choice of having the physics engine do as it pleases begins to reveal a few flaws in the design. So far, we have a pretty good reflex challenge and speed focused game. Each new level affects the trucks in some unique way, whether it be putting them on uneven ground, attacking them with giant hazards, or making their doom inevitable to force hopping between multiple convoys so the player can keep moving to the end. The main reason why these changes in locale matter is because of how they effect the trucks the player has to hop between. Clustertruck isn’t going for any sort of realism in the concept though, the trucks driving through all kinds of locations on their journey from the start of a level to the end of it, including simple forests and deserts but also taking the trucks to medieval times, a laser filled cyber world, and the depths of Hell itself. ![]() Therefore, the in-game character must navigate from the start of a level to the end solely by leaping across semi-trailer trucks. Clustertruck is definitely one of those kinds of games.Ĭlustertruck’s central conceit is that any surface that isn’t a truck will be instantly fatal to the player if they touch it. Some games though just like to design a physics system and essentially let it run amok, the developers hoping the players will enjoy the carnage caused by the way the physics make in-game objects behave. Imprecise physics can lead to glitchy interaction and physics that are incompatible with the gameplay style can bog it down. A great example of this is when Clustertruck begins a stage like any other, with the player moving forward, on their way to the finish line, when the game suddenly removes all the ground from beneath them and trucks begin… flying.The physics of a video game world are incredibly important to the feel of the game. It's more than just ragdoll, which is often accidentally funny. All three play in the same sandbox.īut what makes Clustertruck, Surgeon Simulator, and others truly funny is how the designers don't use the physics as a lazy crutch they work in concert with everything else. There's Surgeon Simulator, where players inhabit a crappy doctor who cannot hold onto their tools, or Goat Simulator, which has players wreaking havoc in a small town. Think about some of the unexpected hits the last few years. But increasingly, games are using physics as comedic, allowing for participation by players and developers. It's possible to deploy comedy in cutscenes, dialogue, and other spaces where developers have total control, but once you introduce a free-thinking player into the situation, all bets are off (with some rare exceptions). It's profoundly difficult for video games to be funny. Even in the latter, the outcomes are usually so outrageous, you can't help but laugh the whole time. Sometimes changes work in your favor other times they make the level impossible. You can come up with a general strategy for how to approach a level, but it's not reliable each time the stage loads up again, the physics play out in a slightly different way, possibly sending a fleet of trucks left instead of right. The game features pre-designed stages, but an air of chaos makes playing them fun, unpredictable, and lovably frustrating, all at the same time. Though a simple premise, Clustertruck's wrinkle is an increasingly common trick these days: physics.
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