Are there many games involving the manipulation of water? [closed]

Question

I'm in the very, very early brainstorming stages of a game which centers around the manipulation of water and the terrain around it. (i.e., changing the water's state between solid, liquid, gas; building up or tearing down hills to control its flow; and so forth.) I'm not yet sure if it should be a puzzle game, a platformer, or what.

Usually, when brainstorming a game, I try to find games with similar mechanics to see what is done well, poorly, etc. But this time, I'm having trouble thinking of any games that use the flow of water as a primary mechanic. (Pipe Dream is about all that comes to mind.)

So, I'm asking around... does anyone know of any games where controlling water is a major aspect? Is there much reference material (of any kind) on the subject of water as a gameplay mechanic? Or any ideas where to look?

Thanks

Answer 1

Dwarf Fortress comes to mind. Water can be pressurized and (re-)routed through a mountain as it's constantly influenced by gravity.

The game isn't about water (it's essentially a city-building game), but the water mechanics really add to the depth of the gameplay. There's a good article on Gamasutra on how they did the water. I'll try to find it.

Edit: found it. Here's some representative images..

Answer 2

Wetrix

Wetrix was a cross between Tetris, and water manipulation. The idea was to create lakes by raising terrain to capture water. It was pretty fun for the N64 and PC

In the classic mode, you start out with a flat piece of land; the ultimate goal being to gain as many points as possible, managing a landscape of lakes and ponds. This is accomplished by maneuvering different types of random pieces that fall onto the playing area, one at a time (much like the puzzle game Tetris). These pieces each have differing effects upon the arena, but the standard pieces are uppers, which increase the land level by one tier, and fall in different shapes. These can be used to sculpt walls and dams, and the perimeters of lakes. Shortly into the game, water bubble pieces will begin to fall, which burst upon impact with the land, and flow realistically like a fluid across the landscape. The main method of gathering points is by using the fireball piece to evaporate lakes, the amount of points depending upon the volume of water. On the right side of the screen is a water gauge, which fills up as water falls off the edge of the landscape, or down holes created by bombs. The player loses the game when the gauge fills up to the top. The only way to reduce the level of the water gauge is by evaporating water with fireballs, again the amount it is reduced by depends on the amount of water evaporated.

Images by ign.com

Answer 3

Hydrophobia is a game that is centered around the physics of water. So I guess this game is what you're looking for.

Answer 4

Some games that come to mind:

• Puddle: http://puddle-game.com/
• Vessel: http://www.strangeloopgames.com/
• I-Fluid (sort of): http://www.i-fluid.com/

There's also a game I seem to remember but wasn't able to find where you are adjusting the terrain of a flat world in preparation for rain to fall, with the goal of trapping the water.

EDIT: David Young put it in his answer. Wetrix is what I was thinking of.

Minecraft has water physics in a similar way that Dwarf Fortress does.

Answer 5

It's not quite water, maybe better.

There is a flash game called "Creeper World" that has fantastic fluid dynamics.

It's more of a "Goo" than water, so it tends to spread out more slowly, but the dynamics are spot-on.

Answer 6

Super Mario Sunshine!

:P

Answer 7

From Dust comes to mind, though not much information has been released. Similarly, Minecraft has a lot of complexity in its water system (see also: the invention of the waterladder).

Answer 8

I wonder how's nobody did mention the "Where's My Water?".

Answer 9

There was a great game for the Acorn Archimedes called Cataclysm - Video here - which featured water leaking through a space ship. You had to capture enough water to avoid disaster...

Answer 10

Phun (2D physics sandbox game) allows you to play with water.

Answer 11

One game that doesn't seem to be mentioned yet: Pixeljunk Shooter

While its still 'only' 2D, the water physics are done pretty good and it's definitely a big part of the gameplay.

I guess the hardest part in using water/fluid as a major game mechanic is getting the simulation stable (just like every other physics based game, but with water it's a little harder). You really want to get the same results every time you re-run the simulation under the same conditions.

If you want to go 3D with this you might want to read the GPU Gems article about fluids.

Answer 12

Charles Bloom built a little game around fluids in the very first Indie Game Jam: http://www.indiegamejam.com/igj0/games.html#flow The goal was to manipulate the terrain to guide the fluid molecules to a goal area.

Answer 13

There's a puzzle game called Enigmo that uses water drops that you may want to check out. Basically you have to get water (or lava) from the source to the destination container using various contraptions to bounce, accelerate and slide the drops.

Answer 14

I heard a lot of traps and other mecanics in MineCraft does profit from water physics.

Answer 15

Fluidity/Hydroventure is a platform game for the Wii (and later - the 3DS) co-developed by Nintendo. You control a small body of water and move around by rotating the stage via the controller, to collect more water and manipulate the environment.

Answer 16

BioShock had several levels with pretty fancy water effects. Don't know how much that actually affected the gameplay, though.

Answer 17

Flood on the amgia had a water filling effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EbGjm_x808

and

worse things happen at sea (don't be put by the graphics, this game was awesome fun!)

Answer 18

Sprinkle seems to be all about fluid/water dynamics.

Answer 19

There's a small open-source game called Sand Traps. It's about sand, not water, but the mechanics are rather similar. The game is for Wii homebrew, but maybe you can still learn something.

Here's the WiiBrew page (liks to source):
► http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Sand_Traps

And here's a gameplay video where you can see the code in action:
► http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkqxoJV1tGM

Answer 20

Klooni Games Bloody Zombies, 'the goriest game ever made in the glorious 128 x 96 resolution!'

It tries to simulate dynamic flowing liquid. Which sometimes work quite well producing splashing waves. Other times the liquid behaves like a pile of sand.