Death Worm - An intuitive mechanic that’s easy to learn

While the content is not exactly casual game material, Death Worm exploits a very intuitive game mechanic that is easy to learn and enjoy.  Ecco the Dolphin meets Tremors, you control a meat-hungry Death Worm that tunnels its way through the earth until it finds suitable prey to feast upon, where it erupts from the ground in an Earth-shocking rumble and sprays its victim’s blood in its wake.

Why should you play?
The control of the beast is immediately obvious, and the goal of the game doubly so.  Few games adopt intuitive mechanics of this level, making it a game almost anybody could play.  (Sans the gruesome thematics.)  Not only is the mechanic easy to pick up, but it’s immediately clear which victims are appropriate for digestion and which will cause harm to your monster.  Death Worm also features a very satisfying screen rumble effect every time you break through the earth–something you have to see to appreciate!

What’s wrong with it?
The graphics are a sub-par and the theme is more than a little mature, but both work for the underground (no pun intended) indie audience it’s trying to target.  It might be a little more intuitive with a mouse-based control, and some power-ups or advanced movement mechanics might spice up the play somewhat.  (I’d like to be able to somehow keep my monster in the air to create massive combos, for example.)  Finally, playing up the some heavy physics effects might make it more visually interesting.

Despite the blood-heavy presentation, casual developers could learn a lot from such intuitive and natural game mechanics!

[Play Death Worm] [via TIGSource]

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under You Should Play. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.