My solar system

I found a pretty interesting flash solar system simulator recently called My Solar System. It's hosted by the University of Colorado and supports up to 4 objects at a time. Perhaps i'm a bit burnt out from some of the more epic battles in Shining Force, but playing around with masses and velocities has got me thinking about why i'm actually having fun playing around with mass and velocity!

Warning: i've always been a sucker for simulations that involve creating stuff, so if you have never enjoyed things like building houses in The Sims or coasters in Roller Coaster Tycoon.... you might find the rest of this post very lame.

Everything is static except for that little cometI know there are a lot of physics games; just this week i even found a list of the top 30! What i didn't notice until today was the fact that only one of these 30 games, Gravitee 2, plays with gravity on a planetary scale. And since objects in Gravitee 2 don't move for sustained periods of time it doesn't really remind me of a solar system simulator at all. I actually think Auditorium, a different game on the top 30, felt more like My solar system than Gravitee 2 did!

So what makes solar system simulations so fun? Surprisingly, i don't think it has anything to do with playing god; i think it has more to do with curiosity, relaxation and pretty colors. And though i haven't seen it done, i reckon it would be possible to create a game (with rules, objective and all that good stuff) without losing any of the fun elements present in the simulations! To do so, you would need to keep one of the most unlikely components of any good solar system simulation: the colored traces of all the moving objects!

Without traces solar systems are like taking to someone you've never met; there is no history. Add traces and you can create art from orbits and track the gradually changing paths of planets. All you have to do is sit back and watch it happen.

Though simplicity should be a main draw of this type of game, it is also a major hurtle; since most of the interesting/beautiful aspects of the simulation take time, how long will a player be content to simply watch the scene unfold?

Off the top of my head, i can think of a few ways to minimize player boredom while playing a solar system simulation inspired game:

• Create objectives that involve the paths different planets take
• Allow ongoing interaction
• Make levels that resolve quickly

One game that has kept my interest during long periods of passive play is Every Extend. Even though i'm hardly ever controlling anything in the game i find myself completely engrossed. I think this has a lot to do with the way scoring works. Since the game is all about high score and since score is accumulated through long strings of chaining explosions, i have no problem waiting minutes for a chain to end... in fact i tend to get more excited the longer a chain goes. If my objective in a solar system game was to complete a figure-eight orbit around two moving start, i could definitely see myself getting just as roused every time the planet looked like it was going to switch from orbiting one star to the next. In fact, it's this type of waiting that makes things like this thrilling. Each time you get close, your expectations rise... like in Peggle when you're going for the last peg and the game starts a drum roll and goes into slow motion!

A very different game might require the player to place a limited number of static masses which modify one moving body's orbit in real time. By allowing real-time changes you remove most of the problem of passive game play, while not loosing sight of keeping objects in orbit.

The goal would be to place the objects in a way that makes the orbiter follow a certain path.  For example, there could be an outline of a square on screen; you need to get an object to complete one full orbit within this square path. This latest idea could be expanded by creating statically moving masses or by adding multiple orbiters. This would certainly up the complexity while also allowing much more complex paths.

I'd say there are a lot of options outside of pure path-based objectives that could still be fun. Adding pickups or hoops to fly through, like Gravitee 2; or perhaps multi-player. As long the game is focused on continued motion it should capture the essence of solar system simulation!