Osmos

Moby ID: 42079
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$9.99 new on Steam

Description

Osmos is a game where the player controls a substance in an enclosed environment, reminiscent of flOw. By touching smaller objects, they can be absorbed, merging to create a larger substance. The substance is controlled through the mouse with a mechanism similar to the classic Asteroids. The mouse is used to choose a direction and gentle clicks, or holding the mouse button, provide acceleration in short bursts, steadily moving the object in a certain direction until touching a border or being slowed down by another object. Moving however causes to leave behind small droplets of fluid, rendering it smaller. When touching an object larger than itself, the player's substance gets absorbed.

The levels are set in enclosed environments where zooming can be done freely. After a few tutorials levels, different paths are offered based on variations on the concept. Some of them are based on aggressively tracking another organism or surviving in a crowded environment, another set is about an orbital course floating around a large object, and the final one is the slowest where there is very little space and the area needs to be captured with caution. In levels with limited manoeuvrability, time can be speed up or slowed down to prevent losing too much fluid when going slowly. Levels are usually won by capturing a specific organism (there are many, with different abilities) or growing to a certain size. In later levels antimatter is introduced, with the opposite effect or regular organisms.

The gameplay is supported by soothing, ambient electronic music.

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Credits (Windows version)

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Direction
Game Design
Programming
Art Direction
Consulting
Additional Programming
Chief Aesthetic Officer
Admin
Super Tester
Osmos Logo
In-game Crosshair
Hemisphere Games Logo
Achievement Icons
Special edits of 'Discovery' and 'The Shape of Things to Come'
Sound Effects
Special edits of 'Sickbay', 'Rorschach' and 'Lucy Dub'
'Farewell' (copyright Type Records) and 'From Cover to Cover'
'Antennaria' (copyright Touch Music)
Musical compositions 'Osmos themes #1 and #2'
Musical composition of the 'multimote theme'
  • DJ Paw
The track 'Tones' in the 'multimote theme'
Additional sound effects from
  • Freesound [under the creative commons sampling plus 1.0 license]
  • Elektrocell - MoteAbsorb[1-5].ogg [selected from files originally named 207[42-51]_Elektrocell_ab[1-10].wav]
[ full credits ]

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Average score: 84% (based on 26 ratings)

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Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 31 ratings with 0 reviews)

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Trivia

In the documentation, developer Eddy Boxerman explains how he came up with the concept:

*The initial idea for the game came from a course I took on spacecraft dynamics, coupled with a Desbrun/Cani paper on deformable modeling using implicit surfaces. [geek.] I thought it'd be fun to control some simulated blobby thing, perhaps in a game. Then one day I realized I could prototype some interesting gameplay with simple circles and mass propulsion. With that prototype in hand, I realized there was deep and elegantly-balanced gameplay to explore here.

Along the way I embraced the relaxed/ambient/minimalist nature of the game, and decided to make that a focus. I've been listening to a lot of ambient electronica in the last few years, and wanted to incorporate some music in that vein into the game - procedurally generated if possible. Ideally, I wanted this to become as much a "pleasant multimedia experience" as game. Since then, flOw has come out; comparisons are inevitable...*

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  • MobyGames ID: 42079
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sciere.

OnLive added by firefang9212. Browser added by Foxhack. Android, iPhone added by Kabushi. Linux added by Mark Y.

Additional contributors: Zeppin, Kennyannydenny.

Game added August 22, 2009. Last modified February 16, 2024.