Another excellent entry into our first game design competition, Damir's Personal Universe is a unique puzzle game that lets you play with physics. Using sets of colored blocks you must build moving machines that help you complete tasks. Just as the name implies, Personal Universe gives you the materials to let you build a living universe all your own. It's filled with possibilities and offers a surprising amount of freedom to explore and experiment at your leisure.
Personal Universe actually has a lot of depth, but it can be tough acclimating yourself to the interface. Hey, we never said creating your own universe was easy, did we? Your goal in each stage is to construct an apparatus that will move a set of blocks into the green zone. You can only build within the red borders, but you can use any blocks you like. There are three shades of red blocks you can use to create solid structures. Place like-colors side by side and they "stick" together, thus letting you create massive towers that move across differently shaded pieces.
The key construction materials are the blue engine and green power source squares. When placed close enough together, blue will move toward green. If they collide they destroy each other, which is a bad thing. To harvest the movement just stick a block between them. Now instead of clashing, blue tries to move toward green but instead pushes it away. The end result is a perpetual sliding movement where blue tries to touch all nearby green blocks. By placing power sources in strategic places and building contraptions around the engine, you can create some truly unique devices.
Personal Universe features a handful of puzzles to complete, a few of which are really taxing. There's also a sandbox that lets you play with materials to your heart's content. The game really encourages exploration, so don't be afraid to try out seemingly wacky ideas. It may have an awkward learning curve, but Personal Universe demonstrates an enormous amount of creativity and innovation on Damir's part. There's a lot to do while creating your own world, and half the fun is figuring out how to turn your strangest thoughts into reality.
Jay: As one of the most creative entries in the competition, it shouldn't be surprising to learn that Personal Universe was also an audience favorite. Receiving fewer votes than only one other entry, Damir's combination puzzle game and sandbox toy very nearly walked away with an award. The game exemplifies the unique and innovative work we love to highlight and feature here, and I am looking forward to seeing more from this up-and-coming Flash game designer. Perhaps with some encouragement we might convince Damir to give us even more to explore with this unique puzzle game.
Finally, I *get* this now :)
Couldn't get to grips with it when it appeared in the competition. Have there been some changes made? Somehow it makes more 'sense' now (and I don't think I've got any 'cleverer' these past weeks!
I cant seem to get past space dust... :(s
Joolz, the game is the same as it was originally submitted to the competition. Perhaps John's review helped? =)
Mike:
You'll need a jigsaw motion.
I still think the concept as huge potential!
Things that could be advanced IMHO:
* graphics.. for the engine make e.g. an ape, and instead of the fuel make bananas.
* if the ape touches the banana, it doesn't explode but just eat it the "fuel".
* Make some Create-Level Competition!
@Mike complete spoiler for spacedust, click only if desperate. This is just 1 possible solution out of dozends...
=========
_________
_________
_XX______
_EXFX____
_XXFX____
__XXXXXXX
_________
_________
_________
=========
Legend:
_ Nothing Space, for me it doesn't work if mounting against the back wall.
X Some Wall element (any)
E Engine (blue)
F Fuel (green)
= Brown wall around the box.
This is such an awesome game, but a bit frustrating.
Solution to unlock (this one took a while):
PP-----G-
BPGPRPRPR
PP-------
-P-------
-P-------
-PPPPPPP-
P=pink, B=blue, G=green, R=red, and there is no brown.
WOW!!! this is a very cool game! I just finished it, and it was incredible. Unlock and Space dust took a loooong time though. Can anyone point me towards similar games?
That was a great game. The missions were okay, but just playing around with the blocks was the best part. One of the only bad parts in my oppinion was that there is only one form of motion at one time. Also, the engine had to be really close to the green blocks to follow them. If the author changed those things and maybe added a few new blocks with their own powers, this game would be very addicting and would hook anyone for hours.
I think what would make this game great would be the ability to make and post levels for others to play.
someone left a spoiler which may work for the unlock level, but didn't say Where to put it in the box?
any help on the unlock level?
- Tim
l-ops-id-at-i-on'S SPOILER ADDITION
I believe there is one more pink on the bottom part of the "saw"
so there will be 8 Pinks on the bottom.
WTG on the spoilers all!
These help alot!
Thanks Jay for such a wonderful site! I want to see more PointClick type games!!!
Here's how I did Unlock, seems a little simpler than l-ops-id-at-i-on's, but I'm biased to my own solution of course. :)
---------
-PbbPPPR-
PPG------
BPG------
PP-------
-PPPPPP--
---------
Starts at the top right corner of the building area.
Of course, P = Pink, R = Red, B = Blue, G = Green, b = Brown, - = Empty space
I would love to see more levels for this game. I've managed to finish every single one on my own, not because I'm the brightest crayon in the box, but because this game is so damn interesting and addictive that I couldn't stop playing until all was solved. And I'm still craving for more. :D
I didn't vote for this one in the competition, and I regret it, but I couldn't play it then, since there was so many great games to play and on this one you've got to spend some time get the hang of it before you can actualy accomplish something, since it's so different from everything else.
More levels! :D
Wow stardust... i beat you finally!
anyone want a solution? but try a few times on your own before though...
1)PPPPPPPPP*9* 2)P 3)P 4)PP 5)EPG 6)PP 7)P 8)P
9)PPPPPPPPP*9*
P=Pink block
*9*=nine
E=Engine
G=Green
The #)'s mean the which line the blocks go on. Doing this should make a HUGE moving gathering bucket and it also moves the other side too when u get there haha...
Hah, I somehow managed to break it. I built something and clicked "start" and it wouldn't move, and then nothing else would either. In fact, surrounding the engine block by greens didn't do anything. The only solution was to end the level and start again, but it kept doing it so I gave up. Never quite figured out what kept breaking it.
I'm useless at this game =( so i can't even do reroute
can someone please post a walkthrough for each level, im in need...
Hmm...frustrating. When I finish a level, my only option is "Return" which only replays the same level. Ah, well...on to something else!
YES! Lewis here (before I had this account, i posted that message up there ^^^) i've finally done reroute - but im still useless, as I can't do any other levels. Oh well maybe after a few years (wait until 2108 and i will have completed the game despite being over 100)!!!
sorry about double post but i've only got "mayday" left =( I NEED HELP please?
solution to mayday:
1)GG---G
2)-G
3)GG
Mayday can be solved with two blocks.
Just extend the helicopter a little: A medium red one (like the copter) in the bottom left corner, and a green one two or three steps above it.
here is my solution to space dust:
1)-2)-3)-bbbb4)-bbgbbb5)-ebgbbbbb6)-bb-bbb7)-bbbb8)-9)-
Oh... am I the only one who is stuck on Reroute?
PS What the blocks do would be nice.
Update