flOw

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flOw (pronounced like the English word flow) is a Flash game created by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark. The game involves the player guiding an aquatic microorganism through various depths of the ocean to consume other organisms and to evolve their organism as the player advances. It is currently available in both online and as a stand-alone offline download free of charge on Jenova Chen's official website. flOw is part of Chen's thesis research at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division and includes an embedded design of dynamic game difficulty balancing which allows players with different skill levels to intuitively customize their experience and enjoy the game at their own desired pace. Within the first two weeks following its release, flOw attracted approximately 350,000 downloads. By the time the ThatGameCompany website launched, it had increased to more than 600,000 downloads. The latest version, as of February 2008, was released on April 14, 2006.

A PlayStation 3 version was announced in May 2006 as a downloadable game via the PlayStation Store. This version was developed by ThatGameCompany and released in America on February 22, 2007 and in the UK on March 30, 2007. A version for the PlayStation Portable developed by SuperVillain Studios was released in the UK in March 2008^[1] and in the US on March 6, 2008^[2].

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Flash Version 1.2 PS3/PSP version 1.2.1 Creatures 1.2.1.1 Snake 1.2.1.2 Jellyfish 1.2.1.3 Manta 1.2.1.4 Rogue 1.2.1.5 Hunter 1.2.1.6 Puffer 1.2.1.7 Credit Snake 2 iPhone game controversy 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Both versions of flOw are simple, intuitive, humanistic, and involve guiding various creatures. The player is tasked with helping their creature eat, fight other creatures for food and dominance, evolve, and ultimately reach the bottom of the sea by eating a micro-organism that causes the creature to "dive deeper". Each creature behaves a bit differently and is endowed with a different ability (for example, the snake found in both versions can receive a boost in speed). The snake (and in some senses the jellyfish) are the only characters that are in both games.

[edit] Flash Version

flOw
Screenshot from the game, with flOw logo visible.
Developer(s)	Jenova Chen, Nicholas Clark, Austin Wintory
Publisher(s)	Jenova Chen
Designer(s)	Jenova Chen, Nicholas Clark
License	Proprietary
Series	flOw
Engine	Original/Adobe Flash/ActionScript
Native resolution	800x400
Version	1.00
Platform(s)	Any platform running Flash Player
Release date(s)	April 14, 2006
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	None
System requirements	Flash Player
Input methods	Mouse

Both flOw's play structure and aesthetic design are simple and intuitive. The player begins the game as a small, white, worm-like micro-organism on a bright, two-dimensional plane. Using the mouse, the player can guide the worm. Clicking and holding down on the left mouse button accelerates the speed of the worm. The objective of the game is to guide the worm to eat other micro-organisms and evolve. Eating cells increases length, while two types of special cells temporarily increase mouth size or evolve body segments. While many of these micro-organisms are defenseless, there are certain types of multicellular organisms that will attack the worm. To defeat these enemies, the player must guide the worm to eat the glowing cells that make up the bodies of the enemies. Different types of enemies have different ways of attacking the worm, so the player must determine a particular strategy to defeat each one.

Early in the game, the worm swims in brighter planes. To progress into darker planes, where more difficult enemies dwell, the worm must eat the red micro-organism. Alternatively, the blue micro-organism enables the player to back-track to brighter planes. These special cells are always present, except on the brightest and darkest planes, where the creature can no longer travel in that specific direction. Players are capable of customizing the physical appearance of their organism based on the gameplay.

There are two creatures available to play as in the Flash version. The first is the worm phase in which the player's avatar evolves into a multi-segmented worm. If the worm defeats the last, worm-like enemy on the final bottom level, the worm eats a special orange microorganism and floats to the top, is reborn as an infant "jellyfish" creature and the background screen changes from blue to orange. If the jellyfish replays all levels it will return to the surface and begin life again as a worm but not before fighting a boss, which turns out to be the first worm-like creature the player was previously.

[edit] PS3/PSP version

flOw
PlayStation Store icon
Developer(s)	ThatGameCompany SuperVillain Studios
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment (PS3, PSP)
Designer(s)	Nicholas Clark (PS3)
License	PlayStation 3 - Proprietary PlayStation Portable - Proprietary
Series	flOw
Engine	Original
Native resolution	1080p
Version	2.10
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3 NA February 22, 2007[3] PAL March 23, 2007 JP May 11, 2007 PlayStation Portable EU April 24, 2008 JP April 24, 2008 NA March 6, 2008
Genre(s)	Life Simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
System requirements	PS3
Input methods	Sixaxis Wireless Controller, PSP

On the PlayStation 3 version of flOw, the look and feel of the game are very similar to that of the Flash version. There is an increase in the number of items on-screen as compared to the Flash game, and the game displays up to 1080p HDTV. The creature is controlled by tilting the PlayStation 3 motion-sensitive Sixaxis controller in the direction that the creature should swim. Pressing any of the face buttons will cause the creature to use its special ability.

The PS3 version of flOw has several added features. There are four new creatures to play as, all with different abilities: Manta, Rogue, Hunter, and Puffer. In addition, the player can also eat power-ups which will cause their creature to move faster, and have a bigger mouth to eat more organisms with. Once unlocked, the player can play as any of the creatures at will. Midgame, pressing "Start" and eating the blue organism will take the player back to the creature selection area. By eating the creature's egg that the player wishes to use, the game will start over at the newly selected creature's first stage.

The PS3 version has multiplayer action for up to 4 people. Other players can join in at any time and will be the same type of creature as the first player. With the addition of the add-on pack released on November 20, 2007, each player joining in has the ability to choose what creature they wish to be. A new creature, the Puffer, is included in the add-on pack, and has the ability to form an impenetrable shell which it uses to attack enemies. According to Rusty Buchert, interviewed in the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Puffer is "all about surprise." He also stated that the Puffer would become very aggressive and become more offensive to the opposing creature.^[4]

[edit] Creatures

The player can control six different creatures, all with their own unique abilities. Each creature must eat other organisms to grow bigger so that it can go deeper under water until it finally reaches the bottom area. When the creature eats the ending piece, the game returns to the top so that the player can start over as a new creature.

Once unlocked, the player can play as any of the creatures at will. Midgame, pressing "Start" and eating the blue organism will take the player back to the creature selection area. By eating the creature's egg that the player wishes to use, the game will start over at the newly selected creature's first stage.

The creatures are unlocked in the following order:

[edit] Snake

The Snake is the first creature that the player starts with. It starts out as a minuscule organism and as it evolves it becomes greatly longer and grows wing-like flagella on its sides. The snake's special ability is to gradually become faster.

[edit] Jellyfish

The Jellyfish is the second creature in flOw. It is very small to begin with, though slightly larger than the Snake. The Jellyfish's ability to spin in circles at a fast speed causing a vacuum effect that causes small organisms to become entangled in it. Afterwards, the Jellyfish becomes dizzy, or stunned. This ability is highly effective in groups of small organisms.

[edit] Manta

Manta is the third creature in flOw. It is the largest creature in the starting stages and starts out looking similar to a dolphin. It has a similar ability to the Snake. Rather than going faster forever, however, the Manta has short bursts of speed, similar to when dolphins are attacking a group of minnows. These bursts of speed have charges, and the charges appear on its tail. The more evolved the creature becomes, the more charges it will gain, and around midway through the creature's life cycle it will develop flaps, making it look like a manta ray.

[edit] Rogue

The Rogue is another snake-like creature and is the 4th to appear in the game. It has a different, more sinister ability to paralyze its prey. The Rogue's special ability is to cloak itself. While it's cloaked, it will move at a slower pace, but when it bites another creature (eg. Jelly) the bitten creature will be paralyzed and unable to swim away. As the Rogue evolves, it will grow very large wing-like flaps at its head, similar to a cloak. The rest of the creature's body also gets longer.

[edit] Hunter

Hunter is the 5th creature, and again looks like a snake. As it evolves its body begins to what look like blades or batwings (mostly noticeable when it turns) and like the rest, it gets longer as it grows. Its ability allows it to move very quickly toward a target's weak spots, making it easier to eat them. It signals that it has targeted another creature by turning red.

[edit] Puffer

In the add-on pack, there is the a creature known as the Puffer.^[5] It is similar to a Jellyfish, but has a different mouth and has blades. Its special ability is to form a shell that nothing can penetrate around it. When the player lets go of the "shell" button, the blades spin outward and can stun other creatures. It cannot keep up its shell forever and when the shell glows red, the creature will automatically do its spin attack. Like the Jellyfish it gets dizzy afterwards. It grows similarly to the Jellyfish, but as it evolves, it acquires more blades and can keep up its shell longer. According to Rusty Buchert, interviewed in the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Puffer is "All about surprise." He also stated that the Puffer would become very aggressive and become more offensive to the opposing creature.

[edit] Credit Snake

The Credit Creature is very similar to the first Snake. It has the same ability as the Snake but its body grows much longer than the Snake's maximum length. It does not grow wing-like flaps on the side like the first Snake does. There are no enemies in this creature's environment, rather, it just swims around and eats the food that is next to the credits. When it reaches the end of the credits and eats the final egg, the game will return to the top and the player starts over as the Snake again.

[edit] iPhone game controversy

In June 2009, Jenova Chen accused the creators of an iPhone and iPod Touch game, Aquatica: The Underwater Adventure, of plagiarising flOw. Chen asserted that the game was almost graphically identical, but that he would have been flattered had the game's creators released it for free and credited Thatgamecompany in some way. In the game's description on the App Store, Aquatica was described as a "new, unique game completely in a class of its own". Chen had publicly released the source code of the Flash version of the game as a learning tool for Flash programmers, but did not expect it to be re-released without attribution. Aquatica's creators called the accusations "baseless", saying that all of the code had been written from scratch and that "most games within each class are practically the same, just different graphics". They later publicly apologised, calling their earlier remarks naïve, and acknowledged the fact that Aquatica was indeed a fan remake, though written with original code. In a limited promotion, the game was released for free in the App Store.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of downloadable PlayStation 3 games
• Art game
• Flower

[edit] External links

• Jenova Chen's website
  • Playable flOw Flash game
• PlayStation 3 flOw official website
• ThatGameCompany's flOw page