Osmos
Encyclopedia
Osmos is a puzzle video game developed by Canadian developer Hemisphere Games for different systems as Microsoft Windows
, Mac OS X
, Linux
, iPad
, iPhone
and iPod Touch
. The game was made available on Steam on 17 August 2009. The Android port was also hinted to be in development.
. Changing course is done by expelling mass. Due to conservation of momentum
, this results in the player's mote moving away from the expelled mass, but also in one's own mote shrinking.
There are three different "zones" of levels in Osmos: In the sentient levels, the goal is to prevail over active motes of various types that hunt and absorb other motes, including the player. Hunting them typically involves absorbing as many inactive motes as possible before chasing down the active ones with the extra mass one has gained.
In the ambient levels, the player's mote typically floats in a large area surrounded by inactive motes, and must become the largest or simply very large. Variations on this theme involve, for instance, starting the game as a very small mote surrounded by lots of larger, fast moving motes, or the presence of "antimatter" motes which shrink normal motes during collision no matter which one was originally bigger, or starting the game stuck in a huge, densely packed area with a large number of other motes without much space to move about and having to nudge other motes out of the way by ejecting mass at them.
In the force levels, special motes (Attractors) influence other motes with a force similar to gravitation
. The player has to take into account orbital physics
when planning movement in order to save mass when changing course. In these levels, the game optionally assists the player with a course trajectory tool that plots the mote's course, up to a short time in the future. Force levels are complicated in various ways, including levels with mutually repelling attractors, attractors bouncing randomly around an area full of motes, several "strata" of bodies in retrograde rotation about an attractor, and attractors orbiting other attractors.
based on 22 critic reviews.
Apple Inc. selected Osmos as the iPad game of the year for 2010. It also won many other awards for the year.
IGN awarded Osmos its best video game soundtrack of 2010.
A free download of many of the tracks was made available in March 2010.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
. The game was made available on Steam on 17 August 2009. The Android port was also hinted to be in development.
Gameplay
The aim of the game is to propel oneself, a single-celled organism (Mote), into other smaller motes to absorb them. Colliding with a mote larger than self will result in being absorbed, resulting in a game overGame over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
. Changing course is done by expelling mass. Due to conservation of momentum
Momentum
In classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object...
, this results in the player's mote moving away from the expelled mass, but also in one's own mote shrinking.
There are three different "zones" of levels in Osmos: In the sentient levels, the goal is to prevail over active motes of various types that hunt and absorb other motes, including the player. Hunting them typically involves absorbing as many inactive motes as possible before chasing down the active ones with the extra mass one has gained.
In the ambient levels, the player's mote typically floats in a large area surrounded by inactive motes, and must become the largest or simply very large. Variations on this theme involve, for instance, starting the game as a very small mote surrounded by lots of larger, fast moving motes, or the presence of "antimatter" motes which shrink normal motes during collision no matter which one was originally bigger, or starting the game stuck in a huge, densely packed area with a large number of other motes without much space to move about and having to nudge other motes out of the way by ejecting mass at them.
In the force levels, special motes (Attractors) influence other motes with a force similar to gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
. The player has to take into account orbital physics
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
when planning movement in order to save mass when changing course. In these levels, the game optionally assists the player with a course trajectory tool that plots the mote's course, up to a short time in the future. Force levels are complicated in various ways, including levels with mutually repelling attractors, attractors bouncing randomly around an area full of motes, several "strata" of bodies in retrograde rotation about an attractor, and attractors orbiting other attractors.
Games for Windows Live Dummy Achievement
The Games for Windows Live version of Osmos has 11 achievements, for a total score of 200 Gamerpoints. However, Games for Windows Live shows the game as having a 12th achievement worth no gamer-points at all (0G). The developer of Osmos, Hemisphere Games, is aware of the issue, and may add more achievements to the game later in a title update, thus fixing the 'Dummy Achievement' glitch.Reception
Osmos received generally favorable reviews with a metascore of 80 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on 22 critic reviews.
Apple Inc. selected Osmos as the iPad game of the year for 2010. It also won many other awards for the year.
IGN awarded Osmos its best video game soundtrack of 2010.
Soundtrack
The award winning soundtrack includes:- Vincent et Tristan – Osmos Theme
- Gas 0095 – Discovery
- BiosphereBiosphere (musician)Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen , a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his "ambient techno" and "arctic ambient" styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His track "Novelty...
- "Antennaria" (from SubstrataSubstrata (album)Substrata is an ambient music album by Biosphere, released in 1997 by All Saints Records. It is considered to be a classic ambient album, consistently in the top 5 in surveys on the Hyperreal ambient mailing list....
) - LoscilLoscilLoscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function in Csound...
– Lucy Dub - LoscilLoscilLoscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function in Csound...
– Roschach - LoscilLoscilLoscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function in Csound...
– Sickbay - High Skies – The Shape of Things to Come
- Julien Neto – From Cover to Cover
- Julien Neto – Farewell
A free download of many of the tracks was made available in March 2010.
External links
- Official site
- Osmos at Games for Windows Marketplace
- Osmos at Steam
- Osmos at Impulse
- Osmos at Game RankingsGame RankingsGameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
- Interview with Dave Burke
- Osmos soundtrack
- interview with the creators at Create Digital Music