Elemental Box
Platform: Java
Elemental Box is a brand new physics webtoy from our beloved sandbox game creator ha55ii. Unlike previous releases such as Powder Game or Earth Editor, Elemental Box is focused on the physical interaction of solid objects, not so much the elemental properties of them. It's a bit like a building game, complete with a start/stop timer device, that gives you full freedom to let your creativity run wild.
Elemental Box includes three elements you can place, with the option to adjust their size or change their shape. Instead of drawing things in a smooth line on the screen, you instead set pieces one by one, clicking and dragging to choose the direction and force with which they will move. Assuming you have the time set to "stop", blocks simply sit motionless on the screen, waiting to fling themselves according to your devious designs once you click "start"!
As far as the elements go, as of version 1.0 you're limited to stationary walls, blocks of wood, and blocks of steel. Wooden blocks can be easily pummeled into small pieces, and you'll usually do this with the more stable steel blocks. The hand tool lets you move blocks you've placed, and you can clear individual pieces with the "clear" command. Things happen pretty quickly once you set the screen in motion, and there's no way to reset or undo things you make, so think before you unfreeze everything!
The real meat of the game is fiddling with the angle and angle velocity options, adjusting which direction and how crazy the blocks react when they move or bump into other pieces. Fine-tuning these options are what allows you to build impressive moments of destruction, crafting block-busting machines or just tearing everything wooden into tiny little shreds. It's satisfying to watch a plank get reduced to tiny little blocks.
Elemental Box is more stripped-down than previous ha55ii releases, but it's still a strong creativity tool that will deliver as much or as little entertainment as your creative head can muster. There are very few "power tools" to edit, manipulate, save or otherwise fine-tune your creations, but this game is more about living in the moment and experiencing the temporary existence of fragile constructions. Sit down and try building something amazing, then see how much more amazing it is when you destroy it!
"Elemental Box is more stripped-down than previous ha55ii releases"
No it isn't. The game just came out last week. All Danball games started like this or less.
Danball doesn't use a standard release model,
You have to visit every friday to account for updates,
They make small changes, like a new element, or game, over a period of days.
Next week might be an update for stick ranger, or powder game, or earth editor and one of the mobile games.
The problem with Jig is they look at the major version releases, rather then the small ones,
You miss out on a small feature change and as soon as you see a major version, you call every feature new, even though it may have been released in the past months.
Yes, some games have a big levelpack, or have a sequal, but danball uses small releases, and JIG really only reviews them after a big number change.
[We review games when they offer a compelling experience. We don't create reviews for every little update that a game receives. If we did that, many of you would complain that we've already covered it. -Jay]
Well perhaps instead of saying that this game is more "stripped down," you could say that it isn't YET as full-featured as the others.
Of course you're going to have to do a single review even for a constantly changing creation. But it might be helpful to the readers if you didn't attempt to talk about it like a standard single-release thing, and acknowledged the many different ways things are published on the internet.
Otherwise this review was great (as always) and I'm glad to have been alerted to this game!
What do AV and A do? I think AV adjusts overall rotation while A adjusts angle of the blocks. Not sure though.
Nice! :) I love his physics webtoys. I hope we'll implement a more dynamical breaking algorithm. Right now we can't break circles.
Re: "more stripped-down version"
I'd happily review the final release and draw comparisons then, but seeing as how I can't travel through time, all I can do is compare what's out now. :-)
right now the game is in v1.3 with a colour fix of metal and block + wood element when u drag or drop metal on it, it implodes into: box = 4 rectangles, circle = 8 rectangles, and triangle = 3 rectangles!
also i have made 3 uploads on pg plz find them my acc is simulator action
Have Fun!!!
also wood makes a good metal launch pad when u drop metal on it
Update