Achtung! This review is strictly Filler material. It is filled with Filler words that make Filler sentences about a Filler game. If you are looking to read a review about a game with some real meat, please click here. Thank you. Now bring on the Filler!
As is easy to guess, the object of Filler is to fill the playing field with large white circles. Just click and hold the mouse to start a circle growing. It will stop growing either when you let go or when it collides with a circle already in play. If it collides with one of the small "atoms" bouncing around, not only will it stop growing, it will disappear completely and you'll lose a life! Once you manage to fill up 2/3 of the playing area the level is passed. With each successive level, another atom is added, but you are allowed more circles and more lives to help deal with the increased difficulty.
Analysis: Filler follows in the same vein as the Windows classic JezzBall, but manages to set itself apart by implementing gravity and making already-played circles mobile. This enables the player to build moving shields which can herd the atoms into a smaller confining area. Ultimately, though, the game is too generous with balls and lives, and players with the right strategy can get above level 20 without much difficulty, at which point the game becomes less fun and more tedious. As a general rule, requiring hours of play to log high scores tends to greatly reduce the replay value of a game. Still, that the time Filler can keep you entertained is even measurable in hours is a testament to its solid and enjoyable core design. Created by Will Hankinson.
Update: Now with JIG high score table! (Cheers, Will!)
I really enjoy this one. In contrary to what you write though, I thought it was pretty balanced for such idea. I guess gameplay is more pointed towards casual players then. I mean: when I play the game I don't really care about score, like a real casual gamer. But maybe you're right, if I would have written the game, I inserted sudden death :).
It's a ok game, but alot of the time if you try to trap a atom it will just respawn at the top of the board, this wrecks alot of the strategy and makes it more of just a click and pray game.
Apparently, I'm not using the right strategy, because I've only gotten to level 14.
Admittedly I've only played once so far, but I died before level 20 (ran out of lives on level 16).
I like this game. It passes the "played it for too long when I should be working" test and has a nice mix of strategy and reactions.
That's a great one! I' really expecting it to be a strong contender for the 2008 award for the "Simple idea" category.
it's like jezzball!
Hey--thanks for the mention! Can you change the link to my blog, though? (/blog)
What you say is actually dead-on. I'm more of a casual gamer myself, and while testing the game I never made it past level 25. Since it's release, though, I've seen people get up in the 70s. The game isn't really optimized for that, and I've actually considered going back in and capping it at Level 30. If you want a SWF with a high scores table just for your blog's readers, ping me via email and I'll send one over. =]
Link updated! :D
And we'd love to have a high score table for JIG! I'll send over a request. :)
Liked this game a lot, such a simple idea but kept me amused much longer than it should have done (I too have work to be getting on with Dom!)
My only annoyance was a problem I found with balls magically appearing in the upper left corner. At first I thought I just wasn't concentrating enough, but played again and they most certainly DO come out of nowhere. Level 14...not bad I think
Hurray for linking back to Kingdom of Loathing!
And back on task, this game is fun for 10 minutes. It reminds me of QiX, but with balls. Er, you know.
elvisharwen - I noticed that problem too, except for me it was in the upper RIGHT corner. I think those mystery balls appear when a ball gets squished.
SimianLogic - I don't know if you necessarily need to cap the number of levels, but perhaps you should instead cap the number of lives, or better yet, the number of balls allotted. This is the type of game that should remain open-ended.
For anyone curious about my strategy:
Drop balls from the upper left corner (or right, whichever one is not the spawn location for squished balls). Wait until you get a good opening to make your initial ball as big as possible. You don't have to worry about the growing ball hitting the sides of the play area -- they won't stop the growth. Let go just before an atom strikes your ball. Almost immediately, start another ball growing -- the one you just completed should fall away faster than your new one is growing, and will temporarily shield it from oncoming atoms. Repeat until you run out of room in that corner. Then, continue using the same sort of process, but this time you have to push the balls horizontally off of the pile you have built up. Do this by creating little balls in the smallest cracks between larger balls. Often, if you wait long enough, the pile will shift on its own, creating more room up in the corner.
nice game!
Yeah this game is a load of fun - played it on Kong a few days ago. I don't like how the balls respawn immediately after being destroyed though - there should be a flash or two and a shadow of the ball before it re-appears. But a great simple-concept game! Cheers ;)
Nice game, fun at first but at level 28 I am bored. Too many lives, too much time and too many balls to make it a challenge.
Simple neat game that's pretty similar to Jezzball.
Woohoo! 1st place! It was 76 thousand... something points. I got to level 34 before I died.
I noticed that you lose a life if the filler balls exceed the boundaries. By this I mean, you have a bunch of balls, and you create another ball and it makes the existing balls press up against the walls. Does that make sense? Anyway, I was quite surprised when it happened (and didn't even realize it was happening until the game suddenly ended) because the review or rules didn't say anything about it.
It's not loading properly in Firefox Ubuntu :( I just get a blue screen after the ad. My internet connection has been screwy lately, though, so maybe my platform is not the issue...?
keith - try reinstalling your Flash Player. I'm not on Linux, but I have had a similar experience with the FP getting hosed somehow and a reinstall fixes it.
I got as far as level 39. The enemy balls were all invisible and didn't appear until they were squashed by the balloon balls. Is this how that level is supposed to play? or is this a bug? Either way, it did make play very interesting. ;o)
I would like this game were it not for the ball warping bug.
This game can be used to illustrate pressure/volume properties of ideal gases.
On level 2 (3 balls), make one large sphere covering about 35% of the area. Now watch as the sphere interacts with the three moving particles.
- When the sphere is in the middle, it moves away from the side with two particles. Twice the number of particles in the same volume, at the same temp (all balls with same mass and velocity), means more pressure.
- As the sphere moves towards the side with the single particle, that ball bounces of the walls and hits the sphere more often, eventually pushing it away from the wall. Reducing the volume available to a gas (compressing it), while holding the amount of that gas and its temperature constant, results in increased pressure.
- Finally, if all three balls are on one side of the sphere, the push it away from them - towards the side with no particles (no gas, i.e. a vacuum).
Entertaining for a while. The gameplay physics were very cool. I loved the way some of the little balls would circle each other once in a while. :) However, after level 30, I got pretty bored because I spent too much time waiting for an opening. Good casual game, though. The ambient music was just perfect for the game, too.
How long will the game last? I'm on 54... is the end in sight???
Should get rid of the high score being displayed when your game is over, and the scores should be reset weekly. It's evident that the top 10 did not play the game, so the leaderboard is pointless.
Also, did not like how some of the bouncing balls got squished out of one part of the map and randomly came in at the corner where I was trying to create balls.
Other than that, a great fun game.
I love the game, very addictive. But wouldn't it be better with some decent graphics? I have searched the web for a Filler game that is more visually stimulating but nothing is as good, strategy-wise as this one. Please, update! :D
Update