“If I wanted to clone Atomix, this is where I’d start”: an Atomix levelpack
So with the recent Steam release of Sokobond, a few people were comparing it to Atomix, a game from 1990 about moving atoms around to make molecules.
The first thing to say about this is that it’s totally understandable! They’re both tile-based puzzle games about moving atoms around to form molecules. What could be more similar?
Well it turns out they play incredibly differently, but that’s not even the point here.
The thing is, the controversial thing: I’m not really a fan of Atomix. I wasn’t aware of it before starting to create Sokobond, but when I was first linked to it, I tried playing and… just bounced off.
The levels in Atomix are all much bigger than they need to be, featuring walls dotted around with no discernible thought behind them. They’re inelegant in ways that often make them tedious, which to a designer like me are almost the two worst possible crimes.
This week, thinking again about Atomix, I decided to set myself a challenge. I wanted to discover what would happen if I applied my own design philosophy to Atomix’s mechanics, to try to create a set of minimal, focused levels.
I intend to follow this up with an essay analysing Atomix’s mechanics and covering what I learnt in the process of making these levels. But truth be told: it is entirely possible this will never happen. I hope the levelpack can stand on its own if the essay never materialises.
This is my second Patreon-funded creation, after Cyber-Lasso last month. Thanks to everyone who has supported me.
