Gravity Hook

Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:09:00 GMT

Gravity Hook

Gravity Hook is a new Flash game from Adam (Atomic) Saltsman and Danny Baranowsky. It’s based on a game prototype by Niklas “Arne” Jansson where you climb higher and higher by grappling onto mines and swinging yourself up. The catch is that the mines arm themselves when you’re hooked onto them!

Like Thrustburst, Gravity Hook rewards risky behavior – releasing yourself from a mine when you’re right next to it results in a significantly larger boost. It feels good to catch the wind with a series of dangerous jumps. So good, in fact, that I’d like to see a visual or aural reward when I nail one… perhaps a little spark or a different sound effect?

Another thing I like about the game is how quickly you can retry after dying – your highest score is submitted only when you exit to the title screen. It may seem like a small thing, but for a score-based reflex game like Gravity Hook, every second between death and the next attempt can seem like a freaking eternity. For me, anyway.

Now if only I didn’t suck so hard at it…

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Comments

  1. Reaver77 said 43 minutes later:

    Erm…how do I play it? It just kind of sits at the GRAVITY HOOK screen…

  2. ellipsis said about 1 hour later:

    exactly.

  3. Derek said about 1 hour later:

    Click “Play?”

  4. Tanner said about 1 hour later:

    So addicting.

  5. Tommunism said about 1 hour later:

    Have you ever thought of putting this ok iphone??

  6. Codemonkey said about 2 hours later:

    This is quite the cave story! :O

  7. Codemonkey said about 2 hours later:

    BTW I made it up to 1143.

  8. Dusty Spur said about 3 hours later:

    Looks pretty cool. If only my resolution was large enough vertically to actually, y’know, play it.

  9. Adam Atomic said about 3 hours later:

    thanks for the sweet post Derek :) For people on 1024x768, I recommend playing in Firefox with F11 fullscreen option!

    Also, have I thought about making it on the iPhone?

  10. Dusty Spur said about 4 hours later:

    Hoho, I forgot about F11. I’ll give it a whirl now!

  11. sinoth said about 8 hours later:

    Fun, but not as great as the supreme zen vertical climber, Vertical: http://professor.fireandrobot.com/vertical.zip

  12. Steve Swink said about 8 hours later:

    Have you thought about how I’ve thought about how making it on the iPhone?

    Funtrabulous.

  13. Exoduster said about 8 hours later:

    The soundtrack needs to be offered for download. I love it.

  14. BMcC said about 9 hours later:

    The real question is has the iPhone ever thought of Adam. Like, really thought about him.

    I was going to post this, Derek, bless your soul… It is too much awesome.

  15. Lollige said about 10 hours later:

    Quite hard! After a few minutes my record is just 354 :(

  16. Advenith said about 11 hours later:

    Oh God, I am terrible at this game. I keep dying on the first mine…

    I deserve to be drug into the street and shot.

  17. Biggerfish said about 13 hours later:

    Just broke the 400 mark. How in the hell can anyone get 7,000?

    Nice game, but hardddd.

  18. GirlFlash said about 14 hours later:

    OMG MY NEW ADDICTION IS HERE!

  19. cuntface said about 17 hours later:

    Bettar than halolz.

  20. Trotim said about 18 hours later:

    Eeeeehhhh.

  21. io said about 19 hours later:

    What play button ? I can’t start the game ! Somehow it’s just stuck at the tittle screen ! The last sentence is ” how deep they are…” and stop ! Nothing happens from there ! Can somebody help ?

  22. io said about 19 hours later:

    What play button ? I can’t start the game ! Somehow it’s just stuck at the tittle screen ! The last sentence is ” how deep they are…” and stop ! Nothing happens from there ! Can somebody help ?

  23. io some said about 19 hours later:

    What play button ? I can’t start the game ! Somehow it’s just stuck at the tittle screen ! The last sentence is ” how deep they are…” and stop ! Nothing happens from there ! Can somebody help ?

  24. io some said about 19 hours later:

    sorry for that triple post !

  25. cheep said about 19 hours later:

    it cool

  26. fartron said about 19 hours later:

    Another thing I like about the game is how quickly you can retry after dying – your highest score is submitted only when you exit to the title screen. It may seem like a small thing, but for a score-based reflex game like Gravity Hook, every second between death and the next attempt can seem like a freaking eternity.

    Truly, Gravity Hook is the Frogger of our time. The messiah returns.

  27. danny B said about 22 hours later:

    Here’s that soundtrack - http://www.dbsoundworks.com/ghookost.html

    Will add extended, looped versions on request.

  28. null said about 24 hours later:

    Umihara Kawase ripoff.

  29. null said about 24 hours later:

    just kidding.

  30. Cliftor said 1 day later:

    Totally true, that last paragraph in the article!

    I love hard games where I have to die alot before getting it right, but I hate it when designers make that kind of game but have a really long game over screen or unskippable gobly-gook I have to wait for.

    In IWBTG, for instance, I can just press a button to instantly get back to my last save point. Perfect!

  31. Phasma Felis said 1 day later:

    io some: Your browser window is too small. Try using fullscreen or a higher resolution.

    And, yeah, it would have been nice if there was some indication of this. A lot of people still use 1024x768…

  32. ithamore said 1 day later:

    Also, there is no scroll bar for the window and using the scroll wheal on the mouse does nothing because of it.

    So, click outside of the game and use the down arrow to scroll the window down.

  33. io some said 6 days later:

    ithamore and Phasma Felis ,you guys were right !:) That was it ! Thanks…really a great game,a lot of fun ! :)

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