Time Wasters - 2011

It's time for a new thread of little flash games to pass the time at work

My first game of the new year:

Goblin War Machine - a fun game that's little more than driving your vehicle over humans and cows. The highlights are the humor, the nice visual design (for a flash game), and the upgradability of your vehicle.

Man In Gap - the type of game that has a simple gameplay idea. You merely find one of two pockets that won't crush the little guy. And you listen to metal, apparently.

Sorry, that Man in Gap sucks.

Yeah, it's not the best game in the world, but fine for around two minutes of play.

There's nothing that says how much time I'm going to help you waste here

3D Quick Pool - One of the many flash games that are just about exactly what the name says. Get the balls in the pockets as fast as possible without sinking the cue ball.

Hopefully this one will be up to the high standards Bruno has set for me

I'm just as bad at 3D Quick Pool as I am with real pool

Ha! Don't worry, you're not alone. And I had a pool table in my basement growing up.

Monster Mover - A puzzle game. Get the good monsters in the portal using gravity and the removal of elements from the screen. Most of it is pretty easy, but the last level is devious. The one gripe I had is that it was difficult to tell what level I was on, and I had no indication how far I'd progressed in the game. I'll spare you that and tell you that there are 20 levels, and the web is the last one.

Click PLAY 3 - a little like an untimed Wario Ware, it's just a series of little minigames where you need to figure out a sequence of events in order to reveal a "play" logo. The objective is to use as few clicks as possible. I did terribly the first time because I didn't read anything about the game before diving in, so I didn't even know what I had to do There's some fun puzzles.

Sorry, Matt, but that was awful.

Really? I found it kind of pleasant. I guess it's a game for a very specific type of person. Maybe just me

Was it difficult or something? I sailed through all but a couple of them...

No, it was easy, except for the bomb level, which was just a gigantic pain in the ass. For what was ostensibly a puzzle game, it required more twitch gaming for me than any sort of deduction.

Heh, I liked that level too

Ah well, I'll try to do better the next time My sources have been a little dry lately for some reason...

Ray Ardent, Science Ninja - A very fun side-scrolling run and jump game. You really have to keep moving, and you can go into levels with abilities you select. Once you get it down, you can start doing some pretty neat stuff.

Tower of Heaven - I'm hesitant to recommend this one, because it's one of those "you're going to die a WHOLE LOT before you get it right" games. But for some reason I like that I played it. The addition of continuously adding rules to the game was a neat gameplay element, too, even if it drives you absolutely bonkers at a couple places.

I think it will help your frustration level to know going in that there are 11 levels total. So if you're on the 9th, wondering if you should go on...well...just know there are only two more...

Sugar, Sugar - I've always loved those falling sand thingies (not sure what to call them), but I always wished there were a game about it. This one gets pretty close to making the game I would want.

Hourglass?

I think t would look better if the individual flakes didn't wiggle like snowflakes as they fell. Neat concept, needs a little play balancing and level design work.

Cactus McCoy: Possibly the most fun I've had playing a platformer, ever.

Thanks, Bitt! That's a seriously fun one! I've only beat the first four levels so far, but that's because I've been trying to beat all the challenges and find all the secret treasure, so I've played each level about 5-10 times. I started the train level about 20 times, trying to get that damn 50-hit combo. Turns out it was challenging because I had upgraded my hitting to level five by then, so I was actually killing my enemies TOO quickly, so I'd have to pick up a low-level skill weapon and make sure I picked another one up mid-combo when the first one wore out. It was frustrating, but it was fun figuring that out.

There's also a ton of variety in the game, so I really appreciate that. I'm also starting to see some really good gameplay ideas that seem far too good for a free flash game. For example, in level four with the chickens, there's a secret chest that requires a chicken to get to. Getting the chicken to the point where you need it is well designed.

In terms of the quality of platformer, for me this doesn't quite out beat Cave Story. There's also much bigger budget console games like Mario Galaxy (the first one was really freaking good). I also have to think back to the Mega Man and the Mario Brothers games.

But to be honest, perhaps is just the "recentness" of this game, but I might have to agree with you Bitt, that this was one of the most FUN platformers I've experienced.

Thanks for linking to it, Bitt!

Are you talking about hourglasses in general (in which case yes, I'm familiar with hourglasses), or a specific program?

The application I was thinking of is something that I used to play around with about 5-6 years ago. I found it in some old backups just now and it's still pretty fun, though it's definitely not what I'd call a "game" per se. Well, you be the judge.


Unfortunately much of the gameplay relies on being able to split a single stream of "sugar," so I'm guessing that's why they wiggle, so you get a wider stream.

As for "play balancing and level design work," I really didn't see any problems there. Are you sure that's not just a way of saying "it's too hard?" I was able to finish it, and while there were a few levels that weren't much fun, in general I appreciated what he was doing. There's a definite way to get past each level, and sometimes the hardest looking ones ended up not being very challenging (but were usually still rewarding).

From Beyond - a VERY quick little game (can take as little as around two minutes to finish). All you do is hurl stuff at a planet to destroy things. The goal is to destroy everything. That's it. Weirdly, my very first try I wasn't even sure what I was doing and I destroyed everything and obtained the highest rank. I tried three more times and did much worse...

It's not the best I've posted, sadly. I haven't stumbled across too much good stuff lately, so I apologize for the slowness in my recommendations

This must have been shared on this board before (because it's been around for so long), but today I noticed they've got sections for information other than vocabulary. Kinda cool.
I imagine Bitt would soar through the grammar section.

http://www.freerice.com/

This probably doesn't fit here, since it isn't a Flash game that you can play at work, and it isn't free, but you can definitely waste a ton of time with it.

Universe Sandbox is simply amazing. Makes me wish this was available when I was in school, rather than doing everything by hand. Like I said, isn't free, but there is a timed demo and it is only $9.99 on Steam, so pretty close to free.

Hey, if you can waste time with it, it's a "Time Waster (TM)"

I've played with that little sandbox game I linked to for quite a while before, and found it more fun that some actual games.

Faultline - Pretty fun. It's a little like what would happen if Portal were a very simplified side-scrolling platformer. Except in this one you're folding the environment across its self. Not terribly challenging, and the last level was pretty quick, with little to no payoff, but it was worth playing

Siegius - I posted about a similar siege game in last year's thread, I think. This one is similar but on multiple plains, and frankly it's not nearly as hard as the other one was.

The only criticism I have of it (other than it being a little easy) is that I can't figure out how you ever unlock other types of each troop. What I mean is, when you're placing a troop on the battlefield, first you click on the troop type (archer, melee, cavalry, etc), then it brings up three boxes you have to select from, but it only ever has the first one unlocked! I can't see anywhere to unlock the others. I find that to be poor game design, because it means that for an entire campaign, you end up clicking TWICE as often as you need to. I don't think it makes the game unplayable, but it got annoying after a while.

I finished the Caesar campaign (I think, there wasn't much fanfare when it was dond), and now I'm a few battles into the Vercing campaign, but that's about when I'm getting bored with it. Probably because I'm playing it on a netbook...

Goin' Up - I debated posting this. I hate this game but I can't stop playing it.

- it took me at least 20 starts before I got out of the pit
- it took me at least 50-60 starts before I got to space
- I have no clue how far I've gotten, because there's no indicator of progress
- it's ridiculously easy to die

Despite hating this game, I still keep playing it. I'm obsessed with reaching the top, but I simply don't have the skill to get there. I've gotten extremely high, to the point where it seemed like I spent more time in space than below it, but I can't seem to get to the end! I bet it doesn't end, and the developer is screwing with me...

So I apologize if you start playing this and can't stop. I don't know why I can't. I also completely understand if you start four times and simply quit. It's extremely frustrating...

Yeah way too hard for me.

Again, a non-free game and this one probably won't be in everybody's interest here, but what the heck. Frozen Synapse is a tactical simulation. It has very Tron-like graphics, and you control a squad of good guys against any number of bad guys inside a randomly generated building. Each type of unit has different attributes (range, speed, engagement speed, etc) and you spend as long as you want planning out what you are going to do for the next 5 secs (and replaying that as many times as you want until you commit to a move). The trick is, the opponent is doing the same thing, trying to guess what you are doing while you are trying to guess what they are going to do while countering them. Then the computer calculates what happened by moving both sides simultaneously. There are some crazy options for multiplayer, like play-by-email and the like that haven't been around very much lately.

It can be pretty questionable, the second mission in the single player campaign has you against a group of unarmed researchers. Like I said, not for everybody.

Impasse, a cool puzzle game.

Ultimate Assassin 3, a top-down stealth game.

Frozen Synapse sounds interesting, but I'm not willing to pay that much for it without at least a demo or trial of some nature.

Honestly, the only reason I got it was because it was on sale on Steam for like $12 or something, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered (not knowing anything about it other than the 'simultaneous turn-based tactical strategy). After playing it, I would play full price.

One thing to note is that (at least on Steam) the cost is for two copies of the game, so you may be able to find somebody to split the cost with.

Frozen Synapse is awesome.

Cat God vs Sun King - Sort of a "King of the Hill" type of game, except you're also trying to prevent the hill from being built. You get many upgradable powers and battle different types of enemies. It's good for a short afternoon of time wasting

Did everybody see Popcap has a facebook game. http://apps.facebook.com/pigupgame

A stand alone application would be better but it's still fun.

A great way to waste time is with World of Tanks. It is free to play MMO, with options to pay (you pay for gold, and with the gold you can earn XP and credits faster, buy premium tanks, buy premium ammo). It covers tanks from the Second World War and shortly after.

Your performance in each match (of 15 vs 15) determines the amount of XP and credits (money) you earn. You then spend that XP to research upgrades for your current tank, or research a whole new tank. The credits are used to purchase the upgrades or the new tank. As each tank crew gets more experience, their overall effectiveness improves until it hits 100%, then you choose which of several categories each one works on next: repairs, firefighting or camouflage.

Think of something like WoW where you just run battlegrounds all day, or Rift/WAR where you just do scenario after scenario. There are some other battle modes (such as Clan Wars, in which each clan is fighting on a persistent map to gain or defend territory), but the normal is a 15 v 15 capture the flag (or win by killing all the bad guys) battle.

My apologies, I haven't had a lot of time to waste recently (which is a good thing), so I haven't posted a good time waster in a while.

Well, with how busy I've been I've realized how nice it is to zone out and play a little web flash [or whatever] game.

Jewelanche - Oddly, I was never a fan of Bejewelled, but I love Jewelanche. Bejewelled always seemed so freaking boring to me, and this one seems to have more going on.

That is more interesting than Bejeweled.

Agreed! I can't tell if you liked that one.

Well, here's an interesting one:

Wonderputt - The real star of this one is the design of the game. I don't mean how the holes are laid out, but more the style and art of it. The real incentive for beating a hole for me is seeing how the course will change next. Aside from that it's a pretty fun putt putt game.

Awesome.

Superb - great style and animations.

I'm a colourful relaxed birdie, apparently.

If you like Risk, you may like Warlight. I don't know, because I didn't play this one. I don't like Risk that much

I played that one for a while a few weeks ago. It's gets overly complicated really quickly.

I currently play Bubble Struggle 2. This is a very cool game but some of the levels are very difficult to complete.

Okay, this is clearly spam, and the game is terrible, but there doesn't seem to be anything really malicious about it.

Misslebreak Outvaders - retro video game mashup

I really like this one :-)

For a game that looks like it was designed by someone's grandmother, Drift is surprisingly fast-paced

All That Matters - An interesting and pretty fun puzzle game.

Kingdom Rush - I guess I'm a sucker for tower defense games. This one mixes in some RPG elements that make it pretty fun. It's also available on iOS devices (who needs those millions of Android users?) for a limited time 99 cent price. Definitely worth the buck.


Also, I keep playing that Jewelanche game I linked to earlier in this thread. For some reason I'm addicted to it. I guess I see why people get addicted to Bejeweled, though I think that game has more to do with luck and there's not much to it. I keep coming back to Jewelanche, though. Here's a fun challenge: try to get through all the levels without ever failing a level. You get unlimited retries, but where's the fun in that? I've gotten all the way through without failing a few times now. It's a good challenge

Just wasted 3 hours on Kingom Rush. Thanks for that :-)

Also got sucked back into Jewelanche...

Ah, then my mission is complete!

I think it's like a curse. If I don't get others to start wasting their time with silly online games, then I'm doomed to waste my time

Ah, who am I kidding? I was up until 2am last night being a completest on Kingdom Rush...

(me too... that large yeti that freezes your towers was a problem that required some time...)

A little tip in general that they don't seem to really indicate in the game: you get stars for beating the Hero and Iron challenge modes on each level. You get one additional star for each completed challenge, and upgrading your stuff is clearly essential. They certainly don't let you get too far ahead in the game for each progressive level, that's for sure...

In case anyone here hasn't seen it yet:

MariO - It's the original Super Mario Brothers, but reimagined to give Mario a Portal gun!

New York Shark - ...is insane.

Woohoo, this is sooooo stupid and over the top, but soooo much fun!

I'm still grinning inanely.

For those keeping their rigs flash-free: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ITBmTdYds

The Love Letter - Simple, cute, won't waste a lot of time. A light Friday time waster

Mega Mash - I'm apologizing in advance for ruining your productivity for the rest of the day. This is one of the most imaginative games I've played in a while now. Not only is it a great gameplay idea, but I love the way it's presented, as a broken 8-bit multi-game cartridge. Basically, the idea is that the cartridge is producing read errors, and as a result all the games are glitching into each other. This becomes the basis for some great gameplay. Plus, they really hit some very familiar genres with only occasional and slight copyright infringement

http://www.duelinganalogs.com/game/infectonator-2/ - has the usual progression and powerups. Vaguely amusing zombies available :-)