Every Katamari Damacy clone misses what made it so great: the transition between zoom levels. "I started so small and now I've sucked up everything on the planet!" The transitions between zoom levels was so well done in the original game, and none of these clones even attempt it.
It's actually quite difficult since it requires many models for each item based on zoom scale progression. Very doable but often skipped, and some are potentially in 5+ zoom levels.
Also hard to reproduce: the selection of objects, the art style (decidedly Japanese) the ambiance (king/prince/planets, the pool table when you lose), music and sounds, and a lot of the little things that make it delightful like things running away, the selection of items - the fact that parts of the world that are not objects become items to pick up at large scales.
>We wanted to do away with the current stereotype that has become the norm in the industry where both the developers and the players have come to accept a set of arbitrary rules as standard, despite the fact that video games are still a very new media. Most importantly, we wanted people to have fun and enjoy their gameplay experience.
Words every game designer should read, even more true today than back then.
ah i guess that could be rolled into the level select: scaling the ball progresses through the collections, making it a linear experience, but one that could be more.... curated :D
I enjoyed watching someone else play a Katamari game that ended with rolling around the planet picking up monuments. That was fun.
Later, I bought Katamari Damacy, and it doesn't have that aspect. You can't suck up everything on the planet. You can get moderately bigger and pick up objects the size of a car instead of objects the size of a paper clip.
What you're describing just isn't a strength of the original game; it was a strength of the sequels.
In the original, the last zoom out in the final level was after 0.8 km, and you could roll up clouds (one of which comes with a god), tornados, rainbows, and eventually the landmass the game takes place on so it's just ocean.
What? I just played Katamari Damacy (Reroll, which afaik is an HD remaster but no new content) and the last levels absolutely have you rolling up things at planet scale
• Provide a toggle for the music. It sounds like it was procedurally generated by Claude Code. I understand CC was trying to give it a "Damacy vibe", but it just doesn't have any of the charm. I can still sing the very memorable original's theme despite not having played it in over two decades.
• The camera has a bit too much elasticity when you haven't accreted much on the ball. For whatever reason, good camera controls give even SOTA LLMs a surprising amount of grief. Might be worth a bit of manual tuning.
Edit: Perhaps this mimics the gameplay in Katamari Damacy? I haven't played that, so if it directly mimics the original probably best to keep it that way.
The original uses quasi tank tread style controls, somewhat mirroring the character pushing with each hand on the Katamari. For example pushing forward on both sticks would move you forward, pushing forward on the left stick and back on the right would turn to the right, and pushing left on both sticks would move you left.
Its funny I've never really thought about it until now. I think I might have picked it up from living in Taiwan, several of my friends on LINE and PLURK would end their sentences in tildes.
On Firefox mobile, the controls are way too sensitive. I could barely aim at things. Also the joystick indicator stays in place even though you can press and drag from anywhere.
The loading is extremely slow - I'm not sure I need all the objects loaded before selecting the first level.
Also I'm not sure if some textures didn't load, but the first level is just... almost empty with random things on the floor? It doesn't have any interesting surroundings. https://photos.app.goo.gl/cEnu76hb5JeJ3DhP7 If it's not an artefact of my phone, a Katari clone needs way more polish/scenery.
What I would give for this to take place in an actual model of the Met. I bet you could pass an agent the floor maps of the met, along with some photos of the interior and get a pretty good recreation.
At this point, every web game I try starts with testing for one specific bug - if you right click while moving, does it screw up the movement so that you are still moving after you let up on WASD.
Yup. It does.
It is a cute idea. But the implementation is flawed.
And if the goal is to help people explore cultural artifacts, building a game that actually minimizes the importance of the artifacts, and literally just drives the player to squash them up into a great big ball might not be the best way to help people actually appreciate the items.
Gosh, you should try it. It really is fun. I used to go collect obsidian in the Utah desert, and knapping arrowheads out of it was a kick. We've gone to numerous primitive skills gatherings as a family, and it was some of the most fun we've had in years. When we come back home to our weaving looms, blacksmith shop, and woodworking shop, those feel downright modern.
I know you are trying to be snarky and mean, but I'm not kidding - there is a world of experiences out there when you drop tech and really explore everything this world has to offer.
It's the chaos, the music, the growth over a level, the characters, the visual design, the sound effects.
The sequels showed that when any one of them suffers then it makes for a less endearing game on the whole.
Also, the items in the game are very artfully arranged.
This version (the part I played) just dumps everything on the floor and the music is lifeless.
Also hard to reproduce: the selection of objects, the art style (decidedly Japanese) the ambiance (king/prince/planets, the pool table when you lose), music and sounds, and a lot of the little things that make it delightful like things running away, the selection of items - the fact that parts of the world that are not objects become items to pick up at large scales.
Is there some source for that? It sounds unlikely... And you can see the original models exported here https://katamari.andrew-boylan.com/
Basically if you have models that are already low-poly, why would you need multiple versions for zooming rather than just changing the camera?
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/postmortem-the-singular...
I could have sworn I remembered a talk on this but I couldn’t find anything so might be misremembering.
Words every game designer should read, even more true today than back then.
The other two are:
1. The whimsically melancholic music 2. King of All Cosmos' majestic facial hair and crotch bulge
You start off small picking up crumbs and trinkets.
You get larger and pick up sports equipment.
Then you start picking up people and they run away from you.
Then cars. Then buildings. Then cargo ships.
Then mountains. Weather systems.
Planets.
And the level designs are fun and intricate. The levels you're inside eventually become the objects you roll up.
You start inside a house at the size of a mouse. Then later you come and roll up that house and its whole neighborhood.
It feels like the horror movie "The Blob", except it's quirky and adorable when you start devouring the whole town.
All of these clones are flat and miss the incredibly good level design.
Later, I bought Katamari Damacy, and it doesn't have that aspect. You can't suck up everything on the planet. You can get moderately bigger and pick up objects the size of a car instead of objects the size of a paper clip.
What you're describing just isn't a strength of the original game; it was a strength of the sequels.
• Provide a toggle for the music. It sounds like it was procedurally generated by Claude Code. I understand CC was trying to give it a "Damacy vibe", but it just doesn't have any of the charm. I can still sing the very memorable original's theme despite not having played it in over two decades.
• The camera has a bit too much elasticity when you haven't accreted much on the ball. For whatever reason, good camera controls give even SOTA LLMs a surprising amount of grief. Might be worth a bit of manual tuning.
- The down key should move backwards
- I found the left / right keys don't just spin left / right, they move forward a bit, which I found quite frustrating at points.
I hope you'll forgive an unrelated tangent: what culture does your ~~ tag come from?
The loading is extremely slow - I'm not sure I need all the objects loaded before selecting the first level.
Also I'm not sure if some textures didn't load, but the first level is just... almost empty with random things on the floor? It doesn't have any interesting surroundings. https://photos.app.goo.gl/cEnu76hb5JeJ3DhP7 If it's not an artefact of my phone, a Katari clone needs way more polish/scenery.
https://danomorrison.com/#house
Nah.
Nah nah nah, nah nah, nah nah.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GPcr6O_Smk
Yup. It does.
It is a cute idea. But the implementation is flawed.
And if the goal is to help people explore cultural artifacts, building a game that actually minimizes the importance of the artifacts, and literally just drives the player to squash them up into a great big ball might not be the best way to help people actually appreciate the items.
Gosh, you should try it. It really is fun. I used to go collect obsidian in the Utah desert, and knapping arrowheads out of it was a kick. We've gone to numerous primitive skills gatherings as a family, and it was some of the most fun we've had in years. When we come back home to our weaving looms, blacksmith shop, and woodworking shop, those feel downright modern.
I know you are trying to be snarky and mean, but I'm not kidding - there is a world of experiences out there when you drop tech and really explore everything this world has to offer.
Katamari MetArtSee?