Dillon Cower’s String Theory was created for the second Experimental Gameplay Project competition. It’s a computer game intended to be played with a DDR-style dance pad, although it has keyboard controls as well. It’s fairly short, but has an excellent, innovative implementation of a swinging-style play mechanic that’s fun to play around with.

The controls in String Theory are pretty simple. Your little alien dude has four tentacles, and you can fire them in any of the 8 cardinal/ordinal directions. The tentacles latch on to the environment, but lose their grip after a few seconds. At first I wasn’t firing more than one string in any given direction. This is a mistake - when the game speeds up you really need to fire multiple times in the same direction to move around quickly.

The camera in String Theory follows a pre-defined path at a pre-defined speed. You lose if your character moves outside of the screen. Although this makes the game a little hard to learn, at first, it also provides an excellent structure to what would otherwise be a simple physics test. It’s a really simple - if punishing - way to structure the game.

The single level in String Theory isn’t very long (I think 110 seconds or so unless you modify the camera speed settings). Still, it’ll take you a few tries to make it all the way to the end. You’ll spend more time playing than downloading, which is always a good ratio. The game forces you to restart from the beginning when you lose, which can get a little tedious, but it also gives you a chance to experiment a bit and hone your skills.

String Theory has been released as freeware. It’s a great game on its own right, and its short play time - under a minute - makes it the perfect distraction from work. Just click on your shortcut, play for 30 seconds, and then get back to doing whatever it was you were supposed to be doing. It’ll be our little secret.