Gnop

By: fuzz

On: January 29th, 2010

Gnop is a clever reinvention of the similarly named arcade classic, in which the player’s role is inversed. Instead of playing as the traditional Ping-Pong paddle, here you play as the ball. Since the game is so short, not a great many applications of this gameplay mechanic are explored, but what is here makes for a surprisingly fun and challenging game. To account for the ball’s horizontal movement, Bit Battalion has moved the game space from a single room to a collection of interconnected rooms that can be progressed through by consistently avoiding the right paddle. In each room, a different strategy must be used in order to continue successfully. Any description of these puzzles would prove to be a bit spoilerish, so do go and play the game yourself. It’s very much worth the five minutes it takes to complete.

Play Gnop in your web browser here.

Posted in Action, Browser Games, Nerd Love, Puzzle, Remakes | Tags: BitBattalion

Samuel God Hill

I do declare this to be the greatest video game to ever walk the face of the planet! May Jedediah walk from his steed once again to behold such beauty. For it is men, not kings, who rule the land.
Burnside

Cute concept, but I felt like I ended up “solving” a couple of the puzzles without having an idea of what was going on, which is not a situation I like to be in when solving puzzles.
CFBrethrenhood

The last one that made any sense was Motion Sensor.
Past that, I just bounced until I made it through…
I still don’t understand…
Great concept though.
http://blog.wolfire.com wolfirejohn

Yup. Definitely had to play all the way through that one. A refreshing and well executed concept.
Oriz0r

I’m stuck at FASTER!. What a fucking loser.
Ezuku

It’s annoying to have to keep replaying levels if the ball accidentally bounces past. It would be nice if the left bat was always the ninja bat it was in the first level.
slembcke

Ah! Gnop! That takes me back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnop! First game made by Bungie way back when they were still a Mac studio. I’ll have to check this one out too.
http://entardev.wordpress.com Entar

Funky – nice twist on a classic. Not sure how to beat “Be Gone” though.
Some Guy

There was a game by Bungie with a same name, also a Pong clone. They should have named it more originally.
illusiveman

This news post is more like it. Now you’re getting the hang of things. Straight and to the point. Good idea not spoiling things too, you gotta let people find things out on their own.
fuzz

@ illusiveman: actually i’m still going to write posts more in the style of my previous ones, there just isn’t all that much you can write about gnop.

anyone who’s stuck on be gone should think a bit about the title. how can you “be gone” from a screen?
deadeye

Really the only clever part of this game was the left-hand paddle on that one screen that tries to move out of the way, intentionally sending you back to the previous screen. Other than that it seemed rather dull to me.

I’m not usually one to complain about games posted on the front page but… yeah. I can see where this was headed, I just don’t think it quite got there I guess. Interesting premise though.
fuzz

deadeye: the major flaw in this is that you can play it in a way not intended by the developer, which makes it seem more dull than it really is

as it is, it’s a bit too open-ended
squidkid

I guess this is an original title since it’s Gnop and not Gnop!
Dinsdale

Dull? I guess it can get dull if you spend more than five minutes on it (but that could be said about almost any game on the news page).

Fun game.
http://www.phubans.com phubans

That was cool! I managed to beat it. Really clever concept :)
Dzzk

Makes it seem more dull than it really is? If it seems dull, it’s dull. That’s how subjective feelings work.
That’s like saying that skiing in Tribes makes the game seem more fun than it really is. Regardless of developer intent, the experience provided is what will be…well, experienced.
Chris.R

Neat idea, but I also felt that I “solved” most of the puzzles accidentally. Would have also been neat if it had an ending scene of a pong ball rolling off into the sunset or something.
fuzz

dzzk: maybe that was phrased improperly, but the lack of preventions of accidental solutions can make it seem more dull than it would otherwise, or if you beat the levels in the way intended by the developer
Harold

I hope the creator doesn’t get sued by Bungie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnop
Pnx

BE THE BALL