Flywrench

By: Derek Yu

On: December 5th, 2007

Superb little abstract game, from the creator of the Punishment series. Very economical in its design. The inherent frustration is balanced by instantaneous reloading after death.

Watch the trailer in the extended for an idea of the game mechanics involved.

Note: the game automatically saves at the end of each of the 8 “gates.”

(Thanks, Eden!)

Posted in Abstract, Action, Freeware, Highly Recommended, Videos, Windows | Tags: messhof

MattC

I had just downloaded this, it is my kind of game! The visuals and sound were a great combination.

I thought the last level was a creative way to do things (though it crashed on the restart, ha).
http://doomlaser.com Golds

The trailer is great. It reminds me of the look of some of the classic 80s vector arcade games.
Neuro

Hell yeah, man. Definitely going to try this out.
TakaM

this is a fun game, although the music seems to fit in, I can’t say I exactly “love” it
Neuro

Ah, update to last message of mine.

I’m on the 2nd “world” if you want to call it that. Maybe “planet” is the right word.

It’s a neat game.
Splinter of Chaos

Made it to the Mars gate, but stopped because my fingers hurt. Saying how much I love this game is illegal in some states.

Ah fuck it, they’re all red states anyway…

[The following has been edited. If you read the unedited version, please call your local emergency dispatcher (911) and a decontamination squad will be on their way.]

Yeah, it’s good. But not as good as Bush.
Robert

I think it’s a tad too hard to be enjoyed thoroughly, partly because the control over the flywrench feels kinda limited (hard to describe, I feel the game’s about controlling where the flywrench is about to be in a moment; slightly passive way of controlling it) which can – in combination with later levels (earth!) – become a frustrating situation, but nonetheless (and because of fair save points) this is a very fun little game, with a great idea behind it. I love the subtle retro-futuristic charme of it, and the background sound suits my musical affection towards post-music music/noise/ambient.
MedO

Great find! Music is not what I’d put in my playlist but it fits with the visuals. I’m in Jupiter gate so far.
MisterX

Ouf, I didn’t expect to actually play through the whole thing at once. I can’t believe that’s only been 35 minutes, it somehow seemed longer. Well, sometimes it was frustrating, but also just very cool. Most of these games are either too hard, too short or too repetitive – Flywrench is none of these. It’s hard and some levels are even frustrating, but as you pointed out the instant restart saves it (There’s nothing I hate more than having to replay a level a dozen times, yet after each try having to wait for the “death sequence” to end and the damn “Replay” button finally appear). The controls also seem illogical and weird, but because of the different ways of using your “ship” and mastering the controls while playing through gate after gate this just isn’t an issue, it’s still just fun.
As already mentioned the presentation is also very nice, this retro-style in my opinion gave you the feeling of playing something old-school on the one hand, but for me it also created a proper space-feeling in this simple way.

Great find, thanks :)
Oob

I can’t decide whether this is awesome or infuriating. Probably both.
Splinter of Chaos

My total time (first try) is
26: something
26 minutes, didn’t look at seconds soon enough.

I think what would make this game truly awesome is a level designer and a community. As it is, it might be the best action game I’ve played all year, but easily forgettable.
Pixel Mort

AWESOME
raelz

Yeah, this game is really just awesome
ZeHa

Argh, frustratingly difficult. But addictive anyway :)

The music on the second planet reminded me of the first boss music in Gunstar Heroes, by the way, weird and disturbing :)
konjak

It’s Build!
Sour Cream

I have a soft spot for old-school vector games.Looks like something from Nintendo’s Bit Generation Series.
Downloading this now!
http://www.awesomenessinabox.com oranda

Every now and then I find a game which makes me say “why in the world didn’t I think of this first”? This is one of those games. Major props to the author.
Stwelin

Got to earth and quit. I love games that make me scream “FUCKIN’ SHIT!” and then throw my keyboard out the window.
cactus

Got to venus before I developed a migraine. Serves me right I guess…
crackers

Fuckin’ shit! is right, this game is a total cunt at times.
Pnx

Took me 22 minutes. Love games like these, once I got the feel of controling it, it became alot easier. Just remember every sublte little movement has an effect.
Kenzya

I stopped playing this game last night because I hated the controls. I popped it in today and I actually played it through and beat it. Only took 20:14, which is shocking because I thought I was doing way worse. Good game.
Javet

ARGH! THIS GAME IS SO FRUSTRATINGLY AWESOME! I’m stuck on Earth…
Fuck this game

What a fucking god awful piece of shit. I think I’m gonna huck my computer out of my window now, because I’m so damn ashamed I had this horrible game on it.
Stwelin

34:08. yeck. mercury sucks.
rndll

Addicting. I also hate Mercury ;-p
Snicklas

Hah, this is way awesome. Oh, wish I thought of that idea first.

A bit too easy though, beat it in 12-something minutes.
failrate

I thought this game was really hard until I discovered that the roll protects my flywrench from the yellow walls.

Then it was only very hard :D
Radix

The fact that passing though a gate is based on the animation of your ship rather than what you’re doing with the keyboard is what makes it frustrating.

If that were more intuitive I could see myself liking it more.
grabladon

The ending was the best!
JW

0:09:28

What the fuck, why do I have such a great score? D:
Daiz

Just beat it, 22:46 was my time. Took some time to get used to the controls, but after that, it was pretty easy. I found using the left and right and Z and X the best key combination.
Jad

Heheheheh

I suck at using fingers D:> I’m left-handed but I control things like these with my righty. Eeeh. So my fingers are kind of paralyzed right now. Don’t want to write stuff D:>

33:something

The music was killing me after a while. 30 minutes of static in my ears. Euuugh.

But hey, I made it (:
Pnx

Meh well I think most people are taking the time to play the game and read the text. If you don’t it really goes much faster. I just played the game again and completed in just under 9 minutes.
messhof

About the timing:
Maybe there’s a bug, but the way it’s supposed to work is your time is only counted while you are actually piloting the flywrench– and this is only recorded when you save. So if you play for an hour, then get frustrated and close the game before completing the gate you were in, and the next time beat the whole gate in a minute, it only record that second time.

It’s awesome there’s been such a positive response to the game, and I’m toying with ways of expanding it. I’m going to start a blog on http://messhof.blogspot.com for anyone that’s interested. -mark
robolee

most frustrating annoying game ever, the music just impacts it, so… so much.

someone get me a punch bag.

although, something keeps me wanting to continue, probably the art, but I’m not quite sure.
Javet

6:41!!!! This game was frustrating…
mixman

what a really nice game. For some reason, even though I beat it, I just want to keep playing it over and over again…. (or maybe that’s just my heroin)

Messhoff has a nack for making frustrating, impossible games, yet also making you really want to play them.
jade_ad

a great game:) sometimes hard, but i’m lucky x) 13 mins
Smirt

In some parts I have fun trying to figure out how to get through the gates…in other I want to smash my computer, curl up in a ball, and cry. The sensitivity of the controls seem to randomly go up and down during each level. “Music” is a little annoying at first but I got used to it.

Cool but very unforgiving.
Serprex

I found it to be solid in design, though the music at some stages made it dare me to stop

I didn’t though, I sat through and finished it in one sitting. I found the final levels were lacking in a final burst, though the credits were interesting

An interesting part is the pretaste before chapters. I liked those parts, too bad the final sections got lazy with those too
6802

One of my favourite games. I’ve gotten fairly good at it, really want to know what the actual world record is for it. My PB on it’s 5:26 according to the in-game timer, though given the things you can do to get through a good chunk of the maps I wouldn’t be surprised if it was possible to get through it in under 3:00.