Petri: Study #2 (Under Duress)

See it here.

It is slow-moving on purpose

I’m still trying to strike a balance between movement driven by environmental forces and a sense of agency on the part of the individual squares.

What I tried this week:

Click and hold (3-10s) to create a “Body.” Bodies have mass which takes time to fully realize. The amount of time it takes for a body to reach it’s full mass is proportional to the amount of time you hold down the mouse.

As soon as a body has achieved it’s full mass, it begins to lose mass until it is dead.

Bodies exert force on the squares, which also have mass in proportion to their area.

Squares still turn and grow and shrink somewhat randomly.

However, squares have a built-in path of their own that they want to go on. When they are born, they pick a point in space and then move towards that point in a rather convoluted way. (Mostly an excuse for me to try out some trig.) Mostly they don’t move very much until a “body” comes on the scene.

Squares also repel each other below a certain distance threshold.

I’m starting to get a feel for what parameters I can tweak to get the quality of movement and timing I’m looking for…which I’ve tried to point out in my comments in the code.

Next I would like to try “randomizing” the forces that are applied to the squares. I think that might be the key to giving them more “agency” to change their mind.

It’s been a bit of a challenge to make the squares feel like individuals making choices about where they’re going as opposed to inanimate objects on deterministic glide paths.

(Music now comes in by itself. Would like to refine the rules around that as well.)