During Tuesday’s class, I was reminded of how much I used to love playing slither.io while talking to my table group. Ever since Tuesday, I’ve been on the slither.io grind. The mechanics are simple. Each player is a snake in a circular, two-dimensional map with small pellets scattered across the map that you can consume to grow your snake. If you bump into someone else or the outer boundary of the map, then you die and people can consume your remains and grow their snake. Likewise, if another player bumps into you, then they die and you can consume their remains. Players can also have their snake “sprint” by pressing the space bar or pressing down on the trackpad/mouse. It’s a nonstop, continuous battle-royale game where the goal is to become the biggest snake on the map, indicated by a leaderboard in the top-right of the screen.
The mechanics of the game – particularly the “sprint” mechanic – bring forth strategic in-game dynamics. For example, players spontaneously may “sprint” in order to cause other players to bump into them. In addition, players may “sprint” around and encircle another snake, trapping that snake and rendering them hopeless in terms of escaping their demise.
Overall, the mechanics and dynamics of the game give rise to competition (as mentioned in the “Aesthetics of Play” video) and challenge. Slither.io involves competition because the core goal of the battle-royal game is to become the biggest snake on the map. Slither.io also involves challenge due to the many other snakes (players) that act as obstacles that you must carefully and strategically navigate around in order to rise to dominance.
