Nintendo Life Interview: Curve Studios – Fluidity / Hydroventure

Quoting Nintendo Life's interview with Curve Studios:

"The game’s physics system was built organically over the course of the game. We started by creating the water physics and then layered the other elements over the top, for example, adding objects that the water could carry and making them interact with the world. As the game developed we added motors, joints, and the other elements, each time ensuring that they worked with what we had. This meant that the gameplay never outpaced the technology, instead growing together and supporting each other.

Working with water as a main character was incredibly hard, however. In most video games, players control a single character that can only be in one place at once. The typical things that you use to control a game’s level design – such as triggers, switches, enemy AI – normally rely on a single player position. This was thrown out of the window for Fluidity, since the player could be in hundreds of places at once. We had to devise a system that catered for this in all circumstances, which took a lot of time to get right."