Fictitious Forces

A tiny game prototype about physics, rotating levels and piano music (and the limits of Unity).

It's fun for 5 minutes - no more, no less.

Added a god mode in v1.1.

It allows you to deactivate the individual forces and investigate how this turns the game into a strange place. It's a nice little physics experiment (especially for levels 3 and 4) that might give you a better idea of how these forces (coriolis force, centrifugal force, euler force) actually work.

• Levels 1, 2 and 5 to 9 seem realistic with all forces activated.
• Levels 3 and 4 seem realistic if gravity only is actived.

Please note that there are small numerical errors, so the simulation result may not be perfect. 

Game can be played in browser, but there's also a downloadable version for windows (performance might be better).

Level descriptions:

LEVEL 1

Move the ball into the green area. You can't control the ball directly, but you can rotate the level using [A] and [D] or the arrow keys.

LEVEL 2

This game is a lie.

Unity has some problems when calculating collisions between the ball and rotating obstacles, so I had to find a different solution. The level is actually fixed in space, but the camera is rotated (as well as the background and "gravity") to give an illusion of a rotating wheel.

LEVEL 3

This is the truth, only the ball is moving. Fictitious forces have to be applied to the ball to maintain the illusion.
As long as the (fictitious) rotation of the level is not too fast, the numerical errors are quite small.

Feeling dizzy yet?
The arrow representing gravity might make orientation a bit easier.

LEVEL 4

The first fictitious force is the centrifugal force. It keeps the ball sticking to the outer wall.

LEVEL 5

Let's stick to the illusion.

The second fictitious force is the coriolis force. It pushes the ball on a curved trajectory when the reference frame is rotating.

LEVEL 6

The third fictitious force is responsible for the corresponding acceleration of the ball due to the angular acceleration of the reference frame (it's also called Euler force).

LEVEL 7

But besides levels 3 and 4, these forces aren't quite visible, as you (the camera) are not rotating with the reference frame. The fictitious forces keep the ball on the trajectory you would expect as a static observer. Yep, lot's of physics.

"Use the Fictitious Forces, Harry!" - Gandalf

LEVEL 8

Sadly, I realized quite soon that the game idea doesn't offer as much long-lasting fun as I hoped for. But it was fun developing the prototype.

LEVEL 9

So, this is the last level already.

Hope you had fun, feel free to check my other prototypes if you liked this one!

(btw, my record is 235.1 seconds)