Flip-Flop

Nobody fights back.

There is no enemy, no health bar and no way to lose. You walk the sand and the boardwalk, you swing, people react, and then they get on with their day. Taking the fight out of it is the whole point: the moment somebody hits back it becomes a different game, and a worse one.

The reaction is the reward

Every connection picks one of six reactions. They stagger. They topple over, lie there a second, and get back up. They run. They hop, and their hat comes off and lands in the sand. They stare at you. And sometimes, because it was asked for by name, they flip you off. Anyone standing nearby has a fair chance of turning to look, so a single swing ripples further than you meant it to. Keep picking on the same person and the odds of the rude one go up.

You can throw it

Right click, or press F, and the sandal spins off across the sand. It connects out to about twelve metres, and wherever it ends up is where it stays. You have exactly one, so you are unarmed until you walk over and pick it back up. A small arrow marks it if you lose track.

The beach

A hundred and forty metres of shore, a raised boardwalk with three sets of stairs and a railing that makes you use them, shops the whole length of the back, and thirty-two people going about their day. All of it is built in code rather than modelled, like most things we make.

It gets dark

The clock runs while you play: four minutes of daylight, then two minutes of night, with a sunrise and a sunset on the way through. At night the stars come out, the sea goes black, and the lamps along the boardwalk come on. Nobody goes home.

Where it stands

It is playable right here, and it is still a prototype. What is missing is a reason to keep swinging: a timer, a target list, a combo, somebody who deserves it more than the rest. Whatever it turns out to be, the escalation should stay social, more staring, a lifeguard whistle, people crossing the sand to avoid you, rather than anything that hits back.