To some, first person shooter Morphie’s Law alpha release in March may have slipped under the radar. Developer Cosmoscope is doing something very interesting with their mechanics that is worth a look though. Instead of balancing the playing field with stats and power-ups, Morphie’s Law is showing that size counts for a lot. Here’s how.

The name of the game is skill, and the more skilled a player is, the bigger they get. Yeah, you literally grow as you shoot enemies. But it gets more interesting. Shots count for corresponding limbs. What that means is, shoot a leg, your leg grows and the same thing happens with each limb. At the same time, that players corresponding limb shrinks.

The balance here is that you become a bigger target, and they become a smaller target. Bigger targets, as we know, are easier to hit. More skilled players being bigger, will be easier targets. Smaller players will be harder targets respectively. This allows for players of considerable skill to play with new players without any imbalance. Cosmoscope had this to say about it on Facebook:

“Highly skilled players may thus play with newbies in the same match and both can enjoy the game. Your skill will not be expressed by your kill-death-ratio, but by your body size.”

This isn’t all though, because with great size comes great ability (that’s how it goes, right?). This “Morph System” also allows for players to interact with the map in different ways. For instance, smaller players can find places to hide, while bigger placers can overcome obstacles with little effort. Different sized body parts will make for some different abilities within the scope of the games world.

“A successful player adapts to his own body size.”

Players are already doing interesting things with the mechanics by distributing weight among teammates. Teams have avatars that grow as players grow, and the one with the biggest avatar wins. In Morphie’s Law, friendly fire does no damage, but it does allow players to change the size of their fellow teammates. This can allow for less skilled players to make their more skilled comrades smaller and harder to hit. This nifty trick also allows players to use size as a strategy, managing each others size to manuver through the map with tactical advantage.

Morphie’s Law is still under development, calling itself a “Body Morphology based 3D shooter in a robot Day of the Dead setting”. The game utilizes the Unreal Engine 4 and is still in the alpha stage of development. The trailer teases a coming to Steam Greenlight, but only “probably. Check it out for yourself below and while you’re at it, let us know what you think about this interesting mechanic in the comments section!