The first FGC game was H2O Flow. For every match teams would randomly be pared to form alliances of 3 and work together against a different alliances to get the most points. Each team received a kit of parts and was only allowed to use those parts, meaning a lot of teams were using similar concepts. But as always teams would find a way to make unique systems, like building a canon to shoot particles into the laboratory and water reservoir from across the map.
The game consisted of two main parts. For most of the game, the teams had to collect ‘particles’ and deliver them to different locations. Particles were either orange or blue balls. The orange balls represented contaminations, while the blue particles represented clean water.
The map was separated in two parts by a river. On each side there was water reservoir and one end of a bridge. On the middle of the bridge there was a shared laboratory. Particles would come into the river from under the bridge and a part of the river in front of the bridge was restricted so teams couldn’t block the particles.
The teams had to collect particles from the river. After that teams had to separate the particles and deliver them. The contamination had to be delivered to the laboratory and the water had to be delivered to the water reservoir. Putting contaminated particles in the water reservoir would result in penalties, but putting water particles in the laboratory was fine. Contamination particles were worth more points but were also rarer. This lead to some very interesting strategic choices, resulting in some teams only going for blue or only going for orange particles. Or a combination of both, which would mean that you had to successfully separate the particles or risk a penalty. Having all contaminated particles cleared at the end of the match would give bonus points to both alliances.
The second part of the game was to climb on a bar. On each side of the map there was a bar which teams needed to use to climb up from the river side. Climbing was only allowed in the last 30 seconds of the match, but gave a high amount of points in a short amount of time.
For the full game manual click here.