5 ms·

Manifold Garden (Escheresque Puzzle Game) Teaser

51 points by SonOfLilit 9y ago

Willamin 9y ago
This reminds me a lot of the game Antichamber: http://www.antichamber-game.com http://www.antichamber-game.com
- justinpombrio 9y ago
  Reminds me more of Monument Valley. Though Antichamber is a better game :-). http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/ http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/
- kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
  It reminded me of PSP game Echochrome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_RJdwAgqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_RJdwAgqw
marcosscriven 9y ago
I love the shading style - is this simply called 'flat shading'? There's still a subtle gradation. Talking of puzzle 3D games, I really want Portal 3.
- SonOfLilit 9y ago
  When I was in highschool I found a demo for a driving game that had a 3D engine based on splines (so all of it vector). The aesthetics were amazing. This reminds me of them. I recently spent a whole night googling and eventually traced it to a guy called Zotoaster based on some old gamedevboards.net forum posts, but I contacted him and he says it's all long gone. Not even a screenshot left :-(
- psyc 9y ago
  I would call it cel shaded. But I think a lot of the impact is simply due to the palette and simple aesthetic choices of the designer.
- WilliamChyr 9y ago
  Developer of the game here! It's actually not cell shading. That usually has a threshold with the colors so that it looks more like a comic here. There's a few things going on: edge detection, screen space gradient, and lack of textures. The lack of textures is what makes it feel like cell shading, but I'm not actually thresholding any of the colors.
AndrewOMartin 9y ago
Are there any hints as to what the puzzles are? Also, I only see "impossible architecture" as in very large structures, and floating elements, nothing that plays with perspective like Escher. I appreciate that a teaser is going to hold back on some information, but I reserve the right to consider being teased a frustrating experience.
- SonOfLilit 9y ago
  Submitter here. I twitted the creator in the hope that he'll answer this great question, because I have no idea. In the meanwhile, seems like the Steam page has some more info? http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/
  - WilliamChyr 9y ago
    Thanks for sharing it here!
- elbasti 9y ago
  I've played development versions of the game. Hopefully I'm not spoiling too much, but there are certainly puzzles. They are super mind-bending and _different_. Definitely gave me the "now you're thinking in portals" feeling. The other thing the puzzles reminded me of were the mechanics of Braid, where solving the puzzles requires a lot of un-learning about the way video games are supposed to work.
- quantumpotato_ 9y ago
  "Inception like" gravity inside rooms - switching gravity between different walls to move puzzle elements around + taking advantage of wraparound to move between levels on the map (the "outside") Puzzle gameplay demo: https://youtu.be/InqcFGj51y8?t=12s https://youtu.be/InqcFGj51y8?t=12s
- WilliamChyr 9y ago
  Hey, developer of Manifold Garden here. The teaser was released quite a while ago when I changed the name of the game. A lot of the game wasn't finished then, but I needed to get something out, so focused on the architecture. Here is a development update video I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDay02tqXw&t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDay02tqXw&t The first minute goes over the kinds of puzzles that you can expect in the game. I also gave a talk at GDC about the level design in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw&t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw&t It doesn't go over specific puzzles, but it gives you a sense of the kind of thinking you can expect to do in the game.
mmjaa 9y ago
The music and general aesthetics reminded me of Tranquility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLhw_zJiFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLhw_zJiFo I wonder if this game will have a similar degree of simple mechanics...
I_am_Jared 9y ago
Fyi, William Chyr streams his work on this game on Twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr
bchjam 9y ago
There's a great GDC talk about level design for this game by its creator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw

51 points by SonOfLilit 9y ago

Willamin 9y ago

This reminds me a lot of the game Antichamber: http://www.antichamber-game.com http://www.antichamber-game.com

justinpombrio 9y ago
Reminds me more of Monument Valley. Though Antichamber is a better game :-). http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/ http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/
kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
It reminded me of PSP game Echochrome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_RJdwAgqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_RJdwAgqw

marcosscriven 9y ago

I love the shading style - is this simply called 'flat shading'? There's still a subtle gradation. Talking of puzzle 3D games, I really want Portal 3.

SonOfLilit 9y ago
When I was in highschool I found a demo for a driving game that had a 3D engine based on splines (so all of it vector). The aesthetics were amazing. This reminds me of them. I recently spent a whole night googling and eventually traced it to a guy called Zotoaster based on some old gamedevboards.net forum posts, but I contacted him and he says it's all long gone. Not even a screenshot left :-(
psyc 9y ago
I would call it cel shaded. But I think a lot of the impact is simply due to the palette and simple aesthetic choices of the designer.
WilliamChyr 9y ago
Developer of the game here! It's actually not cell shading. That usually has a threshold with the colors so that it looks more like a comic here. There's a few things going on: edge detection, screen space gradient, and lack of textures. The lack of textures is what makes it feel like cell shading, but I'm not actually thresholding any of the colors.

AndrewOMartin 9y ago

Are there any hints as to what the puzzles are? Also, I only see "impossible architecture" as in very large structures, and floating elements, nothing that plays with perspective like Escher. I appreciate that a teaser is going to hold back on some information, but I reserve the right to consider being teased a frustrating experience.

SonOfLilit 9y ago
Submitter here. I twitted the creator in the hope that he'll answer this great question, because I have no idea. In the meanwhile, seems like the Steam page has some more info? http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/473950/Manifold_Garden/
- WilliamChyr 9y ago
  Thanks for sharing it here!
elbasti 9y ago
I've played development versions of the game. Hopefully I'm not spoiling too much, but there are certainly puzzles. They are super mind-bending and _different_. Definitely gave me the "now you're thinking in portals" feeling. The other thing the puzzles reminded me of were the mechanics of Braid, where solving the puzzles requires a lot of un-learning about the way video games are supposed to work.
quantumpotato_ 9y ago
"Inception like" gravity inside rooms - switching gravity between different walls to move puzzle elements around + taking advantage of wraparound to move between levels on the map (the "outside") Puzzle gameplay demo: https://youtu.be/InqcFGj51y8?t=12s https://youtu.be/InqcFGj51y8?t=12s
WilliamChyr 9y ago
Hey, developer of Manifold Garden here. The teaser was released quite a while ago when I changed the name of the game. A lot of the game wasn't finished then, but I needed to get something out, so focused on the architecture. Here is a development update video I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDay02tqXw&t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDay02tqXw&t The first minute goes over the kinds of puzzles that you can expect in the game. I also gave a talk at GDC about the level design in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw&t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw&t It doesn't go over specific puzzles, but it gives you a sense of the kind of thinking you can expect to do in the game.

mmjaa 9y ago

The music and general aesthetics reminded me of Tranquility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLhw_zJiFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLhw_zJiFo I wonder if this game will have a similar degree of simple mechanics...

I_am_Jared 9y ago

Fyi, William Chyr streams his work on this game on Twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr

bchjam 9y ago

There's a great GDC talk about level design for this game by its creator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2zmmcEryw