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Indie Game Night (2013-09-23): Quest for Perspective
Monday nights, 6PM, at Awesome Inc., we meet up to expose ourselves to indie games. C’mon out and look at how small game designers are pushing the medium, or bring something we can play!
This week, we looked at Naya’s Quest.
Details after the jump.
Naya’s Quest
1p, isometric strategy, mindbending, web (flash), free
Naya’s Quest is an isometric puzzle game with platforming elements by Terry Cavanagh (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV). It hides each level’s true geometry from the player by drawing platforms by virtue of its isometric projection, leaving players to discover safe paths from entrance to exit. Your scanner device shows a cross-section of the 3D level projected onto a 2D grid below your feet. Using that projection, you can reason about how the tiles are really arranged. Your eyes will lie to you.
This was the only game we’d lined up to play, so we were able to play through all of it in one sitting. Some of the level layouts are incredibly devious. Liberal scanner usage will let you slowly figure out how to proceed, but there are times when you need to take a leap of faith to see if your geometry hunch is correct.
Discussion notes:
- ♦ Reminiscent of Echochrome for PS3/PSP.
- ♦ At the start, you may choose one of three control schemes. We stuck with the default, but it’s good to see the developer acknowledge different play styles.
- ♦ The controls can be tricky to use until you realize you can break your moves down into single orientation changes, moves, and jumps. No need to move more than one space at a time unless you want to.
- ♦ The geometry will break your brain. Some moves leave you scratching your head.
- ♦ The story is unobtrusive, but pleasant. It seems to relate to the developer’s process building the game.
- ♦ The later levels start to turn gameplay upside down (sometimes literally), breaking from the conventions established in the first half. Really imaginative variants that could’ve been developed into entire level packs.
- ♦ Losing 3 lives in a single level ends the game, letting you continue by going back a level. It’s fair but can be frustrating.
. . .See you next time, jumpers.
