Play and Forces
Inspired by one of the Playdead's Inside (2016) levels, where the player needs to plug the head into a sort of mind control device to control other 'zombie' looking figures, use them to trigger a door. There was a level where there were two zombies and both of them were facing each other, so when the player tries to walk while plugged into the device, both of those zombies would walk towards each other.
I think there is a nice play of movement going on at this moment, it gives the player the idea of 'control' but forces to think how the control can be used to solve the puzzle.
In this exercise, I try to play with 'movement' and using it as the force, create a small puzzle around this idea. However, there were a couple of questions that arose in my mind, such as, what if you control just one object and the other object responds to your input in the opposite direction. For example, one object moves forward, the other one moves backward.
So, I had an idea of a puzzle game. There are two cubes, both of them respond to the player's input. Only one of them can trigger the next level. You as the player need to come up with the solution to get the dominating cube free from a cage and use it to win the round.
I used Unity to make this game. As a newbie to scripting and making games, I faced difficulties with actually making this work. However, I did manage to create a simple puzzle, if not exactly how I wanted.
In the beginning, I thought, the round can only be won when both the cubes are on the trigger, at the same time, together. That would challenge the player to creatively utilise 'force' of movements and come up with the solution. Because the cubes move in the opposite direction.
I was challenged to create a mechanic where two objects need to be on the same trigger to actuate something. Unfortunately, I could not figure that out but still managed to create a spatial puzzle, where the player gets to be playful with this mechanic and forced to make use of the space.
I tinkered with this idea of the opposite movements as a game mechanic in my CPS class previous semester. Unfortunately, I could not make it work. This time, Play and Force class enabled me to play with this idea further and create a small puzzle based on it.
I think it has the potential to turn into a fun game, I would love to get back on this one in future.