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This thread has been linked to the game 'Quantum Conundrum'.
After the success of Portal, Kim Swift and her team decided to play around with some mechanics that could be added to the existing use of portals for a new game play experience. They settled on the concept of time manipulation e.g. you fire portals to push a box off a ledge so that the box heads towards lava. You then, similarly to Braid’s shadow mechanic, reverse time and you have a recorded version of yourself repeat the action so that you can catch the box before it falls into the lava. Swift and her team believed that they had the initial ideas of what would become Portal 2 and Gabe Newell was initially optimistic that their demo would showcase this. However, after the demo Gabe stated that “It totally failed. It just wasn't fun. There was too much state the player had to keep in mind.” Kim left Valve in 2009 to lead Airtight Games in developing the concept further, as she believed it could still work.
Now here we are in 2012 and the ideas have been fleshed out into a full title known as Quantum Conundrum. I have no idea what was showcased in the demo and the time manipulation idea mentioned above is nowhere to be found in the final product, so I can only assume that a lot has changed since then.
Quantum Conundrum is a first person puzzle platforming game developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. It is currently an exclusive downloadable title on Steam, but will eventually be released on XBLA and PSN.
You play the role of a 12 year old boy who gets dropped off at his uncle’s house once every year. His uncle happens to be an eccentric scientist and Inventor known as Professor Fitz Quadwrangle who would usually greet his nephew with one of his inventions. However, on this particular visit an explosion occurs and his uncle gets trapped in a pocket dimension where he can see and communicate with the boy but not vice versa. As the boy you are given access to one of Fitz’s inventions: the Inter-dimensional Shift (IDS) Device, which is a glove that allows you to switch between dimensions. You make your way through the puzzle rooms in the mansion using the device to turn on three power generators to eventually reunite with your uncle.
There are four dimensions that you will eventually get access to: Fluffy, Slow Time, Heavy and Anti-Gravity. Although objects are affected by the dimensions, the boy remains unaffected. When you enter a puzzle room you may be given dimensions instantly or you have to obtain dimension capsules to put in a machine so that you can activate them.
Normally objects such as safes and furniture are too heavy to lift so switching to the fluffy dimension will allow you to pick them up, usually with the intent to throw them. Also fluffy objects will be blown away by fans e.g. you could have objects blown upward to create stepping stones.
Slowing time is typically used after throwing a fluffy object so that you can jump onto it or slowing objects down so that you can jump from one object to the next mid air with ease. There are occasions in the game where you need to revert back to normal time as you jump so that the object you are trying to reach will fall fast enough for you to get to it.
The heavy dimension makes light cardboard boxes heavy enough to break windows and push down switches, but it also makes objects immune to being destroyed by lasers. This means that when you fly through the air on an object, you should switch to heavy when passing through lasers so that you still have something to ride on.
The final power that you gain access to is the Anti Gravity dimension which makes objects float toward the ceiling. If the object has forward momentum, you can constantly alternate between activating and deactivating the dimension so that it is constantly travelling through the air. You use this ability to ride objects to far away destinations, lift objects up in the air without the need for fans and press switches that are on the ceiling.
When you gain access to a dimension for the first time, the game will only give you access to that dimension and give you simple puzzles to show you the basics before adding extra dimensions. Although most of the time you will only be limited to one or two dimensions you will eventually have to chain all four dimensions together to get through some of the rooms.
Although it never gets overwhelmingly deep, there is enough depth in the puzzle design for it to feel rewarding. However, there were a couple of puzzles where the precision of the throwing angle and timing required did become a bit frustrating. In these cases I knew exactly what to do, but pulling it off wasn't easy.
The game aims for a cute colourful light hearted appeal and this is managed though the fluffy green mascot Ike and the dorky puns that Professor Quadwrangle (Voiced by John DeLancie) delivers throughout the game. Ike only made me smile once when I caught him rocking back and forth and making funny noises on a drinking bird and apart from other times when he interacts with the environment, he usually only serves to hold the dimension capsules.
The only part of the game that could be considered dark humour would be the messages that you are shown when you die, which is a list of things that you can’t experience now that you are dead. Although there are a few random ones e.g. “Shave a llama”, the majority are based on you being a kid e.g. “An awkward first date, failure to pay bills, realise that you aren’t special”.
In between the puzzle rooms you usually pass though halls of the mansion, which like Portal’s elevators, serve to mask loading times. Although they try to vary the hallways eventually they are copied and pasted in, but considering the elevators never changed much in portal I see this as additional effort. Also when you look at the paintings they will change to something dependant on which dimension you are in e.g. fluffy may have someone in a bunny suit and heavy may have someone in knight armour. There are some humorous names of books lying around the manor as well.
Unfortunately when I finished the game I found that the ending was pretty anti-climactic and I believe they should have ended on a stronger note. The story itself is simplistic and unlike portal the twist comes at the very end rather than providing a surprise halfway through. The manor rooms and the Professors comments are the only thing that breaks up the constant puzzle rooms which may wear some people down. I put gameplay as a priority above all else and the level design on display is excellent. However, the game does seem to have a strong emphasis on twitch precision platforming and you spend quite a lot of time jumping from furniture and safes rather than solving puzzles.
The game will last about 8-10 hours and with most modern £40 games having a similar duration, at £9.99 this game is excellent value.
If you enjoy first person puzzle games, like Portal, and you are fine with a fair amount of platforming thrown into the mix, you really shouldn’t miss it.
8.8/10
Now here we are in 2012 and the ideas have been fleshed out into a full title known as Quantum Conundrum. I have no idea what was showcased in the demo and the time manipulation idea mentioned above is nowhere to be found in the final product, so I can only assume that a lot has changed since then.
Quantum Conundrum is a first person puzzle platforming game developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. It is currently an exclusive downloadable title on Steam, but will eventually be released on XBLA and PSN.
You play the role of a 12 year old boy who gets dropped off at his uncle’s house once every year. His uncle happens to be an eccentric scientist and Inventor known as Professor Fitz Quadwrangle who would usually greet his nephew with one of his inventions. However, on this particular visit an explosion occurs and his uncle gets trapped in a pocket dimension where he can see and communicate with the boy but not vice versa. As the boy you are given access to one of Fitz’s inventions: the Inter-dimensional Shift (IDS) Device, which is a glove that allows you to switch between dimensions. You make your way through the puzzle rooms in the mansion using the device to turn on three power generators to eventually reunite with your uncle.
There are four dimensions that you will eventually get access to: Fluffy, Slow Time, Heavy and Anti-Gravity. Although objects are affected by the dimensions, the boy remains unaffected. When you enter a puzzle room you may be given dimensions instantly or you have to obtain dimension capsules to put in a machine so that you can activate them.
Normally objects such as safes and furniture are too heavy to lift so switching to the fluffy dimension will allow you to pick them up, usually with the intent to throw them. Also fluffy objects will be blown away by fans e.g. you could have objects blown upward to create stepping stones.
Slowing time is typically used after throwing a fluffy object so that you can jump onto it or slowing objects down so that you can jump from one object to the next mid air with ease. There are occasions in the game where you need to revert back to normal time as you jump so that the object you are trying to reach will fall fast enough for you to get to it.
The heavy dimension makes light cardboard boxes heavy enough to break windows and push down switches, but it also makes objects immune to being destroyed by lasers. This means that when you fly through the air on an object, you should switch to heavy when passing through lasers so that you still have something to ride on.
The final power that you gain access to is the Anti Gravity dimension which makes objects float toward the ceiling. If the object has forward momentum, you can constantly alternate between activating and deactivating the dimension so that it is constantly travelling through the air. You use this ability to ride objects to far away destinations, lift objects up in the air without the need for fans and press switches that are on the ceiling.
When you gain access to a dimension for the first time, the game will only give you access to that dimension and give you simple puzzles to show you the basics before adding extra dimensions. Although most of the time you will only be limited to one or two dimensions you will eventually have to chain all four dimensions together to get through some of the rooms.
Although it never gets overwhelmingly deep, there is enough depth in the puzzle design for it to feel rewarding. However, there were a couple of puzzles where the precision of the throwing angle and timing required did become a bit frustrating. In these cases I knew exactly what to do, but pulling it off wasn't easy.
The game aims for a cute colourful light hearted appeal and this is managed though the fluffy green mascot Ike and the dorky puns that Professor Quadwrangle (Voiced by John DeLancie) delivers throughout the game. Ike only made me smile once when I caught him rocking back and forth and making funny noises on a drinking bird and apart from other times when he interacts with the environment, he usually only serves to hold the dimension capsules.
The only part of the game that could be considered dark humour would be the messages that you are shown when you die, which is a list of things that you can’t experience now that you are dead. Although there are a few random ones e.g. “Shave a llama”, the majority are based on you being a kid e.g. “An awkward first date, failure to pay bills, realise that you aren’t special”.
In between the puzzle rooms you usually pass though halls of the mansion, which like Portal’s elevators, serve to mask loading times. Although they try to vary the hallways eventually they are copied and pasted in, but considering the elevators never changed much in portal I see this as additional effort. Also when you look at the paintings they will change to something dependant on which dimension you are in e.g. fluffy may have someone in a bunny suit and heavy may have someone in knight armour. There are some humorous names of books lying around the manor as well.
Unfortunately when I finished the game I found that the ending was pretty anti-climactic and I believe they should have ended on a stronger note. The story itself is simplistic and unlike portal the twist comes at the very end rather than providing a surprise halfway through. The manor rooms and the Professors comments are the only thing that breaks up the constant puzzle rooms which may wear some people down. I put gameplay as a priority above all else and the level design on display is excellent. However, the game does seem to have a strong emphasis on twitch precision platforming and you spend quite a lot of time jumping from furniture and safes rather than solving puzzles.
The game will last about 8-10 hours and with most modern £40 games having a similar duration, at £9.99 this game is excellent value.
If you enjoy first person puzzle games, like Portal, and you are fine with a fair amount of platforming thrown into the mix, you really shouldn’t miss it.
8.8/10
Here is a link to Kim and the teams backstory with Gabe's comments. You should see it in the middle of the wall of text. I believe the information is from The Final Hours of Portal 2.
Steam Forums
Steam Forums
After the success of Portal, Kim Swift and her team decided to play around with some mechanics that could be added to the existing use of portals for a new game play experience. They settled on the concept of time manipulation e.g. you fire portals to push a box off a ledge so that the box heads towards lava. You then, similarly to Braid’s shadow mechanic, reverse time and you have a recorded version of yourself repeat the action so that you can catch the box before it falls into the lava. Swift and her team believed that they had the initial ideas of what would become Portal 2 and Gabe Newell was initially optimistic that their demo would showcase this. However, after the demo Gabe stated that “It totally failed. It just wasn't fun. There was too much state the player had to keep in mind.” Kim left Valve in 2009 to lead Airtight Games in developing the concept further, as she believed it could still work.
Now here we are in 2012 and the ideas have been fleshed out into a full title known as Quantum Conundrum. I have no idea what was showcased in the demo and the time manipulation idea mentioned above is nowhere to be found in the final product, so I can only assume that a lot has changed since then.
Quantum Conundrum is a first person puzzle platforming game developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. It is currently an exclusive downloadable title on Steam, but will eventually be released on XBLA and PSN.
You play the role of a 12 year old boy who gets dropped off at his uncle’s house once every year. His uncle happens to be an eccentric scientist and Inventor known as Professor Fitz Quadwrangle who would usually greet his nephew with one of his inventions. However, on this particular visit an explosion occurs and his uncle gets trapped in a pocket dimension where he can see and communicate with the boy but not vice versa. As the boy you are given access to one of Fitz’s inventions: the Inter-dimensional Shift (IDS) Device, which is a glove that allows you to switch between dimensions. You make your way through the puzzle rooms in the mansion using the device to turn on three power generators to eventually reunite with your uncle.
There are four dimensions that you will eventually get access to: Fluffy, Slow Time, Heavy and Anti-Gravity. Although objects are affected by the dimensions, the boy remains unaffected. When you enter a puzzle room you may be given dimensions instantly or you have to obtain dimension capsules to put in a machine so that you can activate them.
Normally objects such as safes and furniture are too heavy to lift so switching to the fluffy dimension will allow you to pick them up, usually with the intent to throw them. Also fluffy objects will be blown away by fans e.g. you could have objects blown upward to create stepping stones.
Slowing time is typically used after throwing a fluffy object so that you can jump onto it or slowing objects down so that you can jump from one object to the next mid air with ease. There are occasions in the game where you need to revert back to normal time as you jump so that the object you are trying to reach will fall fast enough for you to get to it.
The heavy dimension makes light cardboard boxes heavy enough to break windows and push down switches, but it also makes objects immune to being destroyed by lasers. This means that when you fly through the air on an object, you should switch to heavy when passing through lasers so that you still have something to ride on.
The final power that you gain access to is the Anti Gravity dimension which makes objects float toward the ceiling. If the object has forward momentum, you can constantly alternate between activating and deactivating the dimension so that it is constantly travelling through the air. You use this ability to ride objects to far away destinations, lift objects up in the air without the need for fans and press switches that are on the ceiling.
When you gain access to a dimension for the first time, the game will only give you access to that dimension and give you simple puzzles to show you the basics before adding extra dimensions. Although most of the time you will only be limited to one or two dimensions you will eventually have to chain all four dimensions together to get through some of the rooms.
Although it never gets overwhelmingly deep, there is enough depth in the puzzle design for it to feel rewarding. However, there were a couple of puzzles where the precision of the throwing angle and timing required did become a bit frustrating. In these cases I knew exactly what to do, but pulling it off wasn't easy.
The game aims for a cute colourful light hearted appeal and this is managed though the fluffy green mascot Ike and the dorky puns that Professor Quadwrangle (Voiced by John DeLancie) delivers throughout the game. Ike only made me smile once when I caught him rocking back and forth and making funny noises on a drinking bird and apart from other times when he interacts with the environment, he usually only serves to hold the dimension capsules.
The only part of the game that could be considered dark humour would be the messages that you are shown when you die, which is a list of things that you can’t experience now that you are dead. Although there are a few random ones e.g. “Shave a llama”, the majority are based on you being a kid e.g. “An awkward first date, failure to pay bills, realise that you aren’t special”.
In between the puzzle rooms you usually pass though halls of the mansion, which like Portal’s elevators, serve to mask loading times. Although they try to vary the hallways eventually they are copied and pasted in, but considering the elevators never changed much in portal I see this as additional effort. Also when you look at the paintings they will change to something dependant on which dimension you are in e.g. fluffy may have someone in a bunny suit and heavy may have someone in knight armour. There are some humorous names of books lying around the manor as well.
Unfortunately when I finished the game I found that the ending was pretty anti-climactic and I believe they should have ended on a stronger note. The story itself is simplistic and unlike portal the twist comes at the very end rather than providing a surprise halfway through. The manor rooms and the Professors comments are the only thing that breaks up the constant puzzle rooms which may wear some people down. I put gameplay as a priority above all else and the level design on display is excellent. However, the game does seem to have a strong emphasis on twitch precision platforming and you spend quite a lot of time jumping from furniture and safes rather than solving puzzles.
The game will last about 8-10 hours and with most modern £40 games having a similar duration, at £9.99 this game is excellent value.
If you enjoy first person puzzle games, like Portal, and you are fine with a fair amount of platforming thrown into the mix, you really shouldn’t miss it.
8.8/10
Now here we are in 2012 and the ideas have been fleshed out into a full title known as Quantum Conundrum. I have no idea what was showcased in the demo and the time manipulation idea mentioned above is nowhere to be found in the final product, so I can only assume that a lot has changed since then.
Quantum Conundrum is a first person puzzle platforming game developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. It is currently an exclusive downloadable title on Steam, but will eventually be released on XBLA and PSN.
You play the role of a 12 year old boy who gets dropped off at his uncle’s house once every year. His uncle happens to be an eccentric scientist and Inventor known as Professor Fitz Quadwrangle who would usually greet his nephew with one of his inventions. However, on this particular visit an explosion occurs and his uncle gets trapped in a pocket dimension where he can see and communicate with the boy but not vice versa. As the boy you are given access to one of Fitz’s inventions: the Inter-dimensional Shift (IDS) Device, which is a glove that allows you to switch between dimensions. You make your way through the puzzle rooms in the mansion using the device to turn on three power generators to eventually reunite with your uncle.
There are four dimensions that you will eventually get access to: Fluffy, Slow Time, Heavy and Anti-Gravity. Although objects are affected by the dimensions, the boy remains unaffected. When you enter a puzzle room you may be given dimensions instantly or you have to obtain dimension capsules to put in a machine so that you can activate them.
Normally objects such as safes and furniture are too heavy to lift so switching to the fluffy dimension will allow you to pick them up, usually with the intent to throw them. Also fluffy objects will be blown away by fans e.g. you could have objects blown upward to create stepping stones.
Slowing time is typically used after throwing a fluffy object so that you can jump onto it or slowing objects down so that you can jump from one object to the next mid air with ease. There are occasions in the game where you need to revert back to normal time as you jump so that the object you are trying to reach will fall fast enough for you to get to it.
The heavy dimension makes light cardboard boxes heavy enough to break windows and push down switches, but it also makes objects immune to being destroyed by lasers. This means that when you fly through the air on an object, you should switch to heavy when passing through lasers so that you still have something to ride on.
The final power that you gain access to is the Anti Gravity dimension which makes objects float toward the ceiling. If the object has forward momentum, you can constantly alternate between activating and deactivating the dimension so that it is constantly travelling through the air. You use this ability to ride objects to far away destinations, lift objects up in the air without the need for fans and press switches that are on the ceiling.
When you gain access to a dimension for the first time, the game will only give you access to that dimension and give you simple puzzles to show you the basics before adding extra dimensions. Although most of the time you will only be limited to one or two dimensions you will eventually have to chain all four dimensions together to get through some of the rooms.
Although it never gets overwhelmingly deep, there is enough depth in the puzzle design for it to feel rewarding. However, there were a couple of puzzles where the precision of the throwing angle and timing required did become a bit frustrating. In these cases I knew exactly what to do, but pulling it off wasn't easy.
The game aims for a cute colourful light hearted appeal and this is managed though the fluffy green mascot Ike and the dorky puns that Professor Quadwrangle (Voiced by John DeLancie) delivers throughout the game. Ike only made me smile once when I caught him rocking back and forth and making funny noises on a drinking bird and apart from other times when he interacts with the environment, he usually only serves to hold the dimension capsules.
The only part of the game that could be considered dark humour would be the messages that you are shown when you die, which is a list of things that you can’t experience now that you are dead. Although there are a few random ones e.g. “Shave a llama”, the majority are based on you being a kid e.g. “An awkward first date, failure to pay bills, realise that you aren’t special”.
In between the puzzle rooms you usually pass though halls of the mansion, which like Portal’s elevators, serve to mask loading times. Although they try to vary the hallways eventually they are copied and pasted in, but considering the elevators never changed much in portal I see this as additional effort. Also when you look at the paintings they will change to something dependant on which dimension you are in e.g. fluffy may have someone in a bunny suit and heavy may have someone in knight armour. There are some humorous names of books lying around the manor as well.
Unfortunately when I finished the game I found that the ending was pretty anti-climactic and I believe they should have ended on a stronger note. The story itself is simplistic and unlike portal the twist comes at the very end rather than providing a surprise halfway through. The manor rooms and the Professors comments are the only thing that breaks up the constant puzzle rooms which may wear some people down. I put gameplay as a priority above all else and the level design on display is excellent. However, the game does seem to have a strong emphasis on twitch precision platforming and you spend quite a lot of time jumping from furniture and safes rather than solving puzzles.
The game will last about 8-10 hours and with most modern £40 games having a similar duration, at £9.99 this game is excellent value.
If you enjoy first person puzzle games, like Portal, and you are fine with a fair amount of platforming thrown into the mix, you really shouldn’t miss it.
8.8/10