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Escher Devlog

Although Escher's HMN page has not updated in a long time, the game is still in active development, and it has changed substantially. For those who may be curious, I've made a short video overview of the game's current state:



There's nothing especially technical in this video, but future ones will go into the nitty gritty details. I think I can find motivation to make devlog videos that I just couldn't find for long text posts, so I hope that this will be the start of a period of regular (likely every other week or so) updates about the game's development progress.
Piotr Jurga, Edited by Piotr Jurga on
Hey, the game looks fantastic! I have to say when I first saw you fiddle with the basics some months ago I didn't see how you could squeeze much out of the fundamental mechanic, but the puzzles in the video look super cool. The modifications to the rule set feel very simple and yet rich in consequences which is exactly the kind of thing games should look for, especially the illusionary connections becoming real connections, making more illusionary connections possible etc., seems like they could make some great puzzles. Just one thing I've noticed - it seems that some of the special blocks, like the solidifying ones and the blocks only connecting with same colored blocks, are visually indistinguishable. Have you thought about differentiating them in some way? It seems obvious that later on in the game you'd want to mix different rules and I don't see how would you go about it without such visual cues, but maybe I missed something. BTW I was a long time lurker on HN and made this account just now to say that I'm impressed :D
Miles,
Thank you for the kind words! Indeed right now, the only indicator of special block types is modified color - the solidifying ones are slightly desaturated, and the falling ones are slightly darkened. Given that blocks being different colors is already a mechanic in itself, this is obviously a problem! Differentiating them visually is a high-priority item, and how to best convey the limitations and precise behavior of each mechanic while doing so is still an open question. I'm considering making the solidifiable blocks appear ghostly / partially transparent, though I don't know whether I can make that work given that the game's main mechanic is partly based on blocks being visually occluded by other blocks. So I may need to do something else. For the fragile/falling blocks, I think making them look cracked, a bit like weathered stone, could work.
Simon Anciaux,
Looks like an interesting game, I look forward to know more about it.
Definitely looks like something I'd be interested in playing and I enjoyed the video for its own sake. In the same way that the game doesn't have additional time or life limits to make it stressful, I found the video to be relaxing to watch (maybe this is in part due to the lack of technical detail, its just a small man collecting some tetrahedrons with some voiceover). :D
Oliver Marsh, Edited by Oliver Marsh on
The game looks super cool, I would definitely be interested in playing it. I really liked the devlog video as well. I liked seeing the behind the scenes stuff as well like the editor & how you build the level.