Once upon a time I made a huge puzzle game + picture book called Square Ogre. After making it, I realized I should’ve made the puzzle much simpler and more abstract. That’s the idea I describe below.
Map
Everything is just a shape with a certain number of angles/corners. Pentagons, Triangles, etc. Literally. Everything.
Goal
Get to the exit (and be able to actually go through it).
Main Rules
These are the only core rules we need.
- When your view distance stays the same ( = how many empty cells in front of you before you see something), you lose an angle.
- Conversely, when your view distance changes, you gain an angle.
- When you stand on a shape, you rotate by its number of corners.
You can only see shapes with as many corners (or fewer) than yours.
For example: you are a square. Then you can see squares and triangles, but everything else simply “doesn’t exist” for you. So you don’t see them and they don’t block you.
Alternatively …
We can ditch the whole concept of “seeing things”
You are blocked by locations which have more corners than you.
- If you stand on a location with the same number of corners, you gain a life. You also collect it.
- Otherwise, you lose as many lives as the difference in corners (between you and what you’re standing on)
To win, you need to collect all shapes in the level?
(Or we could just add literal “+1” or “-1” squares on the field itself. But that feels boring.)