This is a very specific combination of feelings that is often associated with games full of logic puzzles and brain teasers. First you look at the screen, sometimes you mumble something, but mostly you are silent and thinking. You think a lot. When your brain hurts and you only focus on one thing: the solution. Every puzzle has a solution, so why can’t I see it? But suddenly it closes. It was as if a sick brain had flipped a switch and tried a completely different, hitherto invisible path. You push a few buttons and the solution expands in front of you “as if nothing had happened.” A mixture of relief, happiness, pride begins to unfold. You got it.
But, in the end, these feelings are experienced not only by the player. The developer knows them too. “There are surprisingly many parallels between creating puzzles and playing them. Creating a puzzle that you think is good has the same feeling as a humiliating puzzle,” says Patrick Traynor, the American developer who released the Indian game Patrick’s Parabox last week.
He himself is a fan of games like The Witness or Stephen’s Sausage Roll and it shows in his work. The protagonist is a simple square with small black eyes who sometimes winks at you and cheers you up even in the worst traffic jam. You can call him Patrick or whatever, he is Trainor’s unnamed protagonist.
Sokoban mixed with Inception
Your task, as in the classic game from the 80s Sokoban, is to move the other “boxes” so that they are in the marked positions. Finally, close everything by moving Patrick himself to his place.
While it sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But gradually this logic game turns into something very similar to the movie “Inception”. Patrick’s place must be hidden inside a square that is inside another square. And as Patrick blinks sweetly at you, your brain is boiling as you try to figure out where his path will lead.
In other cases, you need to “hold” Patrick in one of the squares, move him to another location, and finally successfully push Patrick out of it again. Or you inadvertently end up with a square in the place from where you plan to move it to the “higher dimension” … but start its endless replication. It’s a bit like standing in an elevator full of mirrors bouncing off each other and trying to see if there’s an end to a reflection within a reflection within a reflection.
“Developing a puzzle game is like a puzzle game, but with maximum difficulty. You have to think deeply about this, and at the same time you are more limited in what you can think about. For example: is this a good path for the player? Is it fair to want the player to come up with this solution?” Traynor says. “You never know if you’re going to create a puzzle that can be solved. And when you play the game, you know there is a solution.”
One developer, one composer
Patrick Parabox has only two creators: Traynor and composer Priscilla Snow (you can listen to her here). The 27-year-old developer admits he didn’t expect what game would come out of his four years of work. In the beginning, he didn’t even plan to charge for it, now sites like EuroGamer write reviews for it.
“Basically it all started with me just sitting and writing random things for the game. I tried different combinations until I noticed that I found a solution, a small, interesting and valuable idea. I tried to continue to explore it and build a level around it. Sometimes I created two or three of these puzzles. And sometimes not, because the result was strange or not very successful. It’s usually trial and error,” he explains what puzzle creation looks like.
As a result, the game is very accessible and doesn’t punish you when you fail at something. You hit a wall and god, you can’t figure out how to solve this damn puzzle? It doesn’t matter, you can unlock all levels in the settings. Also, the hardest puzzles are optional, so they can be left at the very end. “I’m a big fan of games that offer the ability to customize how you play. So, if it is done naturally, Trainor answers the question about various difficulties.
But trying to solve his logic puzzles in completely random order doesn’t pay off. Like the aforementioned 2016 puzzle game The Witness (read the review here), which disgusted many players in the song In service of the Mountains King of the Mountains, Patrick’s Parabox tests your learning ability. Sometimes he explains a little, but usually you have to work with your observations, guesses and combinations. The more tasks you complete, the more you will understand more and more logic puzzles.
Slightly different from Dark Souls
“It’s a slightly different difficulty compared to Dark Souls,” Traynor says of the puzzle. “They often require you to think differently if you want to solve a completely new problem. Like in The Witness, where you have to guess what each character means. And that’s something that’s usually only found in puzzle games,” he adds.
Patrick’s Parabox contains about 350 puzzles, and due to the fact that it looks simple or ordinary, there are very few computer requirements for it. You can buy it, for example, on itch.io or on Steam for 16.79 euros (equivalent to 400 crowns), where you will also find a demo version for free trial.
Source :Indian TV
