Yup, it’s very different from the steampunk puzzle game of last week.
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Playable prototype: https://justinjohnson.itch.io/tempest-clone
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As I was working on building out the actual game part of this project, trying to create a puzzler with clear objectives and controls around my “steampunk tinker box” idea. After a few hours of trying to think of something that would both make use of multiple rotary encoders as input, and actually be enjoyable I went back to the drawing board.
The core of my idea came from the Disruptive Devices exhibit. I want to make something where the user’s input has a kinetic-feeling 1:1 correlation with somehow in the game world.
Past that, I have no particular inspiration or idea for a puzzle game - that just felt like the right direction from my initial round of ideation.
So.
Keeping with that core want of a kinetic 1:1: input, I'm going to retain my focus on using a rotary encoder as my main physical control. That feels both attainable as a control interface and like something that's not too hard to make a fun game around.