VOID: A new type of puzzle experiece

UPDATE: This post was a bit of an essence in futility. Right after making it I actually PLAYED the game I’m talking about. So if you would like to have my first hand-experiences rather than these second hand musings then click here.

The work of students from the Singaporean wing of the DigiPen Institute Of Technology, VOID is a brilliant looking new type of puzzle game. It involves using “bubbles” of the past to alter the present or to temporarily manipulate your surroundings. It sound fairly complex but actually the idea, I believe, is reasonably straightforward once explained. You can also see how it will look in a short teaser after the jump.

First a brief explanation. In the trailer, for example, you are seen wandering an old and ruined mansion. Now you can use a sort of “past-viewing screen” you carry in your left hand (seen in the screenshot at the top) to exam your surroundings as they would have been, however many years ago, in the past. Then, say, you come to a bridge. It’s old and ruined and the entire middle has fallen away, preventing you from getting further. You could then use your “past-bubble” device in your right hand to actually make the bridge and surrounding area BE as it was in the past. Then  you can cross the bridge by crossing through into the past and then back into the present.

There are, apparently, even more complex things than that you can do. An example given to us by the fine folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun is that say there is a wall blocking your way in the present. Well in the past you could plant a tree near or in the wall. Then you step back into the present and once the time bubble disappears there will be a fully grown tree which has grown through and cracked the wall open.

All in all it sound like an absolutely awesome (need a new word for awesome if any of you are willing to supply one, by the way). It is that perfect blend of mind-fuckery and awesome that just leaves me thinking that sometimes… Just sometimes puzzle games and smaller Indie games are the most memorable and best experiences you can get when playing video games. If you check out the teaser below I’m pretty sure that you will become at LEAST as impressed and awed as I am right now.

On that note I want to say that you can go to the Digipen site RIGHT NOW and download a short version of the game! Mind-blown! Let’s do this!