Puzzle games abound! First there was Portal (and Portal 2), then there was QUBE, then Quantum Conundrum, and now Magrunner: Dark Pulse. This time the puzzle gimmick is, as the name implies, magnetism -- you (as hero Yoshi) use a magnetic glove-gizmo to give objects a positive or negative charge so they'll attract or repel each other, thus solving puzzles. And while it's on a Kickstarter-like crowd-funding site, it's already definitely happening whether we pony up or not, so feel free to be interested even if you're not into the whole pre-preordering thing.
"What begins as a friendly corporate competition soon descends into a battle for survival. Yoshi realizes it's not just his life on the line, but the fate of the world is at stake," says 3AM Games Narrative Developer Doug Burchell. I hate when that happens.
Based on the brief footage in the video, I can imagine some interesting puzzles coming out of this magnetism thing, though hopefully it's not a one-trick pony. Portal, for example, rarely relies on the portals themselves to keep things interesting -- it's constantly introducing clever new puzzle elements that you have to combine with the portals to reach the end. We do know that Magrunner will include at least one robot-dog buddy, so it's off to a good start there, and the video shows that level design will make a Portal 2-like transition from a clean-looking puzzle room to otherworldly hellscape. (Good to see it doesn't plan to make the same mistake as the very homogeneous QUBE did in that regard.)
Magrunner's already fully funded and "almost done," but the idea with the fundraising drive is to drum up an additional $125,000 over the next month and a half through through GamesPlanet Lab to add a competitive multiplayer mode and extra single-player content, plus extra platforms at higher levels of funding. Also, as a funder, you'll get to vote on which areas of Magrunner will get special attention and improvement after playing the demo early next year -- not many of these projects offer the chance to give creative input.
What say you, readers? Are you interested in more first-person puzzle gaming?
