By Jim Rossignol on June 20th, 2012 at 7:00 pm.
The mixing of 2D and 3D in game world is no longer a new idea, but Perspective – a game from game-development education crucible DigiPen – certainly has a special take on it, as you can see in the video below. It’s remarkably clever. Not just in the idea itself – in which a 2D character navigates a 3D world, and the camera control of the FPSing player alters the 2D space that character has to navigate by shifting perspective – but in the construction of the puzzles which make use of that concept. I am not sure why I am bothering to try and explain it, really, other than to emphasize that you should take a look, and then do that raised eyebrow thing you do when someone has been impressively clever.
What’s a bit odd about this video is that although it’s very impressive, it’s not actually surprising. It feels a bit “this week’s reality-bending videogame”. Or perhaps I am being jaded and cynical. But I am really not! I am full of beans today.
And gosh, and I LOVE the wibble-wobble synth music, reminiscent of great 1970s TV documentary intro themes.
Googling said documentaries led me to this, which I haven’t seen for years.
It is perhaps some kind of educational omen.
Thanks, DigiPen. You certainly are a place of higher learning.
20/06/2012 at 19:14 misterT0AST says:
Fiddling with 2D/3D isn’t very original, but fiddling with perspective is something pretty new.
It doesn’t seem particularly innovative or fun, but still, I haven’t seen many games using your point of view like that.
Maybe I just don’t know about them.
20/06/2012 at 19:48 cmc5788 says:
Your definition of “innovative” must be abnormal. It is quite innovative. Fun? Maybe not, but it’s a prototype. On production scale, I could see this idea being pretty neat, assuming they have more interesting gimmicks that can be rolled in to keep puzzles exciting.
20/06/2012 at 20:05 lordfrikk says:
So there’s no game like it but it’s not innovative, how does that exactly work in your head?
20/06/2012 at 20:29 misterT0AST says:
“original” and “new” mean that it brings something new to the table.
“innovative” means that it brings to the table something that not only is new, but it can “innovate” other games, other genres.
This is a new idea, but it can’t be used for much else other than this very particular and very specific kind of game.
Super Mario was innovative because it introduced to gaming a sense of progression, and this changed pretty much the whole industry.
Halo was innovative because it introduced self-regenerating life (shield), and since then every goddamn shooter with few exceptions has had regenerating life.
This game introduces the perception of a 3d environment as a 2d space, and I don’t personally think this new very original idea will bring any significant innovation to other games.
So there you go. That’s what I mean when I say that this game is original, but it doesn’t have innovative potential. It’s a new thing that won’t go anywhere.
20/06/2012 at 23:15 El Stevo says:
You’ve used ‘innovate’ in your definition of ‘innovative’. The word you’re looking for is ‘influential’, not ‘innovative’.
20/06/2012 at 23:32 misterT0AST says:
I thought innovative meant “a source of innovation” rather than “with innovation”.
The Wiktionary tells me that “innovatory” would’ve been a much more appropriate word for that.
21/06/2012 at 00:55 El Stevo says:
‘Innovative’ and ‘innovatory’ are synonyms.
20/06/2012 at 19:16 SirKicksalot says:
I want someone to make an exclusively stereoscopic game. The brainfuck potential of 3D is enormous. My bet is on DigiPen folks doing it first.
20/06/2012 at 19:40 LTK says:
I bet that Antichamber in 3D would drive the player completely insane.
20/06/2012 at 19:54 Mr. Mister says:
I agree, though I’m not sure on how effective the 3D would be, since most of the walls are plain white.
21/06/2012 at 06:42 fuggles says:
Magic carpet had a full stereoscopic mode from some years ago
21/06/2012 at 16:59 Salt says:
There was a competition to make games that use (and rely on for core mechanics) red-cyan stuff. It was held almost four years ago, so Digipen students were beaten to the punch.
http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma3d/
20/06/2012 at 19:16 Knightley4 says:
Awesome! But this little 2D guy came from my childhood nightmares…
21/06/2012 at 04:22 Jackablade says:
You had nightmares about Megaman?
20/06/2012 at 19:24 Hoaxfish says:
I guess how good it is all depends on your point of view
20/06/2012 at 19:28 Milos says:
It really is a sight for sore eyes, but I’m afraid gameplay feels a bit flat.
20/06/2012 at 19:38 misterT0AST says:
What a one dimensional comment.
20/06/2012 at 19:42 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Yeah, at the moment it is lacking depth.
20/06/2012 at 19:55 ResonanceCascade says:
The combination of 1st and 3rd person isn’t really congruent. But it’s still acute idea.
20/06/2012 at 19:57 marcusfell says:
You just need a different angle. Its much better from mine.
20/06/2012 at 20:20 Kynrael says:
That approach seems way too cavalier for my taste.
20/06/2012 at 20:01 7hink says:
The first thing that came to mind was Fez. I’ve got to admit that this takes mindbending to another level though.
20/06/2012 at 21:42 LennyLeonardo says:
Yeah, made me think of Fez. Fez is really very, very charming, as well as being clever. Like me.
But clever.
And charming.
20/06/2012 at 20:17 GT3000 says:
Interesting but damn it looks tedious to play.
20/06/2012 at 20:26 Turin Turambar says:
Watching this video somehow remind me of another indie 3d first person puzzler videogame in progress. Their “gimmick” was manipulation of the 3d space following the relativity theories. Anyone remember the title?
20/06/2012 at 20:38 Claidheamh says:
That seems an interesting concept indeed.
21/06/2012 at 10:39 Chirez says:
After combing rps archives, is it possible you’re talking about this?
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/01/brain-bending-torsion/
21/06/2012 at 13:09 mbr says:
Sounds like you’re describing Miegakure but that’s not first person if I remember correctly.
20/06/2012 at 20:32 LeiterJakab says:
I have a feeling the people behind this will either make a successful indie studio or be working at Valve pretty soon.
20/06/2012 at 20:38 Fartango says:
Reminds me of the ps3 game echochrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echochrome
20/06/2012 at 20:48 ttcfcl says:
Just what I was going to say. If anyone’s interested in this “Perspectives” game and has a PS3, try out Echochrome and Echochrome II (the second one needs a Playstation Move controller since the character walks on shadows created by your “flashlight”) But the character is a lemming basically and you only have “walk/don’t walk” control over him.
20/06/2012 at 22:38 FriendlyFire says:
I too was immediately reminded of Echochrome. I also rather liked the very simple presentation that game had. The visuals in this look a bit odd in comparison, like the character and the environment don’t match.
20/06/2012 at 20:59 jjujubird says:
Doesn’t look that fun, but wow that’s a mindfuck lol
20/06/2012 at 21:27 rockman29 says:
Yussssss gamesssssssss :-)
I found out about Igneous from a related video to this, that looks schweet too, and it’s free. About to try it now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICd6W9d0i4
21/06/2012 at 18:30 Urthman says:
Igneous is one of the most fun and visually impressive student project games I’ve ever played.
20/06/2012 at 21:37 Salt says:
Well, damn.
I’ve been working the last 3 months and am about a week away from finishing (so make that a month from finishing) a game pretty similar to this.
A series of abstract 3D forms that the player attempts to navigate. Rotate the camera to bring various parts in and out of apparent contiguity and so allow the player character to walk between them. It looks kind of like a version of Echochrome where the “walker” is controlled, but due to that difference in control ends up playing quite differently.
I was going to call it Perspective too. If only there was a community of dedicated punners to give it a new, terrible, name.
20/06/2012 at 22:00 Dances to Podcasts says:
Point of view?
20/06/2012 at 23:54 Thiefsie says:
Parallax?
21/06/2012 at 00:01 Lemming says:
Dimension?
2/3D?
Depth Perception?
The Elusive Third?
Second Plane?
X and Y, Guest starring Z?
21/06/2012 at 06:11 Sinomatic says:
Demention
21/06/2012 at 11:08 mike2R says:
Dimension Jump?
21/06/2012 at 17:49 Salt says:
Thanks, everyone!
I’m going for “Depth Perception” as I think it best matches the way the game works. The mechanic is kind of about the consequences of a failure of depth perception.
Here’s a little screenshot that completely fails to capture how the game works.
http://i.imgur.com/b88Xn.png
edit: Title screen too!
http://i.imgur.com/KUDKZ.gif
20/06/2012 at 21:42 kalleguld says:
Just spent 49:22 watching Connections, from 1978. And now I’m gonna watch the remaining 9 episodes.
21/06/2012 at 02:58 particlese says:
Indeed. So much for having a good chunk of time for wandering around Skyrim tonight…
20/06/2012 at 21:44 Logo says:
I was impressed! The puzzles seem pretty clever.
What this game really needs is a give and take between the 2 fields. For example, a 2d switch that modifies the 3d world enabling the ‘camera’ to move to a new location. That plus some simple stuff like moving platforms (ideally both in 2d and 3d).
Add some graphical polish, the game isn’t that pretty as is, and you’d have an awesome puzzle game.
20/06/2012 at 22:15 appropriate touching says:
This in co-op would be utterly amazing. And maybe stuff to shoot at/jump on.
21/06/2012 at 09:19 c-Row says:
Indeed. Switching between moving in 2D/3D space seems a bit clunky at the moment, but it would make for a great 2-player game where one player controls the 3D movement while the other takes care of Not-Megaman.
20/06/2012 at 23:40 Bennus says:
I immediately thought of Boards of Canada.
20/06/2012 at 23:55 liquidsoap89 says:
Reminds me of Echochrome mixed with these riddles from Batman AA where you had to line up the “?” symbols.
Only one of those things this reminds me of is something I like.
20/06/2012 at 23:57 Lemming says:
Did they trace Megaman?
21/06/2012 at 02:01 Jim9137 says:
Drugs. And then Tron. A Tron Marathon. of Trons. With drugs.
21/06/2012 at 03:21 Lemming says:
I mean cos the avatar’s jump is identical to Megaman’s
21/06/2012 at 08:46 Jim9137 says:
It was the wild 80s. They all said nobody would remember. Nobody.
21/06/2012 at 01:02 Fumarole says:
That’s pretty trippy.
21/06/2012 at 02:00 Bobtree says:
I liked that he gets smaller when you zoom in. That made me laugh.
21/06/2012 at 02:59 ribobura osserotto says:
Oh you hipster games. Why am I not surprised at your originality. Ok let’s see what we have so far on the list:
>a platformer, where you turn back time!
>a platformer, where you can flip gravity!
>a platformer, where you can flip a 2D world in 3D!
>a platformer, where you flip a 2D world in 3D even more!
>a platformer where you can scale the objects in the world!
>a platformer, where you can flip from black to white!
I wonder what will come next. Perhaps a platformer where you have to kill yourself in order to win. That would be the ultimately form of artsy irony, right? Or wait, get this: a platformer where in order to win you must not play it. Deep uh?
21/06/2012 at 03:20 Hulk Handsome says:
“Perhaps a platformer where you have to kill yourself in order to win.”
That was done like three years ago, and it’s GREAT:
http://armorgames.com/play/2407/karoshi-suicide-salaryman
I think the second game in the series is the best, but that flash “best of” is easiest to play right now.
“a platformer where in order to win you must not play it.” That’s been done before a million times since the birth of platformers. It’s the secret goal of any crap platformer.
ALSO, this game (the one posted about) looks really neat!
21/06/2012 at 05:17 Xzi says:
This looks like a game I’d enjoy playing.
And that’s all I have to say on the subject.
21/06/2012 at 09:10 crinkles esq. says:
Looks like they’re using 2d projections to create a 2d map from a 3d perspective. An interesting idea, but the gameplay looks really awkward, and just…not very fun.
21/06/2012 at 10:00 Xzi says:
Taking a second look at it, I partially agree with you. What I mean is, I don’t like the bits where they use the 3D walls/roof to simply suspend the character in air. That seems counter to the way the rest of the trailer presents gameplay. Which is plenty interesting and unique enough on its own to create thousands of challenging levels/scenarios.
21/06/2012 at 12:25 C.A.S.E says:
Why does it have to be platformers all the time? I’d like to see a different concept that actually plays with perspective instead of just using it to align 2d planes you can jump on.
Anyone remember the Thief1 level where you enter the mansion of a Wizard to steal his wizardly sword? There was this amazing play with deranged rooms and one hallway crosssection played with the perspective so good that when you went down one way you suddenly realised that the walls are getting closer and closer until you finally reached the door you thought was miles away but the door was actually very very tiny. My mind was blown when i replayed it a few weeks ago.
29/06/2012 at 13:26 realjoker says:
It reminds me of Nintendo’s Paper Mario: speaking of which: anybody knows of any similar game?