Puzzling Personalities: Pillar Released (And Has A Demo)
Puzzles based on personality types
I dislike the notion that people have fixed, easily-reducible personalities. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? What's your Meyers-Briggs personality type? These questions, and more, I dread in polite conversation. They're behaviours, aren't they, rather than a fixed core? Attitudes we can, and regularly do, flit between. But trust an INTP like me to use my dominant introverted thinking in such a way, yeah? (I don't know what that means.)
This waffle is brought to you by noticing the release of Pillar [official site], a puzzle game where each puzzle revolves around a particular personality type. It has a demo too.
Still, if these personality types are really types of behaviour, that's useful too. Mercy knows a little more awareness of, and reflection on, what we're doing could help us all. They'll certainly help in Pillar. It's set in a snowy town gone a bit weird, looking pretty run-down and with folks in the streets who are gonna get ya. Getting around, and around them, will involves switches and portals and stealth and distraction and manipulation.
Creator Michael Hicks explains in a post on the PlayStation Blog:
"I'm also a fan of psychology, one way of looking at this game is as a representation of the Myers-Briggs self-assessment test; every psychological preference in that test is represented in the game. While this isn't a science, I'm often amazed at how insightful the results are into how I, and also my friends and family, work internally. The idea of experiencing how other types of people make decisions and operate through gameplay excites me, since this is something the test alone can't do."
I've only had a quick poke at the demo, but the different puzzle types were quite interesting, with a different tone in the characters and style too. Braid is obviously a big influence. Pillar doesn't explain much either, which leads to nice "What is this what is she doing what happens if I press this oh I see" moments. I'm not really one for puzzle games, though, so don't look to me for a ruling. Play it yourself, yeah?
It's £5.49 from Humble Store and that demo's over here.
I took another Meyers-Briggs test a minute ago and either I've had a massive mental break (possible), or I'm just feeling a bit ENFP-y this morning.