Borkachev on 07 August 2008
But with the range of switches available, variety emerges. There are motion-sensitive switches which act a lot like conventional scripted triggers. Pass a certain point in the level, and a new enemy will drop down from the ceiling, or platforms will start to move, and a mechanical assault course will fire up – all of the movement wired in to the switch via simple pistons and cogs. Then there’s the sticker switch, which is a variation on lock-and-key – it’s slapped on to surfaces and is only flipped once a pre-selected sticker is placed on it. Or how about magnetic switches, split between two objects and activated when the pieces are brought together: in a single move, the colour-coded keys and gateways of Gauntlet and a hundred other RPGs are suddenly brought within reach.
God damn, that's awesome. Limitless potential.
Or almost:
From these relatively simple components the team has already made RPGs, complex platformers with numerous stages and hub worlds, and puzzle games like Tetris.
How would you make an RPG? I suppose with this "warp key" system you could link together a bunch of different levels to form a big world (this is the first I've heard of that, and the more I think of it, the more amazing it is). But how would you achieve the RPG gameplay? Wouldn't that mean keeping track of all sorts of stats, which doesn't seem to be one of the things the game can do?
But I suppose if all you wanted was a basic action RPG where you perform a lot of "quests" that can be done using switches, you could make a pretty awesome one.
Seriously, wow.
