A three man team whose sole focus, despite a very vocal enthusiasm for beards, is to make quirky and compelling games. Two games artists and a visual effects artist, we began making games together when we took part in a game jam on a whim. Since then, and after a number of other game jams, we decided to pursue our passion and make games independently. Currently working full time on our puzzle game FILAMENT, we think you’ll love it
**About the game **
FILAMENT is a relaxed puzzle game where you guide small robots through a series of levels, solving puzzles with nothing but the lights on their heads and the cables that tether them.
FILAMENT began as a week long game jam entry for the Epic Megajam 2017 where it was a finalist. Since then, it has entered full development, the number of puzzles continues to grow, with some cool new mechanics, an original soundtrack is being scored and a narrative is being worked on. We’ve also completely revamped the level selection menu, scrapping the menu entirely instead building a spaceship that the player can explore. Terminals are dotted around the ship, with each one letting the player access 2-5 puzzles. Hopefully this results in a more fluid difficulty curve, along with letting the player move on to something else if they get stuck.
If you never played the game jam build and want to give it a try you can download a bug fixed version here (original game jam visuals and all, not representative of what we have now)
Enough with the words though, have some pictures.
Puzzle visual overhaul:
New puzzle mechanics:
And what we’re most proud of… New hub to access the levels from:
Filament has come a huge way in the last 6 months and I’d like to share some of that with you guys. We have over 200 puzzles designed and in game so far, with plenty more to come, which we’re excited to share with you. For today I’d like to show you a few of the new puzzle types in the game. I’d also like to commit to updating this thread regularly, and I’m hoping that doing so publicly might induce crippling guilt if I fail to do so.
[Prepare yourself for a little developer art]
So, to begin with: Constellations. The premise behind these puzzles is that you can only light up pillars if your cable follows a link on the depicted constellation. That is a somewhat clunky explanation, it is far easier to show just show you. Why use many words when few will do.
Next, a set of puzzles which we are internally naming the Opus puzzles, as they are inspired by/homage to our first Megajam entry Opus. The crux of these puzzles is that you are provided with a notation of the solution, which you have to decipher and enter. As the puzzles progress, the environment becomes more of a factor with debris and [stuff] covering parts of the solutions and forcing the player to work with the information they have.
Finally, Binary puzzles. The format of these puzzles is not too different from the Opus puzzles. You are provided with a binary sequence. The pillars are laid out into two rows, one which represents 0, and the other 1. You then power on the pillars in the sequence. Whilst the difficulty of the Opus puzzles is in deciphering the solution, in these puzzles the solution is provided in it’s simplest and most readable form, the difficulty is in finding the correct route to enter it.
So… Slightly later than a week I’ve got an art dump of the bottom floor of the hub, It’s not quite finished yet, but it getting there and we’re really proud of how it’s coming along. Currently the surrounding colour is the same across all rooms, in game however it will change to hopefully give each room more of a unique feel. As always, let us know what you think, enjoy!
We’ve spent the last few weeks putting a trailer together, we’ve also got a composer and voice actor on-board too, so it’s really starting to come together, let us know what you think!
