Hello everyone ^^ I’m pleased to announce the little project I’ve been working on for 5 months now : TORQUE, a new First-person puzzle very inspired by Portal (like every FPPs I guess…)
Pitch
You play a death convict who agreed to participate in a mysterious behaviour experiment in exchange for his freedom.
The experiment consists in resolving dangerous time-limited puzzles, involving a handheld device that can remotely rotate some objects.
You’ll have to think fast if you want to get out of here. And be careful: you wouldn’t be the first one to die in this place…
Features
As you guessed it, Torque mainly consists in resolving puzzles using physics in dangerous environments, as some other games already did. BUT, it tries to stand out with some new ideas:
the main gameplay mechanic consists in rotating objects with red surfaces (the axis of rotation being perpendicular to the chosen red surface)
you can use this power to create platforms to walk on, remove obstacles, or, more interestingly, to gather speed by using centrifugal force
you will have multiple ways to complete most of levels, some of them will only require reflection, some others a little more skills and timing
The entire experiment is time-limited, and you’ll be allowed to get out of this place only if you complete the last test chamber fast enough.
EACH FAILURE will count : when you die, another test subject will take your place and restart from your last checkpoint, but the countdown won’t be reset. You choose yourself where your checkpoints are, but their number is very limited!
There will be many secret zones, that will require lots of skills and observation to reach. Maybe you will find out what this place really is… or find shortcuts at least.
Roadmap
The game is actually in pre-alpha stage, but the main game mechanics are fully functional and the first 5 levels are finished
I plan to launch a Greenlight candidate in about one month, simultaneously with the release of the playable demo.
I know the game looks rather plain compared to most of the other projects here but I’m a professional programmer, this is my first project with UE4 and I work alone on it, so I have to make all the graphics myself, with a few free or cheap assets… I try to do something really fun, challenging and bug free to compensate.
You can already follow the project on these pages:
The mechanics look really fun, as do the puzzles. The one thing that sort of bugs me a little is that the rotation device looks like a normal gun which just seems a little needlessly stereotypical. Something like a remote or maybe a glove would be much cooler and make the game look less generic. It’s just a small detail, though. All in all it looks really cool.
Huh… Yes, actually the problem is that I don’t have any artist on the project, and I don’t have a big budget either
So for the moment I just bought this gun for about 1.50$ on the Unity Store to get rid of the default UE4 gun, and I modified the textures to try to make it look a little less “gun”. But I’m considering to change again for a whole new model, or even for the glove option (as in Q.U.B.E for example)
That’s awesome! It kind of looks too much like Portal (grid-like textures for floors and walls, the hidden areas, etc). I would recommend trying something a little more original on the looks and feel.
As for the Portal-looking aspect, I may possibly change the environment design in the final version: I read more and more this comment saying it’s really too close from Portal
Oh wow tihs looks amazing man. I actually LOVE the aesthetic, and sure it looks similar in art style to portal, but given it’s a ‘test chamber’ concept, that makes sense. Portal was hardly revolutionary in art style, it just made sense for it to look like that. But that’s really your call and obviously I’m just one opinion
I think it’s a funny coincidence that the game is called Torque (I know it’s because of the mechanic) and you play a criminal on death row… There was a third person horror game called The Suffering and you played a criminal on death row called Torque
As for the ‘gun’… even something like changing it to a pistol that has a ‘whip’ coming off it (not actually a whip, but kinda like a laser that connects from the gun to the object you are interacting with… Something like this:
That could make it less gunny and more of a gun-shaped tool. But I certainly feel like making it a pistol/one handed item would be really cool and help with separating from portal a little too.
Side note - I assume you are into these sorts of games. Have you seen the game Scale? It’s also going to be really cool http://www.scale-game.com
One question I have. How difficult are you intending on making this? I -LOVE- the ones that are really hard. For instance, the extra hard puzzles in Portal were far more enjoyable and rewarding than the rest of the game. And my favourite game in the FPP genre is easily Deadcore, which is insanely difficult (though that’s more due to timing and stuff).
Anyways, keep up the awesome work and if you are ever looking for some coverage on a little no-name indie site, hit me up Our site is down for a few days (we got hacked -.-) but we will be back in full swing soon! There’s a link in my sig to a thread with more details if you want
I would say to ignore the comments saying it’s too close to portal, because it’s not. It’s a similar theme but it’s not the same game.
The game I’m making is too a portal inspired game. It is a puzzle game in which you have to get through chambers. It too has a basic theme, but it’s definitely not portal.
I think these people that are saying its a Portal clone are a bit silly really. It’s not. If they had a look around, they would see lots of this FP-Puzzle, simplistic aesthetic type games around. It’s becoming a bit of a genre on it’s own. They would also see that they have a bit of a cult following too. Especially with proper Portal fans.
If anything, I’d say definitely keep the design as it is. The game is really quite elegant as it is.
Yeah, looks pretty cool. The visual similarity to Portal is kind of unfortunate. (though if it wasn’t a first-person puzzle game people would probably say it looks like Mirror’s Edge or something else :P) I’m curious how you’re doing on greenlight so far? There’s definitely going to be a percentage of the general public that will pass over your game just because it looks sort of like portal, but they may not matter. It looks like only 10-15% of the comments are the “Like portal but with no cool storyline.” kind, and those bozos most likely wouldn’t buy it anyway.
Do you need the arms and gun at all? They don’t seem to have any purpose (though I read that you’re adding more stuff), and to me they don’t really fit with the minimal environments. It could be cool having a totally clear view except the crosshairs. Just an idea.
I’m an artist, though I don’t have a lot of experience designing whole games. If you want my full opinion and advice let me know, I’d be happy to give it.
I try to do something really fun, challenging and bug free to compensate.
