At a Glance: Miegakure

IndieMonth · 2014-07-13T23:36:04Z

[b]Marc ten Bosch[/b] is an independent game developer based in San Francisco. He’s wildly smart and more than a little fascinated by the intersection of math, games, and visiting the fourth dimension through code. http://marctenbosch.com/ [b]Miegakure[/b] is a platform game where you explore the fourth dimension to solve puzzles. Our world is three-dimensional: width, depth, and height. But what if there was a fourth physical dimension that we cannot see, in addition to the other three? http://miegakure.com/ [i]Play on: Not yet released - currently planned for PC/Mac/Linux[/i] https://www.youtube.com/wat... [b]Mini Q&A[/b] [i]Answers by Marc ten Bosch[/i] [b]Why do you make games?[/b] I make games because I want to make games that change the world, and I want to demonstrate that games have the power to change the world. What will happen to the world once kids grow up with an instinctive understanding of 4D space because they grew up playing Miegakure? I can't wait to see. I am hoping people will at least become smarter if they are surrounded with interesting games that challenge the way they see the world. This could be explorations of the definition of space itself, social and economic systems, etc… [b]Why should people play Miegakure?[/b] People should play Miegakure because it is the first true 4D game! It's the first time a detailed world with four spatial dimensions (instead of our usual three) has been created. But we are also trying to make a deep puzzle game, where the puzzles happen naturally as simple consequences of 4D space. More traditional puzzle games very carefully set up situations, and the behavior is limited to what the designer has intended (for example you need to input the right code to open the door, and the code is written down somewhere hidden) but because what we are building is so general, I might not know all the solutions to a particular puzzle or I might discover a lot of puzzles by just setting up random situations and playing and seeing what happens. [b]What element of game design do you hold above all others?[/b] There are some games that are so pure they feel timeless. It feels like they were not invented, but discovered. Games like Go or Tetris for example. This is something I value highly, a kind of abdication of authorship, where the designer fades into the background and the true designer is nature itself. As I explained above, it is a strong design goal of Miegakure. [b]Today’s Stories:[/b] $100 in Amazon Gift Cards- AND enter to win a PS4!: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... Interview with Miegakure’s Marc ten Bosch, Part One: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... Interview with Miegakure’s Marc ten Bosch, Part Two: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... A Game in 4D: Miegakure: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... Day 14 | Marc ten Bosch