Co-op puzzles in Project Contrivance!

Hi!

In the last month, we worked to implement local split-screen multiplayer in our puzzle game project that we dubbed Project Contrivance for now. The levels that are designed for two players can be played with a second player, or by switching between controlling two characters in single player.

Swapping between players

We've added various nodes and boxes to spice up the gameplay: there are and, or, delay, inverter nodes and switches, and boxes that can be picked up that contain these functionalities. These boxes can be placed into sockets and will connect into the circuit, and in there they work just like the regular nodes.

Here is a long playthrough video of a test level where we fool around:

The little noises you hear are the player characters' form of communication: they have a positive and negative sound, and players can trigger these whenever they want to. We plan to add gestures to them, too.

Falling into deadly liquid

Crushed by spikes

...physics...

These GIFs are pre-alpha and about everything may be subject to change. We're going for functionality first, instead of graphics.

Our big dilemma right now is deciding between deferred and forward rendering. We don't know what the Nintendo Switch is capable of yet, and deferred rendering is more costly, so I guess we'll have to wait and see, but it'd be nice to know in advance. We could just use deferred rendering and upscale, but we're not sure if it's worth it. With forward rendering, we'd lose SSAO and screen-based reflections (among other minor things), but by using MSAA, we could get a more sharp picture, which fits the theme (machines) perfectly. Forward rendering also handles transparency better.

Deferred rendering

Forward rendering

Here's a gameplay video with forward rendering:

Of course, on PC there will be graphics settings, so this won't be an issue, but planning for a console(s?) is different.