Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Patrick's Parabox

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 36 posts

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#21

Post by skymt »

pandigital wrote: post #14

Seems to be inspired by Tom7's "You can't win this game, it exists only to destroy your mind" [1]. Tom7 is like an indie intellectual/artistic hero of mine. Be sure to check out his other stuff. [2] [1] http://entire.spacebar.org/ [2] http://www.tom7.org/

Perhaps the zooming presentation was, but the mechanical inspiration was a different jam game, Sokosoko.

https://juner.itch.io/sokosoko

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#22

Post by Zhyl »

desmondw wrote: post #5

Is there a mechanic I'm missing here? It just looks like sokoban with recursive visuals. EDIT: Apparently when you exit the side of the level with your character, they appear on that side of the "level" block you are pushing around.

There's a lot more to it than that. I would sincerely recommend playing the demo which does a good job of showcasing the strengths of the game.

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#23

Post by vanderZwan »

pandigital wrote: post #14

Seems to be inspired by Tom7's "You can't win this game, it exists only to destroy your mind" [1]. Tom7 is like an indie intellectual/artistic hero of mine. Be sure to check out his other stuff. [2] [1] http://entire.spacebar.org/ [2] http://www.tom7.org/

Oh man, you just reminded me that he usually uploads something around april fools so we have some new stuff to look forward to soon

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#24

Post by dcre »

desmondw wrote: post #5

Is there a mechanic I'm missing here? It just looks like sokoban with recursive visuals. EDIT: Apparently when you exit the side of the level with your character, they appear on that side of the "level" block you are pushing around.

There is more to it, but I would add we are in a golden age of sokoban-likes, each with their own twists that make them worth attention if you like the genre. A few of my favorites:

* Stephen's Sausage Roll

* Bonfire Peaks

* Baba Is You

* Sokobond

* A Good Snowman is Hard to Find

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#25

Post by jerf »

One of these days, if I'm ever bored and just have nothing else to do, I've always wanted to screw around with cellular automata built on a similar principle, where something triggers the cells to subdivide and/or unsubdivide, and there's some sort of flow back and forth between the levels. Seems like some interesting things might happen. (I've also thought the subdivided cells might run at a different time scale, too.) Not infinitely recursive, but similar in idea, I think.

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#27

Post by von_lohengramm »

This zooming in effect is really similar to how THC affects me except it's in reverse i.e. zooming out. In addition to this, I am made a total observer who's entirely out of control and forced to watch myself thankfully act in character. It's an incredibly uncomfortable feeling if I'm not in a comfortable & safe environment.

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#28

Post by eyelidlessness »

y2bd wrote: post #20
staffordrj wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The constant zooming is straight from a specific level in the game. The next level is similar and constantly zooms out. Those are the only two I've experience so far with that mechanic.

If anyone gets to one of those levels and is unable to play due to the visual effect, you can hit 7 on your keyboard and it switches to an alternate view. I think this actually works on all levels, kind of an interesting feature.

A puzzle game which uses unusual animation to visualize a unique gameplay mechanism, but which also accommodates people who are put off by the animation… is pretty much the gaming equivalent of finding my soulmate without knowing what I was even looking for. Or even knowing I was looking for anything at all.

I’ve pretty much soured on trying new games several times over the last decade, only to be delighted by a new game or class of games which tickle some niche fancy for me. Given this and some of the other recommendations in these comments, it looks like I’ll be starting another iteration.

Re: Patrick's Parabox

#29

Post by y2bd »

von_lohengramm wrote: post #27

This zooming in effect is really similar to how THC affects me except it's in reverse i.e. zooming out . In addition to this, I am made a total observer who's entirely out of control and forced to watch myself thankfully act in character. It's an incredibly uncomfortable feeling if I'm not in a comfortable & safe environment.

If you want to be uncomfortable in a safe environment, the level right after the one depicted in the GIF zooms out as you describe.
Post reply on HN