Saturday, March 30, 2013

Third Eye Crime - a unique mix of pathfinding gameplay and film noir

Third Eye Crime - a unique mix of pathfinding gameplay and film noir

 

Third Eye Crime is a promising puzzle game for iOS that we got to spend some time playing at GDC 2013. Players have to guide a thief through a maze filled with security guards without getting caught. Sounds simple, right? Wait until you see how many guards there are later on in the game and how big their guns are. Luckily, your character can read minds, so you can see where guards have visibility, and around which corners they think you are. To keep things interesting, each level has a comic book style interstitial which tells the game's chilling tale of intrigue.

 

Though the premise of a psychic art burglar in a film noir graphic novel setting is a little out there, the developer explained that it really came from a common artificial intelligence mechanic. Basically, when you play any game with AI opponents, these visibility cones and pathfinding maps already exist in some capacity, except they're typically hidden in the background. By explicitly showing these regions, levels can be made much more difficult, and some might say interesting.

I'm pretty excited to try out Third Eye Crime when it comes out in early June. 80 - 90 levels should be plenty to chew on for awhile.  What do you guys think?



 

Third Eye Crime is a promising puzzle game for iOS that we got to spend some time playing at GDC 2013. Players have to guide a thief through a maze filled with security guards without getting caught. Sounds simple, right? Wait until you see how many guards there are later on in the game and how big their guns are. Luckily, your character can read minds, so you can see where guards have visibility, and around which corners they think you are. To keep things interesting, each level has a comic book style interstitial which tells the game's chilling tale of intrigue.

 

Though the premise of a psychic art burglar in a film noir graphic novel setting is a little out there, the developer explained that it really came from a common artificial intelligence mechanic. Basically, when you play any game with AI opponents, these visibility cones and pathfinding maps already exist in some capacity, except they're typically hidden in the background. By explicitly showing these regions, levels can be made much more difficult, and some might say interesting.

I'm pretty excited to try out Third Eye Crime when it comes out in early June. 80 - 90 levels should be plenty to chew on for awhile.  What do you guys think?






Marisa Miller
Cat Power
Moon Bloodgood

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