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Quantum Conundrum

Quantum Conundrum Announced, Looks Amazing

Preview

by Adam Biessener on August 25, 2011 at 12:42 PM

7,092 Views

The next project from Kim Swift (who left Valve after working on Portal to lead her own team at Airtight Games) is an adorable puzzle-platformer that lets you play with the laws of physics to solve complex puzzles.

Quantum Conundrum has echoes of Portal in its room-by-room puzzle design, but its mechanics are strikingly different. Using a dimension-shifting glove, you can alter the properties of everything around you. At PAX, Swift showed off two dimensions with fascinating effects: the self-explanatory slow motion dimension, and the unusual fluffy dimension.

One simple puzzle had Swift trying to get through a door locked by an industrial-strength switch. A nearby safe could activate the switch, but it's far too heavy to carry. Flipping over to the fluffy dimension makes the safe cuter and much pinker, but also makes it light enough to throw across the room. Swift goes fluffy, grabs the safe, puts it on the switch, de-fluffs back into the regular dimension, and the safe's natural weight activates the switch to allow her through the door.

Another puzzle involved an activator beam controlling a laser gate which lets the player through but vaporizes any items. Swift had to bring a safe through the gate to access the platform leading out of the room. This one is a multi-step process:

Enter fluffy dimension
Throw safe on trajectory through gate
As safe is in air, flip to slow motion dimension
Run to other room, place box in path of activator beam
Enter normal dimension
After safe lands on other side of gate, go fluffy and place it beneath platform
Re-enter normal dimension so safe doesn't slide out from under you, jump up to goal

Quantum Conundrum is scheduled to come out on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network in early 2012.

Email the author Adam Biessener, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.

Filed under: Puzzle, paxprime2011, square enix, PlayStation 3, kim swift, Preview, Quantum Conundrum, airtight games

Screenshots

Comments

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by trap_the_clap27 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 12:50 PM

Sounds interesting, I just hope it has more replay value than the portal series. A steady amount of DLC puzzles would do the trick.... of course that only works if the game is actually good enough for people to want to buy the DLC.
by shooterboy23 (⌐■_■) Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 12:57 PM

Is she some kind of Video game prodigy?
by The_Fuzzy_Muffin_Man Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:00 PM

Fluffy dimension reminds me of quantum weirdness...
by Kilroy37 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:06 PM

one reason i love this site is it lets me know where i can find the stories even if they arent here. Thanks game informer
by ValentineRain Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:37 PM

I will happily accept Ms. Swift's old position. <3

Also looking forward to this.
by eyros2k Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:39 PM

Alternate dimensions are certainly in style.
by Sam Desatoff Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:56 PM

This sounds completely awesome.

Also, "Go Fluffy" is my new catch phrase.
by Romars202129 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 02:00 PM

What the hell!? Why is the industry's greatest talents get stuck doing this low budget crap? Schafer making Elmo games, Mikami struggling to put together a studio, and now this. This industry has gone hollywood.
by mojomonkey12 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 02:09 PM

Kewl. I am sure this game will be brilliant.
by Bunches of Bananas Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 02:15 PM

this sounds exactly like portal, just different. normally i would critisize the similarites, but i might give it a chance. judging by the picture and gameplay mechanics, it seems fun and slightly innovative. i mean, besides the glove(which reflects the portal gun), the room-by-room progression(also reflects portal, lol), and the swith/safe(safe= companion cube from portal?), what other game has allowed players to distort dimensions. correct me if im wrong, but i cant think of one. her valve experience will bring us something special, that's for sure.
by cmanwitaplan Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:05 PM

This looks interesting. Anyone who worked on Portal has my attention.
by ScruffTheNerfHerder Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:21 PM

It sounds like a good time, I doubt it can ever replace Portal but I cant foresee passing this downloadable title up anytime soon.
by Johnbob8 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:33 PM

awesome
by John E Buis II Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:38 PM

Portal 2 was funny and a good game but it was still Portal. I like holding on to things but then we do not get new games. Maybe she left Valve because they were all like "MAKE US PORTAL 2 AND ONLY PORTAL 2" and she was like "I need to spread my wings and design"
by magiccoffeepot Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 04:15 PM

Looks pretty cool. We can only hope this will be as fun and fascinating as Portal.
by ocdfreak Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 04:24 PM

Cool, I might check that out!
by Ace Karsh Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 05:35 PM

"And if the laws of physics no longer work in the future: God help you."
by WUMBOL0GY Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 05:42 PM

if it wasn't for the aweful art style, i would say this looks really cool
by Mourt Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 06:20 PM

I'm looking forward to it
by D. Robinson Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 06:50 PM

Figured it'd be awesome with Kim Swift attached, now this makes it seem guaranteed. But, of course, nothing tells you whether you'll like a game or not like playing it, so I look forward to the day I can play a demo of this.