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Quantum Conundrum

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  • 1 Player(s)
  • Developer: Airtight Games
  • Publisher: Square Enix
  • Genre: Puzzle
  • Release Date: Summer 2012
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Quantum Conundrum

Quantum Conundrum Announced, Looks Amazing

Preview
by Adam Biessener on August 25, 2011 at 12:42 PM
8,895 Views
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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:

  1. Enter fluffy dimension
  2. Throw safe on trajectory through gate
  3. As safe is in air, flip to slow motion dimension
  4. Run to other room, place box in path of activator beam
  5. Enter normal dimension
  6. After safe lands on other side of gate, go fluffy and place it beneath platform
  7. 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.

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  • by 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.

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 12:57 PM

    Is she some kind of Video game prodigy?

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:00 PM

    Fluffy dimension reminds me of quantum weirdness...

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    by 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

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:37 PM

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

    Also looking forward to this.

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:39 PM
    Alternate dimensions are certainly in style.
  •
    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 01:56 PM

    This sounds completely awesome.

    Also, "Go Fluffy" is my new catch phrase.

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    by 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.
  • Mod
    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 02:09 PM

    Kewl. I am sure this game will be brilliant.

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    by 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.
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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:05 PM

    This looks interesting.  Anyone who worked on Portal has my attention.

  •
    by 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 Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 03:33 PM

    awesome

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    by 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"
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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 04:15 PM

    Looks pretty cool. We can only hope this will be as fun and fascinating as Portal.

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 04:24 PM

    Cool, I might check that out!

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 05:35 PM

    "And if the laws of physics no longer work in the future: God help you."

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 05:42 PM

    if it wasn't for the aweful art style, i would say this looks really cool

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    by Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 06:20 PM

    I'm looking forward to it

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    by 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.

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