Fascinated by the efforts of Terry, in his game
squish, a retro demake of crush, as well as fez, I started off on a small series of studies on 1/2-dimensional variations of the mechanic common to those games. I have four done so far; I tend to put one out whenever I’m having a particularly idle evening. The control system in them is a bit deficient, and the graphics are very basic: the point was to explore the mechanic rather than produce something polished.
Defez
The basic prototype, blocks prohibit movement when squished.
OSX 10.5 | WIN/SOURCE (570KB)
Defez 2: Refez
Based on the above, but with blocks that have ‘insets’. This broadens the mechanic somewhat, but was still ultimately limited (though less limited than the first…). Made a level editor for this one as well, which helped with design a llot.
OSX 10.5 | WIN/SOURCE (580KB)
Defez 3: Mortar
A different approach, more open but local: squishes down things either side of one of horizontal/vertical you are on.
OSX 10.5 | WIN/SOURCE (570KB)
Defez 4: Das Kapital
An observer-dependent one: squishes from either the top/bottom/left/right of the screen. More limited in many ways, but would be simpler for people to grasp I think (could be implemented as a rotation, like in crush).
I have a list of about five other mechanics that’re awaiting implementation, but I seem to have lost some interest in pursuing this much further for the moment.