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MacGuffin’s Curse archived preview

MacGuffin’s Curse
MacGuffin’s Curse

“Come for the puzzles, stay for the story.”

This is what Brawsome’s Andrew Goulding hopes players will do later this year, when the Australian indie’s second game, MacGuffin’s Curse, is released. Unlike last year’s more traditional point-and-clicker Jolly Rover, MacGuffin’s Curse is a top-down puzzle game wrapped up in a comedic story. While its hybrid gameplay may not appeal to the same audience, my early look at the Game Developer’s Conference has me convinced that adventure game fans should keep an eye out for this one.

Lucas MacGuffin is a magician who, having fallen on hard times, has turned to thievery so he can afford to keep paying his rent. When a heist at the Museum of Myths and Mysteries goes wrong, Lucas ends up with an enchanted amulet in his possession—one that transforms him into a werewolf when he slips it on. (Oops!) To make matters worse, stealing the amulet triggered an alarm that put the entire city on lockdown. Now he has to figure out how to reverse the werewolf curse, starting by getting out of the museum.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda is a favorite of designer Ben Kosmina, an influence that’s apparent in MacGuffin’s top-down view and the types of logic puzzles that appear at the core of its gameplay. Though the version I saw was still very rough, Goulding and Kosmina explained that Lucas will travel between individual rooms, each of which has a self-contained puzzle that involves unlocking a door to get out of the room. As you can see in the early screenshot below, rooms will be set up on a grid, with certain conditions and obstacles in each room requiring logical thinking to achieve the objective. (Note that this screen is a work in progress, with placeholder artwork only. Jolly Rover’s Captain Howell will not appear in MacGuffin’s Curse!)

Image #1

In the sample puzzle shown to me, a heavy battery needed to be moved from one spot to another. When the battery is pushed into the appropriate slot, the door activates and you can use a control panel to open it. Lucas has different abilities as a werewolf than as a human, a fact the player can (and will need to) take advantage of by seeking out swaths of moonlight to switch between his two forms. In one example, werewolf Lucas has the gift of brute strength, and he can push around heavy items that human Lucas can’t. But the werewolf also has big, clumsy paws instead of hands, so he is unable to perform more delicate activities like operating the control panel.

Each level will have around 12-20 rooms and will be themed. For example: one series of rooms takes place in the museum, another in a park, and another in a mansion. The logic puzzles will grow more complex as you progress through the levels, and Brawsome promises side quests and unlockables such as comics and developer commentary to beef up the game’s replay value. While each puzzle will generally be contained to a single room, sometimes an action you take in one room will have an unseen effect in another room, requiring some backtracking and exploration before you can see all there is to see. The game will also have a hint system that automatically unlocks a door for you if you get stuck on a puzzle, but you won’t be shown the solution, so you can choose to return to the room later to try again if you wish.

Maybe you’re thinking this doesn’t sound much like an adventure game. That’s where “stay for the story” comes in. This logic puzzle mechanic will be nestled inside a full-blown story concerning Lucas’ predicament, the bad guys he’s mixed up with, and the legacy of the enchanted amulet itself. To provide a basis for comparison, the developers say MacGuffin’s Curse will have at least as much story as a Professor Layton game, with more opportunities for adventure gamey exploration and character interaction. Lucas will also be faced with quests that involve finding items and interacting with characters in various ways, including participating in branching “LucasArts-style” conversations. With the writing, the developers are aiming for funny and punchy, and mentioned the dialogue in Puzzle Agent as an inspiration. The game will not be voice acted, but it will have an original musical score.

Image #2

While Brawsome couldn’t show me much in-game art just yet, the character portraits they whipped out are impressive. Hand drawn by Australian artist Matt Martin, the distinctive characters have an unusual mix of cartoon color and unsettling seediness. Supporting characters (displayed left to right in the image above) include villain Alphonse Connell, who runs the city, Lucas’ shifty landlord Harvey Filks, and Detective Strump, an ex-cop who helps out when Lucas seeks out a hint. The top-down view will use simpler sprites, but more detailed portraits will be present during dialogues.

MacGuffin’s Curse is being developed simultaneously for iPhone, iPad, PC, and Mac, and Brawsome is aiming for an autumn release. In the meantime, Goulding and Kosmina are providing regular development updates on the Brawsome blog.

 

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