InFlux is the debut game from Australian-based developer Impromptu Games and one of six winners of the Australia Indie Showcase. Impromptu Games got together in 2008 to make a Half-Life 2 mod known as Shotgun Sunrise. They later created a spin-off of Shotgun Sunrise for iOS called Vroom!. The past two years have seen them working on InFlux, which I got to trial at this year’s PAX Australia.
InFlux is a ball-rolling puzzle game featuring a glowing blue ball which has been dropped on a foreign planet for reasons unknown. You control this ball as it rolls around gorgeous environments and glasshouses, trying to find a way off the planet.
Aside from rolling around, the ball is also capable of attracting and repelling objects. Pressing a button will either cause an object to move towards the ball, or force it away from the ball. This is key in solving the puzzles in this game; one of the first obstacles you’ll come across is a narrow path between two cliffs blocked off by rocks, which you need to apply a repelling force to in order to force them to move.
You start out in the game’s world; rolling through grassy fields, across beaches, around trees, rocks and other such objects. You must collect at least three glowing orbs scattered around the place in order to progress. After you’ve been rolling around collecting orbs for a few minutes, you’ll come across a glasshouse. Those three orbs you gathered before will disappear into a lantern-like object and grant you access to the glasshouse.
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Each glasshouse acts as a giant puzzle box. There are blue panels on each wall of the glasshouse, which cause the room to rotate. There is an orange ball within each glasshouse that must be dropped into an orange box by manipulating the rotating room; once you manage to do so, your ball will exit the glasshouse and be back in the overworld to collect blue orbs once again.
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Overall, I enjoyed the game and am looking forward to trying more than just the demo. The music set a nice, relaxing mood, and it’s quite a pretty world to explore. InFlux releases on GOG.com today, and is currently up on Steam Greenlight.
