ORB is a 2D single-player puzzle adventure requiring thoughtful and precise actions. Guid Orb through a series of top down puzzles and horizontal side scrolling challenges in hopes to piece together his fragmented world.
Download the demo from either Itch.Io, GameJolt or IndieDB
A still shot of Orb’s intro scene
The Puzzleverse:
ORB will make his way through what is known as the Puzzleverse:
It is here that we get to travel around finding and completing puzzles. For Orb to make it from one constellation to the next, he must stand up to the dangers of the Wormholes – which he will use to travel from one constellation to another. These wormhole challenges increase in difficulty the closer Orb gets to finding all 12 galaxy fragments. Along his journey through the Puzzleverse, he will come across unlocks and abilities which will aid to his success:
In the image above we get to see Orb’s unlock wheel on the left, and the game progression (Galaxy fragments found) on the right.
Looking at the unlock wheel a little closer you will notice the wheel is divided into two: The white unlocks pertain to those abilities you can make use of while solving the puzzles – the orange unlocks pertain to those abilities you can make use of while traveling through the Wormholes.
The Wormholes
As Orb makes his way through the Puzzleverse, he will have to make use of Wormholes. These Wormholes are discovered as Orb progresses through each constellation. These challenges will come in different flavors – such as “Catch the shooting star” or “Evade the wormhole sentinels”. The Puzzleverse is not a kind place but it will provide the necessary upgrades and abilities to help pass these challenges. Hidden away in each constellation you are guaranteed to find Dash upgrades, Health upgrades, and an ability to help with tougher challenges.
Take a look at this short teaser video to see the Back Blast unlock, and the Wormhole challenges in action:
The unlocks that you will find which will help Orb through these challenges are:
Pulse: Orb will have the ability to take down asteroids and enemies with energy pulses from the first challenge. The type of pulse Orb shoots will change according to the weapons dropped while taking down enemies and asteroids. These weapon drops will not travel toward Orb (such as Dash and Health drops) – instead Orb must hunt them down.
Dash: The ability to accelerate. The longer your dash meter, the faster Orb will go. You can replenish your dash by destroying asteroids.
Bash: The ability to charge through asteroids and certain enemies.
Back Blast: An enemy too hot on your heels and you can’t shake him with Dash? Back Blast will obliterate most material behind Orb, within a certain radius. As depicted in the pics and vids above 🙂
Time Stop: Orb will gain the ability to stop time for a few seconds during a wormhole challenge. Handy when you need an alternate escape route.
Reactor Shields: Activating reactor shields will deflect most enemy shots back toward the enemy.It will also assist with those sneaky small pieces of debris.
Atomic Blast: Activating atomic blast will obliterate most, if not all material around Orb within a certain radius.
The Puzzles
There are many puzzle elements at play in the puzzleverse. Essentially Orb needs to get to the jump gate in each level. He may need to move light blocks around, push them over the edge to form a safe passage, use them to activate pressure panels, or block enemies pulses or passage. Orb is essentially a ball of light – and this means he has the ability to shift between different colour realms. Shifting to a certain realm will reveal pathways and light blocks not visible in other realms. The only constant throughout these reals are the white puzzle elements – and may be made use of in any realm.
To assist Orb with these puzzles, he will have access to X-Ray vision. For him to make use of it, he requires an X-Ray charge. Once activated, the charge will be used up, and Orb will get to see all the important puzzle elements highlighted, as well as the full power grid:
Test level: ‘District 9’ before activation of X-Ray
Test level: ‘District 9’ with X-Ray charged
Other than X-Ray, orb will find and unlock the following 6 abilities which will help him solve these puzzles:
Pulse: Orb will gain the ability to shoot out a single pulse. This pulse can be used to push Light Blocks out of reach from Orb or destroy enemies. The colour of the pulse is important, and it will match that of the colour realm you are in. Pulses may be shot through electric gates only if the pulse is the same colour as the gate.
Sprint: Activating sprint will allow Orb to move faster, and will respond immediately to a direction change.
Hop: Double tapping in the same direction will allow Orb to hop over one gap of the void.
Double Hop: Double tapping the same direction, while sprinting will allow Orb to hop over two gaps of the void.
Harpoon: Shooting a harpoon at light blocks will allow Orb to pull Light Blocks towards himself.
Translocate: Orb will gain the ability to drop a beacon anywhere in the level, and when activated he will be teleported back to the beacon. Use this with caution as it could render the puzzle unsolvable.
There are many more interesting puzzle mechanics to the world of ORB, such as rotating islands, rotating views, gravity blocks, light bridges, teleports and so on – I won’t be going through all of them here. But I will end off with a few more screenshots and links to a few videos of the puzzles! Enjoy!
Playthrough of teaser level “Welcome”
Hop and Double Hop on District 9
Oh, and you are more than welcome to follow the development of ORB on any of these sites:
Leave a Reply