Polarity Bear is a 3D first-person puzzle-platformer. The focus in gameplay is on player agility and precision.

Target Audience

We target an audience who like challenging games. This is a puzzle game for people of any age and gender. The game has challenges in every level and can be solved with imagination and tactic, in the fastest way possible.

 

The game consists of separate level that the player has to finish in order to move on. After each level is completed, the player can choose to move on to the next level or replay the current level in order to improve the time.

The gameplay is that of a typical first-person game. The keyboard controls the player movements and the mouse is used for aiming and firing. The player can run and jump, and has some movability while in the air.

 

The player progresses through the game by completing levels (moving from the start to the finish line while completing objectives along the way).

For each level, the goal is to reach the finish line by traversing the environment using magnets. This is the basic challenge. The additional challenge is to compete against yourself (and other players) to get the shortest time for each level. This is presented as a “Replay”-button at the end of each level, allowing the player to try and improve the time.

For some levels, the player has to move one or more ice cubes to their respective buttons in order to complete the level. The challenge is to maneuver the cube by using only the magnets, and figure out how to get them to the buttons.

The object of the game is to reach the end of every level, where there is a finish line. For reaching that point the player has to pass some difficulties and puzzles, using the magnetic gun.

The flow is fast-paced but also requires the player to plan ahead and try several time before the best solution becomes apparent.

 

The physics in the game are based around forces. there is always a downward force applied to the player to simulate gravity. The physics on the magnets in the world are based on forces as well. They apply a force to any player or object that can be affected by the magnets whenever these objects are closer than a certain distance to the magnet. the force’s direction is decided by taking the vector from the closest point of the magnet to the center of the object. the length of this vector is used to calculate the strength of the force that will be applied.

Movement with magnets

The character is affected by the magnetic forces generated by his gun. A blue sphere reject the character from it, a yellow sphere attracts him to it.

 

Objects are also affected by magnetic field, attracted or rejected by the spheres created with the Magnetic Gun

At the moment there are no other actions from moving, jumping and placing magnets.

The game has a cold sci-fi style inspired by movies such as Minority Report, Cube and games like Portal and Half-Life. The visual style is futuristic, with a color scheme of  grey/red with some elements of turquoise and yellow, but without overwhelming visual effects.

It is important to make the player feel trapped and powerful at the same time.