The Swapper

The Swapper is a sci-fi puzzle platformer developed and published by Facepalm Games, a Finnish indie studio, and is available for Windows OS, OS X, Linux, and eventually the Playstation consoles as well. The game is available on Steam and DRM free directly from the developers.

"Tell me who I just ejected into space"

There's been a great deal of puzzle games that have been coming forth with compelling and driving narratives to add to their array of interesting game mechanics. The Swapper utilizes some well recognized puzzle mechanics from games like The Company of Myself or Thomas Was Alone in the sense that the game is kind of a one player co-op. 

The Swapper is, at it's core, brilliantly simple. With only a few mechanics introduced in a well paced system of progression, the game manages to create an effective tutorial as you play. The game also manages to create create fiendish puzzles that the player has all the resources to complete using a small tool set. I would make no hesitation to place The Swapper next to some of the best puzzle games of all time.

The game's mechanics revolves around a device called The Swapper. It allows the player to create up to four clones to help solve puzzles to progress in the game. The clones mirror all of your actions and can die from environmental hazards. You're also allows to swap between the clones, effectively teleporting yourself across great distances. They're all mechanics we've seen before, but The Swapper manages to build off of them and innovate for its own.

liking the orange

The game's capstone to me is the narrative and the questions it asks players. You make a bunch of clones in your journey through the world, listening to these rock hive-mind beings called Watchers. It is hinted early in the game that they were once just one big mind that became fragmented and alone once human excavation began. 

the game's visuals are dazzling

The Watchers once held one, unified thought, but as they became separated from another, each began to develop its own individual thought. All those clones you made inside an asteroid field to watch get flung around by asteroids, are they people? And is what you did murder? 
The game's questions focus around the sanctity of life. We can create clones; it's been done before. We know that identical twins are separate, autonomous people. But if we were to ever be able to create consciousness, what does that say about us? What makes human thought special if its just some complex algorithm that can be created?

So here's the question: If you were to clone yourself and swap consciousness with your clone, would you still be you? In another words, are clones of yourself, still yourself or are they a completely separate person?

i don't wanna go through that, you go first. no you go first no you-

The Swapper reminded me about the concept of digitizing and storing human personalities on storage devices and uploading them to some kind of hive-mind, giving the person virtual immortality. The technology is probably a big more far off, but I honestly don't think it would be the same person. The personality on the CD would just be some kind of mirror image, a copy of a person that once was. 

The questions posed by The Swapper are tantalizing and will need to be answered some time in the future. The game's presentation is amazing- can I just say something? Most of the game's assets were made in clay and other everyday materials, and then digitized: a copy of a real world entity. Sound familiar?

it's really cool

To top it all of is an atmospheric and curious soundtrack composed by Carlo Castellano. Everything about this game is polished and hard to find fault in. The Swapper manages to bring back old mechanics, build off of it, and present itself in a gorgeous manner all focused on a centralized theme. 

And you know, puzzle games are puzzle games: they're gonna stump you once in awhile. Please, do not let up. Take a break, come back. Do not let this game hang on your shelf just because one puzzle stopped you. I promise, it's worth witnessing the end. 

I'll say this again here: the game is available on Steam, but it's also available DRM free from the developers. The Swapper is both beautiful and profound; it's an experience to be had.

Chess- Losing is fun

I got into chess around last October with my friend Blake- he was the one who encouraged me to play. I knew how to play (save for the then weird en passant rule), but it had been so long since I played my last game. I was a little scared to, wavering and saying things like "Oh, but I'm not good" and "I'm going to get destroyed" but he convinced me anyway. If anything, I could watch other matches and nod my head at things I didn't understand.

And I did get destroyed the first couple of times around. 

But rather than reveling in shame or being embarrassed, I realized that I had learned a lot more in that one match. This is why you don't play that move, this is why that opening doesn't work, here are the things you should try for- and on and on. The amount of things to learn was intoxicating.

Looking back now, and seeing all the things I've learned, it's amazing. Sure, I don't know most of the openers and still struggle with most, but I've come to sink a lot of time into just playing chess. Just playing. Blake and I would just meet up and play chess, for hours at a time, figuring out what worked and what didn't.

And it was fun. Really, it was.

From learning overarching tips to finding chess tactics, Blake and I just had a great time. And of course it wasn't all just chess; it's sort of our excuse to just mull around and chew fat. We'd just spend time together figuring out positions, what kind of responses existed, and how insane grand master chess players like Tal were.

I used to be scared of losing. I'm gonna look stupid; look at all these people who know what they're doing. Really though, the most fun in chess comes from fumbling around the board and losing. It's the best way to learn things: losing. You don't have anyone to blame but you, and that's a sign that you can always do better.

I wanted to write about this because of my friends who are just afraid of playing competitive games in general. I don't know how to play. I'll never be good at it. Even if I read up on the material, I'll play badly and I know it.

You have to put your pride past you- it doesn't matter if you lose. Take every loss as a chance for personal growth. The second you make it a mandate to win, the fun aspect of it leaves. Even if you do manage to read up on the topic and study it, you'll never get better if you don't play. Everything is about your attitude and willingness to learn. You have to be able to get past your initial doubts and fears.

And in the end, if you decide you don't like the game, that's that. You gave it an honest try and didn't like it- that's fine. But don't count yourself or the game out before you do give that honest try.

So get out there and play. It won't hurt you, I promise.