Antichamber

Release Date: January 31, 2013

Puzzle, FPP, indie games, experimental/artistic, perspective-bending, singleplayer

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Steam

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Antichamber is a first person perspective (FPP) puzzle game that defies strict genre classification. Antichamber is the work of Alexander Bruce and is a commercial development of the popular mod Hazard: Journey of Life for Unreal Tournament 3. The game involves exploration of abstract locations and solving puzzles. The puzzles are designed on the basis of modern knowledge about the functioning of the human mind.

Antichamber is an independent psychological puzzle game almost entirely developed by Alexander Bruce alone. The project was born as a mod for Unreal Tournament 3 called Hazard: Journey of Life. After the release of UDK toolkit ( Unreal Development Kit) the author was able to develop the game as a full-scale commercial product. The finished game is much longer, more complex, and more elaborate than the prototypical modification.

Antichamber defies simple categorization. The game is played from first person perspective and relies mainly on exploring abstract locations and solving puzzles. The whole thing was based on the current knowledge about how does the human mind work, so that the consecutive puzzles altered the player’s emotions and his perception of the game. The author was inspired by the theories of Ivan Pavlov on conditioned reflexes, as well as the rules of shaping the psyche, and the virtual world was filled by reality deforming effects and physically impossible objects inspired by Maurits Cornelis Escher’s paintings.

All this makes up a game that keeps manipulating the player, but also teaches him new things. Therefore, in the tutorial the AI may simply lie to you and lead to your death, and turning right four times may not lead you back to the original position. On the other hand, only because you cannot jump over a chasm does not mean that you cannot cross it when walking backward. Antichamber keeps breaking and distorting all the conventions, to which you got used to in other games. The instincts that you have developed over the years of interactive play here are used against you. At the same time, you are encouraged to critical thinking and constant experiments, since a method discovered before that worked to bypass a particular obstacle, rarely is effective in other challenges.

You observe the action from first person perspective, and the controls are like in a typical FPS games. Later in the game you get a special device that transforms matter around you. From time to time you encounter symbols with hints to help you solve puzzles and learn how certain mechanisms work. At the same time they should never be fully trusted. The world takes a very abstract form and is made of white corridors without textures, which often explode with pulsing colors.

Last updated on August 14, 2015

Videos and Screens

[1:42] Antichamber launch trailer

[0:58] Antichamber Teaser #1

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