Pandora Today
Pandora’s Gearbox is finished!
It’s a puzzle game where you have to get a ball through a mystery machine. You can’t see inside the machine, so you have to explore it with a remote-controlled robot.
I’ve spent the last few hours adding a tutorial mode to the first level, so you should be able to pick everything up by playing. No need for lengthy manuals. That said, here are some tips:
- You can rotate red items with the arrow keys, use this in cramped levels
- The robot can teleport to the starting area if stuck; just click on the start
- The robot can be deactivated with right-click; this is useful if you need to carry it
- Don’t be afraid to restart the level if things go badly
- Think logically. If you’re stuck, it’s probably because you haven’t explored all your options. The game doesn’t require crazy reflexes or luck.
Sometime this week there may be a post-mortem and I’ll put up a fancy page for the game tomorrow. For now, all I want to do is sleep.
UPDATE: People are having some problems with low spec video cards. If the textures look a bit strange and you have an old graphics card, that’s probably the reason. I’ll release a fix once I get home today.
UPDATE 2: I’ve uploaded an updated version of the game. The details are in the post above this one.
Pandora's Gearbox
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March 17th, 2009 at 9:49 am
yo i cant download this damn game ladise
March 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Can you be more specific? What problem are you having?
March 17th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Launch the game and I get a black screen and I can’t seem to exit. After a few seconds music starts playing but I can return to the desktop no matter what I try (ctrl+alt+del, crtl+esc, alt+enter). Might it be doing something my video card (ATi X700 with pretty up-to-date drivers) doesn’t like while in full screen mode? Anyway I can force it to run in a window to troubleshoot the problem? The readme is useless in this department.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
That’s odd. The basic executable should run in a window. Are you running the .exe or the .bat file?
March 17th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
[...] Pandora’s Gearbox is a physics-based puzzle game in which players must work their way through darkness, finding paths and moving machinery. At your disposal is a small flying robot which can shine a light through the pitch-blackness, allowing you to see the surrounding walls. Using this source, a ball must be guided through a maze and into the drop zone. [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
> That’s odd. The basic executable should run in a window. Are you running the .exe or the .bat file?
The .exe. It starts off as a window but then my screen goes black so I assumed it was trying to enter a different video mode. After trying to run the fullscreen .bat file I find that it works perfectly. Windowed mode is still a no go even after restarting my PC. That is weird shit.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:12 am
congrats on the release, this is great stuff. Keep up the great work!
March 28th, 2009 at 8:07 am
This is very hard for me.
March 28th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Hi Turek,
Can you be a bit more specific please? The game is meant to be challenging, but fair. Do you feel that this is the case?
If not, what level are you stuck on and how far have you gotten into it?
August 21st, 2009 at 11:15 am
I’m stuck on level 8, the second piston. any subtle hints?
August 21st, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Here’s something that hopefully gets you unstuck:
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You’ve obviously gotten past the first piston. Think about whether you can use the same trick, but from a different direction.
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Hi Alex. This has been a most enjoyable game. Up till now I’ve ever only played card games and found this on Apple.com on Friday – finished Lev10 this morning. This was a bit trickier but knew there was a purpose for the “box” to the left. Only wished there were more levels or similar games to continue bcos now I’m hooked. Thanks for the game.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Thanks for the feedback Poh. I’m glad that you enjoyed the game.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Was great. My only complaint was I stayed up too late playing and didn’t get my school work done. I completed all the levels the same day I downloaded it. I just couldn’t stop playing it. I only wish there were more levels.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I’m happy that you liked the game. With regard to more levels, I’m not sure that I could introduce more levels without making more mechanics like electricity and water. Even making the first 10, I felt like I was scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit. After all, there are only so many push-plates you can have before people become bored.
September 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
i’m stuck on level 9, any hints?
September 8th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Can you be a bit more specific? I wouldn’t want to spoil the whole puzzle for you. How far have you gotten?
September 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
ok, well I think I got the ball
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down the correct side(left) i’m stumped on how to bridge the gap to get the ball on the lift.. and the ball wont stay still, it slides back on the platform underneath the red box….
September 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Here’s a hint:
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Getting the ball across the gap is tricky. Have you thought of building a bridge?
September 9th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
i was going to
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build a bridge with the blocks but the ball wont stay still on the platform, so i cant move the bricks, and i don’t know how to get the stick in there…
September 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Hopefully, this helps:
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You can get the stick into the mechanism through an opening on the left.
September 12th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
ok so I cheated, I threw the ball in that same opening… and finished level 10… I loved this game, kinda sad that I’m done …
September 12th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
What was your favourite level?
September 13th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I would say 6.. that is where I had the ah ha moment.. number 9 was the most difficult for me…
September 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Well, I’m happy that you liked the game. For the record, this is how you deal with the bridge in level 9:
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Use the long rod to bridge the gap, by pushing it into the machine from the left. Prop up the rod with a cube from the bottom, so that it can go far enough. This way you can roll the ball across.
By the way, level 9 used to be way harder. I actually simplified it a whole lot, since my playtesters were having trouble.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I downloaded a freeware version. It let me play the first game
It displayed the next game, but it won’t give me a ball so that I can play the 2nd game. I even tried to pick up the ball that is in the bin from the first game, but that didn’t work.
Is there some key stroke I need to do to play the next level.
hb
September 30th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Oops, I finally realized that I was trying to play the answer of the black box puzzle. Seems like a neat game.
November 26th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Hi, Alex. At first, I speak spanish, so I hope you can understand my bad english.
You’ve done a great job, I think it’s an amazing and beautiful game. I love how it looks, the minimal appearance and how things move on screen, but… I need more levels. Really. I wish you keep working on it, at least until level 100 (haha!!). You have great ideas here, and i think you can explode them a little more (even without water and electricity!!) Maybe not every level has to be a complete surprise, just a progressive learning with a new trick in every one.
I´ve seen you’re interested in users experiences, I could say the same as people above, levels 6 and 9 the more difficult. Level 10, the most fun (I loved the little balls). A little note on level 7 and 9 (I don’t know how to make a spoiler, edit, please):
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I could solve level 7 without using the ramp and the two blocks, the most beautiful part of the machine. I think the mechanism in the right has to be a little softer to keep the ball trapped in the hole. In level 9, the gap in the second platform in the left has to be a little smaller to prevent cheating, you can push the ball and the block without using the machine.
I hope I don’t make you feel angry or bored with my ideas, but I’m really fascinated with your game, and I can´t stop thinking on it.
Congratulations, and really thank you for your work.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for the feedback Marilyy, I’m glad you liked the game.
One thing that you have to know about me is that I’m rather restless as a designer. Some people work on only one type of game – shooters or side-scrollers. Me, I don’t think I could make 100 levels if I nailed my butt down onto the chair.