A narrative Sudoku game, in development for Steam
First Contact
Mars, 2120. Zaina Lee can solve things no one ever taught her. Her father lies irradiated in a Shanghai ward, and the only cure was erased from the record decades ago. Every time she does the impossible, something takes note.
Runs in your browser. Headphones recommended. Works with keyboard, mouse or touch.
The world in 2120
Light speed still traps humanity inside its own star system. Eleven planetary nations trade across it on fusion ships that take a week to get from Mars to Earth. Every citizen carries a chip that tells their family when something is wrong.
Zaina is a physicist from Olympic Alpha, one of the youngest graduates of the Greater Martian Academy for Sciences. When her father’s chip reports 900 Roentgens, she crosses the system to reach him. Getting there is the easy part.
How it plays
The puzzles are the story
Every grid is a moment in Zaina’s life. A child arranging objects. A failing airlock no one taught her to open. A cure rebuilt from the hole it left behind.
Mechanics are story physics
Mars gravity is light, so jumps float. Earth is heavy, so she can barely walk. When the ship leans, it shoves you sideways.
Notes are silent, commitments are heard
Pencil marks and rewinds are free. Committing to a wrong answer is not. The world quietly keeps count of how loudly you solve.
No timers, no fail states
The tension comes from the story, never from a clock. Every player can reach the end.
From a 4 by 4 to time travel
One puzzle engine runs every grid, and every grid is checked for exactly one solution. The puzzles grow with Zaina.
- Act 1, built. A gentle 4 by 4. A scrambled lock you realign before you solve it. Irregular regions. A grid with a missing centre you solve for what is gone.
- Act 2. Overlapping grids that share a band, three stacked layers linked through depth, and a cell that lights up before your input lands.
- Act 3. Linked timelines where writing in the past changes the present, and boards that fork with every edit.
One lattice
Every picture is painted on a 192 by 108 grid and shown as coloured dots, amber and cyan, with red when the world starts paying attention. Every sound is synthesised live: scene ambience, a score that plays itself, and a note for each digit, so solving a grid plays a melody.
Where it is now
Done
The story bible and full scripts for all three acts. A playable Act 1 with its puzzles, three side scrolling scenes, synthesised sound, saves, and the first of the three big choices.
Next
The puzzle engine for Acts 2 and 3, the hand built set pieces, then controller and Steam Deck support and the Steam release.
My role
The story, the world and the design are mine. It started as a short story I wrote, set a century from now.