Give and Take (2018)

A first-person puzzle game about manipulating the energy levels of objects.

This game was inspired by my own Project Ascension prototype (2015). In that game, objects would cycle through finite states when the player interacted with them.

I had considered what it might be like if an object could adjust its state on a more granular level. For example, an elevator that would raise itself the more energy you gave it, or lower itself as you took away energy from it.

Imagine objects in a 3D world all having an HP bar, and you could either damage objects or heal objects. Now, imagine their HP bar acting as an animation timeline, with the player able to adjust it with their powers. That was essentially the premise of this game.

I unfortunately did not explore this premise too deeply, but did find what I discovered to be quite rewarding and interesting. I would love to explore this game idea further in the future.

Other inspirations came from the PlayStation game inFamous (Sucker Punch, 2009) where the protagonist is a human battery that can hold a granular level of charge, as well as Mercy's character from Overwatch (Blizzard, 2016) where she could heal characters when in proximity (imagine her alternate-fire being a damage spell, and you would have this game).