PARADIGM
DEVELOPER JACOB JANKERA PRICE TBA paradigmadventure.com
I played the demo of this last week and one of the puzzles made my entire family howl with laughter. Simply, the protagonist being frustrated by a seemingly illogical moment tapped neatly into our collective appreciation for a quite specific cultural humour. (My husband is Bulgarian, the kids half so.) Creator, Jacob Janerka, explains, “I have a Polish heritage so I have a lot of family and friends that I take accents and mannerisms from.” Worked for us. Indeed, the game relies on an unrelenting, but very warm, approach to its joke-telling.
The added hilarity for me was that the puzzle messes with mechanical expectations for the genre. I won’t spoil it, but you’ll know it when you find it. In Janerka’s words, “Paradigm is a surreal adventure game set in post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe. Traveling there really inspired me and I never saw another game/film portray that region in a non-offensive way, unlike Borat and such.” This is an interesting point of reference because the weird and wonderful characters in Paradigm’s dystopian world can be confronting, but never in a mean-spirited way.
Janerka comments that initial feedback centred on the protagonist’s bulbous appearance. He says, “I wanted to add a hint system but I wanted to keep it within the universe. Originally, your tumour would have been like a sidekick you can talk to. Now he’s like a telepathic head.” These are some of the best conversations in the game so far. As well as an engaging and unique narrative, the interface allows four verbs for everything you can interact with. If you play at PAX, just remember to ask the eggplant for some beats, trust me.