Indie Gaming: Hyperbolica

The ceiling beams and walls in this screenshot are not curved! They only look warped because they’re in a hyperbolic universe….

I did a Q&A with the creator of Hyperbolica for Game Developer a few months ago. It’s out now, on itch.io and Steam!

It’s really an awesome idea: an exploratory kind of game set in a hyperbolic space. If you’re wondering how someone could even make such a thing, developer CodeParade did a great series of YouTube videos on how he made it. Hyperbolica neatly upsets many of your intuitions of how basic motion and rotation work. It uses the processes of playing video games to communicate ideas in a deeply intuitive way.

If this looks like your kind of thing, you might consider looking into ZenoRogue’s HyperRogue (SteamAndroid), which is a one-hit roguelike set on a hyperbolic plane. Or the similarly brain-bending Manifold Garden from William Chyr (SteamSwitchXboxPS Store).