English Country Tune

By: Derek Yu

On: December 2nd, 2011

Stephen “increpare” Lavelle has released English Country Tune, the latest of his many mind-expanding video game projects, but also his first commercial release. In ECT, the player controls a flat panel that can flip itself onto adjacent tiles in 3d space. The goal of the early levels is to flip “larva” into glowing cubes. The larva will “fall” according to the direction that they were flipped, introducing you to the spatial nature of ECT’s puzzles. As you advance to later levels, you’ll encounter new goals and obstacles (watch the trailer below for a sneak peak at some of those).

Suffice to say, if you like unique and challenging puzzlers, you should check this one out – a demo that covers the first couple of worlds is available from the website (full version $10).

TIGdb: Entry for English Country Tune

Posted in Abstract, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh, Puzzle, Windows | Tags: increpare

News

incomprehensible Southwestern dialect
SirNiko

I played through this in its entirety as a Beta.

The number of levels is impressive, enough to easily keep you busy for several hours or more. More impressive, though, is the variety of levels. The game starts by exploring Sokoban style block puzzles, but as the game progresses you will encounter a number of other puzzle types.

There are a few (less than 5) levels where you’ll need to move quickly to interact with moving obstacles, but the rest of the game offers a relaxed experience where you can sit and think about your next move for as long as you like.

The mechanics for many of the ‘worlds’ are quite original, in that I’m not aware of any other games that use them.

The difficulty was not too bad. A few levels will pose a challenge, but I never found a level I couldn’t beat with plenty of experimentation.

I really recommend this if you’re a fan of Sokoban style puzzlers. Definitely going to pick up the finished release.
bateleur

The game is much deeper than this article makes it sound. It doesn’t continue to work the way described above with an occasional new twist added – the game is full of other sections with completely different gameplay. It’s almost like a collection of puzzle games exploring shared themes.
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

Thanks, bateleur. I revised the post slightly.
snapbuns

What’s with the name? Very pretentious… Very… “indie.”
http://twitter.com/tametick Ido Yehieli

This game is awesome, really enjoyed it a lot!

as betaleur said there is more to it than meets the eye at first.
Anonymous

you almost could say that it’s an “indie” “game”
http://twitter.com/MccgSam Sam H

so why is it called English Country Tune?
News

pretentious faggot orgy
http://twitter.com/GreyAlien Jake Birkett

Well I’m pretty sure Stephen lives in or very near Cambridge, which is smack bang in the middle of the English countryside. Still this doesn’t fully explain the name, but maybe it doesn’t need an explanation!
Caio

increpare is an insane man of whom I approve highly
anon

What, is he supposed to call it “Flippy Boxxxy Funtime Adventure Puzzle 3000” or something? The title is interesting and draws attention, what makes it pretentious?
Instain Mother

The fact that it has nothing to do with the game. Also, a title can make sense without being a string of idiotic buzzwords; nice job with the strawman there.
Instain Mother

That was meant to be a reply to “anon”. I clicked Reply, so I don’t know what happened.
Z13900

what the hell, this is a ripoff of a minigame from a AAA title.