Free first-person puzzler/2D platformer Perspective out today

Perspective, a novel concoction of first-person puzzling and 2D platforming from the students at the DigiPen Institute of technology has been released today.

We've written about Perspective before, where its unusual premise has you moving around a 3D space in first person to align blue surfaces for a 2D avatar to navigate. It's similar to Echochrome, but even more open ended as you don't merely rotate the scenery, but move around inside it.

Having played a decent amount of the final build I can say that it's a lot of fun and the unique premise is explored quite thoroughly. It starts out feeling a little like Fez with the player trying to line up an avatar to resume its trek on different 2D planes, but the physics operate differently. Transfer your avatar to a brick-like structure near the center of a room, then walk away to realise he isn't still standing on said structure at all, but rather stuck to the rear wall in the place you left him.

Brilliantly your 2D avatar's scale changes in relation to you. Unlike reality, he actually gets larger the further you get from him while everything else gets smaller. This ensures that he's never too hard to see.

While the rudimentary graphics and limited colour palette are nothing to write home about, there is a consistency to them that makes the spaces easier to understand, while the Tron-like setting of a neon 80s arcade hub where your 2D counterpart hops in an out of various arcade cabinets has a distinct, lo-fi charm.

Regrettably the music grates, but you can always turn it off and listen to your own tunes.

Despite this niggle, Perspectives is a strong effort from the institute that brought us the prototypes for what would later become Portal and its sequel's gel mechanic. It's more bare bones than any of Valve's classics, but it's still a stellar proof of concept that's worth checking out.

Get Perspective for free from its official site here.