This penguin puzzler aims to be the next favorite for enthusiasts of the genre. Gentoo Rescue features a cute, playful artstyle with an inviting collection of different biomes. However the game is much more about the deep gameplay, puzzle mechanics, and puzzle design. Gentoo Rescue combines the competitive board game Ricochet Robots with many "break the rules" and meta-puzzle elements found in some puzzle hits, like Baba Is You and Patrick's Parabox. The Steam demo is available now.
Gameplay overview
Gentoo Rescue is a top-down grid-based discrete puzzle game with metroidvania elements. It has a moderate-to-high difficulty made for enthusiasts of the genre, but it is accessible to a wider audience with many optional puzzles and built-in journal and hint systems. The player controls multiple sliding animals (penguins and walruses) of different colors, and these animals must help one another achieve the (often contradictory) goals of the puzzle. There are items, which change the rules and introduce multiple layers of surprising interactions. The world system is a giant tree of puzzles inside puzzles, and players will be switching between solving small self-contained puzzles and solving bigger meta-puzzles. These mechanics all combine to make a game that explores both spatial and non-spatial deductions, with flavors of rule-discovery and meta progression.
Puzzle design
A puzzle game is only as good as its puzzle design. Gentoo Rescue follows these general guidelines:
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Puzzles are small, focused, and easy to parse, but difficult.
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Puzzles teach something new, surprise, and explore all corners of nuance.
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Puzzles are highly deducible. No aimless moves or trial-and-error!
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Some emergent mechanics are intentionally hidden until later. Players will discover “wait, you can do that!?” moments throughout the game, which will make them want to revisit earlier levels after learning the new tricks.
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Penguins, walruses, and fish! Each introduces opposing win criteria.
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Rapidly expanding set of mechanics and interactions.
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Over 300 diverse, hand-crafted levels. No filler!
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An interconnected network of puzzles with item-based progression and metagame twists.
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Journal for tracking mechanics, which also lists entries needed for the current puzzle.
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A tiered hint system that teaches a deduction-based approach.
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16 biomes distinguishing areas and mechanics.
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Original music.
Accessibility
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No time-sensitive inputs, with undo and redo binds that work through resets.
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Use a controller, keyboard, or mouse with customizable binds.
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Colorblind friendly with customizable colors.
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Most puzzles are optional for progression, and a setting makes any puzzle skippable.
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Warp navigation system for quickly returning to anywhere you've been.
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Your old solutions and [redacted] and [redacted] are saved, so you don't have to repeat work to accomplish any meta goals.
About the developer
Gentoo Rescue is the debut game for solo developer Jagriff, who works on this passion project part-time after work. Jagriff's professional background is in mathematics research and instruction, and programming.
Links
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2830480/Gentoo_Rescue/
Steam demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2883360/Gentoo_Rescue_Demo/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Z6C37GCu5H
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jagriff.bsky.social
X: https://x.com/GentooRescue
Steam developer: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Jagriff
Trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zitCBNVWyZY