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Whatcha Playing: Puzzle Quest Galactrix, and You Can Too

Posted by Joe Keiser

No, the sequel to everyone’s favorite ultra-addictive puzzle RPG isn’t out yet—that won’t happen for another month. But there is an official Flash-based demo of the game’s puzzle component out right now. And you should try it, unless you needed some kind of support group to pry your hands off the first Puzzle Quest. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix looks like it will put you right back on that road to ruin.

Yes, this demo is just puzzle match-three puzzle battle, a single bout compared to the likely dozens of variation on the theme that we’ll see in the final game. And yet I played it six times, in rapid succession. Plug this into a space strategy framework, and, well, I hope it’s done properly. But I also hope it isn’t, because if it is it could well be the end of my productive life.

The existence of this game, and how interesting and polished it is, even in Flash demo format, is an interesting counter-point to the general thinking regarding casual games. Infinite Interactive, the creators of Puzzle Quest, seem to take the Popcap thinking to heart—that making casual games is hard, it’s at least as difficult as making a hardcore game, but it might be harder because there’s less fluff to hide behind.

Putting together something as addictive as a Puzzle Quest isn’t something that happens by accident—it probably took the full two years of development time to get right. Play the demo. It’s impressively easy to play, isn’t it? And yet there’s so much interplay between each of the mechanics. The gem types, and the resources they represent, play into your ship’s special weapons, and when they should be used. This in turn ties into the game’s shield and hull damage system (shields can be replenished, but hits to the ship are permanent), which fuels another primary metagame of offensive versus defensive play. And yet, all you’re doing to make any of this happen is moving some gems around. It’s a turn-based strategy game your grandma can play, which is really, really impressive.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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