As a kid, I had one of those “130-in-One” Electronics Learning Labs you could find at Radio Shack, the kind where you’d connect wires up to different electrical components and in theory make something happen when you pressed a button. I was probably too young at the time and never managed to get very good with it, but the fascination with electrical logic has remained. Prime Mover scratches that itch, without the need to blister your thumbs by threading bits of wire into springs.
If you’re into putting stuff together, check out our list of the best building games on PC.
Developer 4Bit games calls it an “open-ended puzzle game,” and it seems to have the same “just make something that works” philosophy present in Zachtronics titles like Opus Magnum and Infinifactory. Here, you get a pixel-art chessboard, and place components on it to solve increasingly complex computer logic problems. As with Zachtronics, it’ll even give you a histogram to compare your solution’s efficiency with other players around the world.
In the spirit of the old Radio Shack kits, 4Bit say you’ll move from “transistor to processor,” which is certainly a level of complexity the Learning Lab didn’t have.
There’s also a story to uncover. Solving problems will uncover memory fragments that tell of the Prime Mover and something called the “Byte of Burden.” There’s also a musical score composed by Jonathan Greer, who also created the music for Owlboy.
Prime Mover comes out May 21, and you can add it to your wishlist over on the Steam page.