News

The PS Vita gets wet next week with digital puzzler Puddle

Splashdown

The PS Vita gets wet next week with digital puzzler Puddle
|
| Puddle

It must be the dream of any game development student - create a game while at school, subsequently grab the student prize at the Independent Games Festival, and then get spotted by a big publisher and invited to develop your game for both console and mobile devices.

This was the story for the maker of Puddle, a physics-based puzzler created by six students at ENJMIN, and later picked up by publisher Neko Entertainment.

In Puddle, you control a pool of water as it leaps over fire and acid and all other sorts of nasty obstacles. You manipulate the direction the water moves in by tilting the world left and right.

After being released on the PlayStation 3 and Tegra-powered Android devices earlier this year, the game will hit the PS Vita next week - a very welcome boost for anyone who owns Sony's fledging handheld device.

Wellies at the ready

We noted in our review of the Tegra-optimised version of Puddle that the game is rather difficult - to the point where frustration really sets in.

Fortunately, it sounds like the developer has been listening to feedback, and has been hard at work making the game that little bit easier through a new "whine and skip" option (essentially, get rid of a level and move on to the next one).

Puddle for Vita will either take advantage of the device's tilt functionality; or use the left stick, L, and R buttons; or even rear touchpad, if that's more your cup of tea.

We'll no doubt be bringing you our verdict once the game hits PSN next week, so watch out for that.

Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.