Road to the IGF 2023: randomerz's Slider

gamedeveloper.com:

This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize independent game developers advancing the medium. Every year, Game Developer sits down with the finalists for the IGF ahead of GDC to explore the themes, design decisions, and tools behind each entry.

Slidertakes players to a world within a 8-puzzle slide puzzle. By reorienting the pieces of the world, players will help people reconnect, open new paths forward, and figure out where your cat went.

Game Developer spoke with Daniel Carr, the game's Project Lead, to learn more about what appealed to them about creating puzzles and an entire world around slide puzzles, the thoughts that went into wringing so many creative systems out of moving those slide squares, and how they designed some interweaving mechanics to really challenge the player with what was possible in the game.

Who are you, and what was your role in developing Slider? What's your background in making games?

Hey, I’m Daniel Carr! I’m the project lead for Slider. I’m a 3rd year CS major at Georgia Tech, coming from Northern Virginia. I’ve always loved playing games growing up; I’ve gotten so many fun and memorable experiences discovering new games and playing with friends. Now, I want to be able to recreate those experiences for others.

Game development has always been super interesting to me. It’s such a great way of expressing your imagination, as well as showing off a culmination of technical and visual skills. I took my first step in high school, during a week-long game jam. It didn’t do too well, but it had everything you needed for a game and I was super happy with my progress. Afterwards, I focused on