Gorogoa dev discusses the importance of limitations in design

Gorogoa is one of the most unique puzzle games to release in ages, and that's thanks to dev Jason Roberts' laser-focused approach to development. In an interview with RockPaperShotgun, Roberts discusses how he kept mechanics in-check while piecing the game together.

“I wanted each scene to be very deep and have lots of detail. Four scenes seemed to be the limit of what people could keep track of, and that was pushing it. I’m glad it didn’t get bigger. I know that when people saw the game early on they said, ‘Oh, this is too simple, there’s only four tiles and a really small number of permutations’. But four turned out to be the sweet spot.

As soon as I allow the player to fiddle physically with things in the world there comes this temptation to create challenges that exist only within one tile, and I wanted to make sure that wasn’t true. The handicapping of the player is part of what’s interesting in design. All you’re changing really is what you’re looking at in any of the tiles. The source of all your power is where you choose to look.”