Gaming —

Continuity 2 turns student game into an addictive iOS puzzler

Continuity 2 is the sequel to last year's Independent Games Festival student …

Continuity 2: The Continuation is the sequel to a game you likely haven't heard of. That's because the original was a student project, a browser-based puzzle game with a marvelously inventive mechanic but all-too-short playtime. Now the same two-man team is bringing the game to the iPhone, but in the form of a sequel as opposed to a simple port. Ars spoke to Guy Lima Jr., one half of developer Ragtime Games, about the differences between working a student game compared to a commercial release and why making a sequel was the right choice.

As with most puzzle games, the basic goal of Continuity 2 is relatively simple. You run through a series of levels, and in each one you'll need to find a key so that you can exit through the door. The twist is in the way the levels are constructed. Each stage consists of a series of cards which you can move around to create your path. It's initially confusing, but soon enough becomes second nature. That mechanic is what made the original student project so intriguing, but it's not what made the duo of Lima Jr. and Stefan Mikaelsson from Ragtime excited about bringing the game to the iPhone.

"We thought doing a port would just be kind of boring," Lima Jr. told Ars. "We’re more interested in the design aspect of game making than the implementation aspect, so we wouldn't have been too excited about just re-implementing the same thing we just did."

Porting also proved to be a technical challenge, as the original Continuity featured levels designed with a large monitor in mind, and so it wouldn't have worked very well on the iPhone's screen. Because of this, each and every one of the levels in the sequel is completely new.

In addition to the obvious touch controls, the new game features a few other improvements over its predecessor. You now collect coins through each stage which serve as checkpoints, so that when you fall to your death or are impaled on some spikes, you don't need to start all over again. The levels themselves, meanwhile, are tighter and more focused.

"It’s not that we’re trying to specifically make the game easier," explained Lima Jr., "just less frustrating."

Continuity 2: The Continuation

There are also several new mechanics—which we won't spoil for you here—that make the game feel like a proper and satisfying sequel. The team at Ragtime benefitted not only from the learning experience of developing the first Continuity, but also simply from having more time. The first game was created in just eight weeks, whereas the sequel had enough time to be properly play-tested. Without that additional time and experience, features like checkpoints might not have been implemented.

For completionists there's now also time limits and achievments to add some replayability, which is due in large part to the fact that the game is no longer free.

"We've been a lot more concerned with trying to make it feel high quality so people don't regret spending their money on it," Lima Jr. told Ars. "We never expected anybody to actually play the first game—it was just a student game that we originally hosted on the school's website. So it was easier for us to overlook a lack of polish in the first one."

For now Continuity 2 is an iOS exclusive, and the team has no plans for additional content or platforms. With just two people, they're having a hard enough time just trying to get the game noticed. That doesn't mean that there isn't more Continuity to come, though.

"Whatever we do next is going to be as a result of the reaction we get from players and what it seems like they want."

Listing image by Image courtesy Ragtime Games

Channel Ars Technica