‘Hardhat Wombat’ is a puzzle game focused on a marsupial’s unique trait
George Fan, the mastermind behind “Plants vs. Zombies,” has a mission. He wants the world to know the magic behind every wombat. The Australian marsupials aren’t only cute, they’re the only species known to have cube-shaped poop.
Armed with this knowledge, he along with his friend Andy Hull incorporated that fact into a PC puzzle game called “Hardhat Wombat.” The idea for this mix of platforming, construction and puzzle-solving came out of a Ludum Dare game jam in 2013 based on the theme of 10 seconds.
Fan built a game where players are in the role of a construction worker, who has to build structures but every 10 seconds, the protagonist had to take a lunch break or he’d perish. It wasn’t the best idea and the time limit interfered with a solid idea, so he let it sit for nearly a decade.
AN IDEA BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE
The idea was resurrected when he brought up the idea of working on a game together with Hull, who needed a change after working on a long project. The only issue was that he didn’t want to ruin their friendship, Fan said, as collaborations can often lead to personality conflicts and disagreements.
They settled on working on a game for a short period because Fan said, “You can’t ruin a friendship in 3 months.” He sent Hull his previous game jam ideas, and his collaborator was drawn to the construction worker one. They needed a hook and they settled on the idea of wombat, who builds structures with his poop as building blocks.
“I’m particular about themes jibing with the mechanics of the game,” Fan said. “I’m happy to report that it did work. It lined up pretty well.”
MORE THAN JUST POOP
The two let that scatological idea flourish. They created different block types. A game couldn’t exist on feces alone. They came up with soda cans that helped the Wombat reach new areas and bubble gum that the wombat chewed up and blew out as bubbles. Each block has its own property and each one has its own purpose. For example, the basic poo cube sticks to other poo cubes.
The goal of “Hardhat Wombat” is that players have to build structures tied to a shape. It’s almost “Picross” like, but the puzzle doesn’t come from the “Minesweeper”-type logic. It’s more visceral. The wombat has to build platforms and deal with obstacles such as bugs. Fan said players have to think like builders and create scaffolding for the creations before they remove it.
Gravity and other physics-based concepts are part of the world, so players have to take that into account when they build their structures. Like any good puzzle game, the core concept is flexible to allow for emergent gameplay and players can come up with their own solutions for each puzzle.
Even after players run through the game’s 90+ level campaign, they’ll find extra modes. Fan said there are extra-hard levels, and a mode called the gauntlet, where players tackle randomly generated levels. It’s a lot of content to keep puzzle fans busy for $10 on Steam.
“Hardhat Wombat” comes out today on PC.