Surreal Puzzle Platformer ‘Tulpa’ Now Available on Steam

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Whenever I see a game like Tulpa, I go back several years when it seemed the small developer was gone, that everything was headed to AAA games on consoles. Fortunately that didn’t happen, and innovation is alive and well, as demonstrated in Tulpa, described as a surreal puzzle platformer. It is now available for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam.

Tulpa

Last year the developers from Encryptique tried to crowdfund Tulpa through IndieGoGo, but came up short of their goal. Fortunately they were able to team up with Rising Star Games to get the game finished, and the dark and mysterious puzzle platformer is now available on Steam!

In the game you control a girl named Ophelia and her Tulpa (also called a thoughtform) named Oliver. The Tulpa is an entity created by her own will/mind in need for support while traveling through a world that becomes progressively more surreal and twisted. Tulpa is described as a puzzle platformer game with a big dose of surrealism and small bits of occult and religious references scattered here and there.

You control both characters one at a time using the simple arrow key and space bar combination (for one Oliver skill you use the mouse). The developers felt that having alternate skills for each character would allow them to create some pretty interesting puzzles both from gameplay and story perspective – a method similar to the very effective system used in Trine.

Controlling Ophelia and Oliver, players must journey through surreal landscapes full of fantastical, bizarre, and often deadly encounters. Much is left to the imagination and it’s up to the player to work out how to proceed and what to interpret, maneuvering past traps and unraveling abstract puzzles to discover what lies at the end of this deeply metaphorical adventure.

For more information and to download the game, visit the Steam page for Tulpa . You can also check out their Facebook page for more details.

Check out the trailer:

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!