In the beginning, almost literally, there was Sokoban. This is a game that’s still being iterated on today despite coming out in 1982, with at least several hundred games either including some form of it as a mini-game or being modeled on it outright. Push boxes around the floor to have them end up in specific tiles, but the walls get in the way. Like Tetris it’s a simple puzzle game that can be expanded upon practically forever, and that’s exactly what Sokobond did. Combining the molecule-creation of Zachtronics' SpaceChem with Sokoban’s walled limitations, it was a deep puzzler with a minimalist presentation that helped make its basis in chemistry much more approachable.
Gentle and chill turns into brain-mangling puzzles.
Several years later, after A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Draknek’s next game was a train-based puzzler called Cosmic Express. This one involved laying down tracks in a cute little space station to bring aliens to their destination using a train that could only hold a limited number of passengers. It’s an unlikely basis for a fusion with a Sokoban element-based puzzle game but that’s what’s happening next, with Sokobond Express getting its release date announced today in a new trailer.
The way Sokobond Express will work is you control a single atom that can accept a certain number of connections. The trailer kicks off with creating a basic water molecule, and the hydrogen atom barrels down the track picking up its elemental passengers. Per the pips circling the hydrogen atom it can accept two other atoms, which in this case are the oxygen ones in the arena. Each oxygen can only accept one connection, so a three-atom chain of hydrogen-oxygen-oxygen is right out, plus being a starter level it would be tricky (but not impossible) to build that configuration anyway. It also doesn’t help that you can’t draw a line through an atom, even if picking it up would have moved it out of the path, plus atoms can’t cross over each other. It’s going to take careful planning and of trial and error once the puzzles start getting properly tricky and you need to create multiple molecules at the same time.
For those feeling impatient at getting a feel for Sokobond Express, it’s an expansion of the Subatomic Wire prototype available to play in-browserover at itch.io. The full game, however, will be available on Steam and itch.io Febrary 22, just two weeks off. To see the game move, give a view tothe new trailerreleased today for a slight hint of the brain-twisting evil hiding under the chill vibes and ambient soundtrack when Sokobond Express leaves the station.
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build Trailer Shows Most Adorable Sokoban Ever
