Pertinence is available on Steam! http://store.steampowered.com/app/455110/

Pertinence is a top-down adventure with minimalist graphics that explores various puzzle and action mechanics. The goal of the game is to freely explore rooms in a grid layout while collecting as many "alloy" as possible. These will unlock new areas and abilities.





Pertinence does not directly instruct the player in an attempt to create an environment of self-discovery in which the player can learn things for them self. Although the player may encounter friendly question marks that promise to inform you on your journey, it will soon be evident that they are somewhat over-confident in their advice-giving skills. Many aspects of the game are kept intentionally ambiguous, especially the overall end-goal of the game.

Gameplay Features

Here is a basic list of current gameplay features:

The ability to bend and warp "soft" walls to your advantage (or not to your advantage). "Nodes" are a main feature of Pertinence, but they require a long description (see below). Stealth-esque puzzles in which you must avoid being eaten by a horrific monster, or bait it to get it away from you. Moving hazards, turrets, killer dance pads, lasers that are blocked by "thick" walls, bombs and explosions. The ability to rotate entire rooms around various pivots to get where you want to go. Enemies that spawn temporary black holes. Some "meta" puzzles. Rooms that change when approached from different directions. Keys and locked doors (of course). Bouncing ball keys that you must guide into the locked door. 50+ rooms to explore (with secrets). An endgame boss.





A Node is an object that can be encountered in Pertinence. If the player finds one early in the game, they may find that the Node cannot do anything. But later on, after gaining new abilities, the player can rotate them, drag them and throw them.



Nodes usually have "distortion fields" attached to them, allowing you to rotate, drag and throw the field. Think of "the bending of walls" as a physical substance that can be attached to a node.



Another feature of Nodes is that the player can throw them at bombs, which will then latch onto the Node. This allows the player to place bombs wherever he or she desires.



Nodes come in three different types: normal, locked and static. Normal Nodes can be rotated, dragged and thrown. Locked Nodes cannot be rotated, but can be dragged and thrown. Static Nodes can be rotated but cannot be dragged or thrown.

Misc Features

A nice-looking map system. If you want to see rooms that you've been to, or rooms that you could have gone to, but did not (rooms that you could "see"), just press 'P' or 'Esc' (or 'Start' if you are using a gamepad). Certain rooms have "way points" in them, which allow you to teleport to them if you have already visited them. Each room is named. Some rooms change color palettes. Dynamic music. Different tracks fade in depending on what room you are in or what you are doing in the room. Fully functional saving and loading (including auto-save). Options menu. Full gamepad support (as implied above). However, the UI will not change for gamepads (for example, the game will still instruct you to use WASD with a gamepad plugged in, when you should be using the analog stick). Full soundtrack and sound effects (also implied above).





System Requirements

Windows XP or higher. GPU supporting DirectX 10 or higher. 250 MB of free HD space.





If you have any problems, questions or have found a bug in the game, please send an email to notmagicgames@gmail.com