The Turing Test, from the makers of Pneuma: Breath of Life, is a first-person puzzle game set on Jupiter's moon Europa that begins with a simple question—Does it contain life?—but quickly moves into deeper and meatier musings. It's science fiction, but as writer and designer David Jones says in the video released today, “it's based in an underling reality, of wanting to tell a story that could actually be true.”
The gameplay seen in the video has echoes of games like The Talos Principle, Portal, and Magrunner: Dark Pulse, and like those games, the “who” and “why” of the story promise to be at least as important to the experience as the “what” and “how” of the puzzles on which it's built. “We present the player with a linear story that they can progress through,” Jones says. “But as well as this linear story, there's also elements underneath that, that will change the meaning of the story for the player as they experience it.”
The title itself hints at hidden meanings and, hopefully, depth: The Turing test was developed in 1950 by Alan Turing as a method of determining whether or not an AI has actually achieved intelligence—one measure, perhaps, of determining “life.” It's also the name of the lead character, Ava Turing, an engineer with the International Space Agency who's determined to discover the truth behind the research station on Europa.
The Turing Test is slated for release in August. Find out more at theturingtestgame.com.
