And Yet It Moves

Overview

And Yet It Moves is a whimsical puzzle-platformer by independent developer Broken Rules. Set in a world made entirely of torn pieces of paper, And Yet It Moves takes the barebones model of a traditional 2D platformer (left/right movement on a sidescrolling plane and the ability to jump) with a key twist: the world can be rotated around the player character at will. In the PC version, rotation is only allowed in 90-degree clockwise or counterclockwise increments with the push of a button, while in the Wii version, the Wii remote is held sideways and tilted left or right allowing smooth gradient rotation.

The goal of each level is simply to reach the end point. Using the rotation ability in creative ways is central to success. Since gravity always operates downward (toward the bottom of the screen), rotating the level has the effect of altering the direction that the player character will be pulled by gravity within the level. For example, some passageways are too short for the player character to fit through when oriented horizontally, but by rotating the world such that the passageway becomes vertical, the passageway is functionally transformed into a hole that players can easily fall down. Another example might be a chasm, too wide to leap over, that is made passable by rotating the world vertically, allowing the player character to fall 'over' it; then after clearing the gap, rotating back again.

There are a large number of checkpoints throughout the game, marked by a silhouette of the character. When the player dies, they are immediately returned to the location of the last checkpoint.

One of the game's main difficulties is death by falling. When the character falls and changes orientation, he still has the same momentum when gravity has flipped, making it very easy for the player to lose control of the character's acceleration due to gravity. This adds a need of caution for the player. The character can survive a fall with more ease if he lands on steep surface instead of a flat surface. Later levels add more difficulty to the gravity-changing techniques, such as movable boulders that react to a change in orientation. These boulders can not only trap the player and block off entrances, but they can crush the player as well. Other obstacles include gorillas, giant lizards, horned guinea pigs, and fire.

The story in AYIM is virtually non-existent, where the goal of the character is to move from point A to point B.

The name "And Yet It Moves" comes from Galileo Galilei's famous phrase Eppur si muove, which means And Yet It Moves. It is believed that Galileo muttered this phrase when being brought before the Inquisition, after his claims that the Earth was not the center of Universe. This is used in modern times as an indication that though someone in a knowledgeable position denies something, it is not necessarily false.

Game Modes

The PC and Mac versions of the game include a Speed Run mode, where players try to get through the level as fast as possible. In addition, AYIM also includes a "ghost" mode, where the player's performance is recorded and uploaded to the AYIM server. From there, the player can play against their own ghost or the ghost of a friend or complete stranger and race against them.

Aesthetics

The art of And Yet It Moves is a simple 'paper collage' style. The game creators explain that all of the in-game graphics, whether they be a boulder or a monkey, were ripped out of a movie or photo and then rendered in scraps of paper. They used this effect for all background and foreground images as well, which gives the game its "cut-out" look.

Their reasoning behind this method was that since none of them were specialized visual design artists, they needed a simple but effective style for the player to look at while trying to solve the puzzles.

The sounds in the game, such as a gorilla eating a banana, were all done vocally and recorded by the sound designer.

Release Details

And Yet It Moves is a download-only game, initially released for the PC through many major digital distributors, including Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate. It is also available for Macintosh and Linux, and was released on WiiWare on August 23, 2010 at a price of 1000 Wii Points.

System Requirements

PC

• Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista
• Processor: Dual Core 1.6 Ghz or higher, Single Core 2.0 Ghz or higher
• Memory: XP: 512 MB RAM, Vista: 1 GB RAM; (more RAM might be need for an integrated graphics card)
• Hard Disk Space: 60 MB
• Video Card: Intel® gma950 or higher; any non integrated card with 128 MB and openGL 1.2 support

Mac

• OS: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later
• Processor: G4/G5/Intel based: Dual Core 1.6 Ghz or higher, Single Core 2.0 Ghz or higher
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: Intel® gma950 or higher; any non integrated card with 128 MB or better
• Hard Drive: 60 MB