Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Transmogrify’

Review Fix chats with “Transmogrify” developer Andrew Strauch, who discusses the game’s origin and goals for the future.

Continue to their Kickstarter here. 

About the Game:

Transmogrify is a sci-fi platformer where you turn enemies into objects and use them to solve puzzles.

You are lost in the facility you work at when the power restarts and strange creatures break loose. Grab the unconventional weapon, team up with the artificial intelligence that runs the facility, Grace, and figure out how to escape!

Developed with the open-source Godot Engine, we’ve enjoyed seeing Godot grow and being a part of the super friendly community.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Andrew Strauch: The game was initially born from a game jam where the theme was “unconventional weapon”. I decided to have a weapon that transformed enemies into objects, and you had to use them to solve puzzles because that sounded fun.

Review Fix: What has development been like so far?

Strauch: Development has been a blast. We are having a lot of fun developing all the enemies and their personalities, as well as the puzzles in the game.

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Strauch: Turning enemies into objects, and using them to solve puzzles is what makes this game special. It’s a unique balance of understanding the enemies’ behavior, as well as the properties of their transmogs (what they turn into), and how to use them to your advantage.

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Strauch: I would have to say that Portal, Mega Man X, Super Mario Bros, and Chip’s Challenge influenced Transmogrify and the gameplay the most.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Strauch: I would probably say that the development, in general, has just been fun. Designing and creating the entire world from scratch as well as each enemy and puzzle is a lot of fun. We also post our content all the time and take feedback seriously from gamers that engage with us. We try to incorporate as much of the feedback that we get as possible to make the game better.

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Strauch: I think there are expectations you need to understand when developing games. For example, Transmogrify is a platformer. People expect the controls to be enjoyable and responsive, just like other platformer games. However, I do feel like it is important to experiment and push the envelope with new game mechanics at the same time. Transmogrify accomplishes this by taking familiar platformer elements like enemies, jumping, timing your shots etc., and combines it with the new mechanic of transforming the enemies.

Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?

Strauch: Playing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on our Sega Genesis. I had played plenty of games before that, but that game blew my mind as a child – the colors, speed, and creativeness of the bosses were awesome.

Review Fix: Any thoughts on a Switch release?

Strauch: We are using Godot which is an opensource engine, so we feel like porting to the Switch would be challenging, but doable. We have it as a stretch goal on our Kickstarter.

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?

Strauch: Gamers that enjoy challenging platformers, puzzles, and sci-fi elements will enjoy this game the most.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Strauch: I want Transmogrify to be remembered as a game that tried to do something a little different, and stayed true to itself without trying to imitate other games too much.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Strauch: Our focus right now is on building our community, and finishing development of the game.