We use numbers and letters every day. But their concepts are rather abstract. That seems to have inspired “Dds” to develop the Arcade Game “Abstractio”, in which you will explore those abstract concepts, trying to find your way. Let’s have a look!

Using well-known but abstract concepts

Less is more

Abstractio uses a very minimalistic design. The black and white background and numbers make the colorful elements pop out visually. This helps you to figure out how the game works. You need to find your way to the goal as fast as possible while dodging the obstacles. The further you get, the more different obstacles are added. For maneuvering the little green arrow you use controls similar to racing games. You can turn your arrow to the left or right and add speed to go forward or backward. This sounds simple but it becomes more and more challenging with each level.

One thing that surprised me positively is that the game starts automatically in your language (which you chose for your Google Play account). As far as I know, the developer is Portuguese, but the navigation is completely in German in my case. In my opinion, that’s a very nice detail.

Never enough

Even though the game is mainly self-explaining, some instructions would be nice in the beginning. To use the controls to find your way to the goal is very intuitive, but the sudden appearance of magnetic areas surprised me a little bit. It would also help to explain that grey elements have to be pushed, but if you touch the red ones, the game is over. It’s a minor issue, but I think it would help to understand this abstract game more.

If you reach level 5, you can unlock level 6 and letter A. It’s a nice idea, that you don’t need to finish all numbers until you reach the letters. However, it would be even better if you could choose in the beginning if you want to start with numbers or letters. And in future, there could be more variation in the music as well.

Nothing is as it seemed to be

The Verdict

Abstractio is using abstract elements to create a challenging game. If you want to give it a try, download it here.

All pictures are in-game screenshots.