‘Telepaint!’ Is the Less Difficult New Game from the Makers of the Punishing ‘Titan Souls’

In 2015, the two-man Manchester studio Acid Nerve put out a game that was all cute pixel art on the surface, but absolutely bloody maddening of difficulty in practice. Said title, Titan Souls—a boss-rush adventure that mixed Zelda-ish looks with Souls series–levels of punishment for the smallest mistakes (you can read more about it here)—immediately marked David Fenn and Mark Forster as indie game-makers to keep a beady eye on.

And now they're back, with a very different game to the one that made their studio's name. Telepaint! is a touchscreen puzzler where the player guides a paint bucket with legs, arms, and a face through multiple stages of naturally escalating difficulty, where portals must be navigated correctly to avoid deadly spills. (You appreciate the pun of the title, I'm sure.) Fenn puts it as "the gameplay of Portal meets Lemmings, with a whole bunch of twists along the way." On first impression, I thought of Simogo's sublime Beat Sneak Bandit "does" Splatoon, albeit mainly because the trailer—watch it below—had a clear sense of rhythm to it. And paint, obviously. (Alright, pedant, ink.)

I asked David a few questions about Acid Nerve's new game, to get a real idea of what to expect when Telepaint! comes out on iOS in, he says, "a matter of weeks."

'Telepaint!' announcement trailer

VICE: Does Telepaint! have that rhythm I'm seeing in the gameplay, or is that merely for the trailer?
David Fenn: All the movement in the game is synchronized to the music's beat in the same way it's presented in the trailer, which lets us do some fun and clever tricks with sound throughout the game. It's not a "rhythm game"—you can play it comfortably with the sound off—but everything just happens rhythmically, adding a cool extra layer to the game and letting you get into the groove.

So this is a different perspective of play when compared to Titan Souls, with a far cuter aesthetic. But is it going to become comparably challenging, the deeper you get into it?
It's not quite as brutal as Titan Souls, and far more forgiving, but it can get quite challenging at some points. Some of the puzzles will require a lot of thought to beat, but overall the game should appeal to a broader variety of players than Titan Souls, which I would say is quite niche. We'll certainly still be impressed by anyone who manages to 100 percent the game, though.

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As per Titan Souls, too, this is an "old" idea that's now found its way to fruition—Mark and yourself had jammed a version of it a while ago. How pleased are you that you've been able to update it to a slick, iOS-ready release? And what part did Titan Souls' success play in allowing you to get to here with it?
We love game jams, they're great for prototyping unusual ideas and sometimes they reveal hidden gems. That's what happened with Titan Souls and the same happened for Telepaint! too. The success of Titan Souls has directly enabled us to go back and give this old prototype a similar treatment, which is something we're super happy to have been able to do.

You've gone mobile with this title, with it coming out for iPhone and iPad, but did you play around with making it work with "standard" controls? Did that just not suit the type of game it is?
The original game was made for six giant buttons, which people had to stand on to activate portals in the game. We enjoyed the puzzle potential this presented, but it would never have worked elegantly with traditional controls. Being able to see the layout of each portal on screen and immediately tapping to activate without thinking removes a layer of obfuscation that traditional controls would present, and it's also a lot faster and more free than it would be to click them one by one with a mouse. It's important to match the control scheme with the platform, so in the same way that touchscreen virtual joypads would never be on par with a physical control pad, the reverse situation applies to Telepaint!.

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You mention twists—what sort of fiendish traps are our bucket-like heroes going to have to look out for?
Each world introduces a new mechanic, and we play with each one extensively to max out its potential. There are keys and locks, pushable blocks, multiple characters, gravity flipping, Thwomp-like characters called Smoochers that chase you around, and some other new things as you get deeper into the game, as well as gradually built-up combinations of all of these things. Anything that moves can be teleported too, so everything is fully interactive and malleable in the game world, creating some interesting possibilities.

Telepaint! is out for iOS, as David says, "in a matter of weeks." Find Acid Nerve online here.

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