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Electric “Platformer Without Platforms” TurnOn Releases Next Week

TurnOn is a charming-looking platformer in which you play an living electric spark trying to restore electricity to a city plunged into darkness.

If you were to judge a book by its cover, so to speak, TurnOn sounds like it should be the title of a very naughty game. Russian developers Brainy Studio have crafted something quite different, however: TurnOn, a platformer without platforms, where you must light up the whole city, one switch at a time.

So how does a “platformer without platforms” work? It’s simple really: you make the protagonist move through electrical cables instead. In TurnOn, you solve puzzles as you try to figure out how to turn on the lights as you pass through homes, while also fighting “unexpected enemies”. There’s also separate “music levels”, which are a lot like endless runners, your goal being not to fall off the power line. The developers also promise visual storytelling, without any of that pesky newfangled ‘dialogue’ thing all the kids are after these days.

Think indie platformers and you’re probably thinking 2D. It surprised me, then, to find that TurnOn is built in 3D and the props in the game are absolutely charming to look at. The game is designed for all ages, and it has a childlike feel to it that I can appreciate. There must no doubt be a poignant message involved, too, as the game is inspired by Earth Hour, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The game has been localised into a whopping 19 languages, possibly made easier by the game’s lack of dialogue.

TurnOn is releasing on June 1st on Steam (Windows and Mac) and Xbox One, where it is a member of the ID@Xbox program. The developers have also expressed interest in putting the game on Sony and Nintendo consoles, so a port to the PS4 and Wii U (or perhaps, the NX?) might not be so far off.