If any of the subjects mentioned in the title of this article intrigued you, then you’ll want to check out the trailer below for Vertical Divide from developer Emmet Morris, who you may recognize as the maker of the 2013 neon platformer Gleamer (Free). It’s kind of a tricky concept to put into words, but I’ll try to explain Vertical Divide as best as I can.
Drop a blue number block onto the board of pink “1" blocks. The next blue block that appears, if it’s smaller than the first, can be placed on top of the first blue block to divide it. The result of that equation is the number of pink blocks that get removed, but if it’s not a clean division then the remainder will be the number of pink blocks added back to the board. For example, you place an “8" blue block and then a “4" blue block on top of it, which divides it for a result of “2". So the 2 pink blocks below those blue blocks will be removed. Let’s say you placed your “8" block but then dropped a “3" on top. That divides into 8 twice with a remainder of 2, so the 2 pink blocks below will get removed but then 2 more will drop into the board because of the remainder, effectively making it a wash.
You can also place blue blocks besides each other to create larger numbers, but then those will have to be divided by a number with the same amount of digits. So you couldn’t make “264" and then divide it by “8" for example, you’d have to make another 3-digit number to divide it by. Your goal is to clear the board without letting any blocks reach the top, but each division you make is counted as one “move" and every 10 moves the number of pink blocks left on the screen doubles, so you’ll need to keep making progress unless you want to get overwhelmed.
Phew! I have no idea if I explained that well or not, but hopefully all of that makes the trailer make more sense when you watch it.
I’ve played an early version of Vertical Divide and it’s really not as complicated as it may sound from the description above. You also don’t have to be any math genius in order to have fun with it, though I’m sure it can help once you start creating larger numbers to divide as they not only clear more pink blocks at once but they’re also worth more points. Even still, it’s all very simple division and the entire concept behind the game is immensely clever. Morris plans on entering beta within the next two weeks and is eyeing a late February release for Vertical Divide, so keep an eye out for this one if you’re a fan of puzzlers.
