Grayscale - Flash-based Puzzle

Grayscale is a flash-based puzzle created by Newgrounds.com programmer Florian Himsl (Komix), with music by Colemann Trapp. This flash-based creation was submitted to Newgrounds.com on January 14, 2010 and won a Daily 4th Place award on January 15, 2010.

Gameplay

The objective of Grayscale is to maneuver the small dot of white light towards the bigger circle of light. To control the small bit of light, simply click on the screen and move with your mouse. The light will follow the movements of your mouse. You can also control the light using your keyboard's arrow keys. The WASD keys also work in controlling the light.

The light can only travel on the line and any lines that stem out from it. The light cannot stray from this line.

Throughout the game, you will face a variety of gear combinations. These gears must be turned in order to align the paths so that you can maneuver the light to the big emanating light source. To turn a gear, simply guide your light past the gear. The gear will turn in the appropriate direction depending on how you approached the gear with the light.

While in-game, you can see that there are a few options at the bottom-right hand corner of the screen. There is a Walkthrough button that will take you to a separate site where a series of videos can be viewed to help you get through each stage of Grayscale.

Next to the Walkthrough button, there is a Music button. When pressed, the background music will stop. To play the music, simply click the button again.

You may restart a level by pressing the Restart button located to the right of the Music button.

The Menu button at the very bottom-right hand corner of the screen will take you to the stage selection screen.

For each stage, carefully plan out how you will turn gears, and how each gear affects the gears around it, in order to set up paths correctly and create a clear path to your final destination.

At the end of each stage, the game will save your progress. Also at the end of each stage, you will be given the option to add the game to any sites you may own to help spread the game's entertainment to the world.

There are a total of 20 stages, each with its own collection of gears and a unique puzzle for you to solve.

Game Review

Grayscale is a fun little puzzle that offers a good number of stages to keep players entertained. The lack of color, however, was not as appealing as other flash-based animations that also utilized a lack of color. For Grayscale, it seemed to me that adding some colors would have made the game more visually appealing, as the lack of color seemed to serve no purpose. Other than that, the overall gameplay was good, with a good music track choice for the game.

Grayscale scores a 7/10 for providing a good degree of entertainment value.