Square Enix have announced that indie first person puzzle adventure title The Turing Test is coming to the Switch. The game will launch on Nintendo’s hybrid platform on February 7, and will be priced at £14.99 / $19.99 / €19.99, though you can purchase it at 10 per cent off up until February 21.

In case you’re not aware of the game or what it is, The Turing Test, developed by Bulkhead Interactive, first launched on PC and Xbox One in 2016, before coming out the following year for the PS4. It was one of the first games to be published by Square Enix as part of their indie-focused initiative, called Square Enix Collective.

Though The Turing Test had several issues, overall reception for the game was very positive, and fans enjoy it to this day, with the game drawing praise for its intelligent puzzle design (which is quite evocative of Portal at times), the thematic richness of its story, its soundtrack, and more. If you haven’t given the game a shot, considering doing so when it launches for the Switch a fortnight from now.

Though October’s Games With Gold for Xbox Live Gold subscribers may not be as impressive as PlayStation Plus, there are still some pretty good games to check out.

First person adventure title Gone Home will be available on October 1st till 31st and if you’ve played Fullbright’s latest title Tacoma, you’ll have some idea what to expect. The overall story is mysterious and definitely worth experiencing once.

Those who seek something with more puzzles can check out The Turing Test which will be available from October 16th till November 15th. Oxenfree, which was available in September’s Games With Gold, will be available till October 15th.

As for Xbox 360 players, there’s Rayman 3 HD which will be available from October 1st to 15th and represents the limbless wonder’s leap into third person platforming. Medal of Honor: Airborne will be available from October 16th till 31st.

What are your thoughts on October’s Games With Gold? Let us know in the comments.

Bulkhead Interactive’s curious first person puzzle game The Turing Test has been released for the Xbox One and PC. Check out the launch trailer below.

The story and its puzzles mirror a real-life Turing Test of sorts (the test used to prove that a human is indeed human and not a robot). Ava Turing finds herself on the International Space Agency on Jupiter’s moon Europa and navigates a series of puzzles to unearth what exactly happened. She’ll accomplish this by using an Energy Manipulation Tool for different tasks like transferring energy, controlling AI machines and whatnot.

Developed on Unreal Engine 4, The Turing Test is published through the Square Enix Collective and retails for $19.99. It comes from the same studio that developed Pneuma: Breath of Life and is currently working on Battalion 1944.

What are your thoughts on the launch trailer and will you be picking up the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Howard Philpott, creative producer at Bulkhead Interactive, spoke to GamingBolt about the recent Xbox One and PC release, discussing its inspirations, goals and the methods behind all the madness.

"We really don’t shy away from the comparison, who doesn’t want more Portal?!"

The game does look pretty interesting. What can players expect from the game itself?

At its heart, The Turing Test is a first person puzzler set inside a research base on Jupiter’s Ice Moon Europa. It’s a first person puzzler that’s wrapped in mystery and intrigue, as you try and find out what happened to the ground crew stationed within the Europa research base. A good comparison for gamers is that the gameplay is similar to great puzzle games such as The Talos Principle and The Witness merged with in depth story sections similar to narrative experiences like Gone Home. Our aim was to take the puzzle and narrative genres and merge them into one cohesive whole!

What can you tell us about the story of the game and how do the puzzles tie up with it?

So in the game in play as Ava Turing, an engineer for the international Space Agency (ISA). You’re tasked by the Europa Mission’s artificial intelligence system ‘T.O.M’ to head to the surface and find out what has happened to the ground crew on Europa. You quickly discover things are not as they seem, and you are required to solve puzzles only a human could solve… a literal Turing Test.

Be honest with us, how much of this is inspired by Portal?

We really don’t shy away from the comparison, who doesn’t want more Portal?! Whilst the look of the finished game is obviously quite inspired, we originally had a massively detailed geometry with a look more similar to Alien Isolation, but we found players would try and interact with everything in the environment that was nothing to do with the puzzles. This is when we decided (around halfway through development, gulp!) to scrap the look and move over to a cleaner and more readable art style.

This is when we looked at great puzzle games like Portal and QUBE, and saw the reason they worked so well is their art styles completely focused on gameplay first, with colour leading the player to interactions. This inspired to clean and almost clinical look of the test chambers, which really merges gameplay readability with the narrative themes of the game. We then break this up after every 10 puzzles with story sections more similar to the original art style. So whilst we LOVE Portal and it has obviously partially inspired our visuals, The Turing Test is still very unique in its narrative and gameplay mechanics!

"Not being a 300 man in house team allows us to be agile and work with focus. It’s a good benefit of being an indie studio!"

How long of game is The Turing Test?

In our recent gameplay tests it takes a new player from 5-7 hours to complete, without looking into the optional content in the game! Of course, a speed runner who has completed the game could complete it much faster. I personally can’t wait to see the times speed runners can produce, we added sprint exactly for that reason.

How did you guys managed to pull this off, despite working on Battalion 1944?

We’ve been working on The Turing Test ever since our first game ‘Pneuma: Breath of Life’ was released in February 2015. We were pretty much near the end of development on The Turing Test when we decided to start work on the Battalion 1944 prototype for Kickstarter. It was always the plan to release The Turing Test shortly after Kickstarting Battalion 1944, so that we could use all profits from The Turing Test towards development of Battalion. We’ve since scrapped everything in the Kickstarter prototype and have been working on remaking everything from scratch ready for the May 2017 alpha.

In short; we have a fast working, passionate and talented team at Bulkhead Interactive inside and outside of the studio. Not being a 300 man in house team allows us to be agile and work with focus. It’s a good benefit of being an indie studio!

Is there any specific reason why it’s only coming to Xbox One and PC, and not on the PS4?

It’s a timed exclusive on Xbox One, Microsoft really love the game and have really supported our studio get the game to their console first. The game was developed on Steam, hence the simultaneous release on PC and Xbox One. We may look to other platforms in the future!

"The Turing Test is out on the 30th August and I can’t wait to see players’ reactions to the twists in the game."

What kind of graphical options can players expect from the PC version of the game?

Pretty much everything PC gamers expect as the current standard. FOV slider, resolution scaling, the lot!

Is the game going to run at 1080p and 60fps on Xbox One?

The game currently runs at 1080p 30fps. On PC you can completely tweak frame rates and resolutions to suit your system!

How has it been working with Square Enix from a publishing perspective?

It’s been really great actually. They’ve been helping us with our marketing specifically on Steam and aiding us with big booth presence at events around the globe such as Gamescom, Comicon and EGX meaning we’ve been able to tweak the difficulty curve based on player feedback. They’ve also helped us create some really nice marketing assets. It’s allowed us to focus much more on actual game development!

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

The Turing Test is out on the 30th August and I can’t wait to see players’ reactions to the twists in the game. The story is not something you can experience through a film or a book. Every single sale of The Turing Test will go directly towards the development of Battalion 1944!

One of the most promising upcoming indie games is The Turing Test, a game set on Europa, one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, which promises to be a devilishly tricky first person puzzle game. GamingBolt recently had the chance to sit down with Howard Philpott of Bulkhead Interactive, who are developing the game, and we had a chance to ask him some question about the title.

The Turing Test is going to launch on Xbox One and PC as a timed exclusive- we decided to ask him about the reasoning behind this decision, asking him why a PS4 version was skipped. Philpott explained that Microsoft’s enthusiasm and support for the project led to the choice.

“It’s a timed exclusive on Xbox One, Microsoft really love the game and have really supported our studio get the game to their console first,” he said. “The game was developed on Steam, hence the simultaneous release on PC and Xbox One. We may look to other platforms in the future!”

He also confirmed that the game would run at 1080p and 30fps on the Xbox One, though PC players naturally get to pick and choose their own resolution and framerate. “The game currently runs at 1080p 30fps. On PC you can completely tweak framerates and resolutions to suit your system,” he explained.

The Turing Test will launch on Xbox One and PC this month.

Bulkhead Interactive has dated its first person sci-fi puzzle title The Turing Test – it’ll be out on August 30th for Steam and presumably for Xbox One as well.

You take control of Ava Turing, an engineer on the International Space Agency and have to progress through a series of puzzles on Europa, Jupiter’s moon, to prove you’re human. We’re not quite sure but that’s the objective of the Turing Test in real life. There’s a fair amount of environmental manipulation and power transfer that’s required.

The aesthetic is also fairly reminiscent of Portal, if it weren’t obvious enough but The Turing Test seems unique enough on its own to stand out. Check out the latest trailer below to see for yourself.

What are your thoughts on The Turing Test and are you looking forward to playing it? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Bulkhead Interactive, which worked on Pneuma: Breath of Life, showcased some new footage of its upcoming sci-fi FPS puzzler The Turing Test, developed on Unreal Engine 4 and releasing in August for PC and Xbox One.

The Turing Test sees Ava Turing, a space engineer going through a mysterious tale of introspection to discover the secrets of Europa. What lies at the heart of Europa and how will you transcend your existence as a mere human? The Turing Test will explore that store and promises to challenge gamers in the process.

You’ll be using an Energy Manipulation tool to move energy from one object to another, powering up AI machine, manipulating structures and moving through the story. To make things even more interesting, funds from The Turing Test will actually go into the budget for Bulkhead’s Battalion 1944, a WW2 shooter, releasing in late 2017.

What are your thoughts on The Turing Test? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more.