PUNT (2023)

**PUNT (2023)** is a single-player puzzle game being developed by LunchHouse Software. PUNT is planned to be released in 2023. The game has a public Steam page.

## Steam Description

*"Welcome to Harmonics—bringing you the America of tomorrow today!*

*"In PUNT, traverse Harmonics' increasingly complex quality assurance program to test and assess the leading industrial innovation of the new millennium: the E.M.M.A. (and Harmonics' equally enigmatic line of compatible cuboid appliances). The Environmental Mass Manipulation Apparatus is an all-in-one, one-man, heavy-duty lifting machine—capable of hurling heavy objects (and her user) across and about once-thought inhuman spectra.*

*She's not just efficient—she's the E.M.M.A.!*

*Workshop support is planned post-launch. Stay tuned to experience new puzzles and other unique community-driven experiences.*

## 2018

Media released by BoxandRocks indicates that development work was being done since 2018, but the project had a light-reset or did not properly organize until 2019. BoxandRocks had been rebuilding the game's mechanics from the ground up due to team in-fighting that lead to PUNT (2016)'s collapse. This short-lasting iteration, compared to the others, seemed to be mainly focused on gameplay and the creation of puzzles, which hadn't been a major focus since the current version. This cycle also marks the introduction of the **Vapor Cube** in PUNT.

## 2019

The 2019 version of PUNT didn't include any story and focused on puzzles and the general artstyle and was now being developed by LunchHouse Software. It seems to be rather enigmatic, with the only information about it being released in the form of media such as images or videos. This iteration seemed to streamline the puzzle-making workflow, turning very complex set of entities such as box droppers into single entities to easily place across a map, and the iteration seemed to take the visuals into account once again, seemingly renovating assets that had been years old and going back to using a custom source branch, which is now called LunchEngine. The style this iteration adopted seems to be a modified version of the Retrofuturistic style seen in PUNT (2016), with the game adopting a seasonal palette and featuring a more saturated, stylized look.

## 2022

After 3 years of silence, on April 18th of 2022, BoxandRocks uploaded a new article, in which he talks about the journey that PUNT has went through since 2018 and revelaed some details about the current iteration of PUNT. LunchHouse intends PUNT to be a commercial product that is going to be released on Steam in 2023. The final game will feature 2-4 hours of gameplay, depending on your puzzle-platformer expertise.

A gameplay trailer was released on February 5th of 2023, it showcases a summer styled test chamber and marks the new era of PUNT, in which the enrivonment was fully rebuilt from scratch with enhanced graphics of upgraded LunchEngine.

PUNT is planned to have Steam Workshop support as an update shortly after release, it's going to feature a slightly modified version of Hammer. PUNT won't have any in-game creation tools, so everyone will have to use PUNT Authoring Tools.

## Trivia

* The game has used several modified versions of Source across its development cycle.
* LunchHouse Software has recently released an enigmatic teaser, indicating that development is still in full swing and hinting towards more to come.
* PUNT release year was revelaed, it's planned to be released in 2023.
* It has went through several artstyle updates, with the final style revelaed in February of 2023.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKFNExaSYyk&pp=ygUScHVudCBieSBsdW5jaGhvdXNl
2. ↑ https://www.moddb.com/mods/punt-rebirth/news/new-punt-who-this
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/boxandrocks/status/1097690149180399616
4. ↑ https://www.moddb.com/games/punt/news/punt-2022-and-beyond
5. ↑ PUNT's Steam Page

## Gallery

PUNT SpringPUNT AutumnPUNT SummerPUNT LobbyNew Years Promotional Material