Gameplay
The difficulty of the game ranges from moderate to extremely challenging, depending on how much of a comlpetionist you are. Here's the iceberg starter kit:
- Platforming - Avoid hazards, jump on enemies, get to the end.
- Collecting - Get all the coins.
- Orbs - Each level has 3 hidden rooms containing an orb. You may have to complete a challenge or puzzle to get it.
- Coin Combos - Collecting coins in rapid succession starts a combo. Touch the flag poles with the target combo level active to unlock it.
- Kill Combos - Rapidly kill enemies to activate and collect skull tokens
- Hats - You might find a hat. If you die, you lose your hat. Bring it to the corresponding hat rack to unlock it permanently. There is no performance benefit to wearing a hat. Wearing a hat is its own reward.
- Easter Eggs - Unreasonably hidden items. You'll find some, and the rest you can look up online after you give up.
- Score Challenge - Coin combos can increase your score dramatically. There are par and developer score targets for each level.
- Speed Runs - After collecting everything in a level, you can teleport back to it to intiate an individual level speedrun. Time ends when you've re-collected everything in the level. There are par and developer time goals.
Custom Engine
Perennial uses a custom engine to render pixel graphics with integer scaling at high speed, supporting any refresh rate or aspect ratio up to 360hz and 21:9 ultrawide. There are many interactive elements: ladders, doors, water, breakable and bombable bricks, collapsing platforms, togglable walls, falling spikes, toggle spikes, tracked elevators, remote input triggers, boats, conveyor belts, flowing water, carriable and non-carriable crates, rolling rocks, keys and locks, cloners, lava, lights, sounds, and a Turing complete electrical system inspired by the wireworld cellular automata.
Local Multiplayer
For fun, you can play this game with up to 4 players on the same screen. I'm not sure if this is a good idea. I don't have any friends to try it with. Let me know how it goes.
Mod Support
The entire point of a game being on PC is that you can make your own content for it. Perennial supports creating your own levels and avatars using open source tools. In addition to having custom levels, a mod folder can overwrite any of the default graphic or sound assets. Workshop support is imminent.