The Pedestrian sees toilet man puzzle across the street
It's 'Helvetica man', actually
Toilet man has a hard job, keeping the people of the world aware of the nearest restroom at all times, and donning hats to act the part of security guards when necessary. Not to mention ‘Toilet man’ isn’t even his real name. It’s Helvetica man! What a tough life. Well, he’s finally getting a game made in his honour, if the Kickstarter for puzzle platformer The Pedestrian [official site] is successful. Playing as the symbolic gent, you travel across signposts, linking them together and crossing the world in a “build-your-own-solution” game. Toilet woman is also in there, but her role seems sadly limited to wearing the little black dress that she made famous throughout the fashion world.
You can see how this works in their crowdfunding plea:
If any of that looks familiar it’s because you might have seen the demo floating around. This gives you a ten-minute tutorial taster of how it works, connecting one sign to another and travelling across the gap as if nothing exists in between. There’s keys, trampolines, levers, ladders, lifts, doorways amid other sorts of obstacles to make you think how each “route” should be ordered. It’s a very good-looking premise, and I especially enjoy that the everyday world is continuing around your signs, slightly out of focus. The demo page admits however that the puzzles in these starting levels are “very basic”.
The developers, Skookum Arts, have included some usual stretch goals and things, including the possibility of having a cat symbol friend. This is something that would be fun, wordlessly running into other recognisable symbols and having to navigate their universal rules. Traffic man, an old couple crossing a road, school children, airport customs guy, wheelchair man, a leaping deer, a windsock, the number 60 from the MPH sign. There are many possibilities.
At the time of writing they’re over $15,000 into their $21,000 goal, with eight days to go, so it’s looking hopeful.