Manifold Garden has had an extensive lead-up to release and is the result of a seven-year effort by the designer William Chyr. This visually puzzle game was released on October 18th and explores complex geometries, "unusual physics," and mind-bending architecture. A great example of various design disciplines blending to create new worlds. A sight to behold.
Chyr's hooks players in by inviting them to "learn how gravity works" and how architecture and mechanics allow players to piece together a "new universe," inhabit the space they are in and "tend to it like a garden."
Although Chyr doesn't have a background in architecture, however, in a press interview with Thomas McMullan of Alphr, Chyr said, "(Tadao) Ando was the original inspiration. I can't have curved surfaces in the game – they all have to be 90-degree corners – because you can only fit along six gravity planes. If there was a slanted surface, I wouldn't know what gravity to put you in, so it would break the mechanics."
The Japanese architect wasn't the only architect that sparked inspiration for Chyr and add, "Another big inspiration is Japanese gardens, which I think Frank Lloyd Wright took a lot of inspiration from. The thing that's really cool about Japanese architecture is that it has a very different idea of inside and outside."