(Originall Published Mar 10, 2016)
I came across a couple of excellent videos about an upcoming game called Miegakure, an adventure game whose gameplay is supposed to occur in four physical dimensions. This might not seem possible, but the team has created a couple wonderful videos to help make sense of this fourth dimensional mechanic.
Still confused? Don't worry, there is another video below that should help, but before you jump down there, I'd like to point out the reference to the Edwin A. Abbott novel Flatland. This is a novel (well, novella technically) released in 1884. While I don't generally wish to put on the cape of Captain Obvious, I feel like I must point out that this was a long time ago.
Flatland is a satire about the difficulty of convincing people to question the things they believe to be true. In history we have seen this often; Socrates said he had never experienced God before and so he could not be sure he existed; he was poisoned. Jesus represented a challenge to Mosaic Law; he was crucified. Galileo concluded and argued that the Earth rotated around the Sun; like Socrates, he was poisoned. Humans have a terrible track record of questioning their own beliefs, and this novella manages to mine some humor in this space by imagining a two dimensional shape (a square whose name is A. Square) who learns of a three dimensional world.
And the best part is, I have this book in my library! You can read about two dimensional objects finding love and being tragically murdered for blasphemy! And then, maybe you can try to wrap your head around the idea of fourth and fifth dimensional spaces. On this topic, the second video explaining the concept is below.