Pairadox

Pairadox is an online two-player cooperative puzzle game made for the 2026 Thinky Game Jam.

After discovering a volatile portal to alternate realities, you do what any sensible person would--grab a friend and begin traversing the multiverse!  The destinations are wondrous, unique, and very strange.  You find yourself in one such strange world, where you discover that by law, all portals require multi-party authentication and proof of intelligence to use.  A strange lock has been placed on the door to your exit portal.  You'd like to move on from this strange place in search of something with... more beaches.  And less puzzle locks.  Can you regain access to your portal?

Think of your favorite puzzle-loving friend, create a private lobby, and share your join code to connect with them!  Or start a public lobby and see if anyone else is trying to start a game!  Private lobbies can only be joined by typing in the corresponding code.  Public lobbies will be joined by the next person also looking for a public lobby.

Developer's Note:

I signed up to this game jam with the intention of making an online multiplayer game!  It turns out that (I'm fairly certain) Unity's WebGL builds require a dedicated server to work, based on how WebSocket security protocols work.  This is beyond the scope of a jam game for me, so I apologize for not providing a web build this time around!  I hope you still give it a try with your favorite puzzley person!

Credits:

Title font: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Bungee+Hairline

General font: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Audiowide

Background music: https://pixabay.com/music/ambient-cinematic-space-drone-10623/

Pad click sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-button-202966/

Ball movement sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-swoosh-07-351043/

Lock complete sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/technology-xp-gain-magic-tone-453274/

Lock reset sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-power-off-386180/

New message sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-new-notification-08-35246...

Door opening sound: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/city-sfx-zoom-metalsheddoor-impact-processed-3...

Portal animation: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1062075524610911848/