Cubists Purifiss Design OverUnderFlow Synthesis

The "simple" way to approach this cube puzzle would be to emulate something like the rubik's cube. In our version of this rubik's cube though you're tasked with eliminating the different levels of the cube until you purify it down to a single remaining cube. I like to think a name for it might be PurifIce. (Pronounced pure-if-iss.) Maybe better spelt Purifiss for ease of google search and ability to distinguish from other things?

The way you do this is through rotating the cubes around the central cube as if they were orbiting it. They can only move in four possible directions: forward, backward, left, and right. Unlike many puzzle games where there's a single solution or a single set of solutions to the problem I'd like for this game to do something different in that there are multiple paths to the solution.

One possibility is that for each "level" there's a set of blocks with different properties which could simply be represented by colors. Different color combinations create other blocks that represent those combinations and you have to form a specific combination to get the blocks of that level to eventually disappear. Say perhaps the central cube sits at an odd color and you have to combine all the blocks you have on your current level to match that central block's color, but maybe you have to do it in a certain order. Or maybe you have to do this multiple times like combo-Simon. Then once you do that, the block you've created merges back into the center and you move on to the next level or next color/phase of that level. You do this until all are gone.

I love the idea of either aiming at the blocks respective sides and either tapping it or blowing at it using the microphone to send it in the direction that it would usually have gone had you used some sort of actual physical force. This could be denoted by only having color on the sides that you could affect the blocks movement with. Maybe we reverse these forces? It could be interesting and sort of brain twisting for things to always move in the opposite direction that you might think they would?

From speaking with Ray I believe our aesthetic will be one of mechanic-ice. Cold, rigid, and almost like a puzzle cube you might see out of a horror film. It doesn't look innately dangerous, but there's something about it that just creeps you the fuck out. I see the entire experience being something that's timed. There wouldn't be an actual timer in the form of a shitty clock, but maybe some sort of visual explanation of how close you are to losing. Maybe the cube continuously expands and every time you complete a level it shrinks. If the cube and its counter-parts expand too much then you're stuck in a situation where the AR has become too large for the space you're playing in and you essentially lose. Contain the ever expanding ice.

Here are a few sketches and written stuff to explain a little better:

This kind of shows the visual flow or setup.

This is more of a written treatment, but better visualization of how it might look in 3D.