One of the more visually interesting games to be submitted to IGF 2010 is a first-person explorer developed by students at DePaul University. In Devil’s Tuning Fork, children everywhere are falling into comas. One of them wakes up in an alternate reality and has the ability to free other children by finding their toys in the world. The catch is this kid can only navigate the world via echolocation. So you explore by making noise with the Devil’s tuning fork and watching the sound waves. It’s a very cool, if disorienting effect, and it makes even simple platforming puzzles a lot more interesting.

The 15-member team, who go by the name DePaul Game Elites, spent about six months working on the game using an engine built by a professor at the university. According to this Uncommon Assembly interview, it’s the first game for many of the students, and the echolocation theme was inspired by dolphins and the M.C. Escher illusion that shares the game’s name.

To appreciate the visuals, you really have to see them in action. So either grab the game or watch the trailer after the jump.

[via IGF 2010]