By John Walker on November 13th, 2009 at 8:59 am.
I’m not one to leap with joy at news of a new racing game, but when I see a trailer like the one below the joy-leaping muscles begin to clench. Proun, which is a splendid word, is a 3D obstacle-avoiding puzzly racing game set in a bizarre world of geometric shapes. You rotate around a cable, rather than steering, in a gorgeous looking environment. The project by Joost van Dongen is due to be released early next year, and will be freeware, according to IndieGames.
Dongen is pleasingly unabashed about his position on the artistry of gaming:
“Games are art. Games are a new medium, not in any way less than sculpture, painting, film or music. Right now, we are still experimenting with the possibilities of games; we are like film in the time of the Lumiere brothers. Game developers have found some tricks that work and sell and that have grown the industry, but I believe we have only seen a glance of the broad possibilities of games. Maybe not all games have to entertain or educate, maybe there is room for games that are disgusting, no fun at all, or games that are just sad, or psychedelic, with their meaning slipping through your fingers like water. Games that broaden your mind. Games that are art.”
And the trailer demonstrates this well enough for me.
Wow, that looks really slick. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
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cool but music sucks
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No, the music is great.
It is in fact you who sucks for not liking it.
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I agree, the music just doesn’t fit with the trailer somehow…
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I’m sure I played that once on the Acorn Archimedes… if only I could remember the name.
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Finally, something that doesn’t inspire scorn and rage in my black, black heart. This looks beautiful and inspiring.
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So, it’s an ultra-smooth STUN Runner, only on the outside of a tube?
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I suspect this may lead to my brain going, “waaa!?”. But in a good way.
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I really like the graphical style of this, and it’s an interesting concept – I can see myself getting completely hypnotised by the visuals though, and crashing an indecent amount of times.
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Shouldn't this be called PREDGE, really?
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I played something like this on the Acorn, I can’t remember if there was obstacle avoidance too or if it was just a racer. Was good fun, but I can’t recall the name of it
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Ooh, motion sickness.
Other than that – looks cool.
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i can see myself seeing this when im trying to sleep. it looks like one of those “burns itself into your retinas” games. not that thats a bad thing
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Reminds me of an inside out ballistics. Doesn’t look hugely fun but satisfyingly shiny, like a pixar tech demo.
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God that looks FAST. And brilliant. And Hard.
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I dunno man, that looks pretty fun to me. Does that make it not art?
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Looks like it has the same thing wrong with it that audiosurf does, too much going on in the sides and stuff makes me feel sick tbh
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It’s like an inside-out Ballistics! I loved that game (and still do).
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Arg, beaten to it by Fuggles above :)
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[quote]
“Maybe not all games have to entertain or educate, maybe there is room for games that are disgusting, no fun at all, or games that are just sad, or psychedelic, with their meaning slipping through your fingers like water. Games that broaden your mind. Games that are art.”
[/quote]
Having played both Pathologic and The Void, well, yes.
;)
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bad tags!
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Me like. I’m a sucker for a good visual style. I might actually play this when it comes out.
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To be free, you say? I’ll be having me some of that, then.
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Erm, maybe, or else you’ll just fail until you memorize the track…
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There seems to be a test version available at
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oops. having problems with tags. If you go to the Proun website there’s a link to a test version to download anyway. Just one level but it’s split-screen multiplayer too.
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Ohhhh man. I love the pastel colours. It all looks fresh and scrumptious.
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So no-one remembers F-Zero X, then? You raced inside and outside of madly twisting tubes suspended above an abstract cityscape. Had a pretty minimalist artstyle too. Admittedly the obstacles weren’t quite as obvious as here – it was more about hitting the speed boosts positioned in a certain pattern around the tube, and avoiding other cars, but I really like how it dealt with gravity. Take too sharp a turn or boost and you’d find yourself either in a gentle orbit or flying off into space…
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I haven’t seen the video (at work) but that screenshot made me immediately think of AAAaaaaAAaaaAA (etc) a wreckless disregard for gravity. Looks like quite similar gameplay
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I’d be interested to see what the fail mechanic is.
It looks quite hard to see what’s coming up, and if hitting something has you falling off the cable and being respotted, I’d give up in a couple of minutes.
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This + Audiosurf = awesome match?
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So it’s Torus Trooper, but on the outside of the tube?
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this reminds me immediately of that FZero game for the gamecube. I can’t recall the level – but you race outside a tube just like this.
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Racing on the insides and outsides of tubes has always been a staple of the F-Zero games. This seems a bit different, though, as this doesn’t appear to involve actual racing, being more a sort of mood piece.
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Dizzyyyyyyyyyy- *vomits*
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Reminds me of Torus Trooper too.
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Trailer clearly needed more metal, amirite?
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Because this is the new shit?
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Hmmm, looks like a sane, playable variant of this:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/tt_e.html
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Or, I should always reload a page before commenting…
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Agh, this had me trying to remember that name! Haven’t thought of it in years, before today.
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hooray for working reply buttons
(was supposed to be re: Torus Trooper)
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That’s… very artsy. With the music and the visual design, felt like it was a video made to demonstrate a college student’s final animation and art design project.
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That looks quality.
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Could some of you fellows be thinking of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbPQ2pvPdTw
Ah, memories..
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I’m buying it simply for the names Proun and Joost Van Dongen.
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Some of those turns looked like they’d make me run off the edge of my mousepad. A trackball seems like it would be great for this game, though.
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Yes please.
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Dang that looks lovely.
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it makes you think of audiosurf for some strange reason
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Reminds me of the “Top of the World” level in Rayman 2.
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