By Jim Rossignol on June 12th, 2011 at 8:20 pm.
Proteus EP is a musical exploration game from Twisted Tree Games. It’s an EP as opposed to an LP – there are plans for a larger experience to follow – and as an EP will be a brief exploration experience that blends a pastoral 3D pixel-art world with “reactively mixed” music. Ed Key from Twisted Tree explained: “It’s more of an ambient piece than a game, although there is some challenge in finding the location that allows you to progress, and in finding the other couple of locations on the island that have interesting effects.”
I’ve been wandering around a preview version of it for the last twenty minutes, and I can report that it’s charming, and mildly mesmerising – an experience not unlike that bit in a movie where a child wanders into some weird wonderland and ends up gazing about in slack-jawed delight. (That was me.) No release date yet, but the team are planning to release for around $5, and there’s some footage below.
12/06/2011 at 20:35 Heliocentric says:
I watched the video…. IDGI
12/06/2011 at 20:40 Jim Rossignol says:
You wander around, it looks and sounds pretty. That’s it.
12/06/2011 at 20:42 Out Reach says:
it’s just like minecraft except noisier and you can’t punch trees.
13/06/2011 at 00:11 gwathdring says:
IDGI? Learn something every day.
13/06/2011 at 00:38 Heliocentric says:
They have trees, then they don’t let you punch them? Can you at least ride the pigs?
13/06/2011 at 09:35 Urael says:
It’s an ambient experience, not a game. Think of it as tourism in a restful, peaceful place that doesn’t actually exist..
12/06/2011 at 20:40 MuscleHorse says:
Looks like the kind of the hippy shit I’m into. Sold, man.
12/06/2011 at 20:47 RobF says:
I have lost hours to Proteus. It’s wonderful. It steals time and every revision I’ve tried, even knowing what goes on, I still lose myself to it.
edit: sorry to be vague but it’s one of those things where either you sound like a complete tool describing it or you spoil the bits that make it wonderful.
12/06/2011 at 20:58 choconutjoe says:
Definitely looks like the most interesting attempt to mix music and gaming I’ve ever seen. I’d happily pay $5 for it.
12/06/2011 at 21:01 Ed says:
I love you all :’)
/takes notes for box-quotes
12/06/2011 at 21:02 lurkalisk says:
“It’s more of an ambient piece than a game”
Hmm… While I’m somewhat interested, this is why I’ll likely never get around to actually trying it out.
12/06/2011 at 21:04 McDan says:
Idea is brilliant, footage is wonderful, definitely buying this. My kind of music as well, thanks to the Sunday papers deluge of excellent ambient sometime earlier this year/last year.
12/06/2011 at 21:10 Eukatheude says:
I’m sold.
12/06/2011 at 21:13 sockpuppetclock says:
Clicking on the “Download March 2011 Alpha build here” button does nothing for me, I am sad now, here is a face to fully express that sadness
:’- (
12/06/2011 at 21:22 Ed says:
Here’s the link: http://twistedtreegames.tumblr.com/post/3560799661/pre-gdc-oh-go-on-then-proteus-build
12/06/2011 at 21:54 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Is sockpuppet’s tear defying gravity?
12/06/2011 at 23:10 Koozer says:
I thought it was some kind of mole.
13/06/2011 at 12:34 icupnimpn2 says:
thought it was a mote in his eye; found it offensive
:͞ – (
12/06/2011 at 21:43 Khann says:
I wandered around for a couple of in-game days, and I just don’t get the point of this. The music is kinda cool I guess, but… yeah.
Why would I pay for this? I can get interesting ambient music any place and the world isn’t exactly an extremely intriguing place to wander around.
Not for me I guess.
12/06/2011 at 22:29 TooNu says:
For PVE I’ve always preffered the Tengu because it can have a huge buffer and be fast. If you need to jew up some ISK you can perma run an X-Large shield booster while doing level 4′s, or perhaps as part of a wormhole group.
And while the Tengu performs well in PVP aswell, I have to go with the Loki becuase Autocannons are just awesome. 220 Vulcans and a medium neut’ all the way!
12/06/2011 at 22:51 Khann says:
Looks like someone’s in the wrong post!
12/06/2011 at 22:34 icupnimpn2 says:
Ed, tell us about Termoil.
12/06/2011 at 22:58 Ed says:
Termoil is what I work on when I should really be finishing off Proteus :)
Currently it looks like this: http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/tigshrimp/?action=view¤t=Termoil-2011-01-31-0001.png
But for readability and ease of production, it might regress to looking more like this: http://yfrog.com/cakx8p
Anyway, it’s a Tactical RPG, influenced by XCOM, Age of Wonders and Bloodbowl, with some dynamic inter-character plot stuff and an overgame that’s either Laputa, Apocalypse Now or Something Else.
Edit: I say “it’s”… I mean “it’s going to be”.
13/06/2011 at 13:05 icupnimpn2 says:
Ed, that frankly looks quite awesome. I am making a thread in the forums to try to convince you to stay with the current look
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?345-Termoil-a-barely-announced-tactical-RPG-by-the-maker-of-Proteus&p=5793#post5793
13/06/2011 at 00:57 Eight Rooks says:
Eh, it’s nice, I guess, and I definitely approve of the general idea… but it just looks like a poor man’s version of something thatgamecompany would do. Its being on PC and produced by an indie developer with no ties to an evil corporation means virtually nothing to me, and disregarding that, Journey trailers make my heart ache for the wonder of the production values – my first reaction to this is ‘Hey, I bet this would have blown people’s minds back in 1984′.
13/06/2011 at 05:20 Farewell says:
What if Notch hired Ed to make proceduraly generated invisible ambience blocks like these in Minecraft? Imagine using sound to find your way in your underground mazes..
13/06/2011 at 12:29 World One Two says:
Graaa that looks beautiful!