Rock, Paper, Shotgun

One of the most heartfelt talks I saw at GDC this year was the Fract session, which basically underlined how much time, effort, and ARGH OH GOD can go into making a commercial version of a game that had already won an award at the IGF. The prototype might have captured the imagination of judges, but the concept for the full game was still very much up for grabs, and the Fract team ending up causing themselves all kinds of heartache by building, scrapping, and rebuilding the game they wanted it to be. Now though the synthesizing world of light and music is on the final straight, and they’re expecting to release in 2013. The music the following trailer was composed in-game, by playing with the game’s tools. Marvelous stuff.
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Since we last caught up with it, the extraordinary-looking (and sounding) Fract OSC has released a bundle of new screenshots, and they’re a bit pretty. Described as Myst meets Rez meets Tron, a first-person puzzle adventure in an abstract world, designed around electronic music. The game, they say, is inspired by synthesisers, in a world that “literally runs on sound”. Previous footage has been remarkably interesting, but arguably not that pretty. However, that’s beginning to change, thanks to some new atmospheric art, and some extremely effective lighting. Take a look.

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