Auditorium Dev's Splice Is Really Quite Nice

I just got done playing an all-too-brief demo of Auditorium developer Cipher Prime's new sounds-and-shapes-a-majig Splice, and I'm feeling quite charmed - somewhat like a snake in a pot who's trying to decide if he should buy a videogame or not. And, much like the proverbial snake, I'm leaning (and perhaps gyrating a bit) very strongly toward yes.

Splice is a gorgeously serene puzzler about arranging microbial strands into all manner of different structures. However, you only have a certain number of splices (moves, more or less) in which to do so. It's an incredibly simple conceit that Cipher Prime then mutates into heaps and heaps of concise, subtly brilliant puzzles. Meanwhile, a haunting, utterly fantastic piano soundtrack (which you can sample here) slowly builds in the background. So basically, Splice is a wonderfully stylish game with shocking amounts of substance. The demo's free on Steam, so give it a look-see-hear for yourself. John's going to take a closer look.