Auditorium
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Developer bike gang rides across the US to de-stress
William Stallwood is burned out. In 2008, Stallwood and Dain Saint co-founded independent studio Cipher Prime in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they've since built a reputation for creating stylish games rich in music and dreamy visuals, such as Auditorium, Splice and Intake. Cipher Prime hit success on Kickstarter before it was cool. Stallwood is heavily involved in the local game dev scene, and he helped found Philly Game Forge, Philly Dev Night, and he's Creative Director of the Philadelphia Geek Awards. Right now, he and three friends are taking a break from normal life – and from Philadelphia – to ride across the country on bicycles. "Cipher Prime is down to just Dain and myself again, and I needed to sort of run away and collect myself," Stallwood tells Joystiq in an email. "I've taken on a bit too many management roles and my recent work on the Philadelphia Geek Awards has pushed me a little over the level. I'm hoping to refuel my creativity and process all the things I love."
Influential indies on the brouhaha around Ouya
The Ouya, a $99 Android-powered console whose prototype has raised $4.9 million in 7 days on Kickstarter, is a mystery wrapped in a sleek silver box. Many players seem to gravitate toward the idea because of its price point, while it would appear developers, especially indies, are backing it for its open hardware.But those are just appearances – we want to know what prominent and plucky indie developers actually think the Ouya can do for the industry. So we asked a few, including Minecraft's Markus Persson, The Binding of Isaac's Edmund McMillen, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and five other indie starlings. Their thoughts are collected below in the order each developer responded to the email thread, because that seems more fair than arranging them by "best hair" or something.A few of the indies are tenuously linked to the Ouya and have already been quoted on the Kickstarter itself, or have a game listed in the mock-up images, but none of the following developers have seen or played the Ouya. These are initial reactions to an idea, and speculation about a rapidly evolving industry:
Indie Royale June Bug Bundle now live, as is a system for managing previous bundle purchases
The latest bundle of indie-gaming confectionery from the Indie Royale folks is now live over at the usual place, this time championing PixelJunk Eden, Escape Goat, Noitu Love 2: Devolution and Auditorium. Throwing down seven clams or more will also earn you 8 Bit Weapon's new chiptune album, Bits with Byte.By our rough guesstimation, the June Bug Bundle is the 400 trillionth Indie Royale bundle released to date, which means that longtime patrons of the service probably have a rather large notepad file somewhere to keep track of all their bundle business. Thankfully, a new service (the Indie Royale Collection) has launched that not only helps manage your previously purchased bundles, but also lets you track your progress towards earning new rewards, which are applied retroactively (where applicable) upon registering.
The Schafer stigma: How his successful Kickstarter went to your head
I first heard about Kickstarter at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 in an early morning panel about black writers and artists in the graphic-novel industry, titled "Nappy Hour." I was there to secure a seat in the following panel -- which was a Dark Horse feature and may have included an appearance by the wonderful Gerard Way, writer of The Umbrella Academy and singer in this amazing band you probably haven't heard of (don't judge me) -- but "Nappy Hour" turned out to be one of the best presentations I saw that weekend.Throughout the panel, author and performer Pam Noles mentioned Kickstarter as an underground, free-spirited way of funding creative projects, and said she had used it to fund a few of her own endeavors. I imagined an online co-op of artists and philanthropists holding hands and running through rich, green fields together, composing sonnets about how wonderful everything was, and supporting only the most remarkable of projects. When I got home and checked it out myself, I found a site similar to Etsy, but where the items for sale were half-finished, semi-formed ideas from people who seemed dedicated to carrying them out.I thought it was wonderful.
Auditorium 2: Duet multiplayer wants you to make sweet harmonies with that special someone
Indie studio Cipher Prime has launched a Kickstarter project for Auditorium 2: Duet, the sequel to 2008's rhythm-physics title Auditorium, which is celebrating its debut on Steam today. Duet aims to be a polished playground built on the experience Cipher Prime has gained developing Auditorium, Pulse and Fractal over the past three years, but its most exciting feature is something none of the developers have attempted before -- multiplayer."When we first started our studio we were very nervous," Cipher Prime's Will Stallwood told Joystiq in an exclusive interview. "We created Auditorium by accident and had little game design experience. We've spent the past three years honing our skills so we could tackle multiplayer."Auditorium has been our playground since the day we started, so the only logical step is to keep her as our playground," Stallwood adds, unknowingly outing Auditorium as a female game, for those of you keeping score.Auditorium 2: Duet will be optimized for two-player gameplay, and Cipher Prime will be testing it as a local feature to start, with tentative plans -- more like vehement wishes -- to include PS3/Steam and iPad/Steam crossplay functions down the line.%Gallery-148865%
Auditorium devs look to Kickstarter for sequel funding
Will Stallwood and Dain Saint of indie studio Cipher Prime don't want to buy new Ferraris.Actually, they may want to do that -- because hello, Ferraris -- but that's not where their current focus lies. Cipher Prime wants to make a sequel to its first title Auditorium, titled Auditorium 2: Duet, and has turned to Kickstarter to crowdsource a portion of its budget.Cipher Prime is the conductor behind a trio of ambient, subtly beautiful, rhythm-based brain busters. After launching the originally Flash-based Auditorium in 2008, the developer orchestrated two follow-up titles: Pulse and Fractal. Since then Auditorium has been ported to iOS, PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP, and today marks its launch on Steam -- and, Stallwood hopes, the launch of its sequel's development.Speaking exclusively with Joystiq, Cipher Prime's Will Stallwood says development of Auditorium 2: Duet will only take place if the team manages to hit its sizable Kickstarter goal of $60,000. According to the developer, the goal represents half of what the team needs to complete the project, with Cipher Prime contributing the other half of necessary funds.
Pulse, from makers of Auditorium, now on iPad
The lovely, addictive Auditorium is a big favorite at Joystiq HQ, and developer Cipher Prime has just delivered an equally enjoyable follow-up, Pulse: Volume One, a new rhythm game for iPad. It's unsurprisingly tough to describe, but if you like tapping screens in time with music as you simultaneously create lovely visuals, we imagine you're really going to enjoy it. If you're a little nervous about parting with $5 sight unseen, we've got a gallery of screens and a promo code for one of you just after the break.%Gallery-122885%
Auditorium PSN to feature more levels, 3D and Move support
Auditorium is one of those perfect little games that you load up when you need a break from the stresses and toils of the real world, allowing you to relax while moving soothing sound particles through even more soothing squares. That's why we're a little trepidatious about the recently announced changes that will be incorporated in the game's PSN iteration: There are twice as many levels and musical selections (we're cool with that), PlayStation Move support (we're okay with that) and, troublingly enough, 3D display support. We suppose if you've invested in a PlayStation Move and 3D television, these additions will be quite welcome, entirely justifying the game's $9.99 price tag when it drops November 23. However, we're not sure how soothing the experience will be when the sound particles are flying right at your face whoooooOOOOAAAAA%Gallery-107463%
Auditorium coming to PSN, XBLA first week of November
While it may have missed its planned "early 2010" release, indie game Auditorium is finally coming to consoles in early November. Publisher Zoo Entertainment has dated the game for a November 2 release on PSN and November 3 on Xbox Live Arcade.
TUAW's Daily App: Auditorium
Auditorium is that rare kind of game that's a must-play no matter what kind of gamer you are. It's a puzzle game, a music game, and a piece of art at various times. It's out now on the iPhone courtesy of EA (and the main download is absolutely free), but even if you don't want to take up space on your mobile device, just head over to the website and play the Flash demo for a little bit. My guess is that you'll be taken by the beauty and originality, at least enough to pop over to the App Store and download the main game. The idea is that there is a stream of music flowing through each level, and it's your job to use the various widgets you've been given to shape and paint the music into certain spots on the board. As you move through the levels, you'll get more and more adept at sending the flow where you need it to go. Fortunately, the puzzles get harder and harder as you play, creating a great curve of both learning and adjusting your mind enough to find the right solution. The main game is free, and then you can purchase all of the levels in three different packs, at 99 cents each. But even for the whole three bucks, this is quite an experience; it's more than worth the price. Again, if you're doubtful, give the demo a try, and see if you're not convinced to try the whole thing in order to see where it goes.
Indie games bundled on the cheap for V-Day
So what if Sophie/Samuel didn't return your request for a weekend getaway to that little bed and breakfast in New Hampshire? Wouldn't you rather spend your weekend falling in love with a handful of indie games -- And Yet it Moves, Auditorium, Aztaka, Eufloria, Machinarium, and Osmos -- from an all-star list of developers? We knew you'd see our point! Besides, it's only $20 -- that's way less than the price of two nights for two people at The Buttonwood Inn, not to mention a steal considering each game individually purchased would add up to 85 buckaroos. And hey, now you can spoil yourself with an extra large box of tissues and a matching ice cream tub.
Auditorium flowing to XBLA, PSN and PSP next year
We haven't heard anything about Cipher Prime's plans to port its hypnotic musical puzzler, Auditorium, since the studio won a publishing contract in the 2BeeGames competition back in July. Today, a press release from newly named publisher Zoo Games revealed a few details about the title's console destinations: It's coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, both as a PS3 and PSP download "early next year." For those who want to know what the soothing buzz is all about, you can check out Auditorium for free on the 2BeeGames site. For those who can't access that site for some reason, just turn on some classical music, go turn on the nearest water faucet, and try to redirect the stream with your hands.
Indie music-puzzle game Auditorium coming to consoles
Auditorium has been singularly responsible for reducing the work capacity of this blogger. Why? It's addictive -- why not give it a try? The music-puzzle game is simple to learn, but hard to master. An ethereal stream flows across the screen and players must position various orbs to redirect the flow. As you activate various pads, the background music becomes far more complex and lively. (Let's just say it's much more effective to play than to explain.)The developer, Cipher Prime, recently won an indie game competition at 2BeeGames, and will now find the game published across multiple console systems. While specifics haven't been announced yet, we're hopeful to see the game appear on as many platforms as possible.
The Joystiq Free Game Club: Auditorium
You've probably seen Auditorium already on numerous other sites, so, since the Joystiq Free Game Club can't be the very first, we're going to be the very best, with the most insightful analysis yet of this melodic, meditative Flash puzzler. Ready? Here goes.What the hell is going on in this game?Seriously! OK, so we don't have any problem moving our space ship around, but our light bullets are almost impossible to control. Also, no matter how many bullets hit the little castles, they never explode. If we didn't know better, we'd say they're actually getting bigger! And, come to think of it, they don't even look that much like castles!Also, the music seems to cut in and out at random, and we're not even sure any of the instruments is an electric guitar. ... Oh, and the first level is called "Hajimemashite." Nice localization, guys!We give it a 6.5.
