Queasy
Latest
New Beck songs get visualized, inspire musical platforming
Beck's latest album won't debut on the shelves of your local brick-and-mortar retailer. Instead, Cities, as its called, will roll out on Sound Shapes for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. The platformer's song-inspired stages transform the record's three tunes, Cities, Touch the People and Spiral Staircase, into interactive music videos, with original art and lyrics inserted into the environment. If traipsing through the included soundscapes -- not all of which are Beck-centric -- isn't enough to please, the developers are gifting gamers with the tools needed to build levels of their own. As a cross-play game, the $14.99 price tag nets both the console and portable versions of the downloadable title. Sound Shape won't hit digital shelves until August 7th, but you can catch a sneak peak (and a quick listen) after the break.
Made in Toronto: Deadmau5 collaborating with Queasy on Sound Shapes
When electronica artist Deadmau5 isn't busy hanging out with famed game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, or tricking tweeters into thinking he lost an early retail PlayStation Vita, he's teaming up with Queasy Games to handcraft tracks for upcoming Vita game Sound Shapes. He likely does other things, sure, but we're not privy to that. An announcement this morning revealed the partnership -- apt given the studio's Toronto roots alongside Deadmau5. As if the collaboration couldn't be more serendipitous, Queasy Games head Jonathan Mak has been building Sound Shapes alongside Shaw-Han Liem, otherwise known as "I Am Robot and Proud," a Toronto-based electronic music artist. When asked about the collaboration, Liem was modest, telling Joystiq, "There is no special history between myself and Deadmau5, other than the fact that we both come from the Toronto/Canadian electronic music scene, which is quite small!" He related the collaboration to Queasy's work with Capy Games, the indie studio responsible for Critter Crunch and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, among other things. "We know that he plays games, and indie games in particular - he's a fan of 'Sword & Sworcery'," Liem told us. It's not clear how many tracks from Deadmau5 will end up in the title, but we'll find out in the not-too-distant future as Sound Shapes launches some time in 2012 for the PlayStation Vita. It also sounds like players will have a chance to cut up said tracks for level creation, as Liem concluded, "We've always had the goal of making the musical 'toolset' something that is flexible and that people can use to make different kinds of music. Adding Deadmau5 to the mix gives people a whole new set of musical tools to work with, which is totally exciting to us." [Image credit: Facebook]
