Fract OSC
Fract OSC | |
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OS X | |
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Genre(s) | Puzzle, rhythm |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Fract OSC (stylized as FRACT OSC) is a music-based puzzle game created by
The game, originally named "Fract," was developed by Richard Flanagan as part of his student work at the
Gameplay
Fract OSC is presented to the player in the first-person view. As a nameless avatar, the player explores the game's world with little guidance besides visual and audio clues. The game begins on an empty space which, as the player discovers while playing the game, is a giant
In several of the structures are the game's puzzles. The nature of such puzzles are initially abstract but using the engagement mode in proper locations will reveal controls to manipulate these puzzles. There are generally two parts of each puzzle. Within each sector, the first part of these puzzles share a common solution theme, such as manipulating large blocks to specific squares, or routing the flow of sound to a target location. Once this is solved, the player then must set a melody on a smaller synth machine located nearby, as to come up with a rhythm to open up a nearby portal, using visual and audio clues to guess the proper rhythm. Completing both parts of a puzzle unlocks one or more of the larger synthesizer controls in the introductory space, as well as opening up paths in the main world to further explore. Additionally, areas near completed puzzles will emit sound and light effects. Completing all four puzzles within that sector unlocks a larger puzzle for that sector that once solved fully opens up all controls for that synthesizer voice on the main synthesizer. Once all three sectors are completed, the player can complete a final puzzle area that incorporates elements of all previous puzzles to unlock the advanced controls on the main synthesizer and completes the game.
At any time, the player can return to the main synthesizer, and using whatever controls they have unlocked, create musical tracks which they can save and share with other users.
Development
Fract OSC began as a student project by Richard E. Flanagan while at the
Fract was picked as one of the eight Student Showcase winners at the 2011 Independent Games Festival.[4] Between this award and the demo, Flanagan had put aside plans to work at a local game studio and instead work on building out Fract further. At this point, he brought his wife Quynh Nguyen and programmer Henk Boom on board to help improve on his initial programming attempt. The core game was rebuilt mostly from scratch as to take the initial demo into the larger vision Flanagan had. This initially was to be four larger game worlds, but they realized the scope of this would be too large, and instead scaled back to the single game world of the oscillator, which would be shortened as "OSC" within the game's title.[5] Part of the redesign was to create a custom sound engine that would be able to take player's input to synthesis ambient music of the world; they found that in developing this engine, this would influence the puzzle design, including creating puzzles that would directly tie into the audio engine. Complications such as this would slow down their development work.[5] Late development was slowed further by other concerns; Flanagan and Nguyen had a child at this time, while Boom had to find work full-time to cover his expenses.[5] After speaking to the Indie Fund team at the 2012 Game Developers Conference, they were able to secure funding to complete the game the following year, allow them to bring Boom back on full-time.[6]
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 79/100[7] |
Publication | Score |
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Adventure Gamers | [8] |
Edge | 8/10[9] |
Eurogamer | 8/10[10] |
Polygon | 7/10[11] |
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2014) |
References
- ^ University of Montreal. 2011-01-12. Archived from the originalon 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ a b Rossignol, Jim (2011-01-14). "A Chat With Fract Creator, Mr Flanagan". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- Venture Beat. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Senior, Tom (2011-01-10). "IGF Student Showcase winners announced". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Gamasutra. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- Gamasutra. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ "Fract OSC (pc)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
- ^ "Fract OSC Review". Adventure Gamers. 2014-04-23. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
- ^ "Fract OSC review". Edge. 2014-04-22. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
- ^ Whitehead, Dave (2014-04-22). "Fract OSC review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
- ^ Plante, Chris (2014-04-22). "Fract OSC Review: Dead or Alive". Polygon. Retrieved 2014-04-23.