Shadowcat on 24/12/2008 at 23:36
(
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Digital_Eel/BP/BP_page.html) Brainpipe is the new madness from (
http://www.digital-eel.com/) Digital Eel. It's just been released for Windows, and it has a (
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Demos/DD_BP_win.html) demo (or (
http://download.shrapnelgames.com/downloads/brainpipe_demo.exe) here, if that didn't work for you).
I'll let (
http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/) aardvark's blog do the describing:
Quote:
BrainpipeA Plunge to Unhumanity11.21.08
Yep. (
http://www.digital-eel.com/) The rumors (ahem) are true. There's a new Digital Eel PC game coming out soon. This one's called
Brainpipe (and I like it a lot).
Brainpipe is in the arcade game zone, and kind of retro. You fly through a psychedelic wormhole-like twisty tube avoiding abstract obstacles and collecting "glyphs" as colors, patterns, music and speed shift in intensity. There's no shooting or powerups, things we deliberately wanted to avoid as a kind of challenge.
I had a lot of fun contributing to Brainpipe's design with Bill and Iikka, and I'm proud to call it a true and equal collaboration. Everyone got neat ideas in that really helped to improve the basic game.
I had even more fun making music and sfx for the game. Artist Bill ((
http://www.digital-eel.com/phosphorous/) Phosphorous) contributed tracks too. Did you know he creates amazing soundscapes? True, and the stuff's great! Now, this "music"...A lot of it in the game is nontraditional, more ambient and uses techniques of (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te) musique concrete, a realm of music involving found sounds and manipulated sounds that Bill and I have been into for a long time. Myself, since getting into composers like (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Stockhausen) Stockhausen and (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Varese) Varese when I was a kid. Bill, falling into it naturally and doing it for fun, like jamming with multiple self-made ambient tracks playing in his art studio. Outer space, man!
You know, making this kind of music is fairly easy. The trick is putting it together in such a way that it doesn't make too many people want to throw up. Aha! It's dangerous. You're going on intuition and, to a great degree, giving it over to chance. You could end up with crap. But I don't think we did. The results in Brainpipe turned out really interesting. In fact, I think there are sonic surprises in store for folks who play the game all the way through to its conclusion.
There's also a (
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=41720) press release from Shrapnel.
Inline Image:
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7691/brainpipe75pj5.jpgtwisty on 25/12/2008 at 08:10
Thanks Shadowcat. I'd noticed mention of Brainpipe on their website 1-2 months ago but hadn't been back since.
I just downloaded the demo and had a quick play through. 4430 was my score with a status of 'confusion' -- I presume that's not a good result with a title like that? The journey towards that score was fairly breezy throughout until I accidentally brushed one of the frequently placed worm-hole rims that I had easily passed through minutes before, and soon the twisty tunnels started taking on a much more sinister appearance, with the ambient music lulling me towards my impending nemesis -- confusion...
It was an enjoyable diversion but I can't see myself actually buying the full game. Here's hoping for a SAIS 3...
Shadowcat on 25/12/2008 at 11:41
'Confusion' is the major glyph at the end of that difficulty level, rather than a description of how well you did. If you hover over the accumulated glyphs at the end of your game, you'll see all the other mind states and events that you have collected along the way :)
I decided to buy it, and the visual and aural effects are really pretty neat. The tunnels seem to be randomly generated each time you play, and the starting difficulty level determines how hectic it all is. I got quite far through on my first proper game, however "breezy" doesn't really describe the last few difficulty settings :)
The audio is very cool. You're flying through your own brain, and all these little audio 'memories' pop out at you along the way. It's rather nicely done.
the_thiefster on 26/12/2008 at 18:50
This shit is crazy lol
I think DE's finally made a game that I'd want to buy. Their previous offerings are fun, but not weird enough to make me want to invest my $10. This, however, is crazy lol. Try playing it before you go to bed. Insane I tell ya.
ZymeAddict on 26/12/2008 at 19:20
Hm, any game made by a guy who could get into Stockhausen and Varese when they were a kid must be weird. :laff:
the_thiefster on 27/12/2008 at 08:39
So is it possible to finish Coma? What's the highest score you guys have achieved?
Is Coma like the "end stage" to the demo? Or is it Skill Level 3? Because if it is, no way I'm buying the game lol. It's too insane.
Shadowcat on 27/12/2008 at 11:51
Don't worry; Coma is just a way of finishing the demo in a less abrupt manner ;) I don't think it ends, but I've never survived it for long!
The skill level gradient is pretty smooth all the way up.
My highest score thus far in the full game is 46,288. My guess is that scores of 100,000 or more are possible.
FWIW, I thought the demo was neat, and I don't regret buying the full version in the slightest, so I'm inclined to say go for it if you enjoyed it thus far.
Inline Image:
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/8426/brainpipeacknowledgemenue1.pngMatthew on 27/12/2008 at 17:30
I often felt sad thinking that when Jeff Minter retires the gaming world will be left with a distinct lack of zaniness. I am glad to see I need not have worried.
James Sterrett on 30/12/2008 at 00:16
In design terms, Coma is a means of ending the game without providing a hard end-point; it just gets harder and harder and harder. If you grabbed the Unhumanity glyph, then you get to choose your alien form; else you go into a coma.
Scores of 100,000+ should be possible; I nailed a 99008 during testing and I'm not very good.
The difficulty level/points curve is kind of weird, and as I understand it the best scores are likely to result from either starting at level 5-ish, or by starting at level 1 and grabbing *every single glyph*.
The thing I understand best is that the difficulty level sets the starting point in the ten-level series. You can make a one-level grab for your alien form by starting at level 10 (but you have to get a high score to get an alien form... so you can trash all but your best score to clear the list and keep getting an alien form. :) )
Shadowcat on 30/12/2008 at 02:33
Quote Posted by James Sterrett
The difficulty level/points curve is kind of weird, and as I understand it the best scores are likely to result from either starting at level 5-ish, or by starting at level 1 and grabbing *every single glyph*.
I was investigating this last night :)
Starting at level 4 maximises the glyph values (70,000), but I suspect that the travel time value is affected in a similar manner, in which case level 5 is probably the optimal start level (69,000 for glyphs, but I'm guessing it makes up for the L4 travel points and the 1,000 glyph point deficit in additional travel points). Starting at L6 only gets you 65,000 for glyphs, so I'm less sure that it can make up the difference, but I haven't done any analysis on this side of it yet.
Good to hear that a perfect game from level 1 is valuable (or might be?). I've come so close twice (97 and 98 respectively), and will keep trying until I succeed :)
