Quick Look: Sound Shapes

How about that, aye?

my brain hurts...

shape those sounds!

Float like a triangle, sting like a square.

@SoyBob said:

gfdgfd

Yeah, I know, right!

@BeachThunder said:

@SoyBob said:

gfdgfd

Yeah, I know, right!

I don't even feel bad.

@BeachThunder said:

@SoyBob said:

gfdgfd

Yeah, I know, right!

Riveting!

Hurray Beck!

I've looking forward to this, thanks guys! I'm definitely getting this!

Works well and looks great on the Vita. The Beck levels blew everything else out of the water.

Too bad they just sneered at the Kingdom Hearts theme, it was the best thing I heard on launch day.

Reminds me of http://www.duelinganalogs.com/game/click-make-play/ .

Red things are dangerous, truer words have never been printed.

Looks neat but I'll wait a little while to get this.

I'm not ready for The Beck.

Shapeblind? :O

This game sucks lol.

looks boring :(

Fucking love this game

I downloaded this game the day it came out. The music and art design is spectacular! The controls are a little frustrating at times, but it's a damn steal at $15, especially if you own both a PS3 and a Vita.

The sound sequencer is not chromatic, so people trying to make Mario and Zelda and Tetris themes are not gonna have a good time (even without the length restriction).

Kinda reminds me of that one minilogue video.

That last level sounded pretty good.

This seems like it'd be really good if you were just baked out of your mind to the point where game mechanics more complex than jump and move were too much to think about. Hrm, not that I'd know what that feels like or anything.

Looks great.

This looks pretty great. Hopefully the community stuff gets as good as some of the campaign stuff after a while.

So glad you guys did a QL for this!

The editor is a bit more nuanced than it seems at first glance. Notes (the ones you pick up) stop playing after three screens, so clever designers/remixers will be able to make sequences that do evolve over time and continue through further melodies.

Things like the drum-producing lasers can be selected and then you can record a pattern of button presses which they will then reproduce. So even those are more capable than they seem. You're also not stuck with the major scale, but I don't think you can do anything to change that or the transposition or tempo in the middle of a level. I was hoping that Beat School (which you unlock after finishing the campaign) would do more to teach the nuances of the editor, but it was more of a minigame to see if you can match beats you hear.

Overall it's a fun game, and since they played it on PS3 you can't really tell but, personally, the editor works so much better on the Vita. I've had an iPhone for a couple years, and I think the editor for Sound Shapes is one of the best experiences I've had on a touchscreen. Very intuitive. And also, completely optional. Even on the Vita, the PS3-style editor controls exist.

I'm glad you played a deadmau5 level. Those were very well done. But the Beck album blew me away. Especially the first track. If anything proves the power hidden in the editor it's the Beck levels.

Anyway. Good Quick Look. I wish there was a demo to give people a feel for the game but, alas. It's fun, and you get both versions for one price. Everyone should check it out.

I love this game, it's awesome! :)

@ervonymous said:

Works well and looks great on the Vita. The Beck levels blew everything else out of the water.

Yeah, they're realllllly good. I also liked the Arkanoid-style levels where you're bouncing around.

I know Jeff & Vinny seemed disappointed by this fact, but I actually enjoy that it's more of a solid platformer with a great art design than an advanced music sequencer. It seems more about traversing through these crazy soundscapes than anything. Personally, for me, the learning curve on the editor is about perfect. I like being able to make a good platforming level, and then add in the sound as an secondary thing.

Also, they weren't able to show it, but after you finish the campaign, you unlock a "death" version of each level that is hard as fuck. They are all smaller challenges that involve collecting X number of notes in a very short amount of time. And you also get a bunch of "beat school" levels where you have to listen to a beat and recreate it in the editor, which I thought was cool.

The mechanics are very simple = boredom comes quickly. For me anyway.

HARDER-CORE CHIPS FOR HARDCORE DIPS.

There really hasnt been a game called sound shape before? I swear all these indie games names are blending together

This looks good, but not worth 15 bucks for me. I still wanna try it out at some point. It's either this or Dust right now!

@GeneralDAS said:

The sound sequencer is not chromatic, so people trying to make Mario and Zelda and Tetris themes are not gonna have a good time (even without the length restriction).

you can choose to make it chromatic. there's a scale option in the editor menu. though you still only get 9 notes.

@ajamafalous said:

HARDER-CORE CHIPS FOR HARDCORE DIPS.

THIS

@ajamafalous said:

HARDER-CORE CHIPS FOR HARDCORE DIPS.

THIS

@killacam: So it goes up half the scale and just stops?

I really like the stuff with blocks crashing into each other to make sounds. I'd play with that even if it weren't attached to a game.

Looks good to me. Might not be an advanced music editor but it looks cool.

Bought this day one! I was mostly in the mood for a cool music game or a platformer, and this happens to be both! I hear good things about the Beck tracks, but I'm still on the Jim Guthrie album. Haven't messed around with the editor myself, but most of the levels I've played seem to either A. use the default textures and just make insanely difficult levels or B. use crazy textures, but make easy levels. Hoping to see more out of the community in a few weeks.

Not sure if I want to play the game, but do want to hear more of the soundtrack.

I found the last 20 seconds of this quick look way more interesting than the game to be honest...

After hearing so many people rave about this, it's nice to finally see what it actually is

@GeneralDAS said:

@killacam: So it goes up half the scale and just stops?

well, 3/4's of it. it varies from note to note as well. i still have a lot to learn about it, but it's definitely more robust than meets the eye.

Very interesting stuff and one of the most excellent recent commentaries on a QL I think. "Can you go left?" and the glorious results were probably my favorite. I'd be interested to see how intense user created content might get on this one. Hopefully there'll be some insane and twisted shit even though that seems to be up in the air based on what you showed off here.

Loved the ToeJam & Earl reference, guys.

I got a hardcore chip and I wanna stick it in your hardcore dip girl.

This Quick Look doesn't start for real until they start talking about cereal and Ruffles.

Shame they didn't touch any of the Beck levels... their really good.

You also get extra skill levels when you beat every level in the game along with a "Beat School" thing in the level editor that does a very good job at getting you more familiar with the level editor.

Vinny's Law is in effect!

Probably gonna buy this just because I love I am Robot and Proud.

It seems alright. I feel like the sticking to surface platforming could make for a fun platformer but the music so far isn't doing enough for me to carry the game that is probably not that long. The Jim Guthrie stuff was interesting but independent of Sword and Sworcery, its whatevs.

I feel like Beck is the only album I personally would make the matching of the simple platforming and music work.