Sci-fi type abstract video games are often set in futuristic worlds featuring unheard of objects and technologies concocted from the developer’s unbridled imagination. But it’s rare that they turn to the pre-digital analogue past for inspiration. Not so with indie developer Richard E. Flanagan, whose adventure-puzzle game FRACT is set in a strange world with a visual style that lands squarely somewhere between TRON and The Lawnmower Man. Flanagan puts you in first person perspective mode with the task of reviving defunct machinery. As you wander the abstract landscape, listening and looking out for clues that take the form of analogue sounds and samples, an aural landscape of humming machines and industrial clanks emerges.You can check out the compelling visuals in the video above, which creates a sense of disorientating eeriness, as if you’re wandering through a graphic graveyard in a forgotten world. Should that whet your appetite for the game itself, you can down load it, for free, for PC and Mac, over on the artist’s website.
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Indie Game That Takes Place In A World Of Analogue Sounds
As well as an intriguing sound design premise, this new game features striking graphics and a visual style reminiscent of TRON and Dreamcast classic Rez.