Two beloved semi-indie developers made a return today at E3. Éric Chahi, best known for his obscure but adored adventure Another World, has announced Project Dust as a PSN/XBLA download for 2011. Kotaku described it as “a little bit Populous, a little bit Black & White,” which doesn’t sound too bad to me, except the Black & White part. Meanwhile Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi promised an even better experience with Child of Eden, a new synaesthetic rhythm game which is, unfortunately, limited to the Playstation Move and Micrsoft Kinect.
Click ye upon the jump to see trailers.
Project Dust
Child of Eden
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Well Project Dust looks f*cking awesome! Excuse my French…
I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for me to get fed up with these super crisp, super slick, synaesthetic, audio-visual fests. Pixel Junk Eden, Vib Ribbon, Rez, fl0w, even things like Flower, Audio Surf, Chains, Auditorium, Fractal and Osmos have elements of it. It’s an aesthetic that goes right back – at least spiritually – to the tranced out clubland of the 90s when Wipeout and its electro soundtrack was doing the rounds. You could look as far back as Tron but I’m not sure that that captures the same spirit. Actually, I don’t think it’s the aesthetic that bothers me, it’s the use of it. I think I’m more struck by how the gameplay shown in that video looks exactly the same as Rez’s but it’s just gone much further visually. It looks like it’s trying to beat Rez, which is what, 10 years old? I mean, come on. 10 years old! And he’s banging the same shmup drum but with a super HD gloss!
Anyway, I agree, Project Dust looks a lot like Populous: The Beginning and Black & White, maybe a bit like B.C. (remember that?). I’m sure it’ll differ but it’s not clear how yet from that video. It doesn’t look like the same Chahi that brought us Another World and Heart of Darkness anyway; he’s moved on a lot! As opposed to Mizuguchi…
I got sick of Rez very quickly, and I’m very much a proponent of electronic music and its subculture genres. I just didn’t find the experience that worthwhile.
On the other hand I love Audiosurf and Auditorium after many hours with both.
Bah to ‘synaesthesia’ games. I secretly believe that most people who claim to have this condition are making it up, because what a coincedence that it usually happens to be shitty musicians who “see colour when they hear sound.” Guess what? Pavlov’s dogs salivated at the chime of a bell. It’s all in the mind, as Pa Rappa the Rapper would say!
I was talking about this to my girlfriend only the other week. I thought synaesthesia was just interpreting audio through visual elements or vice versa. She corrected me and told me it was a medical condition which I refuted as nonsense and said it was probably ‘invented’ after the artists explored the idea but she was correct; turns out Kandinsky was actually a synesthete and Georgia O’Keefe was merely exploring the concept of synaesthesia. You learn something everyday.
I enjoyed the music and visuals in Rez but still think it plays like a second rate Star Fox (Starwing here in Europe). Also, it seems like Children of Eden has recycled the ‘tcha-tcha-tcha’ sound that Rez used when you shot at or locked on to enemies.
Hmmm. I’ll still probably never finish Rez. I got to, I believe, the third stage (of four). When I first played it was the cat’s pyjamas; now I cringe each time the stupid-hard level 3 boss destroys me.
Doubtful I’ll ever get Move or Nat..er, Kinect either. No Children of Eden for me.
On a separate note: no Last Guardian at E3: what the hell gives?