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Sound Shapes |OT| A Game For Vita (and PS3)

Oni Jazar

Member
Alright, I've just put up these 2 new levels for anyone interested.

http://soundshapesgame.com/level/cUjaYwXb
Aqua Velvet is a short, speed run focused, moody level. It's not meant to be challenging, just meant to be a quick roller coaster ride. The game "Mouse Trap" was an inspiration, where obstacles and pathways just sort of flow together. The alternative title was 'do fish dream of electric sheep'… so, yeah.

http://soundshapesgame.com/level/rtD88fqy
Office Affair is a story heavy and thematically dense 10 or so minute level. You tell your wife goodbye and go off to work, but in the afternoon doldrums a flirtatious coworker catches your eye. Can you escape the twisted business world she drags you into?

I am proud of the beat in Aqua Velvet and the themes in Office Affair. but neither one is as good as Shadow of the Colossus I don't think. but, screw it, lol.

Sweet levels! Office is very impressive and Aqua has a good beat.

If anyone's interested: my latest level http://www.soundshapesgame.com/level/et85iksf

I liked it but got lost near the end. You're hiding the player and I can't tell where to go?

I'm going to try some more GAF levels now...

Please check out my latest here. I made some small adjustments.
 

Markew001

Member
I liked it but got lost near the end. You're hiding the player and I can't tell where to go?

I'm going to try some more GAF levels now...

Please check out my latest here. I made some small adjustments.

Hmm.. I'm guessing you mean the pipe right at the end. You enter the pipe to the right and it spits you out in a small room with one note .. here you can only enter up a pipe directly above you. That pipe takes you directly to the end.. sorry it was confusing!
 

Grinchy

Banned
Finished the first album on Death Mode and did the first level of the 2nd album. This is definitely more doable than I thought it was at first. It definitely has a luck factor to it but it's quite fun.

Some of these community levels are really damn good as well.
 

Massa

Member
Finished the first album on Death Mode and did the first level of the 2nd album. This is definitely more doable than I thought it was at first. It definitely has a luck factor to it but it's quite fun.

Some of these community levels are really damn good as well.

I wouldn't say luck is a factor, it's what defines death mode. You're often dealt with a combination that can't be beaten no matter how fast you are, which to me makes this mode one of the worst games I've played since the NES era, when that sort of terrible design was acceptable.
 

Grinchy

Banned
^Yeah I guess that's kinda what I meant about the luck factor. You have to be lucky enough to get a beatable round, then you have to actually go and beat it in that same round lol. Frustrating, but I'm having some fun with it.

I'm really dying for more Beat School though...I hope they make that happen with DLC so bad.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
Hmm.. I'm guessing you mean the pipe right at the end. You enter the pipe to the right and it spits you out in a small room with one note .. here you can only enter up a pipe directly above you. That pipe takes you directly to the end.. sorry it was confusing!

Hmm maybe it messed up. I will try again.
 

Reclaimer

Member
Finally jumped in and got the PS3/Vita versions... And wow. Pretty cool!

I was expecting to really dislike the platforming physics/control, but it's quite nice actually! Lots of the music is pretty good, the graphics and presentation in general is very nice. And I've been smiling most of my time playing it, so that's a big win in my book.

This game just further solidifies my love for the Vita Dpad and buttons. They destroy the dual shock for precise control.
 

gadwn

Member
Death mode is actually fun, managed to finish all of them without getting stuck except one, Thermogenica #2. And that one is incredible hard, doesn't seem fair at all. I have tried so many times and I haven't even been close to completing it. Feels like it's impossible with so little time, even if I jump perfectly and constantly there just isn't enough time... damn frustrating.

Any suggestions?

468px-2012-08-10-185052.jpg
 
I asked the same question here and got some tips in the posts after mine:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=41201177#post41201177

It depends heavily on luck and you have to get a feel for when they activate (linked to music), after a while you should move very fast between them (don't use boost) and you will get lucky. I spent probably 45 minutes on this one (several sessions). Very often the notes spawn on the opposite side, just play until they spawn next to each other. If you are on a platform that will be active in the next moment, you can jump into the air on the spot to "reset" the sequence.

PS: I ignored the second part of post #1700, usually I made it.
 
Death mode is actually fun, managed to finish all of them without getting stuck except one, Thermogenica #2. And that one is incredible hard, doesn't seem fair at all. I have tried so many times and I haven't even been close to completing it. Feels like it's impossible with so little time, even if I jump perfectly and constantly there just isn't enough time... damn frustrating.

Any suggestions?

468px-2012-08-10-185052.jpg

Surprisingly this was one of the less troublesome ones for me. Try holding down the R button and rely on skill platforming. You should be able to jump from tip to tip (by the edge not the center) of the platforms with relative ease. Also, pay attention with the rhythm (sound) especially the parts where the platforms go on fire. Then time your jumps accordingly to against or away from them depending where the "notes" are. Good luck.

Try playing with headphones if you can, it really does help with the difficulty.
 

gadwn

Member
YES!! Platinum get! I don't wanna know how many tries that took in total haha. I used the boost and was mainly focusing on finding luck.. xD

Try playing with headphones if you can, it really does help with the difficulty.

Got so tired of the noises so I actually finished it on muted. :D
 

Sorc3r3r

Member
Awesome game this one isn't it?

BTW, guys go try some level by Daftbomb, what i've played of him is amazing.

Happy jumpin'!
 

eXistor

Member
Such a shame to see that Death Mode is essentially broken, with its effed up randomized patterns that make it literally impossible to finish levels in time. The rest of the game is fun and has enough variety to make up for it, but man, DM needs some serious patching.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I play like one death mode level at a time. If it takes 2 minutes or 10 minutes, I don't stress over trying to complete a ton of them quickly. That's probably why I actually like the mode. The challenge just makes for a good reason to come back to the game when I have 15 minutes to kill.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Had saved this game for a coach journey. Made for the most amazing coach journey of my life.

Jim Guthrie's Purgatory level was the absolute highlight, what a fucking incredibly audio visual experience. Up there with Area 5 from Rez. I liked the other levels and albums, but the Superbrothers stuff kinda just pants'd everything else by having a rock solid theme and building to crescendos.

Goes against the game's point, but would love a soundtrack version without all the game checkpoint blips and blops in the way (or an option to turn them off).
 

CorySchmitz

Junior Member
Sound Shapes: The Launch Poster

Surprise poster I made for the team. I have no idea if they will ever be for sale. Maybe the will be given out at events? I really don't know.

Just wanted to share! Gonna make a desktop wallpaper version soon!

tumblr_m9uc1oTGSv1qznx1fo1_500.png


tumblr_m9uc1oTGSv1qznx1fo2_1280.jpg


tumblr_m9uc1oTGSv1qznx1fo3_1280.jpg


tumblr_m9uc1oTGSv1qznx1fo4_1280.jpg
 
Sound Shapes: The Launch Poster

Surprise poster I made for the team. I have no idea if they will ever be for sale. Maybe the will be given out at events? I really don't know.

Just wanted to share! Gonna make a desktop wallpaper version soon!

That's awesome. I'd love to have one autographed by everyone involved. It'd get framed and put up on my wall so fast. Anyway, looking forward to the wallpaper.
 

TheMink

Member
Sorry if this has been asked before, is there a way to make an 8/8 count measure instead of the 4/4 it usually is in creation?
 

AwShucks

Member
Such a shame to see that Death Mode is essentially broken, with its effed up randomized patterns that make it literally impossible to finish levels in time. The rest of the game is fun and has enough variety to make up for it, but man, DM needs some serious patching.

What are you talking about? I beat every Death Mode level and only a couple gave me trouble. This was on Vita
 
Does anyone know if there are any user-created levels that cover "real" songs? Like a Postal Service cover or something. I haven't found any yet, which is surprising -- there were user-created levels covering songs available on release day of Little Big Planet 2.
 
Sound Shapes: The Launch Poster

Surprise poster I made for the team. I have no idea if they will ever be for sale. Maybe the will be given out at events? I really don't know.

Just wanted to share! Gonna make a desktop wallpaper version soon!

tumblr_m9uc1oTGSv1qznx1fo1_500.png

why weren't you at PAX, and why couldn't I buy this!?
 

Loudninja

Member
Pull Shapes: Sound Shapes Community Picks
Sound Shapes has been out (in North America, at least) a little under a month now, and we continue to be blown away by the response the game has been getting. If you’ve been following our official Sound Shapes twitter (and we hope you have!) you’ve probably been kept up-to-date with our news, but just last week we hit over ten thousand levels in our community (if you’re interested, our ten-thousandth level was Out of the Rain by sunpsyche.)
With so many levels, we’ve been working very hard behind the scenes to make sure that players are able to best find the cream of the crop.

For example, not only have we been iterating our search algorithms to ensure the star tab (“Greatest Hits” on the website) is kept up-to-date with the best levels, we also try to make sure if you search you get useful results—oh, and if you missed it, you can search on the website now too! However, we would like to ensure we’re interacting with our community and not just setting up SOULESS SEARCH ROBOTS to do that job for us—so we’re going to try and regularly share with you the community levels that pique our interest. Starting… now.
Oh! And don’t think we’re just spending all our time playing your levels (as much as we want to.) We’re working hard on getting the first DLC out to you as soon as possible (giving you more to work with!) — we’ll be able to talk about that soon. Happy creating!
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/09/06/pull-shapes-sound-shapes-community-picks/
 
And I to Fire by jordanbuster
“This level sort of blew my mind a bit” said Jon [Mak], at which point I probably mumbled something like “oh, that’s nice” and went back to doing something else entirely. However, when I finally played this level it was worthy of his praise. To be honest, if you follow the Sound Shapes community you are probably already familiar with this level, so we’re not telling you anything new, but we had to spotlight it because it was the first level we saw that did things that surprised us — and, you know, we made the game. You’d think we’d know it inside out, eh?
Wow, congrats jbartee!
 

DSGamer

Neo Member
Want more albums. I'd pay an unreasonable amount of money for new albums from Beck and the SuperBrothers.

I wish Sony would make it so you could download levels. I think this is a huge hole in the product. I want to be able to archive top levels on my device and take it on the go.
 

jbartee

Member
Wow, congrats jbartee!

What a great thing to wake up to. I'm really supremely flattered. Thanks so much to everyone who played the level and of course to everyone at Queasy for making such an incredible game (as well as for their kinds words!).

Also I would buy the living crap out of that poster. Really beautiful design.
 
What a great thing to wake up to. I'm really supremely flattered. Thanks so much to everyone who played the level and of course to everyone at Queasy for making such an incredible game (as well as for their kinds words!).

Also I would buy the living crap out of that poster. Really beautiful design.
Did you see what EDGE wrote?

Complex and darkly explorative, there’s more than a whiff of professionalism to Jordanbuster’s menacing fantasyland. And I to Fire bends the Sound Shapes engine in a variety of fascinating ways, offering a multi-pathed environment to journey through while incorporating puzzles, cut scenes, and even a mocking kind of narrative as you traverse a series of hubs and spokes looking for the one true exit.

Luminous red vector text ensures this is a stylish adventure, while a thumping beat shot through with sudden silences keeps you off-balance throughout. If Tetsuya Mizuguchi ever had a go at a Super Mario ghost house, in other words, the results might be a little like this.
Pretty awesome stuff, man.
 

Grinchy

Banned
What a great thing to wake up to. I'm really supremely flattered. Thanks so much to everyone who played the level and of course to everyone at Queasy for making such an incredible game (as well as for their kinds words!).

Also I would buy the living crap out of that poster. Really beautiful design.

It was the first community level I played and one of the few I still remember. Awesome job on it.
 

jbartee

Member
It was the first community level I played and one of the few I still remember. Awesome job on it.

Thanks!

Did you publish any other music somewhere? The track is really good.

I missed this somehow when you asked it.

Yes, I've got a couple tracks up on soundcloud (be warned- very different from the soundshapes stuff):

http://soundcloud.com/petchem

As well as a bunch of music / art / videogame related stuff at my youtube channel (this skews more experimental / academic):

http://www.youtube.com/crudface

Thanks so much for asking.
 

Grinchy

Banned
So for those of you who build levels, do you start with the level/gameplay and then add music notes that fit? Or do you start with the music and then build the level around the notes?
 
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