44 Responses to “Changing Seasons”

1. Denvah
   April 29, 2009 at 1:40 pm

   Sweet! I'm just jazzed at the idea of new acts, regardless of their form. For my part though, unless you've got new controls to introduce I'd say you could skip the "easy" training stages in each act and cut straight to the challenges. Pack in more puzzle per act.

2. will
   April 29, 2009 at 1:45 pm

   Any modifiers you'd like to see more/less of? Oh, if you have any ideas for new controls...maybe we can add one to a new level if someone comes up with a good idea.

3. Hamst3r
   April 29, 2009 at 2:15 pm

   I'd like to see Auditorium distributed on Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse and GamersGate. :)

4. will
   April 29, 2009 at 2:22 pm

   @Hamst3r Your not the only one ;)

5. Jamato
   April 29, 2009 at 3:07 pm

   I can not believe, that you are going to continue that wonderful project! Uhm... what do I want to see in the game? I like wormholes and gravitation traps. Telling the truth, you have made such a cool game, that it does not need too many new modifiers. Just make more levels with existing ones. p.s. I am sorry for my english. I live in Ukraine, pretty far from Britain. p.p.s.People in my local net like Auditorium very much - it helps to relax ^__^ p.p.p.s. Thanx a lot for your e-mail invitation here.

6. antares
   April 29, 2009 at 3:09 pm

   I know that this would sort of go against the theme of the controls, but maybe you could incorporate walls that bounce streams off at angles. Kind of like the shield circle, but bounces streams off neater, I guess.

7. nick
   April 29, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   I hope you are getting in touch with MS about xbox live and Nintendo about Wiiware and Sony for their PSN! Auditorium should be available to the console players and you should make some cake!!!

8. Anand
   April 29, 2009 at 3:53 pm

   If you contact Steam's Steamworks division, I'm 100% sure they would give you a contract. Didn't I read something about a level editor? If you released that instead of the 4 acts (or both of them) that would be awesome ;).

9. Ross
   April 29, 2009 at 4:09 pm

   How about some type of magnet modifier. Maybe some other types of portals for the "stream" to travel through. If there could be some kind of timer for each level you could incorporate some friendly competition via a scoreboard. Also, when a level is complete the replay value is pretty much gone because of it being shown completed in the level list.

10. Zorro
    April 29, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    I would like to see dynamic music that changes based on which direction the sound-light comes from. That way, levels completed in different ways would produce different musical results. I know that might be an unreasonable or at least really ambitious request, but it's the first idea that came to my head.

11. will
    April 29, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    @antares Not a bad idea. We could probably do something like that. I wonder if the levels would feel to 'confined' with walls? @Zorro Awesome suggestion! A little ambitious, but we could run some tests at the very least and see what we could do.

12. MGB
    April 29, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    If you are looking at new elements, how about 'fields' that slowly shift the color, in addition to the circles that instantly change the color to one fixed color. I can see puzzles involving how fast the field changes the color to time the light hitting the collector at the right time. For season themes, spring - collectors could grow when hit and become emitters - this isn't much different than what already exists, but might be a fun twist. summer - all streams slowly bend upward, rising with heat autumn - collectors could be stopping points, like the black holes or walls. Or maybe an element that sequences through several different directions, and size of element would be how fast it cycles winter - collectors turn off music channels, stilling the music instead of creating it Keep up the good work!

13. markus
    April 29, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    i'd like to suggest a new optical modifier that changes the flow's color (1) either depending on the length the flow is inside the modifier (i.e. the longer it is in the field, the more it shifts towards the blue end of the spectrum), or (2) relative to the distance travelled afterwards (i.e. a rainbow-effect along the flow; sort of like optical rotatory dispersion: http://is.gd/vsge). (hope i could get the point across).

14. Denvah
    April 29, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    I think antares might be onto something. Maybe short straight barriers that reflect the flow? I also kinda dig the color shifting ideas others mentioned too, if they'd work. Or maybe a prism? As far as existing modifiers, it's been a while since I've played much but my least favorite were probably the deflectors and reversers. They seemed to lead to way too much flow divergence and I'd end up with stray particles all over the place. Except it was always cool to get the flow moving along the inner edge of the deflectors... Hey, I wonder if any interesting puzzles could be devised with a movable source?

15. Kadevi
    April 29, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I like the idea of a prism, that refracts the steams of light in different / various directions. If you wanted more variants, maybe a certain shape of a crystal would control in which direction the light would flow when it entered - or maybe colors of crystals would only take specific colors?

16. shma_
    April 29, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    I remember back during the days when you only had the demo up, you guys used to have a turtle button in the 'learn more' section. If you can create a puzzle based on that button, go for it. I also agree with MGB about introducing an object which slowly shifts colours.

17. Mike
    April 29, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    First off, thanks for extending the game and I hope you continue to add similar map-packs in the future, I was disappointed at how fast I completed the existing game. As for suggestions, how about a modifier that acts as the opposite of the gravity modifier - it repels particles away from the center instead of attracting them. It would be somewhat similar to the modifier that sends particles back the way they came but it would have different applications. It could have some interesting effects when used with the gravity modifier and it could divide and divert streams of particles like those small stationary circles.

18. Mike
    April 29, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Also, please make some kind of level creator

19. J
    April 29, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    I'd like to see more challenging levels. The game as it is feels very much like a tutorial ; at each stage, a new feature is introduced, we're given a few levels to play with it but the only level that takes more than a few seconds to pass is the last of each stage, and the whole game will easily be beaten in one evening. So for this puzzle game, I would like levels that would puzzle me ! Give us some challenge, make us think hard. When it was first published, the demo felt much more like a challenge than the actual game ended up offering ! As a bonus, many of the existing levels become interesting if you just remove one or several of the modifiers. Most the levels are very doable that way, and actually much more interesting ; why not just reuse existing levels with increased difficulty : one less modifier, two less modifiers. The basic idea is, this should be much easier than design new levels, and would give us something a little more interesting to play with.

20. Ian
    April 29, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    How about writing an app for the iPhone/iTouch? I would definitely buy it.

21. Jon T
    April 29, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    More black holes like in Act 13/Shadow. J has a very good point. I actually found myself trying to use as few modifiers as possible on the easier levels. This forces you to try to get the flow to loop back and reuse modifiers, which is much more interesting and fun.

22. Z
    April 29, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    Now, I haven't played the full game yet, but I plan on buying it once I get some free time and a little cash in hand. But I absolutely love the demo. So tell me if this has already been done. I would like to see fixed modifiers, where you can only adjust one aspect of the modifier. I had a couple ideas for this: Perhaps there could be "wild card" modifiers. Modifiers that were fixed in place and had a set radius, but you could cycle through two or three effects. Another idea was an "amoeba" shaped modifier. One that has a fixed location, and attribute, but you can reshape the edge as you see fit. Think of a loop of string, you can make it any shape you want, but you only have a small amount to work with. Similar to the "amoeba" you could have some modifiers that took other simple shapes besides the circle. Perhaps you had a square modifier, you aren't allowed to change the length of the sides, but you can alter the angles to form it into a rhombus shape. It could offer more effect on a stream flowing in one direction than in another. Perhaps there could be a few new obstacles as well. Barriers that you have to get around, or walls that you can bounce the flow off of. You could incorporate colored barriers as well. Barriers that only reflect certain color, but allow all others through. Or the other way around. Perhaps barriers that changed the color of the flow, they reflect the entire flow, but turn it a certain color. Well, thanks for such a wonderful game. Hope this helps.

23. court
    April 29, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    oh I did have a suggestion. I was thinking it would be nice if I could use the up and down keys on my keyboard to make a control bigger and smaller. all in all a simply fantastic game. you sir are what is right with the gaming industry.

24. Auditorium mise à jour de printemps | Jouer-Online
    April 30, 2009 at 3:10 am

    [...] L’annonce sur le blog de Cypherprime : Changing Seasons [...]

25. Mark
    April 30, 2009 at 6:20 am

    +1 to consoles though. Biggest screen in my house is the TV and that's where this should be played. If I could have one thing it would be a tall screen. Say 1000 wide and 4000 tall. On the side I would see a small window of the whole thing with a box outline showing where I was in the main window. I would then have more than one light stream and would have to work that little harder to get things to where they should be going. Full screen might be tricky. Another idea. Right now we just have sound and some colour. Your ideas have images somewhere so why not show us those images. So when white is filled an image somewhere fades from the black to white, the next colour builds on that and on completion the image becomes what you started with. Difficult to work out how you would do that but it's a visual reward. Love the game though, inspired.

26. TheChao
    April 30, 2009 at 11:06 am

    One word: Prisms.

27. TheChao
    April 30, 2009 at 11:09 am

    Oh, and the ability to have light that goes off one side of the screen appear on the other side, as if on the surface of a sphere/globe. Light that goes off the top appears at the bottom at the same speed/direction/color. same for left and right.

28. TheChao
    April 30, 2009 at 11:26 am

    A few more ideas: Static modifiers that cannot be moved or adjusted in anyway. You either have to avoid them, or use them to your advantage. Similar to the black holes or color rings, but using the mechanics of modifiers we already know and love. Make the boundaries of the screen, or the whole game area, a modifier. Such as: a reflector, bouncing light off the sides, maybe changing color depending which side; a 'reverse' black hole, constantly sucking all light to the sides of the screen. Or something similar to what i posted above, allowing light to pass through to the other side as if there were no boundaries. One other thing i think would be awesome is timed objectives or modifiers. Not necessarily having to complete the level in a certain time, but time-release light containers. Filling one up will activate another container, or change the color of a modifier. The container will stay 'active' for a short time, and you must move or adjust the light so they all stay 'active' at the same time. They would otherwise be impossible to activate with a single stream of light. Just thinking out loud. =)

29. will
    April 30, 2009 at 11:34 am

    @everyone I've been reading so many amazing ideas! Keep them flowing! I think we're really getting some great stuff we can use. @TheChao I love where your going with these ideas. Keep on thinking out load ;)

30. Kate
    April 30, 2009 at 11:41 am

    I love the game and would like to see any/all of the suggestions so far. I would like to have a feature/different version/ that is actually somewhat simpler for my kids to play. My 5 and 7 year-old, both musically inclined, loved the game but couldn't get very far. They would be very intrigued by a more kid-friendly version. Thanks, can't wait to see the updates! K

31. will
    April 30, 2009 at 11:47 am

    @Kate What do you think would make the game a bit more kid friendly? Do you think the present levels are just to challenging or do you think less diversity in the control elements would help?

32. Bob Mc
    April 30, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Awesome game guys! I think a cool idea would be having a level or two with multiple streams in different colors. The container colors would be a combination of the two or three streams and in order make the sound work, the correct colored streams would have to be shifted to converge at the container. i.e. a blue stream and a yellow stream would have to converge at a green container in order to make the sound play. Just throwing it out there. Keep up the great work!!

33. ShokuMasterLord
    May 3, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    I love the idea of a level editor, and also a place to submit and download self-made acts. But the idea of seasons is great. I'd like to hear what summer sounds like!

34. Kitty
    May 3, 2009 at 9:23 pm

    That is a brilliant idea. I would love to play the seasons! Thank you for such a brilliant game, it really plays to my synesthesia, and I love that!

35. Thewilder
    May 10, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    More levels would be awesome. The game was magnificent and now that i beat it i just want to play more haha.

36. Jonathan
    May 16, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    I would like to see walls used to bounce streams off of and also switches that opened doors or triggers a second stream. Multi-colored rings would be nice too. Keep up the great work :}

37. Jonathan
    May 16, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    You could have color changing music boxes. example: yellow stream fills the box but stream changes green when it passes thru the other side

38. Nathaniel
    May 17, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    Ok, I know some of these have been mentioned but I can certainly say these are the things I'd like to see... 1. Walls/Mirrors: I'd like to see lines that deflect the flow instead of just the circle. 2. Multicolored rings: if a two colored container is inside a 2 colored ring you'd have to come at it from different directions etc. 3. The Jetstream: A modifier that acts like a black hole sucking the flow into its center which then shoots out a beam of flow in one direction... in other words, it could take stray bits coming from random directions and shoot out a concentrated flow in one direction. 4. The Life-extender: A modifier that resets the amount of time a bit of flow has before it burns out...

39. Adam
    May 24, 2009 at 8:06 am

    A bit late, but i've got a couple of thoughts too. 1: how about colour specific blockers. i.e. a cloud/patch/area that stops a certain colour or only allows a certain colour of flow to pass through. maybe even invisible later on to make it more challenging! and 2: maybe movable worm holes. it'd be cool to see if they worked, or just made it crap. Still loving it, even on a semester studying in japan.

40. ragnarokfinis
    May 25, 2009 at 5:28 am

    While I understand the convenience of putting the music on iTunes, will there be any alternatives ? I am not a fan of utilising the iTunes store and would much rather purchase it through other means (amazon music, &c.) Anyhow, in regards to your request, maybe a little more colour suited to the season, winter being more light blues and whites, spring being more yellows and purples (pastel-esque), summer being greens and dark blues, autumn being oranges and reds. This would perhaps instill a larger sense of separation. Obviously keep colour/trigger music as it currently is. Ah, good game. For sure.

41. RichardOn
    May 26, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    Interesting site, but much advertisments on him. Shall read as subscription, rss.

42. Nemoricus
    May 27, 2009 at 9:44 am

    I love Auditorium, but a lot of the sounds aren't working across multiple levels. In particular four, five, and six have some that aren't working.

43. FokusLopss
    May 30, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    Good article, Thanks. Thanks.

44. Kroolik
    May 31, 2009 at 1:33 pm

    Hi! I am sooooooooooo looking forward to new levels!!! I've just finished the available ones - they're FAN-TA-STIC!!! :D I personally love the "deflect" and "attract", blackhole's also cool! ;) Anyway - the more the better! Great job - I admire you for this game! Greetings from Poland, Julia