Several times in my life I’ve fantasized about packing up my guitar and some recording equipment and moving to a remote cabin for a month or so to write and record music. Far removed from the stress, distraction, and responsibility of normal life, I’d be free to put all my energy into crafting the next Sgt. Pepper’s or Pet Sounds. (It’s a fantasy, after all.) Unfortunately, doing such a thing is a luxury most people can’t afford for a number of reasons, which means I’ll have to settle for squeezing my recording sessions into spare hours in the garage like normal.
Apparently game developers have similar fantasies, because last year there was a game accelerator program that took place over two months in a remote cabin in Stockholm. Aspiring developers from all over the world met there and were given the time and resources to create the game of their dreams, with coaching from industry professionals. It was called Stugan (Swedish for “cabin”), and the very first complete game to come out of the experiment is _PRISM ($2.99) by Clint Siu. It’s a sleek little puzzler that tasks you with solving various abstract puzzles while manipulating shapes in 3D space. It certainly sounds interesting, but is it Pet Sounds?
Well, probably not. But it’s definitely brilliant, unique, and very beautiful. When you fire up the game you’ll be thrust into a weird little solar system of shapes, and your goal is to poke and prod them until they reveal their luminous cores, at which point you move on to the next “planet” and do the same thing again. The whole experience feels wonderfully alien as there’s no text and very, very little instruction explaining what you’re supposed to do. For that reason, I should probably warn you that the rest of this review could potentially ruin the fun of discovering the game’s various mechanics for yourself.
With that out of the way, here’s how most “levels” usually go: You’re given a single geometric shape suspended in space, and you’re free to spin it around and zoom in to inspect it from any angle. One side of it always contains a puzzle which you can solve by tapping, sliding, and spinning the 2D symbols and shapes until it’s solved. For example, the first handful of puzzles sees you simply lining dots up with other dots. It’s usually pretty obvious what you’re supposed to do, and most of the puzzles (especially early on) are fairly easy to complete. Once you finish the puzzles on one side of the shape, another side will flash to let you know the next puzzle has appeared there. As each one is completed, the shape itself will unfold, piece by piece, until the center is revealed to let you know it’s time to move on to the next “planet”.
The first thought I had when I saw the puzzles was “Oh, this is kinda like The Witness.” Later, when I’d played for a bit, I thought “Oh, this is kinda like The Room ($0.99).” Now, I haven’t actually played much of either of those games, so take those comparisons with a grain of salt. However, I’ve seen people say similar things in our forums so I don’t think I’m that far off. As I said earlier, the game isn’t that difficult from beginning to end, but if you like (or are intrigued by) symbol puzzles and manipulating objects without much instruction, you’ll probably have a pretty good time throughout _PRISM.
So yeah, the puzzling is fun, but not particularly revolutionary on its own. What really sets the game apart is the overall presentation. It really is gorgeous, especially if you have a newer device that can smoothly handle all of its glowing, shimmering beauty. (Unfortunately, my iPad Air had a bit of trouble at times. My iPhone 6S, however, performed like a champ.) The shapes you’ll be playing with are usually pretty simple and squared off, but they have a subtle texture that reflects the light in stunning ways. There are also little particles that gently float in and out of focus as you pan the screen around, and everything just comes together perfectly. The fact that there are virtually no words in the entire game is just icing on the cake, and that combined with the game’s otherworldly visuals really elevates it beyond the simple puzzles you’ll be solving.
Whether or not you fall in love with _PRISM ultimately depends on what you look for in videogames. Do you enjoy “experiences” that transport you to another place even if what you’re doing there isn’t particularly challenging or long-lasting? Or do you prefer your games to be tough-as-nails and stressful, putting your brain and/or fingers through a gruelling workout? Like most people, I think I fall somewhere between those extremes. _PRISM is definitely more toward the first category, but I still found it absolutely delightful from beginning to end. If this is what we can expect from the projects coming out of Stugan, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Took a look now and then in the upcoming section and I was shocked by the polish and production value. This must have involved an incredible investment in time and sacrifices, if it was done by a small team. But the odds point toward a great future for the title!
we have 10 people))
Ah, cool size for a team, I wish we had that. To me, that's a mid-size format but that's an incredible achievement nevertheless!
Loads of fun so far, though for some reason I'm not getting any sound or music (yes it's turned on in game and yes my volume is turned up).
Hi! Could you please provide me with your device model?
Probably it is a known bug that we are trying to eleminate. Just restart the game to make the sound work.
And maybe (just maybe) your sound is on, BUT your sound switch is off. http://ipadacademy.com/ipad...
Please let me know either way. And thank you for buying our game)
Thanks for the reply. Got it fixed, problem was on my end! Just wanted to add that I really love this game. The art, the visuals, the action, the humor, they're all terrific. It's so obvious that you all put an enormous amount of love into this. Great job! Well worth the money.
That's good to hear!:)
This is a great game.
"if you're an advocate of premium gaming on mobile it's time to put your five dollars where your mouth is with this one."
But don't forget while you're buying it, you're only a vocal minority.
Time will show :)
I bought it. Not even sure I'll enjoy it, but I will pay to support premium game developers. I like the honesty.
If I wanted an arcade game I had to feed quarters into to play, I'd get a time machine and go back to 1981. Or just download Clash Royale.
If I wanted to wait, I'd go stand in line at the DMV. Or download Clash Royale.
First of all, thank you for supporting us :)
But since you have already bought it, please don't judgje to quickly. You seem to be a gamer, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to get to level 7.
Please reach it and then tell me if you have enjoyed it. The most fun part(as for me) beggins on the second location, but i guess you will be able to judge fair by level 7:)
Looks pretty awesome. I'll surely get it when I have the money and the time to give it some love (says someone who hasn't given his love to Crashlands the way it deserves 😞).
Not so much a Disney movie. It's more like Earthworm Jim as an auto-runner.
I understand your criticism. Please take a look at this fantastic thread
http://forums.toucharcade.c...
You might change your mind. Because it's not just an auto runner, it's a mix of auto runner and platformer and believe me, the "auto" part has given us the ability to do impossible things like changing the geometry of whole level.
And if you won't change your mind after reading that thread.. Well, I'm okay with that:)
Have a nice day!
I don't think it's hard to figure out just how much I love Lost Socks (2016 has been such a strong year for releases already and this just might be my Game of the Year so far ;)) and it was an absolute pleasure writing that forum review.
Mind you, when I write these things for the forum, I do it for my love of games and to try and spread the word on just how fantastic some things are...not for attention and my personal benefit, like some douchebags on other sites would have you believe.
In the upcomming secrion comments, you guys said they would be released for Apple TV , then told he could not because after alleged suppose download size issue problem on TVOS (which was explained) , and finally was told they do not know if available on APTV . I just want know what the barrier of the launch ps game developers also for version of this device , as the users are always willing to buy applications for this !
Disappointment
I am sorry for all of those replys. We probably should have created multiple accounts for our team, but we decided to use one for the whole team on the forum.
The thing is -- we don't know yet if we will support apple TV. It depends greatly on our success on IOS market, since we have to compare our effort and cost of porting to AppleTV.
looks nice, but i'm tired of side scrollers, been so for probably a decade now.
unless of course you're talking about a proper metroid sequel.
Hi!
Thank you for writing this.
Please take into account that this is not just a sidescroller/runner. We have complex platformer-style controlls and world that interacts with sock as well as with bullets(you can press buttons, destroy gears to move huge parts of the level).
Please check out our forum threads if you don't believe my word.
And yeah, it is a shooter as well, not some button-smasher.
This is impressive! The effects and everything look top notch. Looking forward to grabbing this one.
Dang. This game gets hard fast. I'm stuck at level 1-7.