#WeeklyGameMusic: Blue Chair (Cloudberry Kingdom)


Let’s get those blood pumping with this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic! Blue Chair, composed by Blind Digital, is one of the many fantastic themes composed for Pwnee Studios’ procedurally generated platformer game, Cloudberry Kingdom. The indie game’s extraordinary algorithm can generate both reasonable Super Mario-like stages, and Kaizo-level, controller-breaking ridiculousness.

Oh no! The evil king, Kobbler, has kidnapped the fair (…and sarcastic) Princess! And to add to the insult, he stole the infinite level generator orb as well! It’s up to a brave…tired…middle-aged hero named Bob to save her.

You know…

That same, bland, sexist plot again.

Obviously poking fun at the usual paper-thin Super Mario plot, Cloudberry Kingdom plays like the Nintendo classic, but with more focus on flow rather than precision. The platformer’s algorithm always calculates at least one plausible path, meaning a lot of the levels are generated with constant movement in mind. To further add variation to the play, the game provides many different control variations, including inclusion of double-jump, jetpacks, Sonic-like momentum-based movement, no-gravity, always-bouncing, etc.

Another innovation the game provides is actually having a demo-mode where an AI demonstrates how to complete a level. This is particularly impressive when one drastically ramps up the complexity of the game to generate levels that are absurdly difficult. One would think like Nintendo’s assist mode, this would help the player to understand the level better, but…

Cloudberry Kingdom is available on Windows via Steam, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Always Been, But Never Dreamed (Tetris® Effect)


This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is a start of a spiritual journey. This transforming song, Always Been, But Never Dreamed — composed by Noboru Mutoh and Yukitoshi Kihana, and sung by Kate Brady — marks the end of the incredible experience, Tetris® Effect, developed by Enhance Games, Monstars, and Resonair. Besides, it’s Tetris®; what could you be afraid of?

Much like prior Tetris® entries, Tetris® Effect is a block-based puzzle game where the player rotating and dropping Tetrominos — shapes consisting of 4 squares — into a grid in hopes of creating a horizontal line of blocks. The biggest twist this entry introduces…is the virtual reality experience. Co-produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Rez and Lumines fame, and designed for Playstation VR, Tetris® Effect has Tetsuya’s patented visual-auditory experience. Just imagine being surrounded by a colorful, zen environment where every detail in the game reacts to the slightest change the player makes. The video above merely provides a preview, an emulation of how the track might be presented to the player; but it’ll likely change based on how they actually play.

Other inspirational features this entry adds includes actual levels, speed progression that more closely follows a narrative arc — e.g. speed increases in the rising action stages, then provides a breather in the falling actions — and the Zone mode, where the player can “stop time” to create as many lines as they can. Once the Zone expires within a certain time limit, all the lines are accumulated and scored as if the player created it all in one block drop.

Tetris® Effect is available on the Playstation 4 and PC via Epic Games Store. It’s compatible with PS VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

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