It’s a classic tale, really. Sometime around 2010 to 2011, a young human named Richard Flanagan at the University of Montreal had an idea for a game titled “Fract”. After completing his study, he created a demo for Fract, a single playable level that presented the player with musical elements in the world that would become the keys to solving puzzles later on.
One very successful showing at the Independent Games Festival later and Richard, along with Henk Boom and Quynh Nguyen, created Phosfiend Systems and decided to make it a fully-fledged gamey game. Another three years later, in 2014, FRACT OSC released to considerable acclaim across the board. And then, four more years later, somebody in Australia started a Let’s Play of it!
With the original concept expanded into multiple puzzle and sound ideas, it combines the old days of Myst-style world exploration with a fully functional sequencer program that allows players to create their own music tracks with the instruments unlocked through the course of playing the game. In a pretty short timeframe the team put out a game that’s a perfect little package that gets exactly as much done as it sets expectations for and that it’s capable of achieving. It both doesn’t overstay its welcome and is imminently replayable, and the world is like nothing I’ve personally ever experienced before, even in the face of obvious comparisons to Tron and Rez.
The LP
This will be a pretty simple LP (structurally). Aside from some achievements for exploring certain parts of the world there’s nothing optional in the game. You beat it and you’ve beat it. So we’re going to beat it. We’re gonna see and do everything and we’re gonna make some killer tracks along the way. Also, the tracks I’ll be making, in particular, will all be based off sketch compositions that I incessantly badgered my friend Stevo into making for me, in lieu of actually knowing music theory.
Videos
Part 01 - Back to the Bass-ics
Part 02 - Kick, Pinch, It’s All in the Mind
More Links
Buy FRACT OSC
FRACT Development Blog (some really cool posts in here!)
Support me on Patreon for early access to updates
Or buy me a coffee for all unreleased videos at the time of your support