Some exciting news today!  We can officially announce now that our entire soundtrack will be music create the composer  Jon Hopkins, award nominated musician and creator of the ‘Monsters’ soundtrack, as well as being internationally renowned for his production and collaborative work with artists like Brian Eno, Coldplay, and Imogen Heap.

Vessel will have 10 tracks of Jon’s music, which we are dynamically remixing as you play the game using a custom music engine.  As you play through the puzzles the music will change as you get through each step.  Our audio director Leonard Paul and programmer Kieran Lord set it up and it sound phenomenal, it really adds to the experience.  Check out this behind the scenes/technical look at how the dynamic music works:

We’ve actually had Jon’s music in the game under a temporary license for the entire length of development, which Jon and his production company were kind enough to offer.  This good fortune has allowed us to grow the game around the music – the tone, feel, gameplay, and visuals have all been dramatically influence by the music, so it’s all one cohesive package.  Now everything is sorted and we are go for launch!

We also released our second invention report video today, featuring of course a Jon Hopkins soundtrack as well. Check it out:

Launch in less then a week….   This is going to be good.

In 2 weeks from now the focus of our dedication for the last 3 years will be out in the world, it feels strange that something you have spent so much time on will be done.  It’s exciting, like the last day of school where you can’t wait for summer to start but it is still bittersweet somehow.

We’ve had a few requests on our Twitter for desktop backgrounds, take your pick:

Also a new announcement and video about the music is coming soon, in the next day or two hopefully!

And now back to polishing.

Yes we’re hitting you with it all at once. Why spread out the love?

First big news: Vessel will be available on PC on March 1st! Download on Steam and here at StrangeLoopGames.com. Console releases are coming soon as well. That is just over a month away, which blows my mind a little.

Second big news: Two new videos! This one is the first in a series of Invention Reports, this one detailing the Fluros:

The next video is a first-look, developer walk-through. Watch this one for a detailed look at the mechanics of our game:

Third big news: New website! But you already knew that one since you’re here We went for a look that matches the game, with parallax in the background. We’re pretty happy with it, but there’s still a few quirks we need to work out so bear with us if you see something amiss in the layouts, it will be fixed soon.

Things are starting to get interesting…
-JohnK

Great article today on Kotaku describing our unusual development method of Vessel.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/from-brisbane-to-seattle-a-strange-loop-game/

Half our team is in Australia, where Martin and I used to live.  Usually this would be a burden on a team but with us it has become an advantage,with them in separate time zones they are the ‘night shift’ relative to our Seattle location and vice-versa.