Here’s a video from the very start of Vessel’s development, creating the liquid physics engine. As you can see it’s made up of a bunch of particles which exhibit pressure on each other, surface tension, and viscosity among other forces.

Above is what will become ‘Fluros’ in the final game – attractive structures that have a pull on liquid.

Here’s a demo of our tech combining AI and liquid physics, allowing our creatures in the game to influence the liquid in the world. The grid that appears at the end is the sorting algorithm we use to speed up liquid processing.

An early protoype of Vessel, pre-art. You can see this video shows a different direction than the final game went, we eventually focused it on the Fluro creatures in the game, creating and destroying them, as we felt they were the most interesting. But this video is fun.

Kubiro-Shoe Mario was our character for many months before we designed the game, and he served us well.

Here’s an example of the Fluros starting to reach their potential, folding out of a puddle and forming a bridge. Not a creature we used in the final game but he does have some flair.

Demo of the tech we used for making liquids glow. We use a clustering algorithm to identify key points to put point-lights which vary in brightness depending how dense the cluster is. Works pretty well even for shapes that don’t cluster well like linear lengths of sprayed liquid.

The liquid seen in these old demos now runs much faster in the final game, even after adding all the art and rendering that we did we were able to optimize an overall improvement over the years.  There’s a lot of ideas and directions in these old videos that I still think would make great mechanics once fully fleshed out, we just might have to do that in the next game.

http://throughtheloop.strangeloopgames.com/

The focus of this blog is the same as the focus of our company – understanding how games can use modern technology in ways beyond just improved graphics.  If you’re interested in the subject do stop by and leave a comment.  More articles to come.

9/10 on Machinima:  “Just like Portal 2, Vessel is about as universally recommended a game as can exist.”

9/10 on Game Spy:  ”Vessel is around a quarter of the price of a AAA game, but it contains more flair and ingenuity than most blockbuster games can muster. ”

5/5 perfect score on Piki Geek! “…one of the best puzzle games since LittleBigPlanet or Portal. Yeah, it’s that good.”

It’s very satisfying to see people are having as much fun playing this game as we did making it.  As we work on the console versions and start thinking about what we want to do next we’re driven by the support we’ve received from our players.   Rest assured you’ll see it all here as soon as we have something to show.   Here’s to our players.

The best way to get Vessel is to buy it directly from our website (go to the landing page here http://www.strangeloopgames.com/), you’ll get a DRM-free download of the game, PLUS a key to unlock on Steam. We also have a store on Steam you can use too.

We’ve been trying to figure out how long Vessel is, and determined it really varies. We’re guessing it’s going to be about 10 solid hours of gameplay, all challenging puzzles and no filler or repeated sequences. Definitely a bargain for the asking price. Also, we’re on sale for 10% off this first week! There’s a demo available on Steam as well (link here for Steam store)

It’s been an incredible experience quitting our day jobs and building this vision together, and working with these team has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in my career and life. We’re very proud of the result and we hope people will really attach to the unique things we’re doing with this game.

So give it a play and let us know what you think.

It starts in the rain….

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.

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.

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

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.

Tree house video: The main character Arkwright invented these liquid machines (Fluros), here he’s encountered a new Fluro evolution that’s merged itself with this tree and he’s ‘sampling’ it with that machine to gain its abilities. He uses the blue goo to lure it into position under the needle.  This video shows the new ‘Drinker’ Fluro which hasn’t yet been shown.

Engine video: In this video Arkwright is collecting red and blue goo that grows from the tree, and using that happen when they combine to power an engine.  This video shows off a couple of new fluid types that we hadn’t shown until now.

We also stopped by Gamespot while we were down there and were on their web show ‘On the Spot’, showing our demo from Pax.  It was fun talking to Chris and meeting the Gamespot guys, if a little terrifying that we were doing a live demo of an alpha build (everything went swimmingly though). Check it out here:

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/index.html?event=on_the_spot20110922

We’re also working on a series of short videos now that will show the main mechanics of the game in detail, stay tuned for that!

Leonard Paul has a fifteen year history in composing, sound design and coding for games working for companies such as Electronic Arts, Backbone Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, moderngroove entertainment, Rockstar Vancouver and Black Box Games. He has worked on over twenty major game titles totaling over 6.4 million units sold since 1994, including award-winning AAA titles such as EA’s NBA Jam, NHL11, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, NBA Live ’95 as well as the indie award-winning title Retro City Rampage.  In film, he was the composer for the multi-award winning documentary The Corporation which is the highest grossing Canadian documentary in history.
– http://VideoGameAudio.com & twitter: VideoGameAudio