Audiosurf shows how music can be creative fuel for games
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
The use of music in games isn’t just about licensing, these days. A new breed of games are exploring the idea of using the music tracks already on the devices on which they’re played (whether PC, console or mobile phone) to ‘auto-generate’ in-game levels or content.
As an example, today I’ve been playing a PC game called Audiosurf, which came out late last month. It’s a PC game that costs £9.99, and is a ‘puzzle racer’. It looks a bit like Wipeout, in that it’s a futuristic-looking 3D racing game, but you have to collect coloured blocks as you zip along the various tracks.
But the interesting thing is the way it uses the music stored on your hard drive to generate unique tracks to race on – with slower tunes creating a gentle uphill ride, and faster songs creating more of a rollercoaster effect. Watch our video hands-on above, and then click below for more info on this, and similar games on other platforms.
