Synaestheisa is a condition in which you experience one sense like sound through another pathway like sight, and it’s a growing concept in video games, particularly through the art of visualizing music. More recent indie games like Audiosurf and Sound Shapes carry on the groundwork laid by Dreamcast/PS2 classic Rez, while larger projects like Harmonix’s newly unveiled Chroma show there’s plenty left to explore for synaesthesia and gaming.
Exploring music is exactly what you do in Fract, the Indie Fund-backed and IGF Best Student Game winner that’s coming to Steam, GOG and the Humble Store next month. Developed by Montreal-based three-man team Phosfiend Systems, Fract is based around a psychedelic, boldly colored world – inspired by the movie Tron – that is in essence one big synthesizer. Players can create and manipulate music and sound by exploring the world and solving the puzzles they find there,
You can even save and export the music you create in Fract, so brace yourself for some great jams when the game hits Windows PC and Mac in April, priced at $15.
