Auditorium (Demo)

By: Derek Yu

On: December 17th, 2008

I think Cipher Prime’s Auditorium is a rather perfect little game. The goal of each level is to fill each of the Audio Containers by directing “The Flow” toward them with Controls that can manipulate it in various ways. To successfully fill a Container you have to make sure The Flow is the same color.

What I really like about the game is how it sort of evokes this kind of harmony between… well, harmony and disorder. Succeeding at the game doesn’t require any kind of real precision – as long as enough of the right color of Flow is touching an Audio Container, it will fill up. As the website states: “Auditorium is about the process of discovery and play. There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle.” By the third Act (Spring, my favorite), you’ll see that it becomes less about pointing The Flow as it is giving it room to dance.

But as the Audio Containers fill up, they start to play their music, and putting it all together there is a real feeling of orderly creation. Despite the fairly cold, minimalist graphical style of Auditorium, it feels like a pretty naturalistic game. Is this what Steve Jobs’ brain looks like?

Three Acts in the demo, but there plans to do 20 Acts for the full game. The creators are currently reviewing their options to put the game on a console, or on iPhone.

TIGdb: Entry for Auditorium