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[DOWNLOAD "TEST SUBJECT" HERE!]

DOWNLOAD "TEST SUBJECT" HERE!

"Test Subject" promo teaser for the curious



This album has been stewing, fermenting, and gradually mutating over the past year of development...  and it's finally emerged as a diverse, upbeat, unpredictable and exciting mix of chiptunes, electric guitars, and assorted guest appearances from the likes of Shawn Phase, Norrin Radd, and MC Fen. May you be rawked!

01. Bait Thief
02. Moving Sidewalk
03. Honeydew (Feat. Shawn Phase)
04. Durian II
05. Who Can Stop Us? (Feat. MC Fen & Norrin Radd)
06. No Reason (Feat. MC Fen)
07. Cheque, Please
08. Teal (Letting Go)
09. Ultramarine (Free)
10. Test Subject

~Josiah/Bit_Rat

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Original post:

Figured I'd share this here. This is a silly little teaser clip for my new chiptune album "Test Subject," probably going to see release in the next week or two.

Test Subject album teaser

That's all for now!

~Josiah

Make sure that you run the game in windowed mode so it is more responsive.

Aha! Good call. I'm having verrrry minor response issues/slipperyness so that may help a lot. Will try it soon!

~Josiah

It's pretty much my own damn fault, but this (series of) room(s) is severely hindering my enjoyment of the game. I know it's optional, I know I could just unlock things in the menu if I wanted to, but I still have the irresistible compulsion to get every "optional" thing on the first playthrough. I started playing the game a day or two after it was released and I still haven't gotten past my second level because of this damn trinket.

It's totally stubborn and absurd but I just can't even let myself continue without getting this, and it still has me totally stumped. I took a break for a couple weeks, just tried again now, died another 300 times, and gave up. I may never finish this game at this rate.

(Well no, I'll probably just cave and unlock invincibility after my 5,000th death in this same spot)

~Josiah

Could be that too, really. Just seems odd to me as it's a comparatively insignificant part of the experience to derive a name from. We may never know the answer to the mystery (Mysterry?)

~Josiah

I at least understand what it's meant to be now.

Really? I thought I was a pretty hardcore artsty person, but with BRIDGE I got totally served. I'm a big fan of Distractionware though, so could you please share with the public your insight into this bizarre creation? What is it trying to say?

I don't think it's trying to say anything.  It's more of an experiment with music.   There's a gradient of slightly different song loops, kind of from "sad and slow" to "more upbeat," and you can link together three of these moods (opening, bridge, conclusion) to make a short song, shifting the mood throughout the song.

Basically that, though I would disagree that it's a song and say that it's more of a short story or sense of atmosphere that you create by moving from color to color. AFAIK you can only move to a directly adjacent color to the one that's currently 'playing.' Restarting it after the three 'acts' keeps the last selected color so you can explore them all.

I would assume that the title "Bridge" refers to the connection between the player and the 'game' by way of the atmosphere or story they perceive, but I could be way off base here

~Josiah

EDIT: Hmm, I get it. Interesting little creation. It confused the hell out of me at first (partly because for some reason it wouldn't let me restart when it ended the first time), but I think I at least understand what it's meant to be now.

Neat little artsy atmosphere-thingy. I wouldn't call it a game but I like it.

Here's the link for people viewing this topic, by the way: Bridge

~Josiah

I play it with just the arrows, using the opposite directions to flip-- for example down to flip up, etc. Feels like pushing off a surface, or something. I dunno.

~Josiah

I was over at processing.org and found this:

http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php   

When I first saw the title back when the game was announced, my first thought was those old V Planet Q/QuickBasic reviews:

http://www.vplanetmag.com/review33.shtml

Maybe Terry remembers those.

~Josiah

The controls are pretty slippery for me too-- Annoying sometimes (mostly just at first), but I figured it was just how the game was supposed to be. I get a slide of about 6-10px if I hold a direction for more than about a half-second. Just tapping a direction gives me no slide.

I'm running it on an Acer Aspire One netbook, Intel Atom CPU, not sure of the graphics hardware.

~Josiah

Yeah, this thing creeped me out. Imagine standing on that ledge up there and seeing it head-on: I can sorta see why it made Veridian now.

~Josiah

First time playing the game, I'm stuck here too. I've racked up almost 500 deaths so far in total and maybe a good quarter of those have been on this damn series of rooms... The best part is, you don't even HAVE to get the trinket. I'm just stuck on my own determination. I definitely think cruel and punishing difficulty is gonna become one of Terry's trademarks, like it or not!

Great game so far though, very much enjoying it. Real cool atmosphere and on the whole it's really inspiring to play!

~Josiah

I haven't had the chance to play my pre-ordered copy of the game yet, but just from what I've heard, it seems to me like a no-death playthrough of VVVVVV may just become the ultimate (/mythical/impossible) gaming trophy

~Josiah

Hey! I'm Josiah. I'm either a musician, audio engineer, pixel artist or game designer, depending on what I'm working on when I'm asked what it is that I do. I've done music for Terry on a couple occasions, the most recent one being Squish.

I make indie games-- but when no one's looking, I put on spectacles and a fake mustache and work on commercial iPhone games to pay the rent.

I've known of Terry since the QuickBasic days ("Chaotic Harmony" I believe he went by?), but only really started to take notice of his games when he started developing them full time. Big fan of Don't Look Back, Pathways, Judith, etc... VVVVVV is significant blip on my radar.

All the links to my stuff are in my signature so I'll avoid dumping them here as well.

~Josiah

Haha, I always interpreted it to be an ASCII representation of spikes-- hadn't thought about the up-down movement thing, that one seems more likely! Neat

~Josiah

Yo Terry
Can't wait for VVVVVVeeee...

~Josiah