carcophony media links
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"carcophony is one of those games that you just have to
put your hands on your hips,
pull up your zip and say,
Wow - that's absolute genius" |
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"It is difficult not to recommend Carcophony -
A genuinely original idea that is genuinely fun to play" 8/10 |
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"we don’t NOT recommend it” |
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10/10 “The Best Take on Frantic Coordination since Chu Chu Rocket!” |
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"so freakin’ awesome..." |
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'Best Of Indie Games' |
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An insanely addicting puzzle game |
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XBL Indie Game Pick |
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"Gameplay is simple to grasp - |
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"I may be doing it wrong" |
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"I can assure you that Carcophony may be one of the best puzzle games on the indie games channel." |
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"The game is fast paced, |
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"highly addicting" |
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"my 7 year old son would rather have played a different game" |
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"well worth checking out!" |
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carcophony links
videos
maps
tech postmortem
reviews
Links to media
The Independint Charles Show (21/05/10)
carcophony is one of those games that you just have to
put your hands on your hips,
pull up your zip and say, "
Wow - that's absolute genius".
It's really worth trying out. It's a mark of genius this game. It is truly genius.
vi.deoga.me.uk (16/02/10)
Carcophony is an indie puzzle game available on the Xbox Live Indie Marketplace. The Indie Marketplace is a place often inhabited by poorly-made clones of existing puzzle games, so imagine my surprise at discovering that not only is Carcophony an interesting new idea, it is actually remarkably well-made and, most importantly, genuinely good fun.
You play Carcophony by manipulating traffic lights to direct ever-increasing streams of coloured vehicles to their matching-coloured destinations. The premise is simple, and easy enough to pick up in the first few minutes of play.
Each game starts off slowly, lulling you into a quiet rhythm, before gradually cranking up the traffic count until you are franticly flicking between lights in a desperate bid to stave off over-congestion and, ultimately, game over. This system works really well, aided by the introduction of gradually more complex road systems, unlocked after surviving a particular ‘wave’ of traffic on the previous stage.
The presentation of Carcophony is great, from the simple but effective graphics to the excellent music track. One neat detail is the way the music increases in intensity as the game increases in speed. Another is the way the stage begins to pulse and rotate as the wave number increases, making it harder to keep track of the action, and all the more enjoyable for it.
The simple but effective gameplay, the gradual increase in pace and the excellent presentation makes a game of Carcophany almost hypnotically absorbing. It is addictive and entertaining, and that’s without mentioning its extra features, from competitive and cooperative multiplayer to a bespoke Achievement-type system which provides incentive to keep playing, which really take it a step above the usual Indie Marketplace fair.
For the price of a Burger King, it is difficult not to recommend Carcophony. I could argue that the initially slow pacing may not be to everyone’s tastes, or that the difficulty curve through the stages is somewhat steep, but really, this is a game that’s hard to knock. A genuinely original idea that is genuinely fun to play and is charmingly presented, Carcophony gives a lot of 800-point Arcade titles a run for their money, I would argue that it ends up actually being a cut above some of those games.
VideogameUK verdict: 8/10
By Tom Battey
IndieFlux.com (31/12/09)
Overall it’s not that bad, but you need to decide for yourself whether you will like it or not. With the level of polish on this for an indie game, I think we’ll see better stuff coming from glpeas soon.
XboxHornet.com (16/12/09)
“The Best Take on Frantic Coordination since Chu Chu Rocket!”
Carcophony is a 1-4 player game where the aim is to control traffic lights (red or green, no orange here!) to aid the flow of traffic. Cars spawn as a colour, and the idea is to get those vehicles to their respective colour-coordinated home. As there are multiple spawn points on the increasingly-complicated maps, and each colour has a home far away from each other, the difficulty can quickly ramp up. The trick to the game is that the lights don’t automatically change colour – the only thing that can change the flow of traffic is you, so you are expected to be watching all your stop lights carefully to prevent backlog! To make matters worse, the gameboard can rotate slightly, forcing you to be aware of the map, rather than just “corners” or positions, and even worse, the occasional ambulance might need through, so you better be able to accommodate the emergency! The game ultimately ends when you have failed to let traffic flow smoothly, and a backlog occurs at some point on the map.
The gameplay is well designed, easy to understand, and introduced gently through a clear tutorial, and the difficulty slowly scales up through the levels. The single player, while trying, does not get nigh-impossible until a fair ways in, and serves as a good way to relax, or as a venue for training up for multiplayer.
Artistically, the game meets its goal with flying colours: The art is simple, smooth, and subtle. The choices of colour were spot on – nothing is glaring or ambiguous, and the simplified graphics are an excellent choice, much like how highly detailed Monopoly pieces would be more of a distraction than of any use. The cars travel smoothly, and when traffic becomes too deadlocked, the cars flash dangerously red accordingly. The music is of similar design, and at the risk of repetition, is simple, smooth, and subtle; Gentle piano music plays at a reasonable tempo, sounding quite unlike the brute midis some other XBLIG show off.
The game has a simplicity to its design that offers itself well to replayability, but ultimately, a game’s lasting appeal depends on its multiplayer, and this game is well aware of that. Offering both 2player co-op gameplay and 2-4player competitive (sadly only local), the raw gameplay stays the same, but with the added “threat” of good combos dropping road hazards onto the opponent’s map. If you’ve got a few sly friends, multiplayer on this game shouldn’t be missed.
I concede that this game is not for everyone; because the game screen can often get “busy” with multiple lights demanding your attention, if you prefer your casual games to be casually-paced, you might find this a tad too twitchy for you. But, if like me, you don’t mind the occasional cacophony, you might just fall in love with Carcophony.
Carcophony scores – 10/10
Review by WDesm for XboxHornet
diygamer.com (15/11/09)
Stuck in Traffic, Again…’Carcophony’ [Review]
In the world of mainstream gaming, few titles grace the originality that indie gamers crave. Fortunately, mainstream gaming is slowly opening its doors to independent developers as well. With mediums such as the App Store or XBOX Live Indie Games come titles that do provide the originality lacking in the giant studios.
UK developer glpeas has taken into account the need for creativity. In fact, they’ve come up with something so freakin’ awesome that I was ecstatic to contact them for the opportunity to review this game. If you haven’t played Flight Control on the iPhone/iPod Touch (assuming you own one), you are truly missing out. Well, in the same vain comes Carcophony, a game in which you must direct traffic and eliminate congestion. Of course, with the debut title always come the ups and downs; here’s my take on this XBOX indie.
Gameplay
The concept is this: you must get each of the colored cars to their destinations, which are also marked by the same color. To do this, you have to go through all the traffic lights at the intersections and change them to green for one route while the other cars wait their turn. Or, you know, do it your own way.
Carcophony certainly has unique gameplay elements. With the five maps that are provided, each one is increasingly challenging and the game’s mechanics are not simple to begin with. Well, they’re simple, just not easy to do. Naturally, you’ll start out with the easiest level first and once you work your way up to the fifth wave of cars, you will unlock the following map. You must do this for all four unlockable maps and boy, does it get challenging! The game has a tendency to make you feel overstressed whenever you look at the shit-ton of cars you have to handle in the later maps, especially with the craziness of the latter routes. However, being able to clear the way out for a group of cars (extra points if you get 10 and higher) and helping them arrive at their destination is a rewarding feeling.
glpeas has given us the obvious “Tutorial” mode, “Single Player,” “Multiplayer Co-Op,” and “Multiplayer Versus” which are all pretty self-explanatory. You can have up to four players on one console for the multiplayer modes. Unfortunately, however, you can only do so locally. Multiplayer does not run to XBOX Live and the game feels empty without this capability.
Style
I love color and my favorite color is green. Thankfully, glpeas has decided that the menus and background of Carcophony must be green; it looks fantastic. You have the option of selecting your own colors for the cars and the designs are very well done. Stylistically, this title looks great, ’nuff said.
Story
Carcophony is devoid of a story, so that’s that!
Everything Else
I really enjoyed Carcophony. Once you get past the initial “how the hell am I supposed to do this?” phase, the game takes a turn for the better. The tutorial is actually clear and should help you out thoroughly, regardless of how clueless you are. I should also note the music in the game: it eventually felt a little dull, but for the most part the sound effects and music complement the style well. At times, the game may feel unforgiving, but the boys at glpeas put in a lot of work to make it enjoyable and in the end, its stylistic appeal and unique elements make it worth the 400 Microsoft Points ($5), especially if you’ve got some to spare!
glpeas’ Carcophony is quite the debut, we’ll be sure to keep in touch with them and see what they will release in the future. For now, we hope they’re patting themselves on the back for an original title. Check out more info about the developer and the game at their website.
Author: Arsen Nazaryan
gamasutra.com (13/11/09)
This week on 'Best Of Indie Games'
exlstudios.wordpress.com (05/11/09)
Xbox Live Indie Game of the Day
"Carcophony (developed by Green Light Projects) - Become the manager of traffic in this insanely addicting puzzle game. The goal is to optimally manage the flow of traffic across five maps, each with their own tactics. Players will have their own ways of managing traffic which means no one game is the same as the next. As the map progresses more and more waves are added increasing the difficulty factor. Add in some nice surprises and bonuses along with co-operative and competitive play for up to four local players and Carcophony has a lot of enjoyment. Other features are high scores and extra challenges.
The game has a few surprises that I won’t give away. They definitely had me enjoying the game and the best part was not knowing the game had them! The puzzle element seems easy by watching a video or looking at pictures, but it requires constant thinking. I couldn’t stop playing! Even now I think of ways in which I could have moved traffic differently for a more optimal effect. My only grudge with the game right now is the lack of online. It’s hard to get a session of friends and/or family together to actually play games. Things are always too busy. This means I couldn’t try out the competitive or the co-operative. I’m sure those two modes increase the fun factor immensely since playing with friends or family is usually more fun then playing alone. Only way to know is to invite some friends over!"
indiegames.com (05/11/09)
XBL Indie Game Pick: Carcophony (Green Light Projects)
"A traffic management game? What tomfoolery is this! Carcophony is indeed such a thing, but while I've not exactly loved such titles in the past (see Armor Games I Love Traffic, which was incredibly boring), Green Light Projects' take on the idea quickly warmed to me.
Everything about this game makes me think of a horrible commute to work. The plodding music, the constant traffic jams, the slow-going - yet watching from above, it makes for quite a hectic experience. It all starts off slow and steady, and easy to keep organised. Traffic lights need to be switched to let cars through, and at the end of each wave an ambulance comes powering through and needs to make it from one side of the screen to the other before time runs out. If you have a queue, he's going to find that difficult!
As time goes by, more and more cars fill the screen, and if a jam gets too big, you've had it. There's also a multiplayer mode in which you handle traffic jams versus another player - makes for a lot of shouting and cursing. Right now Carcophony is priced at 400 MS Points ($5) which is possibly a little too much to ask for an arcade traffic sim, but there is of course a demo you can check out that should give you more to go on. "
diygamer.com (04/11/09)
gamesindustry.biz (03/11/09)
gamersroute.com (03/11/09)
xboxliveaddicts.co.uk (03/11/09)
xblaratings.com (31/10/09)
Developer interview
zeboyd.com (30/10/09)
"
For the longest time, I’ve thought that you ought to be able to make a good puzzle game out of the act of traffic control. Imagine my surprise when I found just such a game on XBox Live Indie Games last week, Carcophony.
At 400 MS points, Carcophony is more expensive than some games, but you’re getting a fun and unique game for your money. "
www.xblig.co.uk (30/10/09)
"Personally, I found the game to be a little boring and only played it for a short period of time."
411mania.com (26/10/09)
"There are a lot of puzzle games on both the arcade and indie game platforms for the Xbox 360. And some of them are good while others are…well, not so good. Since I began writing Living LIVE almost a year ago, I have played quite a few puzzle games that generally fall into these categories. When I first started playing Carcophony I assumed it would fall under the "not so good" category. After spending some time with it, however, I can assure you that Carcophony may be one of the best puzzle games on the indie games channel.
"
Rating: 8.0
xnplay.co.uk (26/10/09)
"Seems like more busywork than brain work, but I may be doing it wrong."
giantbomb.com (24/10/09)
1UP.com
Pick of the day: Carcophony
Fast and engaging gameplay. Highly recommended.
" The game is fast paced, engaging, and fun. The music does get a touch repetitive but it’s easily excused by fantastic gameplay. Co-op and multiplayer options in the full version will only sweeten the deal. If you have the 400g to spend I say give this game a try and see if it should find a spot in your library. "
Gay Gamer (24/10/09)
Yay.
" It's highly addicting. It may be priced a bit high, or perhaps I'm just spoiled because I have a similar game on my iPhone that was only $1 (Gridlocked, for those wondering), but regardless of price it's just a well made fun game."
Emuholic's Game Blog (23/10/09)
" The game starts off a little tricky but once you get the hang of changing the lights and keeping the flow of traffic under control it is great fun! Presentation, graphics and sounds are all very well done and looks to be worth the 400 points, well worth checking out!"
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