Indie Fund Now Backing SoundSelf
We're proud to announce Robin Arnott's audio-visual exploration game SoundSelf as our newest addition to the Indie Fund family. Robin's game abandons design convention by imposing no goals on the players. Instead, it uses hypnosis techniques to entrance the player while they explore an abstract musical environment generated by their voice.
SoundSelf ran a successful KickStarter in 2013, but the project has grown in scope. Robin will use these new funds primarily to hire visual programmer Cale Bradbury for work on the Gear VR version of SoundSelf. "This is especially important to me because I see Gear VR as an opportunity to make an early statement about the potential of virtual reality while the conversation is still fresh," Robin told us, and he expanded upon this in more detail on his blog.
Despite being showcased across a myriad of events including IGF, IndieCade, Gamercamp, and GameCity, our own Ron Carmel remained skeptical until he tried it himself. "One of the things we get excited about most in the games we fund is when they break new design ground. I was very skeptical of SoundSelf before I tried it, thinking it will be just another high concept sound visualizer that won't deliver on the claims. I could not have been more wrong. Within 10 minutes of plugging in I had experienced something I had never before experienced. My best (but inadequate) description of the experience is 'amplified meditation'. For me, there is nothing more ground-breaking in interaction design than opening the door for a person to have a completely new experience. Thank you, for that, Robin!"
An alpha version is available for purchase now via on the SoundSelf website for Windows and Mac users (Linux support forthcoming), along with a pre-order option. We want to congratulate Robin and wish him the best as he finishes his transformational project!