''Chime'' is a 2010

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

and

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. H ...

developed by

Zoë Mode Zoë Mode was a subsidiary studio of Kuju Entertainment based in Brighton, England. Zoë Mode's games portfolio covered a variety of genres and comprised big-brand entertainment, original social games and innovative gameplay use of motion cap ...

, released initially on the

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

service, and later for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

. An extended version of the game, called ''Chime Super Deluxe'', was released on the PlayStation Network on March 29, 2011. ''Chime'' is the first title released by the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

OneBigGame OneBigGame is the first non-profit video game publisher. The company was founded in 2007 by Martin de Ronde, co-founder formerly of Guerrilla Games. OneBigGame aids in the development of games with other noted developers for the benefit of charitab ...

Gameplay

''Chime'' is a block-dropping game. Players control a single

shape A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie ...

at a time, and can move, rotate, and then place it onto a grid. A beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, setting off events when it hits placed shapes. Quads are created by placing shapes in solid blocks of 3x3 or more. When a quad is completed and the beat line hits, different musical samples are triggered dependent on its shape. The size of the quad denotes the score, and multipliers can be achieved by having several quads on the screen at once. Once the beatline hits a completed quad, it is stamped down into the grid, earning the player coverage. (n.b.: when the stage's time runs out, all active quads—those that have not finished filling up—are immediately scored and added to the player's coverage, in order to allow awards of coverage bonus time and continued play.) The overall objective is to achieve 100% coverage to earn more time and score points. The game continues as long as time is available; it is possible to complete full coverage of the grid multiple times. There are two basic modes in the game, Timed Mode and Free Mode. Timed Mode pits the player against the clock, with three different levels of difficulty based on time limit—9, 6, or 3 minutes (the actual play time is longer, depending on the time bonus earned with every 10% coverage gained). Free Mode acts as a very basic sequencer. There is no time limit and the player is able to place shapes at their leisure to create different sounds and alter the music as they see fit.

Featured music

''Chime'' features a variety of different musical styles and artists. The original release of the game includes five songs, all of which have been donated to the game '' pro bono'' by the respective artists. The tracks are "Brazil" by Philip Glass, " Ooh Yeah" by Moby, "For Silence" by

Paul Hartnoll Paul Hartnoll (born 19 May 1968) is one of two brothers (the other being Phil Hartnoll) who make up the electronic dance act Orbital. History Hartnoll played in a local band during the mid-1980s, Noddy and the Satellites, featuring clarinetis ...

of Orbital (a band that, coincidentally, also had a breakout hit song titled Chime), "Spilled Cranberries" by Markus Schulz, and "Disco Ghosts" by Fred Deakin of

Lemon Jelly Lemon Jelly is a British electronic music duo from London that formed in 1998 and went on hiatus starting in 2008. Since its inception, the band members have always been Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen. Lemon Jelly has been nominated for awards ...

. In addition, the later Windows version of ''Chime'' featured a new level based on " Still Alive" from the popular 2007 video game '' Portal''. The song, written by

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are " Co ...

, can be heard during the closing credits of ''Portal'', with

Ellen McLain Ellen McLain (born 1952/1953) is an American voice actress. She is best known for providing the voice of GLaDOS, the primary antagonist of the ''Portal'' video game series, the Combine Overwatch in '' Half-Life 2'', and the Administrator, the a ...

singing in character as

GLaDOS GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is a fictional artificially superintelligent computer system from the video game series ''Portal''. GLaDOS later appeared in ''The Lab'' and ''Lego Dimensions''. The character was created by ...

. The music was produced for the game by Marc Canham, who manipulated the music to fit into the gameplay.

Reception

''Chime'' has received largely positive reviews from critics. It has a score 79 out of 100 on the aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. In their review,

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

praised the game and rated it 8 out of 10, saying, "''Chime'' is easy to recommend. It's cheap, it'll keep you amused for hours, and the $5 you spend goes to charity."

Sequels

In July 2015, one of the developers of Chime, Ste Curran, launched a Kickstarter campaign for a sequel, titled Chime Sharp. The campaign was successfully funded on August 10, 2015, and an

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

build of the game was released on Steam shortly after, featuring a song by

Chipzel Niamh Houston (born 23 September 1991), better known by her stage name Chipzel, is a musician from Northern Ireland. She is best known for making chiptune music, particularly with a Game Boy. She is also a video game music composer, and is ...

. One of the campaign's stretch goals would have provided funding for a further sequel with a chiptune and retro graphics theme, titled Chime Flat. When the Kickstarter campaign fell short of this stretch goal, Curran re-ran the Chime Sharp campaign on Indiegogo in an attempt to secure the remaining funds needed for Chime Flat. However, the Indiegogo campaign failed to raise the remaining funds, and there have been no other plans announced to put Chime Flat into production.

References

External links