Fract OSC blurb for Haywire Magazine
This was originally written in 2015 for Haywire Magazine. There was a few years where, at the start of the new year, they would collect blurbs on as many games from as many writers as possible in an effort to properly cover that year in games. It was fun! Fract OSC was the first one I contributed to it (wrote a few more for 2015's edition; have to dig those up eventually) and I think it's still the best one I wrote. Still pleased with how it turned out.
If you haven't played Fract OSC, you really should. Absolutely phenomenal game.
Fract OSC embeds you in a world of music. Every structure around you exists with the sole purpose of producing music. Neon blue, green, and purple permeate the land, each marking a different path, a different track. You’re told nothing about where to go or how to interact. You’re simply left to wander about and figure everything out yourself, piecing together the rules and nature of this world as you go, just as you’re piecing together the threads of music that run through it.
It explores this through rudimentary puzzles: pushing blocks, directing beams, and rotating or elevating platforms. Occasionally, however, it discards these in favor of more direct interaction. At the end of each path lies a console that allows you to piece together the threads of music you’ve restored to form something new. You’re not merely dropping notes into a grid here, rearranging them until you’ve produced the desired tune, but taking excerpts and weaving them together into something whole: a track of your own creation. You’re limited by what you can do there, of course, and the goal is to produce something specific, but it’s still one of Fract OSC’s strongest moments. Because it captures the joy of making music.
The endgame goes further in that regard. Upon finishing Fract OSC, you’re taken back to the studio where it all started. Only this time, instead of seeing a bunch of locks on the screens around you, you’re greeted by a complete synthesizer toolset. Every piece of music you’ve helped compose over the course of Fract is here, waiting to be remixed to your heart’s content. After spending the whole game being nothing more than a helping hand in creating music, finally you have the ability to truly make something of your own, to leave your own mark on this world.