{"id":47697,"date":"2019-08-14T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47697"},"modified":"2019-08-14T06:14:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T10:14:58","slug":"steam-backlog-fract-osc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47697","title":{"rendered":"Steam Backlog: Fract OSC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago <a href=\"?p=47646\">on the podcast<\/a>, I mentioned that I&#8217;m a sucker for abstract shapes, neon lights, and electronic music. I have a large collection of 2D platformers that contain these elements. I don&#8217;t really care for 2D platformers and I&#8217;m actually <a href=\"?p=39488\">terrible at them<\/a>, but I keep buying them anyway because I like the music and visuals.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s entirely possible that I have a problem.<\/p>\n<p>In the comments, someone suggested that I give <a href=\"http:\/\/fractgame.com\/\">FRACT OSC<\/a> a look. I tried to buy it on Steam, but discovered that <b>I already owned it<\/b>. No doubt it fell into my cart during a Steam sale of years past and I never got around to playing it. According to my email archives, I bought this thing back in November of 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Five years later, I&#8217;m finally getting around to playing it. I&#8217;ve spent about two hours with Fract OSC so far, and I have to say this is a very strange title.<\/p>\n<h3><!--more--><br \/>\nThe Puzzle is Finding the Puzzle<\/h3>\n<p><div class='imagefull'><img src='https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/images\/fract1.jpg' width=100% alt='Is this a puzzle?' title='Is this a puzzle?'\/><\/div><div class='mouseover-alt'>Is this a puzzle?<\/div><\/p>\n<p>FRACT is a puzzle game. You wander around an abstract world of neon lights and solve puzzles to activate machines that play music.<\/p>\n<p>In your typical puzzle game, the player is given some kind of direction or structure. Sometimes it&#8217;s overt, sometimes it&#8217;s subtle, but one way or another the developer will present the player with some basic ideas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A short-term goal.<\/b> The player is presented with an obstacle that blocks their progress. Usually this is a locked door, but sometimes it takes other forms. Maybe they need to raise \/ lower a bridge. Or turn on the power. Or activate a machine like a train or elevator. Whatever. The player can see a goal, and thus they look for a way to overcome it, which leads them to a puzzle. Some games like <a href=\"https:\/\/starwars.fandom.com\/wiki\/Star_Wars:_Pit_Droids\"><i>Star Wars: Pit Droids<\/i><\/a> forgo the whole exploration idea and just present the puzzles in a menu.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A way to identify the puzzles of the world and learn the language of the game.<\/b> In <i>Myst<\/i> and <i>Riven<\/i>, the puzzles were generally odd machines you had to operate. In <i>The Witness<\/i>, the puzzles were based on drawing lines on a grid. When you see a panel with a grid on it, you know you can approach it and begin drawing lines. Basically, the player should probably not be looking at random bits of scenery and asking &#8220;Is <b>this<\/b> a puzzle?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A way to identify when a puzzled is solved.<\/b> The power comes on, the door opens, a congratulatory popup appears, or whatever. The player knows when they&#8217;ve succeeded.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A long-term goal.<\/b> The game usually gives the player something to strive for beyond &#8220;solve the next puzzle&#8221;. In <i>Myst<\/i>, your apparent goal was to collect red or blue pages to make contact with the two guys trapped in the corresponding red \/ blue books. In <i>Riven<\/i>, your friend<span class='snote' title='1'>Is he though?<\/span> Atrus explains your goal up front. In <i>The Witness<\/i>, beams of light direct your attention towards the mountaintop, giving the player a pretty clear indication of where all of their puzzle-solving is headed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div class='imagefull'><img src='https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/images\/fract2.jpg' width=100% alt='It&apos;s all lit up and playing music. Does that mean I solved it? If not, then what&apos;s my goal? Is this actually a puzzle, or just a toy to let you map out notes for giggles?' title='It&apos;s all lit up and playing music. Does that mean I solved it? If not, then what&apos;s my goal? Is this actually a puzzle, or just a toy to let you map out notes for giggles?'\/><\/div><div class='mouseover-alt'>It&apos;s all lit up and playing music. Does that mean I solved it? If not, then what&apos;s my goal? Is this actually a puzzle, or just a toy to let you map out notes for giggles?<\/div><\/p>\n<p>FRACT doesn&#8217;t really have any of these. I know a lot of people &#8211; myself included &#8211; gave <i>The Witness<\/i> a hard time for being aggressively obtuse, but <i>Witness<\/i> practically holds your hand compared to FRACT&#8217;s meandering indifference. FRACT never gives you a moment of clear direction like sticking you in front of puzzle beside an obstacle and allowing you to overcome the latter by solving the former. You don&#8217;t know where you&#8217;re going, what your goals are, what the puzzles look like, how their mechanics work, or even how to tell you&#8217;ve solved it.<\/p>\n<p><i>Hey, this geometric shape opened up as I approached. Is this a puzzle? What am I supposed to do with it? Is this just scenery?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Hmm. This thing with sliding blocks around is clearly a puzzle, but what&#8217;s my goal? I don&#8217;t see any locked doors nearby. I have no idea what I&#8217;ll get if I solve this. Moreover, I can&#8217;t tell if I <\/i><b><i>have<\/i><\/b><i> solved it. I pressed the thing and stood on this other thing and then music started playing. Is that solved? Nothing seems to have changed. Am I supposed to walk around this huge open area looking for an open door now, or am I supposed to keep doing&#8230; whatever this is?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Okay, that&#8217;s solved for sure, because the music got fuller and the puzzle itself deactivated. But I have no idea why that was the solution. I was just pushing buttons and experimenting and suddenly I&#8217;d won.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>An elevator carried me up to this new area. Is this all going somewhere? Do I have a long-term goal? All of these buildings look more or less equal in terms of complexity. Can I do them in any order? Is there an intended order? Is there a really big door around here that will open up if I solve all of these? Is this huge chamber the entire gameworld, or am I inhabiting puzzle world 1 of 99?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><div class='imagefull'><img src='https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/images\/fract3.jpg?' width=100% alt='For the record, THIS is what it looks like when you solve a puzzle.' title='For the record, THIS is what it looks like when you solve a puzzle.'\/><\/div><div class='mouseover-alt'>For the record, THIS is what it looks like when you solve a puzzle.<\/div><\/p>\n<p>I stuck with it and did manage to figure out a few basics. Some puzzles grant access to other areas, and other puzzles unlock new tracks \/ instrument parts that you can play with in the giant music mixer at the start of the game. I solved a few puzzles and unlocked a couple of mixer parts. They were fun to play with, but the puzzles fell completely flat for me. I never got any satisfaction from solving them because I felt like I was blundering into the solution without understanding the goal. The whole thing was so aimless that I wasn&#8217;t really getting a sense of progression or anticipation.<\/p>\n<p>An example:<\/p>\n<p>I walk into a room and fiddle around with sliding blocks. Sometimes a thing lights up, but I can&#8217;t tell if the puzzle is solved or just in a new state. After fumbling around I sort of accidentally solve it without understanding my goal. The circular platform in the middle of the room lights up. I stand on it and press the gizmo, and it carries me up to a new area.<\/p>\n<p>The problem was that I wasn&#8217;t aware that my goal was to go up. I wasn&#8217;t aware of the room above. If the game had somehow showed me the room ahead of time then it would have created a sense of curiosity, so when I finally got there it would feel like I&#8217;d solved a mystery.<\/p>\n<p>If the game had made the elevator a recognizable thing<span class='snote' title='2'>By using similar-looking devices elsewhere instead of making everything abstract.<\/span> then I would have spotted the elevator and recognized it as a goal. Then I would have understood what the puzzle was for, and I&#8217;d get a sense of accomplishment when I finally reached the solution.<\/p>\n<p><div class='imagefull'><img src='https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/images\/fract4.jpg' width=100% alt='I don&apos;t even know what I&apos;m supposed to be trying to accomplish.' title='I don&apos;t even know what I&apos;m supposed to be trying to accomplish.'\/><\/div><div class='mouseover-alt'>I don&apos;t even know what I&apos;m supposed to be trying to accomplish.<\/div><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s entirely possible that this ultra-obtuse design was intentional. There&#8217;s nothing inherently wrong with presenting the player with a bunch of random shit and leaving them to figure things out for themselves, but this experience was too disconnected for me. I think my ideal puzzle game falls somewhere between the extremes of &#8220;Here are the numbered puzzles presented in a fixed menu&#8221; and &#8220;Am I playing the game yet? I can&#8217;t tell.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not a bad game. The abstract environments are kind of cool and the arcade-style <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Digital_audio_workstation\">DAW<\/a> is fun to play with if you enjoy electronic music. The puzzles are fine if you don&#8217;t mind hunting for them. It&#8217;s a charming game with wonderful brain-tickling music, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is a bit too abstract for my taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago on the podcast, I mentioned that I&#8217;m a sucker for abstract shapes, neon lights, and electronic music. I have a large collection of 2D platformers that contain these elements. I don&#8217;t really care for 2D platformers and I&#8217;m actually terrible at them, but I keep buying them anyway because I like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47697"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47759,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47697\/revisions\/47759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}