‘Pied.

Harmony, harmony | love

We look at i Prime’s multi-award winning ‘Auditorium’

 

Auditorium

By Angela Espinoza,
Arts Reviewer

based or ‘audio’ game craze

started, but one of the earliest
known models was the Atari Touch
Me, an arcade game released in 1974.
There are too many awesome places
this can go, so I'll just jump ahead to
the fact that, shockingly enough, the
Touch Me went untouched. Milton
Bradley, however, saw its potential
and in 1978 created Simon, a game
that needs no introduction. Since then,
games ranging from 1998’s Dance
Dance Revolution to the on-going Bit.
Trip series continue to be immensely
popular.

Creating the next big music
game continues to be a hassle, with
most preferring to try and cash in on
knock-offs and clones (ironically like
Simon). Obviously it’s hard to make
an original music game; Bit.Trip
itself is based on Pong. That’s why I
feel that if one has the urge to tackle
such a project, the first step should
not necessarily be to make something
‘original’, but something that requires
creativity. Cipher Prime, a small
Philadelphia-based “creative agency”,
has given us a fantastic example of
this with their debut title, Auditorium.

Auditorium was a project that
started back in early 2008, described
by co-creator Will Stallwood on
the Cipher Prime website as having
“meant to only be a mere widget at
the top of [the website]... In fact,
[Auditorium] was not even supposed
to be a puzzle game.” Luckily, the
project.expanded and by late 2008,

6°

[= hard to say when the music-

the Flash demo was posted on
Auditorium’s own website. The demo,
being simultaneously stressful and
addicting, garnered many donations
by visitors and fans. Thus, Auditorium
was able to see the light of day as a
full game on January 30, 2009.

The mechanics of Auditorium are
relatively simple; a stream of light
will be flowing one way, and with
use of a directional ball provided, the
player will aim the musical stream
to flow towards a box. As the stream
passes the box, a piece of music will
start; this is the player’s reward. As
you progress, you will face additional
tasks, e.g. aiming the light you start
off with to a coloured circle; the circle
changes the light’s colour to what
the respective box requires. Flows
and objectives become increasingly
difficult, so the player will be required
to have plenty of patience. Part of
the reason one gets fed up with such
a game is that the piece of music
you’ re trying to play is so soothing
and beautiful; the instant silence upon
messing up is enraging.

Auditorium is available on PC
and Mac for a mere $9.99 through
it’s and Cipher Prime’s website. For
you iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad
owners, you should already have it for
free. Auditorium HD was released for
PlayStation Network on November
23 and is compatible with PlayStation
Move. It is expected to be on Xbox
Live Arcade sometime before the
year’s end.

5/5

ODODUOt

 

 

Community: a college worth anraling.t in

Still accepting late registrations
By Jacey Gibb

ttendance on Thursday nights
A: Greendale Community

College is down this year, and
I have no idea why. Community, one
quarter of NBC’s Thursday comedy
block, is a show about a ragtag group
of students at a community college
who form a study group but end up
learning more about themselves than
about academics. It’s a premise that’s
basic and borderline cliché, yet it
works! Similar to shows like Modern
Family, Community takes the overused
sitcom plot lines and recycles them
into something more. The end result:
comedic brilliance!

The study group is led by antihero
Jeff (Joel McHale), a narcissistic
lawyer whose degree is deemed
unacceptable and must face the
education system once more. The
character is selfish and cocky, yet
Joel’s portrayal convinces you not
to hate, but sometimes even root for
him. The rest of the cast does well in
holding their own, especially Pierce
(Chevy Chase), a senile, racist old-
timer and Abed (Danny Pudi), an
oddball film student who constantly
makes meta-references that imply
awareness of being in a sitcom.

The characters are simple, their
environment familiar, yet Community’s
strength lies in its ability to parody
genres while seeming to be original.
Examples can be seen in an episode
where the study group gets trapped
in a KFC space simulator (movies
like Apollo 13) or in a more recent
episode where in faking a conspiracy
theory class, Jeff becomes involved
with a real life conspiracy (including a
hilarious climactic standoff with many,
many guns). The show is silly, but it
knows it, so it’s okay. It takes the old
and overused, applies it to a loveable
cast and then sprinkles in a bit of
Community magic, to create one of the
funniest shows currently on television.

It’s not to say the show is without
its flaws. Romances appear and
disappear between episodes with no
explanations given, which leads to
frustration as it seems the story lines
were dropped just as soon as they had
begun. Sometimes this isn’t a bad
thing though, as the chemistry between
Jeff and “love interest” Britta (Gillian

Jacobs) leaves much to be desired. A
possible pregnancy plot that has been
hinted at lately has me approaching
with caution as well, but I trust
Community enough to know I’m
in good hands. I’d recommend not
getting hung up on the love aspects of
the show as they’re rarely the focus
of episodes, and they have no reason
to be. The characters have enough
of a dynamic without the entering of
unnecessary romances and will they/
won’t they scenarios. I challenge you
to find me a couple on the show that’s
more rewarding to watch than the
friendship of Abed and Troy (Donald
Glover).

Unfortunately, Community
has struggled to find a wide
audience (much like 90% of NBC’s
programming). It is currently the
third lowest rated scripted show that
hasn’t already been cancelled. This,
combined with the news that NBC
is shuffling the time spots around so
now Community will be the Comedy
Block’s lead-in, has me worried
for the sophomore show. It doesn’t
have a big enough audience to be the
starting point for the evening and I’m
worried this move might send it to the
television’s gone-too-soon graveyard.

It is because of my faith in
Community that I have no problem
in what I’m about to do next. I beg
you, dear reader, to give the little
show that could a chance. Even if you
dropped out in season one, this season
has been brimming with comedy gold
and, with the claymation Christmas
episode on the way, Community
shows more promise than ever. I just
hope that this semester at Greendale
won’t be its last.

Community