Chime – Hands On

One Big Game (OBG) announced this year at GameCity Squared the first game in its series of mini-games.

And it’s a special one.

The game is called Chime, a puzzle game where the player takes direct control of the background music, by arranging note blocks on a grid.

The Gamer plays against the rythym and melody and places blocks against the clock, remixing famous artists.

The game is part of OneBigGame, the videogames industry-wide charity initiative, so more than 60 percent of the purchase price of Chime will be donated to charities around the world.

It sounds simple and the description doesn’t lend itself much to excitement, but this geek got a hands-on play, and can’t wait until the game is released to the general public.

The premise of Chime is to place shapes on a grid to make music. Gamers control a single shape at a time, and can move, rotate it before putting it onto the grid.

A beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, and registers when it hits placed shapes. The aim of the game is to cover the grid entirely with blocks in a set time limit of three, six or nine minutes. It sounds simple, you might say, but the only way you can gain coverage is if you form the blocks into quads, which have to be at least three blocks width and height.

In my latest reviews, I’ve been complaining that I’m a jaded gamer and some games are beginning to look and play the same. I’ve offered that the industry is stagnating, not offering anything new.

Until I played Chime.

This intensifies audio and creates new melodies as you play, but the way the game works mean different players will never hear exactly same song, based on whether they aim for building epic quads the size of your fist, or going for single quads at a time.

I had no strategy whatsoever when sampling this gem and accidentally chose one of the harder levels. I gave myself a three minute deadline. I was doomed from the start and still managed to cover 23 percent of the grid, proving that this is one game that’s going to be a lot of fun for everyone.

At the time of writing, Moby and Paul Hartnall of Orbital are confirmed collaborators.

Chime was produced by music game specialists Zoë Mode and should hit Xbox Live and PC formats just before this Christmas.