From Kyle
Traveling to the astral plane by opening your third eye and leaving your pathetic meat and fiber sack behind is not something you consider doing often, but developer and sound designer Robin Arnott may have just the conduit to allow you to explore this possibility without the need for decade-long escapes to the furthest reaches of the Himalayas among spiritually altruistic monks.
This earthly vehicle is SoundSelf, a not-really-a-game game that focuses on the journey and mode of exploration rather than giving you any sort of hard defined goal to work towards. Describing SoundSelf is difficult, in that there are no characters or areas or specific themes to outline, but it defines itself as an experience more than anything else.
SoundSelf operates more as a device for “feedback,” where the output from SoundSelf is entirely dependent on the input. An epilepsy warning precedes the currently available prototype, so those sensitive to moving/flashing lights and droning sounds need not apply. There are plenty of those available here. Your tools will be a pair of headphones and a microphone and nothing else. Low light environment encouraged, but there's something to be said about computer screens in darker environments and the health of your eyes. Anyway, we carry on.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
Within the prototype, you are greeted with a mere black dot and an unnerving, otherworldly hum. Pushing keys on your keyboard does nothing. Moving your mouse does nothing. Ah, but noise? Noise is everything. Emulate the droning tone to the best of your ability. Watch as the hole opens progressively. Widens. A circle appears, almost as if it were an eye. Watching you. Suddenly, the whole thing opens up, taking the entirety of your screen into this bizarre dimension, as if Spirograph suddenly returned from your childhood to live again once more in this ebbing and flowing montage of color.
Perhaps you stop making noise, surprised by the sudden burst of happenings to your eyes. The lack of sound causes this new universe to recede to the black dot once more, again accompanied by the innocent-yet-eerie hum. A deep breath and you venture forth for another round, this time a bit more prepared for what is to come. You emulate the low drone once more and the world again opens up, the same wild shapes dancing around your screen. What happens if you change this note that you're emulating, however? Modulating up or down causes different “rifts” to open on your screen, so to speak. New shapes and new colors appear to coincide with this new audial feedback SoundSelf is receiving. “Why” isn't really a concern, but taking the time to assess your visual situation may be something of an impossibility.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
As stated, SoundSelf is far and removed from being an actual “game” in the sense that there is a clear beginning, middle, and end. This abstract perspective from Arnott allows this simple input, your voice, to become this medium by which to power your other senses. The reverberating feedback fills your ears, the shapes and lines and colors fill your eyes, and it's all being powered by your voice. Modulating your pitch creates new sensations, and it's up to you to simultaneously create and destroy your experience each time.
What SoundSelf is, or what it appears to be, is a means to create synesthesia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... All your senses become active, driven forward by your curiosity, your desire for exploration—all fueled by you, your very voice. Where will it take you?
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
SoundSelf thrives as a very personal experience, and though it can be shared with others, the individual takeaways are going to be all that matter. You need to consider SoundSelf as a sort of instrument of meditation that primes your senses and encourages you to regulate your breathing in order to find an intimate momentum with which to apply. What will you see beyond the shapes and colors? What will you experience in your body? Beyond your body, perhaps? Will your ears merely hear the reverberations that SoundSelf is processing back into your ears or will they take in more sound from a place your body cannot quite reach? None of these questions can be answered for you, because they must be answered by you.
SoundSelf is nearly impossible to describe, because it truly must be experienced. The closest real-world analogy is comparing it to actively partaking in meditative didgeridoo playing. Example here:
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
We see a simple visualizer coupled with subtle, drawn out tones from a didgeridoo and synthesizer, melding together and flowing in unison to lull you somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness—a trance, if it can be applied. Effective for some, but the experience is passive at best. SoundSelf, on the other hand, aims to make this more of an active undertaking, perhaps awakening parts of you that you did not know existed or taking you to places you could not have dreamed of.
The big question is: Where will SoundSelf take you?
Day 28 | Robin Arnott
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
After every sentence in this blog I feel like someone is going to say.."you are now entering, the twilight zone"
" Where will SoundSelf take you? " i think it will take me to in awesome place !
One of the most intriguing games of the Indie Month! I will check this out certainly
Ahhaaa... now i get it.. sounds awesomee!! Brain yoga any1??
P.s i think this story should be on the top for people who dont know what soundself is (like me)
I need to experience this game, need to know *_*