Patterns of Light
Patterns of Light is a strange, and admittedly rather experimental, game which is now available on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. If your Xbox isn’t handy at the moment, you can find it on the Xbox Live Marketplace website; either way it’s priced at just 80 Microsoft Points (about US$1), and you can try out the 8 minute trial for free.
The gameplay in Patterns of Light is extremely simple: you’re presented with a sent of transparent boxes which glow at periodic intervals. Your job is to push the button on the XBox 360 controller that corresponds to the color of the glowing box. At the same time, you’re required to indicate with the left stick the position of the box you’re matching. For no particular reason, matching a button and position to a glowing box is called a “capture”; if you get either the color or position wrong, it is a “miss”.
You have a set time limit (which is reasonably generous for the first several of the 100 levels, but becomes rather tight by the end) during which you must capture a certain number of colored blocks. Each capture rewards you with a bit of extra time, while each miss will cost you time. If you run out of time, the game ends.
In spite of the game being quite simple, it does have a plot (or at least, a story of some sort). Uncovering and interpreting that story is part of the game.
If you’re not interested in subtle plots, you may still enjoy the game as a pattern matching puzzle. If you find it too slow and somber for your tastes, you might be better served by Expert Mode, which some people have found mind-breakingly fast.
Plots and Symbols
Here are some questions you might want to ponder while you play Patterns of Light (well, don’t ponder on Expert Mode, you’ll be too distracted):
- What are the strange symbols that appear at the end of every level?
- Do they appear in a particular pattern? Can you influence them somehow?
- What is the story told by the backgrounds in the game? (It should be quite familiar to many players)
- How many different endings are there?
- How is the title related to the rest of the game?
- Why are there bongo drums in the music?
Hi ^_^
This game was just released on Community Games on Xbox Marketplace.
I like it very much, but I’m confused to exactly when you press the button. By Level 7 I can’t seem to time it right.
The music in this game is great, excellent work!
I’m glad to hear you like the game, Silvercube!
The various colors / buttons go through a particular cycle: first they fade in, then they stay visible for a moment, then fade out — you can hit the matching button at any time during that cycle. It does take a bit of practice, particularly on the expert setting, to get the rhythm down. Sometimes listening for the pulsing sound when a cube is glowing can be helpful as well, though that gets less useful once the colors are appearing very quickly.
Really soothing gameplay and music, I bought the game after trying for a few minutes.
I had the same problem as Silvercube but I’ll take your advice and try to do it right tonight.
Good job,
Cheers.
Ah! Thanks, I will try that.
Oh, P.S. – You have a forum created on Xbox.com, just for your game:
http://forums.xbox.com/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=36
Scroll down till you get to the the P’s : )
As soon as I have some money to spend, I’ll definitely purchase the game.
It’s a really unique game.
Really soothing gameplay and music, I bought the game after trying for a few minutes.
I had the same problem as Silvercube but I'll take your advice and try to do it right tonight.
Good job,
Cheers.