PEGBJRE: Refractor
This wasn’t what I was expecting to round out the page.
Refractor is a work-in-progress anthology made by fluffy, a software engineer, developer and all around creative out of the United States. The name actually comes from an album by fluffy which was a collection of songs either for scrapped dev projects or for the sake of creation itself. These games included are all set to those tunes through various methods, and are brought together under this banner.
Notice: at the time I played Refractor, we were on Version 0.3.6.73951742–47b844e. This game is still in early access with three current titles, so keep checking back in case a new title is filled in.
I’m normally not in a scenario in which there are multiple titles within a single game in this fashion, especially ones that are also an album at the same time. So I’m going to shake things up and talk about each game briefly for both aspects. Let’s go!
The first album track is Little Bouncing Ball, a 5 minute tune full of synths and electronic bounciness. As one might expect, this translates into a ball breaker title, although I must say that this is by far the most chaotic iteration I’ve ever seen. Players have a static ball that will always respawn no matter what, but can also bounce back many of the other projectiles as well, cluttering up the screen and giving me severe indecision on which projectile I should be saving. Now, each bounce of a specific ball will give a point, but consecutive bounces will gain an incremental amount of points; the second bounce gives two points, the third gives three, and so on until those that yell that this is just the Triangle Number Sequence get their due. Points aside, however, I couldn’t help but just grin the entire time playing due to how well it flowed with the musical accompaniment. Upon moving into a new section of the song, the board would add something new and alter up the playing field, from giving enemies that attack (bounce the rockets) to full bricks that drop items that change the paddle. It doesn’t hurt that the song is also just so pretty to listen to, leading to five minutes of pure fun nonsense.
Strangers is the second title of the album, and shifts the tone dramatically away from the simplistic fun of Little Bouncing Ball. In this pop title, an unnamed protagonist sings of the confusion they are having at someone being in their house, called only the stranger. Unfortunately this is more of a tragedy, for the more the stranger talks the more is unraveled: they claim to be the protagonist’s husband, and they’ve been forgetting everything. The song sings of this in an almost melancholic tone, for it is hard to feel deep agony when the memory of a loved one ceases to exist. How players react to each conversation is given in a JRPG-esque dialogue system, but to keep with the music there is a hidden timer that will cause the choices to vanish and default to ‘no response’ instead, which is not an option. This leads to varying kinds of dialogue between the two, as players can lash out in fear at the fact a stranger is in their house, accuse the other of not being who they say, or simply do nothing and let this new reality wash over them. It’s quite terrifying if I’m honest, the possibility of losing the ability to recall events in one’s history — being unable to trust those that were trusted before, unable to be that person any longer.
Finally is Flight, a curious relaxation and ‘zen’ song that is accompanied by a monk falling gracefully from the sky. While doing so, coins will jump from the bottom of the screen and fall once again off the screen; those are what gives points, so moving back and forth is key to score as high as possible. Of course it isn’t that easy, for hitting a wall will cause a loss of points, meaning that balance between precision and coin collecting is imperative. The monk is never deterred by anything that occurs, it’s almost too calming really as I’m struggling to keep my own balance between greed and survival. It’s a nice change of pace from the previously heart wrenching tale, even if it is technically seventh on the album list meaning that this isn’t currently following the track order.
In a way, Refractor is almost like an experiment of many medias, to take a song (and usually a game jam theme) and create a title surrounding the idea. Since this isn’t a ‘short’ project either, the evolution could be something really neat to see as the years go on, for the creator and for us as the bystander watching each track come together. I made sure to listen to the actual album itself, and it just solidifies my idea of the wide variety of ideas and genres coming together.
If you’re as curious as I, then try it out and see for yourself.
So that’s page 16. Again, wasn’t expect it to round out like this — between Oxenfree and this anthology it sorta split my time weirdly. We go again tomorrow.
