ADVISORY: The above video contains many bright, flashing lights. We advise those prone to seizures to view with caution.
Do not adjust your monitor or speakers! What you are seeing and hearing is a very real stealth-puzzle musical adventure dubbed A.V.
A.V. is built around the unique and engaging mechanic of using sound to visualize the world. Each sound produced in the game lets out a colorful pulse of light, and by using this mechanic, you can identify the layout of the world. But watch out - a collection of enemies are out to get you, and making too much noise will give away your location. You'll need to make use of a special set of musical instruments to impact the world and find a way to escape. The entire game is built around a musical theme, with game sound effects and actions all taking place within an established rhythm. The end result is an exciting fusion of sound and light that draws you in and won't let go! (This is the sort of thing you're supposed to say in promotional trailers, isn't it?)
We've posted some more brief information about A.V.'s gameplay at the bottom of this page.
A.V. is about halfway through its planned development, and playable Windows and Web demos are currently available at avthegame.com. We are actively seeking to move the game, if funding allows, to the PS4 and Xbox One. We also have a page currently active on Steam Greenlight, Be sure to head over there and support us!
Though the game is not yet complete, it has already won the award for Excellence in Sensory Experience at the 2014 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Gamefest!
"So wait," you may ask...
"...if you already have a playable game capable of winning awards, why do you need funding?"
To start with, there are many costs arising that need to be addressed. The most significant of these are the costs associated with acquiring proper help in this commercial stage of development and securing the proper software licenses and hardware development kits. Adding on to this, there are some items that we would really like to accomplish, but are not currently within the project's scope (e.g. Oculus Rift support). Check out this fancy-style image of our funding goals:
We could extend our deadline, try to use alternate tools, and even cut away the additional content, but in the end this is taking away from the true quality and vision of the game, thus making it something that we would not want and cannot feasibly support.
A.V. began as a Graduate student project through Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) in the fall of 2013. Doug and I are the original project leads who developed the concept and brought it to life. The academic-based development of A.V. ended in May, 2014 with our graduation. We're now working to complete the final development process and bring the game to a commercial release through MAGIC Spell Studios.
With your support, the PC version of A.V. will be completed before October, along with console releases soon afterwards. We also plan to submit a beta version of A.V. to the Independent Games Festival in early September.
A full list of the rewards for donating to A.V. can be found in the Rewards menu on the right. However, we've provided some additional details at the bottom of this page.
Thank you for taking the time to look at our game! Any donation is very much appreciated. Feel free to ask us a question by emailing admin@avthegame.com.
There's a whole tangle of rewards available with A.V. If you're still confused, here's a more visually-appealing way to make sense of it all:
Starting at donation levels of $50, we're offering up free A.V. t-shirts! The basic t-shirt features the design shown below. We're also offering up special glow-in-the dark t-shirts based around the same design. We'll be adding an image of the glow-in-the dark shirt's glow within the next several days.
Here is the front and back of the regular T-Shirt:
Here is the Glow in the Dark shirt during the day, the night images will be available when the first preview shirts come in soon!
3D-Printed figurines of various game characters are available with donations of $60 or more. Here are the figures up for grabs. Note that some of the models have been modified from their in-game appearance since their digital counterparts are a bit...unstable as physical models. These are also digital renders, but are more accurate examples of the actual figurines you'll receive.
A.V. (Starting at $60):
JENNY (Starting at $125):
All game enemies (Starting at $250):
Still puzzling over the gameplay behind A.V.? We admit, we didn't cover that too much on this page, and in-game explanations are still being refined and trimmed to make gameplay instructions clearer and more concise. In the meantime, though, here's a brief overview of the game's structure.
In A.V., you must attempt to activate devices called Pylons located throughout the world. Doing so helps open access to new areas, driving you along. To help in achieving this goal, you're given access to a set of six Instruments, special devices which impact the world in different ways. Making use of these Instruments allows you to find ways around obstacles and enemies, activate Pylons, and ultimately, make your escape from this hostile world.
A.V. is built around an open-world structure. Players are free to explore the world and determine their own ways of progressing. In other words, there is no specific sequence of Pylon activation that players must follow. To add to this open design, A.V. is planned to feature multiple ending gameplay sequences and cinematics. As a result, players are presented with the opportunity to complete the game multiple times to experience the different variations that A.V. offers.
We'll continue adding to this brief description to address the most commonly-asked questions.
Risks and challenges
Fortunately for everyone, the biggest hurdles faced by this sort of project have already been accounted for and resolved. We already have a solid design for the game, as well as a large portion of the assets and code. This doesn't mean that problems won't come up, but we're ready to tackle them!
Game release delays are the biggest potential issue remaining. We have allotted extra time for the stretch goals in our development plan, as you can notice from the video. A large majority of the technical functionality which is responsible for most common game delays and cancellation is already in place, either by our coders or by the Unity3D engine itself. Most of our work lies in creating the additional art and sound, and in general debugging of the level and Artificial Intelligence to provide the best user experience.
If we hit the stretch goal of Xbox One or PS4 development there is a slight chance that things fall through on the publishing end, but as of right now we are ready to continue and are awaiting the funding needed for testing and development.
We strive to keep in contact with the community as much as possible and will alert everyone of any potential problems or delays. We've put our hearts and souls into this game since its initial conception, and we have absolutely no intention of ending our work on A.V. until it has been released. Barring both of us getting hit by a bus, train, or comically-themed parade float, there will be a high-quality game released at the end of this process. Our chief responsibility is to see that A.V. is as polished and complete as possible within the established time frame.
Just remember that as important as it is to you that we see this game completed in a quality manner, it's even more important to us!
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Funding period
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