H e l l o .

I'm Alex Smith, video game and electronic music enthusiast!

You might have heard of me as The Cynic Project. My song Matrix ][ achieved six million downloads on mp3.com back in 1999. I'm fascinated by the hidden beauty encoded in deterministic processes and stuff like fractals, cellular automata, generative music, and emergent behavior.

the cynic project »

T h e M u s i c

Music, the central feature in Pixelsphere, underpins the pitched sound effects in the game.

Scores of mallet percussion tones, as well as physically-modeled sound effects, sit within the game soundtrack. These sounds are perfectly tuned and balanced to complement the background music in Pixelsphere.

Try listening to in-browser game idly, like a streaming music player. When idle, the complete in-game soundtrack plays in the background while you use your computer.

Download Soundtrack »

C h e m k n e a z l e

Download Julie

My wife Julie, has magical properties about her voice and music.

Julie brings science to the game. You're sure to enjoy her beautiful voice on the soundtrack.

S o u n d t r a c k »

T h e G a m e

Welcome to Pixelsphere! Sit back and listen to the music!

Interact with physical objects like bouyant crates, rolling balls, elevators, bouncy springs, and even a monster truck! All of my favorite staples from Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog are featured in Pixelsphere's 30 levels. Fight baddies and manipulate gravity to solve puzzles, all while making beatiful music with each step.

Objects in Pixelsphere feature hand-drawn pixel art, modeled by hand-aligned physics, backed by the Box2D physics engine.

V i d e o

...4/15/17 - New Musical Contraptions Demo!

The Pixelsphere soundtrack

Two hours of relaxing ambient and electronic music

The Pixelsphere soundtrack is calm and relaxing...The most exciting aspect of the soundtrack is the dynamic music generation system. Each time you collect an item, you'll hear procedurally generated sequences, pre-programmed melodies, and arpeggios. These sounds blend beautifully with the background music to create a lush atmosphere and unique experience each time you play.

The 30 levels in Pixelsphere feature bouncing balls, weightless orbs, and other physical systems which trigger tones & melodies. Some systems must be played in a precise order to decrypt hidden messages. I work in a variety of styles like ambient/new age, progressive trance, house, orchestral/movie music, and chiptunes.

P i x e l - P e r f e c t - v e r s i o n

The pixel-perfect version features some slight modifications to the game:

Physics simulation radius increased: in ALEVEL newSimulationEnabled = (d(physicsObject.x, physicsObject.y, heroX, heroY) < 1200) ? true : false; // 1200 instead of 900 in pixel perfect version

Both characters, Axl and Tremolo, have the same zoom factor: zoomFactor = 1.0

The SWF size is exactly 720p resolution: [SWF(backgroundColor="#000000", frameRate="60", width="1280", height="720")]

Consequently, you can see more of the game at once, which isn't exactly how I intended the game to look. As well, it requires a little more CPU power.

Play pixel-perfect-pixelsphere! Chromebook / Firefox / Edge

1280x720 viewport

D o w n l o a d P C & M a c i n t o s h
D e s k t o p S o f t w a r e

h o u r s o f m u s i c + + g a m e p l a y

Download Windows

v1.1.0 Play now! - Chrome / Firefox / Chromebook
Google Chrome

Firefox with the latest Flash player!

small web demo (for low performance PCs)
not recommended

Purchase full license $30.00
Includes all music by The Cynic Project

C o n t a c t

Music & assets licensing available, music on commission

`cynicmusic@gmail.com`

Donate to support The Cynic Project. I am currently collecting for purchase of FL Studio, Spectrasonics Keyscape, and Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2, as well as a new computer and audio interface.

Pledge $5, $20, $50, or $100 (platinum sponsor) with the donate button below

Paypal, Patreon, Spare crypto only, please. Your support helps fund new music gear, and to support the software I use. Most of the Pixelsphere Kickstarter proceeds were used to purchase software.

BTC 1BzcwUAjXQA2wg3xypvit5Hdi17bT9dbKQ
ETH 0xE37Ca7b5C92e2fE240ef868e8b7bA2B84641CF75
LTC LVrzFkHfEgywnQfHPxL84brYqJGzspoBZY
DOGE DJmCrfTEx2X2uyeb4C4ub5omPaDZjzpueE
PAYPAL ultimate or get in touch.
PATREON the cynic project @ patreon

Screens

screens

Credits

Special Contribution

Pixelsphere contains many assets created exclusively by Alex Smith, but the foundation is essentially built from the community, using many open source assets and technologies.

Citrus Engine (with Box2D) (Aymeric Lamboley and Thomas Lefevre)
Hybridmink (cover art, character design on comission)
Celianna (trees, licensed)
Alex HW (trees and character design)
opengameart.org (tilesets and inspiration)
Surt (various tilesets)
Opengameart.org Many other tilesets from opengameart!
addedtostage.de / Thomas Z (rope bridges for Box2D)
Emanuele Feronato (Box2D tutorials, car)
Ronald Cichy II (major backer)
Brian Comer (major backer)
Elizabeth Henning (marketing and lighting)
Erin Facile (Kiiro Arts) (Character design and pixel art)
Julie Wenzel (Story and dialog)
Steven Ruud (Original music and sound)
Chad Williamson (3x original tracks!)
Erica Moon(Lyrics)
David Huting (sponsorship, curation)
Nature relaxation EXCLUSIVE featuring pixelsphere soundtrack!

Game Instructions

[=---------------------------------------------------------------------=]

PIXELSPHERE by Alex Smith (`=-THE CYNIC PROJECT-=')

*** Music & Sound & Art & Code & Levels & Design by Alex Smith ***

[=---------------------------------------------------------------------=]

-- F to SWITCH CHARACTERS
-- C to THROW
-- UP + C to THROW HIGH
-- DOWN + C to ROLL (required to solve puzzles!)
-- M for MENU (click [+] in upper-left)
-- UP to INTERACT
-- UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT to MOVE (walk/run/swim)
-- UP/DOWN to CLIMB
-- SHIFT to RUN or SWIM/CLIMB FAST (optional)
-- UP to exit CAR, Crouch while running to slide

[=---------------------------------------------------------------------=]

Pixelsphere Gameplay Overview

[==================================]
GAMEPLAY:
-- FIRE orb to activate SWITCHBLOCK
-- UP/DOWN/NEUTRAL while firing (C) to adjust orb angle
-- DOWN while running to slide
-- Hit SWITCHBLOCK with your head, feet, or your orbs
-- Hit MUSIC BLOCKS in the correct order to solve MUSIC PUZZLES
-- Touch CAR WHEEL to ride car
-- Press UP to exit car
-- Hop on elevator to ride
-- Hop on baddy to kill
-- Shoot orb at baddy to kill (*except turtles which require multiple hops!)
-- Shoot orb at spring to propel

[==================================]
CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES:
-- AXL = narrow FOV, short jump. normal jump sounds.
-- TREMOLO = wide FOV, high jump, jump is TOO high often, rare special jump sounds.

[==================================]
MENU COMMANDS:
-- TOGGLE FULL SCREEN - use the entire monitor at Pixelsphere's fixed aspect ratio
-- MUTE MUSIC - mute the music until the game is closed. impossible to undo.
-- particles (turn them on! works great on Mac.)

[==================================]
QUIRKS:
-- When exiting MENU, you may have to click on the game before you can use the keyboard again.

[==================================]
PERFORMANCE TIPS:
-- Lower your monitor resolution
-- Don't use full screen
-- Don't use window maximize
-- Keep particles off
-- Set monitor sync to 60Hz (Flash does not support vsync)

[==================================]
SOUND MIXER:
There are three audio streams:
(MUSIC, SFX, ENVIRONMENT)

-- You may adjust the balance of the 3 streams in the MENU. Recommended settings are based on your gameplay style:
-- Speedrun (100/50/100)
-- Slowplay (100/100/100) *default
-- Collector (80/100/100)
-- Musician (0/50/100)

[==================================]
MUSIC SOUNDTRACK & GAMEPLAY PACING:
-- The Pixelsphere music playback position resets to the current level every time you close the game.
Your progress is saved. Thus playing the game in limited sessions will reward you with a full soundtrack experience!
The music evolves over time however this music is best saved for the later levels after 20+

Story

The realm of Hexatonia was thought of as merely legend and folklore by the vast majority of modern civilizations on Pixelsphere. Legends speak of a curious insect-like Hexatonian race that communicated using beautiful music on a six-tone scale, the echos of which linger throughout the land to create a serene, ever-present melody that seems to hang in the air. Legend warned that these sounds were sweet enough to lure some non-Hexatonians away, completely entranced, never to return. ...

After dedicating his life to Hexatonian anthropology and the search for Hexatonia, Axl's father Maestro finally found the location of this fabled land. With proof of Hexatonia's existence, he then began work on a device called the Hexatonian Universal Translator (HUT) that would allow him to walk among his beloved specimens safely. The HUT serves to decode the knowledge and wisdom accumulated by the Hexatonians. In theory, the full, entrancing effects of the Hexatonian landscape would be filtered through the HUT before reaching the ears, allowing the non-Hexatonian wearer a safe yet still enjoyable stroll through the land. One day, Axl noticed his father was taking an unusually long stroll and decided to search for him. When he found the HUT lying on the ground just outside the Hexatonian border, he knew something was wrong. Maestro would never cast aside his prized invention so carelessly. Armed with his father's device, Axl sets off to find and retrieve his father from the fascinating land that threatens to consume him.

The story unravels as you discover the narrative of the Hexatonians. Their language consists of musical tones, and is expressed by the tension and resolution of phrases, intervals and chords. Musical markers placed throughout their world are equivalent to our "letters", but only amount to gibberish until played in a precise order.

Articles

Is it pixelsphere or pixel sphere? nobody really knows. Is this SEO on pixel sphere?, or, for anyone searching for "pixelsphere",can they go ahead and stop misspelling it as pixel sphere? thanks!! Even if you're drawing a sphere made out of pixels, everyone likes pixelsphere music! ~alex

Support

Pixelsphere is best played at 60fps, please wait for the desktop version if the game is slow. Use Firefox on the web demo if Chrome is performing slowly.

Chrome tips

chrome://settings > show advanced settings > scroll down to system > check "Use Hardware acceleration when available"

Launch Chrome and navigate to chrome://flags Search for Prefer HTML over Flash. Select 'Enabled'. Relaunch Chrome Does Pixelsphere content display?

Launch Chrome and navigate to chrome://settings/content

Look for the Flash entry Either select Allow sites to run Flash which should enable Flash on all sites or select Manage exceptions... and add https://cynicmusic.com and https://pixelsphere.org as an entry and then set to Allow. Click Done. Click Done Relaunch Chrome. Game works now!

visit chrome://site-engagement and see how your engagement measures up. Try and engage more?

Edge tips

Enable Flash in edge: https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-issues-windows-10-edge.html

Performance tips

For the desktop version, a universal fix for low framerate is changing your system screen resolution to 1280 x 960 resolution. Full screen performance may be poor. Works well on Mac and high performance PCs. Let me know how it works on your system, and send me your system specs (OS, browser, screen resolution, CPU/RAM)

[==================================]

-- Lower your monitor resolution
-- Don't use full screen
-- Don't use window maximize
-- Keep particles off
-- Set monitor sync to 60Hz (Flash does not support vsync)
-- Scale to a very small window in browser or desktop

The Album