Acclaimed audio-focused startup RjDj blew many film fan’s mind with the app it produced for hit movie Inception. Now it’s back with a game that build on the same concept to create a unique iPhone game that you simply have to experience for yourself – Dimensions.
The Inception app turned the film’s soundtrack into an interactive experience that unlocked new content based on real-world factors such as the speed you were traveling at, your location and more. Dimensions builds upon this by introducing more traditional gaming elements such as collecting items and defeating enemies. The result is an experience that – once you submit to it – provides the kind of immersion that few mobile games are capable of.
The idea behind Dimensions is that the app is a portal to multiple dimensions. Open it up, pop in some headphones and prepare for a very different type of augmented reality – supplied entirely by sound.
The audio you hear while the app is running depends on the situation you’re in. For example, if you’re in quiet surroundings you enter the Tranquil Dimension, where the sounds around you are amplified into dreamlike swirling whooshes of audio. Start moving fast and you’ll be drawn into the Kinetic Dimension, where a string section plays tense chords into your ears while sounds picked up by the iPhone’s microphone are chopped up and worked into the beat.
Load up the app between midnight and 1am any night and you can enter the Ghost Dimension, which features music by legendary film soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer, whose previous work includes The Lion King, The Dark Knight, and, yes, Inception.
The audio is only half of what Dimensions has to offer though. As you play, the voice of ‘Emily’ is your guide to the dimensions you explore. From time to time, she will tell you that objects are nearby. These are often ‘Quantum cells’ which you can collect on the iPhone screen. These cells power up a beam which is used to collect rare artefacts that occasionally float past, and to ward away the dangerous Nephelim beings that look to deplete your score by stealing artefacts.
Ambition
London-based RjDj’s CEO, Michael Breidenbruecker says that the original plans for the app were even more ambitious than Dimensions has turned out to be, incorporating complex real-time audio processing. However, the success of Inception and the demand for something new from fans caused the startup to re-assess its plans during the summer.
That said, Dimensions is no lightweight. As it runs, it modifies audio from your iPhone’s microphone in real-time, and the effect on the device’s battery life has been a serious consideration during the development process. It’s fair to say that we’ve not noticed any serious problems in this regard.
RjDj has excelled here in creating a game quite unlike anything else you’ll find on the App Store. Dimensions’ game mechanics are pretty simple and wouldn’t win any awards on their own, but combined with the immersive audio experiences the app offers, it’s a unique game that no Angry Birds spin-off or Fruit Ninja clone will ever come close to.
If you like apps that dare to push the boundaries of what we expect from mobile entertainment, you owe it to yourself to download Dimensions.
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