Waveform | |
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Developer(s) | Eden Industries [1] [2] |
Publisher(s) | Eden Industries [1] [2] |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows [2] Mac [2] Linux [2] |
Release | March 20, 2012 [1] [2] |
Genre(s) | Action game [2] Indie game [2] Puzzle game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Waveform is an action, puzzle game created by Canadian indie developer Eden Industries. The player controls a wave of light as it transmits through space and is able to modify the wave's amplitude and wavelength to line it up with objectives, avoid obstacles, and interact with objects that affect the path of the wave, and the world around it, in various ways.
Waveform was Eden Industries' debut game. The company's founder, Ryan Vandendyck, spent three years developing the game in his spare time while still holding a full time position at Next Level Games. The game was inspired by Auditorium and Orbient . [3] [4]
Eden Industries sought to crowdfund $8,000 towards the game's development through Kickstarter in November 2011. The crowdfunding campaign concluded unsuccessfully in January 2012. Despite the failure of the campaign, the game was released on March 20, 2012. [5]
In Waveform, the player controls a particle of light on a mission from the outer reaches of the solar system to the sun. Instead of controlling the particle directly, the amplitude and frequency of its wave pattern can be changed with the mouse. Stretching and shrinking its path is necessary to collect photons, avoid dark matter, and go through light gates, which increase the point multiplier and score. [6]
As the player progresses through the solar system, they encounter mirrors, wormholes, asteroids, gas clouds, fireworks, and particle accelerators that can change the particle's path, clear away obstacles, or destroy the particle outright. The photon path also becomes trickier, forcing the player to change their wavelength mid-arc to collect them and avoid damage. [6]
Some stages require a certain number of stars to unlock; stars are earned by improving scores on previous levels. [6]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 81/100 (8 reviews) (PC) |
Waveform was generally well received by both critics and gamers upon release, garnering an average critic score of 81 from 8 reviews on Metacritic. [7]
Gaming Nexus gave the game an "A", praising the uniqueness of the game "Gamers looking for a truly unique and innovative experience shouldn't hesitate to add Waveform to their list of must-play games this year". Darkstation gave Waveform 9/10 stating "It is elegant in its simplicity, but don't let that fool you... there's a surprisingly large amount of game and replayability to be had. I see myself coming back to this game often". [2]
Destructoid also praised Waveform however said "Wave manipulation is a neat concept -- one I don't recall encountering in this form before -- but despite admirable attempts to introduce slight tweaks to the formula, it is eventually stretched to its limit" [8]
Eden Industries, at this moment in time, has created one piece of downloadable content. [9] Waveform: Eris was released on June 4, 2012. Eris is a world of discord and darkness; the player is tasked with restoring the light to a new planet. Eris adds seven new levels to explore, another reverse mode bonus level, a new object called the Pulsar and five new achievements. [9]
Diffraction is the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the propagating wave. Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.
In modern physics, the double-slit experiment demonstrates that light and matter can satisfy the seemingly-incongruous classical definitions for both waves and particles, which is considered evidence for the fundamentally probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. This type of experiment was first performed by Thomas Young in 1801, as a demonstration of the wave behavior of visible light. At that time it was thought that light consisted of either waves or particles. With the beginning of modern physics, about a hundred years later, it was realized that light could in fact show both wave and particle characteristics. In 1927, Davisson and Germer and, independently George Paget Thomson and Alexander Reid demonstrated that electrons show the same behavior, which was later extended to atoms and molecules. Thomas Young's experiment with light was part of classical physics long before the development of quantum mechanics and the concept of wave–particle duality. He believed it demonstrated that Christiaan Huygens' wave theory of light was correct, and his experiment is sometimes referred to as Young's experiment or Young's slits.
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. Types of EMR include radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, all of which are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies.
In physics, interference is a phenomenon in which two coherent waves are combined by adding their intensities or displacements with due consideration for their phase difference. The resultant wave may have greater intensity or lower amplitude if the two waves are in phase or out of phase, respectively. Interference effects can be observed with all types of waves, for example, light, radio, acoustic, surface water waves, gravity waves, or matter waves as well as in loudspeakers as electrical waves.
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 terahertz, between the infrared and the ultraviolet.
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes:
In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, troughs, or zero crossings. Wavelength is a characteristic of both traveling waves and standing waves, as well as other spatial wave patterns. The inverse of the wavelength is called the spatial frequency. Wavelength is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ). The term "wavelength" is also sometimes applied to modulated waves, and to the sinusoidal envelopes of modulated waves or waves formed by interference of several sinusoids.
In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance of one or more quantities. Periodic waves oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some frequency. When the entire waveform moves in one direction, it is said to be a traveling wave; by contrast, a pair of superimposed periodic waves traveling in opposite directions makes a standing wave. In a standing wave, the amplitude of vibration has nulls at some positions where the wave amplitude appears smaller or even zero. Waves are often described by a wave equation or a one-way wave equation for single wave propagation in a defined direction.
The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period. The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of amplitude, which are all functions of the magnitude of the differences between the variable's extreme values. In older texts, the phase of a periodic function is sometimes called the amplitude.
In physics, attenuation is the gradual loss of flux intensity through a medium. For instance, dark glasses attenuate sunlight, lead attenuates X-rays, and water and air attenuate both light and sound at variable attenuation rates.
In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical grating with a periodic structure that diffracts light into several beams traveling in different directions. The emerging coloration is a form of structural coloration. The directions or diffraction angles of these beams depend on the wave (light) incident angle to the diffraction grating, the spacing or distance between adjacent diffracting elements on the grating, and the wavelength of the incident light. The grating acts as a dispersive element. Because of this, diffraction gratings are commonly used in monochromators and spectrometers, but other applications are also possible such as optical encoders for high-precision motion control and wavefront measurement.
Compton scattering is the quantum theory of high frequency photons scattering following an interaction with a charged particle, usually an electron. Specifically, when the photon hits electrons, it releases loosely bound electrons from the outer valence shells of atoms or molecules.
A virtual particle is a theoretical transient particle that exhibits some of the characteristics of an ordinary particle, while having its existence limited by the uncertainty principle. The concept of virtual particles arises in the perturbation theory of quantum field theory where interactions between ordinary particles are described in terms of exchanges of virtual particles. A process involving virtual particles can be described by a schematic representation known as a Feynman diagram, in which virtual particles are represented by internal lines.
In the field of optics, transparency is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale, the photons can be said to follow Snell's law. Translucency allows light to pass through, but does not necessarily follow Snell's law; the photons can be scattered at either of the two interfaces, or internally, where there is a change in index of refraction. In other words, a translucent material is made up of components with different indices of refraction. A transparent material is made up of components with a uniform index of refraction. Transparent materials appear clear, with the overall appearance of one color, or any combination leading up to a brilliant spectrum of every color. The opposite property of translucency is opacity. Other categories of visual appearance, related to the perception of regular or diffuse reflection and transmission of light, have been organized under the concept of cesia in an order system with three variables, including transparency, translucency and opacity among the involved aspects.
The Mach–Zehnder interferometer is a device used to determine the relative phase shift variations between two collimated beams derived by splitting light from a single source. The interferometer has been used, among other things, to measure phase shifts between the two beams caused by a sample or a change in length of one of the paths. The apparatus is named after the physicists Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder; Zehnder's proposal in an 1891 article was refined by Mach in an 1892 article. Demonstrations of Mach–Zehnder interferometry with particles other than photons had been demonstrated as well in multiple experiments.
Thomson scattering is the elastic scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a free charged particle, as described by classical electromagnetism. It is the low-energy limit of Compton scattering: the particle's kinetic energy and photon frequency do not change as a result of the scattering. This limit is valid as long as the photon energy is much smaller than the mass energy of the particle: , or equivalently, if the wavelength of the light is much greater than the Compton wavelength of the particle.
The Elitzur–Vaidman bomb-tester is a quantum mechanics thought experiment that uses interaction-free measurements to verify that a bomb is functional without having to detonate it. It was conceived in 1993 by Avshalom Elitzur and Lev Vaidman. Since their publication, real-world experiments have confirmed that their theoretical method works as predicted.
The theoretical and experimental justification for the Schrödinger equation motivates the discovery of the Schrödinger equation, the equation that describes the dynamics of nonrelativistic particles. The motivation uses photons, which are relativistic particles with dynamics described by Maxwell's equations, as an analogue for all types of particles.
Auditorium is a music-based puzzle game developed by Philadelphia-based studio Cipher Prime. Originally released as a Flash game in April 2008, Auditorium was later released for iOS devices and then the PlayStation 3 and PSP in 2010. It was also released in 2012 for PC and Mac OS X. In 2012, Cipher Prime launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for a sequel to Auditorium, titled Auditorium 2: Duet. However, on January 11, 2017, Cipher Prime announced to their Kickstarter backers that the game was cancelled.