Vessel (video game)

Lore & Background

The main character of Vessel is M. Arkwright, an inventor who creates a liquid-composed labor-performing automaton called the Fluro. He creates this automaton to perform laborious tasks more efficiently than human beings. However, the Fluros begin to run amok and cause the world's machinery to malfunction. To restore the machinery, Arkwright must travel through the world and fix the broken parts. He also creates Seeds, small devices that allow him to control an area's surrounding liquid and transform it into a Fluro, which can then be used to fix machinery by influencing its movement and actions.

Strange Loop Games was founded by two programmers, John Krajewski and Martin Farren, both former employees of Electronic Arts. They left to pursue creating games with new and interesting gameplay mechanics instead of high quality graphics. The team includes Milenko Tunjic as art director and Mark Filippelli as lead artist, responsible for the visual steampunk world. Audio director Leonard Paul and audio programmer Kieran Lord oversaw the sound, with all music composed by electronica musician Jon Hopkins.

The game uses a custom liquid-physics engine with individual particles that exhibit pressure, surface tension, and viscosity. Fluid shapes are illuminated through a clustering algorithm that adds point-lights based on particle density. The artificial intelligence engine works with the particle physics. The art is 2.5D style, allowing the player to see a machine's components and how it functions.

Reader's Guide

Vessel is a puzzle-platformer that teaches and reveals its mechanics as the player progresses. Using many forms of liquid such as water or lava, the player creates Fluros to activate switches, move cogs, and pull levers. The player can also use M. Arkwright's liquid gun to spray fluid at switches. For unreachable areas, the player creates a Fluro from available liquid and directs it. Fluros have their own habits and abilities—some are attracted to light, others to dark—which are key to progressing. The level design grants freedom in solving puzzles, with each having multiple solutions based on player choice and creativity.

The music, composed by Jon Hopkins, builds as players progress toward solving a puzzle. It starts smooth and backgrounded, then adds drums and bass as the player figures out the puzzle, culminating in the full track upon completion. The game contains 7 tracks from Hopkins' 2009 album Insides (including the eponymous track Vessel) and 3 from his album Contact Note. The sound was the topic of a talk at the 2012 Game Developers Conference, where audio director Leonard Paul discussed its design using FMOD, Lua, and C++ with techniques such as granular synthesis, subtractive synthesis, layered sequencing, spectral layering, LFO modulation, and asymmetric loops. The PC and PlayStation 3 versions received 'favorable' reviews according to Metacritic.

Did You Know?

• The game's music was composed by electronica musician Jon Hopkins and includes tracks from his albums Insides and Contact Note.
• The sound design of Vessel was the subject of a talk at the 2012 Game Developers Conference.
• The game's developer, Strange Loop Games, was founded by two former Electronic Arts employees.