Cadence

As someone who has spent way too many hours with FL Studio, Reason, Ableton and a few other pieces of music production software, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Cadence. Its developers presented it as an ‘open-ended puzzle game’ that adds a musical experience into the mix.

It sounded like a bit of a gamble but two levels in an I had powerful flashbacks to over a decade ago when I was adjusting sliders by the millimeter to get a synth to sound like I wanted it to. What I mean is, Cadence is simply wonderful.

Cadence is built to be pleasing for the eyes, mind and ears. It features a minimalistic design with simple nodes of various types and the connectors between them. Other that, it’s just about discrete animations and a background that comes to life when you manage to create an audio loop.

The goal for each puzzle that Cadence offers is to connect a number of nodes so that a loop is created. One node will act as the audio source while others will transfer, split or perpetuate the signal, and each one, when hit by the audio feed generates a different note. In an abstract kind of way, it’s like a Rube Goldberg machine that’s built out of synthesizers and audio filters.

This demo for Cadence showcases only a few of the core mechanics and features that will be found in the final version. Since every node generates a musical note when hit and contributes to the entire loop, the game provides a number of presets that can be used to reshape the result. You can get a smooth and calm sound or something that’s really grimy.

Moreover, when it comes to some of the puzzles in Cadence, there’s more than one solution, allowing you to experiment with the sound up to a certain depth. The game is also planned with a level editor which in all fairness, almost makes Cadence a music production game.

On a closing note, Cadence is great from all points of view. It looks good, gameplay is interesting and being able to play with sound is always pleasant. I’m a bit disappointed to see that Cadence’s Kickstarter campaign didn’t come through but the game has been Greenlit for Steam and it’s just a matter of time until we can all enjoy the finished game. Surely it will be worth the wait.