Zen Bound is a game about slowing down and letting things happen at their own pace. Your goal is to paint wooden sculptures by wrapping them with rope.
When you hear a bell chime, you have painted enough to complete this level. Touch the glowing nail with the rope to end the level, or continue until the third bell chime, when the sculpture is fully painted. Then it is time to let go and move on.
Flowers blossom after each completed level, up to three flowers for three bell chimes. The lanterns that light up the higher branches allow you to move up when enough flowers are in bloom. Once you reach the top of the tree, things will be different.
At latest count, Apple's App Store boasts something like 15,000 goodies to choose from for iPhone and iPod Touch owners, many of those apps free, many for a nominal price (mostly anywhere from 99 cents to ten dollars). There seems to be an app for almost any available need....or mood. Zen Bound is one of those apps to satisfy a certain mood, one of pensiveness and meditation, that happens to also want a bit of cerebral challenge (five dollars buys the full game).
As the above description from developer Secret Exit suggests, this game focuses on meditative puzzle work with emphasis on a calming, deliberately slow, and gentle brain teasing. Augmenting the reflective gameplay is an ambient, decidedly minimalistic, pretty soundtrack from composer "Ghost Monkey".
Downloaded about 30 minutes ago, I've only played a small part of the game and in "Tree of Reflection" mode, which is self explanatory. Another mode, "Tree of Challenge", tests you more intensely. A suggestive "Designed for headphones" is gently flashed on the screen before you're taken to the main menu offering the two gameplay modes, and with good reason. The music and sound design (soft stretching sound of taut rope, for example) immediately envelopes you in a private cocoon, and you become "one" with the game.
The graphics are by far some of the most beautiful I've seen on my iPhone, with real time 3D visual offerings of natural textures, materials, and geometry. It's almost startling how gorgeous and, yes, high definition it looks on such a small screen. Even more delightful when combined with the graphics is how the nearly photorealistic objects are easily manipulated in their space by your fingertips. A flick here and a drag there wraps the virtual rope around the wooden sculptures of animals. Tilt the iPhone and the rope angles accordingly, showing off the thoughtful physics and adding another layer of strategy to the puzzle work. I almost wanted to pluck those carved rabbits, lions, birds, elephants, and seahorses out of the iPhone and place them on my table to admire.
Zen Bound is a very intimate experience, the type of game I can lose myself in while on a train commute, waiting for my flight at the gate, or even snuggled up in bed late at night. It could even come in handy for when I'm in a bad mood. Just tap my iPhone and in a moment I could wrap my troubles away with my fingertips. I expect to not even wait til I'm in a bad mood to play some more of this.
Cutting edge high tech therapy? Why not?
As the above description from developer Secret Exit suggests, this game focuses on meditative puzzle work with emphasis on a calming, deliberately slow, and gentle brain teasing. Augmenting the reflective gameplay is an ambient, decidedly minimalistic, pretty soundtrack from composer "Ghost Monkey".
Downloaded about 30 minutes ago, I've only played a small part of the game and in "Tree of Reflection" mode, which is self explanatory. Another mode, "Tree of Challenge", tests you more intensely. A suggestive "Designed for headphones" is gently flashed on the screen before you're taken to the main menu offering the two gameplay modes, and with good reason. The music and sound design (soft stretching sound of taut rope, for example) immediately envelopes you in a private cocoon, and you become "one" with the game.
The graphics are by far some of the most beautiful I've seen on my iPhone, with real time 3D visual offerings of natural textures, materials, and geometry. It's almost startling how gorgeous and, yes, high definition it looks on such a small screen. Even more delightful when combined with the graphics is how the nearly photorealistic objects are easily manipulated in their space by your fingertips. A flick here and a drag there wraps the virtual rope around the wooden sculptures of animals. Tilt the iPhone and the rope angles accordingly, showing off the thoughtful physics and adding another layer of strategy to the puzzle work. I almost wanted to pluck those carved rabbits, lions, birds, elephants, and seahorses out of the iPhone and place them on my table to admire.^ This brief video review shows the touch manipulation in action.
Zen Bound is a very intimate experience, the type of game I can lose myself in while on a train commute, waiting for my flight at the gate, or even snuggled up in bed late at night. It could even come in handy for when I'm in a bad mood. Just tap my iPhone and in a moment I could wrap my troubles away with my fingertips. I expect to not even wait til I'm in a bad mood to play some more of this.
Cutting edge high tech therapy? Why not?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment