I was quite excited when I heard about this game. One reason was obviously for the game itself, but another reason for my excitement was the fact that this game was being published as a non-profit, charity project. I’m not saying that the idea of non-profit and charity gets me all riled up. Its the fact that video games have evolved into such a form of media that it now has the scope and breadth in expression and audience to incorporate a project like fundraising, opening even more doors for both consumers and those that work in the industry. I think that’s very exciting. Anyhoo, let’s check out the game.

Reminiscent of Lumines, Chime is a music puzzle game developed by Zoe Mode and published by OneBigGame, a non-profit publisher, for the Xbox LIVE Arcade. The basic idea of the game is that the player must fill a grid with irregular shapes. Each shape is associated with a sound effect from the background music track, and the player must form rectangular blocks called quads, with these shapes for points and multipliers. 

As larger quads are formed, the player unlocks more elements of the underlying song. During this process, the player effectively creates a unique remix of each song as they progress, ending in 100% grid coverage, and unlocking the song in full. For thos confused, check out the tutorial video at the bottom.

OneBigGame has confirmed the final line-up of artists on Chime:

Philip Glass – Brazil
Markus Schulz – Spilled Cranberries
Moby – Ooh Yeah
Paul Hartnoll (Orbital) – For Silence
Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly) – Disco Ghosts

All of these artists have donated their work for this game.

The charity and fundraising OneBigGame is involved in centers around the improvement of the lives of children around the world. You can find out more about them here. This is definitely a game to look out for, both as a fun game and a possible pioneer for video gaming in a new direction.