Auditorium

Auditorium is, in no particular order, a truly impressive piece of Flash engineering, a mildly interesting puzzle game built on Newtonian mechanics, and a visually and aurally beautiful interactive work.

In each level, a stream of particles moves in a particular, set direction. You are given some number of circular deflectors, each with a directional pointer in one of the four cardinal directions. If you place the deflector near or in the stream of particles, it deflects them in the indicated direction, but in the fashion of a positive charge reflecting an electron; that is, the particles' new direction of movement is not where the arrow points, but is a function of the previous path, the direction pointed, the proximity of the deflector, and its strength, which is modified by increasing or decreasing the size of the circle surrounding the reflector.

Scattered about the screen are immobile elements looking like audio volume bars; a sufficient flux of particles causes the bars to light up and, more importantly, a musical theme to play. Beating the level means maxing out the bars of all the audio bars and hearing the resulting music, by carefully positioning the deflector elements.

The soundscape is that of New Age ambient; the imagery is abstract, but the stream of particles is appealing. Because the system is algorithmic, puzzle solutions are not predetermined by the developer, and in some cases, multiple solutions are feasible.

Auditorium is something of a resource bear; unless your machine is quite speedy, you may find other applications hanging. Flash isn't really designed for particle effects.

It's a work in progress; there are some fifteen levels, but it does end somewhat abruptly at present. And while the gameplay is interesting and original, it is, when you come down to it, a level-based puzzle game. Where Auditorium shines is in its level of polish; the music is haunting, the imagery induces a feeling of serenity, and the algorithmic aspect of the puzzles helps the game escape the "guessing what's in the developer's mind" feeling of so many other puzzle games.