# Neat little indie game - Proun **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 25, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802 "2011-06-25T04:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/1 "2011-06-25T04:51:58Z")
Find it [Here](http://www.proun-game.com/) - Proun It’s a “pay what you feel like” game, so you can try it for free, or kick a few bucks to the game’s creator, Joost van Dongen. What sort of game is it? Well, it’s a racing game. But it has a unique aesthetic. Think [Marble Madness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness) meets geometric modern art. I’d been watching this one for a few weeks. It got a proper release last week and I finally got to try it out. Here’s my thoughts: First, it’s gorgeous. J van D (“Oogst”) writes in his dev blog: > [@](#): > > "The expressionist abstract works of Kandinsky are my favourite paintings in general and I wanted something similar for Proun. > > … > While looking through a book about Kandinsky, trying to think of a way to do 3D graphics in that style, my eye fell on Kandinsky’s later geometric abstract works. These are beautiful as well, and here I immediately knew how to implement this! I had already been doing lighting of 3D scenes for many years at that point (I started playing around with 3D Studio MAX when I was 13!), so I immediately started experimenting with shapes, colours, and above all: lighting. What this means in practice is the game is beautifully abstract. You play a white marble, rolling along a white cable. There are brightly colored geometric shapes in your way. There’s a really nice distance blur to everything - see the trailer. You race other marbles. You rotate around this thread to avoid the obstacles and win the race. …That description is pretty lacking. Just watch the trailer(s). One of them is [here on Youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2uBxie3Kc) The soundtrack is fun too. A very jazzy, upbeat score. I’m not familiar with [Arno](http://www.dirtyrock.nl/), who according to the game’s FAQ, wrote the music. But it’s quirky, jazzy and fun. I just wish there were more songs, the two or three for the courses repeat too much. But what about the gameplay? I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s a fun racer. Not terribly deep or challenging, as racing games go, but fun in a casual way. What the trailer really doesn’t show you that much is fast this game can go. There are four speeds - you begin with only the slowest, and need to win races to unlock faster speeds. The starting speed feels a bit slow, and I had little difficulty breezing through the first tourney. The second starts to get a bit challenging, though I cleared it after a couple tries. Speed 3 of 4 feels fast, I haven’t cleared it yet. I’m dreading top speed 😃 The game does, at higher speeds, require some nicely twitchy reflexes. And course memorization will be important. But for me at least, this is fun. There’s a good time trial mode where you race all your old “ghosts” so you can optimize your path on each course. I’ve played with both the keyboard and a PC Xbox controller. I prefer the controller, but the keyboard controls work better than I expected. So the negatives? There are only five courses. This game needs more. The gameplay - with its speed and reflex-requirements, has a bit of depth. I think it could have used double the courses, at least. Now, the game is being released open to mods. So I look forward to seeing some neat player-created courses. But the art style is so distinct, I dunno. I want more from Oogst. Ditto for track music - the soundtrack repeats way too much. All said, this is a pretty neat little indie project. I recommend it. Like I said, It’s pay what you want, so you can try it for free. You do get one bonus course for a donation, which I did since I’m finding the game to be pretty fun and unique. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/2 "2011-06-25T14:50:51Z")
It’s pretty cool, but it also blue screened my computer. I’d love to see an android or iphone version of it - seems to be a perfect match for mobile. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/3 "2011-06-26T08:39:18Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > It’s pretty cool, but it also blue screened my computer. I’d love to see an android or iphone version of it - seems to be a perfect match for mobile. blue-screened? Hm. What graphics card do you have? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/4 "2011-06-26T13:11:33Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > blue-screened? Hm. What graphics card do you have? NVidia GeForce GTX 480. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/5 "2011-06-26T19:00:42Z")
Apparently, TotalBiscuit enthusiastically reviewed the game and the resulting flood of interest crashed [www.proun-game.com](http://www.proun-game.com). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/6 "2011-06-26T19:28:23Z")
Yeah I haven’t been able to get on it. Double-checked this thread wasn’t a zombie! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/7 "2011-06-26T19:42:27Z")
It’s not bad at all. It does take some practice, though. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/8 "2011-06-27T02:25:10Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Apparently, TotalBiscuit enthusiastically reviewed the game and the resulting flood of interest crashed [www.proun-game.com](http://www.proun-game.com). Here’s a temporary mirror: [http://www2.hku.nl/~joost1/Proun/](http://www2.hku.nl/~joost1/Proun/) ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/9 "2011-06-28T02:46:23Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > NVidia GeForce GTX 480. That’s **more** than sufficient. Something else must be going on. Overclocked? ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/10 "2011-06-28T03:13:57Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Apparently, TotalBiscuit enthusiastically reviewed the game and the resulting flood of interest crashed [www.proun-game.com](http://www.proun-game.com). Heh, I found the review, and it’s a hoot. [WTF is Proun?](http://www.cynicalbrit.com/videos/wtf-is-proun/) It’s fun to hear him liking it more and more as he plays through it. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-little-indie-game-proun/586802/11 "2011-06-28T13:26:15Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > That’s **more** than sufficient. Something else must be going on. > > Overclocked? Nope. Lotsa memory, good video card, basically a mid-to-high-end gaming machine, minus overclocking.