Audio-puzzle games are few and far between. But when taking a look at Cipher Prime Studios’ portfolio, we can understand that the developers have decided to take their skills and channel them toward making engaging titles in this genre. First, they brought us the award-winning (Most Creative Game of the Year from Mochi Media, 2nd Best Browser Game of All Time from Tech Crunch) Auditorium. Now, the studio’s follow-up is a game that’s much more addictive and effective in Fractal.

I played through some of the first few levels being offered up by Cipher Prime as a demo for Fractal, and I was really impressed. It’s not the easiest of games to understand right away, but it’s certainly satisfying once you do. Since the developer explains the gameplay process much better, I’ll let them go ahead and do so:

“Push on fractals to arrange them into larger clusters and they will Bloom, exploding outward. Clusters of any size are possible; chain reactions can go on indefinitely; power-ups allow the player to clear an entire board in an instant. Challenges abound at every step… As soon as you’ve mastered one game dynamic, another is introduced. Each level asks something different of the player, who must use a combination of intuition and problem solving to succeed.”

The gradual increase in difficulty level-by-level is worthy of note, and it’s perhaps this mechanic that will keep players asking “what comes next?” With the Campaign, Puzzle, and Arcade modes, gamers will be engaged in several different ways — each mode emphasizing and playing around with a specific part of the rules over the other. But what makes Fractal even more appealing is its use of audio. There’s an extraordinary sense of reaction coming from Fractal‘s all new “MusicBox audio engine [which] ebbs and flows with the pace of your gameplay, creating melodies on the fly and building– or deconstructing– songs in real time.”

With Fractal, Cipher Prime Studios looks well on its way to obtaining a higher number of awards. To try the game’s demo out in your browser, go to the official Fractal website. For more info, here’s the press release.

Press Release:

Cipher Prime Studios, the indie development team responsible for the award-winning game Auditorium, is proud to unveil their newest creation Fractal. Fractal turns a simple concept into a rich environment that lives and breathes with the player. It shares one thing in common with its predecessor Auditorium: it is impossible to explain and amazingly intuitive to play. Is it a puzzle game? Maybe. Is it a matching game? Well, sort of… Players will quickly get that can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it feeling, precisely because this game is unlike other games.

Cipher Prime Studios, Inc., is a small independent studio based in Philadelphia. 2009 saw the release of their debut game Auditorium win many awards such as Most Creative Game of the Year Award by Mochi Media, 2nd Best Browser Game of All Time by Tech Crunch, and many other awards. They are committed to empowering other developers by sharing business knowledge and helping grow the independent developer community.