Metrico on PS Vita: Release Date, New Trailer

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Metrico on PS Vita: Release Date, New Trailer

Hi fellow PlayStation enthusiasts! We’re finally ramping up to the release of our first big title, the infographics action game Metrico. We got loads of questions during development, which we are really excited to finally answer in this blog post!

One of the most frequently asked question is; when is Metrico coming out? We’re proud to announce that Metrico will be available on PlayStation Network August 5th in the US, exclusively on PS Vita!

Another frequent question was: “Who did the awesome music?” You’re in the right place to find out as well! But the most frequent question was the request for Metrico gameplay footage. We want to start this post by giving you exactly that:

Showing Metrico gameplay

The main reason we took such a long time to show gameplay footage is because we always felt the main mechanics of Metrico are quite tricky to explain through video. We never got around to solving this, even though this is probably a recurring issue for novel game concepts. We tried to explain the ‘Input Morphing’ mechanic in a blog post before, but it explains itself best when you play Metrico yourself. Those of you who already played Metrico will hopefully agree on this.

We tried to create a clarifying gameplay trailer using several different approaches, but it was hard and it took a lot of time, so we chose instead to invest that time to work on the game. In the end, actually playing the game, experimenting with all the different forms of inputs and getting direct feedback through playing is absolutely the single best way to understand Metrico.

Therefore we also decided to offer a sneak peek into the world of Metrico for everybody: A free demo will be available when Metrico releases. This demo consists of the entire first world. In terms of gameplay time, the first world is about 5% of the entire game. Please note that this world merely touches the surface of what we’re trying to do with Metrico. More inputs will be added in every world as complexity and difficulty increase. We sincerely hope you enjoy the demo and if you’re up for much more exploration and mindbenders, it will only be a few inputs away.

Music by Palmbomen

Palmbomen is a talented Dutch synth composer based in LA. This friend of the studio released several albums, and since we were already big fans of his work we were thrilled he liked the idea of Metrico — so much, in fact, that he wanted to work with us to create the game’s audio. Palmbomen (Dutch for ‘palm trees’) created an enchanting soundtrack, along with all the sound effects fitting the Metrico atmosphere in a way he only can.

Music is very important to us, and we’re very proud of the way his music is implemented into Metrico. Over the years, Palmbomen developed an interest in having new ways for people to experience his music. The game acts as a ‘sequencer’, reacting to what the player does. This way all layers of music (bass, percussion, melody, etc.) are triggered by the way the player traverses Metrico. This way the music helps to creating a coherent experience with a nice atmosphere.

Each world is a unique music track. The different hypnotic synth sound effects and psychedelic music he created accompanying each world tie in to the unique aesthetics and gameplay very well. It’s been a close — and truly great — collaboration.

Palmbomen’s song Stock was already featured in GTA V. We encourage you to check out his work on Soundcloud or Spotify!

Metrico on PS Vita

Release!

The release is only a few weeks from now, which feels very exciting, scary and surreal to us. The project we’ve been putting our love in for such a long time has finally come to an end. Metrico is out of our hands and is going through Sony’s quality assurance as we speak. We started fulltime development on Metrico nearly two years ago, so it has been a huge and important part of our lives. Making our first console game, effectively as a three guy studio, was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. It was a very ambitious project and therefore a lot more work than we anticipated, which I guess is quite common in game development. We’re very glad we got help from talented interns and freelancers along the way. We couldn’t have done it without them!

It’s been a crazy ride for us. We laughed and cried; saw relationsihps begin and end; travelled the world for events; received invaluable feedback from testers; saw joy and frustration in players’ eyes; met countless great games industry people along the way; moved in and out of offices; crunched with every deadline, and now we can’t wait until it goes live.

But the 5th of August will only be the beginning. We created a world for you to play in and we can’t wait to have players explore it and hear what all of you think about Metrico! Now, it’s time for your input. Let us know what you think in the comments, or follow Metrico for more art and trailers on Facebook or Twitter!

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33 Comments

12 Author Replies

  • Dude, this is awesome. Can’t wait for this game (finally). Congrats guys!

  • Awesome, looking forward to this!

  • Looking forward to it guys! Can you give a price? Plus discount?

  • I’ve been looking forward to this game since you announced it, I absolutely can’t wait to grab it! Would you guys make another exclusive if this one succeeded?

    • Roy van de Mortel

      We’re probably going to sit back and enjoy the ride for a while before thinking about what’s next ;)

  • This game looks better every time I see it. Thanks for releasing it the day before my birthday!

  • Looks good! Price?

  • I still don’t fully understand what the gameplay will actually be, unless it just involves running through minimalist landscapes to cool music, but it looks and sounds beautiful, so I’m sold.

    • Roy van de Mortel

      I guess if you replace running with puzzling you summed it up pretty well. But this is exactly why it’s so hard to show game play. We hope you’ll enjoy the demo.

  • YES! My most eagerly anticipated Vita game!

  • Nice! I’ve had my eye on this for quite a while now. I’m a big fan of puzzle platformers and 80s synth, so this seems right up my alley. I’ll be getting it for sure, but are there any plans to bring it to PS4? I would love to play it on my TV to be able to hear the soundtrack through audio system.

  • I also want to say thank you for making a demo. I’ll be buying Metrico day 1, but I think it’s seriously a missed opportunity when devs choose not to release a demo. Maybe they are afraid it will turn people off? Maybe they are being greedy and don’t want people to touch the game without playing? I don’t know. But “try before you buy” is something that makes customers happy and I think every developer should embrace that. Especially for such a unique game like Metrico, where there will undoubtedly be many people who don’t understand the game from watching videos and might otherwise pass on it.

    • Roy van de Mortel

      I think another concern for developers might be that without a vertical slice of the game it’s hard to show the full potential of it.
      Creating a vertical slice instead of offering only a piece of the content you made anyway is very time consuming and would probably result in a rather large demo in terms of filesize.

  • Wow, I remember when you guys put up a blog post some time ago just announcing this game. Now, here we are, and it’s release is not too far off. I hope this game does well for you guys, I’ll be picking it up day 1.

  • gotstrangepowers

    Thanks Roy. Looks great.

  • Fantastic game and thank you so much for Vita exclusive :)

  • The gameplay reminds me of anti-chamber, yet there is still something extremely special about this title. Thanks for gifting the ps vita with this most likely wonderful game!

  • this game is so cool

  • Will there be a retail copy of the game available on launch day?

  • Can’t wait for the game. I’m not going to watch the trailer because I want to play the game ‘clean’.

  • Man, this game looks fantastic! Looking forward to this one.

  • Thanks for the update. I played Metrico on a GameStop demo Vita a couple days ago and I have to say… will definitely be buying this.

  • Day 1 buy for me. It is reminiscent of Intellgent Qube for PSone. Accctually, could you make a sequel w/ the same groovy atmosphere?

  • Looks and SOUNDS like a lot of fun!

  • Although I normally wait for ps + salessales, I try to support the smaller devs, and I’ll do so by making this a Day 1 purchase.

    Thx for the Vita exclusive and I look forward to seeing what your puts out next!

    Lates’

  • Although I normally wait for ps + sales, I try to support the smaller devs, and I’ll do so by making this a Day 1 purchase.

    Thx for the Vita exclusive and I look forward to seeing what your puts out next!

    Lates’

  • And to think people complain all the time about where are the ps vita games at . What maybe coming out for the platform may not appeal to everybody but there are games that are on there way for sure.

  • hey where are The Psone classics for the Vita???? I don’t see it in the list on the Vitas PSN store anymore are you guys discontinuing the [Sone classics for the Vita???? or is this temporary??? :/

  • This looks so odd, yet compelling. Infographics and synth? Rad!

    I suppose I’ll try the demo first, since my rational side says it’s the appropriate thing to do. But my mind is made up—I’ll be purchasing this.

    As at least 1 other said, thanks for supporting the Vita. I have heard reports that Vita owners purchase a disproportionately large number of games compared to other systems, and I hope you find this to be true. The last sentence would have been better conveyed as an infographic.

    • Roy van de Mortel

      Sure! That’s what its for.
      We read similiar reports and think this is particularly true for digital PSVita games. Although that hasn’t been a factor in our decision to develop for it.

  • Definitely something I’ll be keeping my eye on

  • Awesome…Day one for me

  • I’m sucker for a good platformer; something about making my brain stretch a little differently than i normally see the world. Thanks for making something that looks awesome. Day 1 if the price is right.

  • It looks pretty neat….and it may be a good game,but pyramids?…really?….I already see something fishy about this game.

  • Day 1 purchase!

  • Looks interesting, but….

    No disc, no sale.

  • Whooooaa! Guyz you nailed it with pricing O_O. You’r going free for PS+ Day 1, thats interesting move I would say, but is risky too. Ofc, grats on your 1st release ;)

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