When a small team of seven — five guys and two pretty amazing gals — set up to create Contrast in a small solarium a few years ago, we didn’t think we’d be launching on a brand new console, across several continents, or get as much attention as we did. 2013 was as exhausting as it was rewarding.
A true labor of love, our singular goal was to create a nice, compelling, and simple adventure while celebrating each other’s craft. Whether it was Whitney’s inspiring visual art (out of which we’ve built an entire art book), Josh and Trevor’s endless ideas about the ways in which we could use or reinvent our mechanics, or the unique way in which Sylvia’s animations are experienced in the game and our trailers, we found unique ways to respect each other’s work and encourage creativity.
Our partners told us that our passion was contagious and this quickly infected them, as they had found an outlet to express their own passions. Nicolas — who composed all the songs in Contrast — composed original songs with a contemporary jazz singer and local jazz instrumentalists. Alex wrote lyrics for the first time, and Laura Ellis donated her time and voice to the project. We even made an album out of it. Our friends at PixelNAUTS, who finished the world environments early, spent more than a month of their own time adding hidden memes and obscure (or not-so-obscure) references in the game.
Christmas came early for my own daughters as they unwrapped a very special gift. A game in which they’ve had a chance to contribute their own drawings, experiences, and personality, as well as their papa taking a longer moment than in the past three years to enjoy their smiles
The press considered us a curiosity project when we first showed the game at PAX East 2013, and we were humbled even more when they honored us with several high-profile nominations and wins. PlayStation, which embraces experimental projects — proposed that we become part of their launch story, so we doubled down on getting the game ready for all of you. Contrast launched with a few issues, but we want to assure you that we have read and heard all of your feedback and we’re continuing to work at resolving them. In the meantime, thank you.
For each of you that have and will experience our world, and for each spouse, child, or friend who sits down and watches along, we feel humbled and vindicated in doing what we love. As a developer it’s hard to ever be satisfied with the final product, but this project is what we set out to do. We wanted something different, something beautiful. We are grateful to all who helped us bring it to life, and to all of you for having us along for the ride.
From the entire Compulsion team, we hope your 2014 is filled with all that you hope for. Keep positive, because you never you know — your dreams, like ours, can come true.
Loved the game until glitch after glitch showed up in the Lighthouse level
How about you guys update the PS Store?
@pablofsi08 You are asking the wrong team about this.
Anyone else get a “This photo is private.” error message when they click on the postcard image?
BTW Thanks to Contrast team for their wishes and the utterly charming, (if somewhat buggy on release) game. Played it on PC (pre-patch) and loved the music and the mood! Left me wanting more at the end, which is a good thing.
I loved this game.
Simple yet fun and charming. Good job.
Contrast is a visually stunning game, but I think it was a severe misstep in the design to render the supporting cast only as shadows.
Loved your game. Not perfect, but the aesthetic, music, voice acting and story were great.
The game aspects were more rough (and the animation), but I still really enjoyed the game despite it’s faults.
Hope to see you guys again.
Happy New Years!
This game was phenomenal. I couldn’t believe it was free. I’m usually skeptical about free games, but this utterly blew me away. Fantastic job guys, hope to see more from you in the future. Especially with this type of design style, truly unique.
Was the 1st game I played on my PS4, really enjoyed it! Hoping for a sequel. Great job & Happy Holidays to you and your families!
Awesome game! I wish there was a platinum trophy for beating the game and getting all trophies. Thanks for a fun game to play.
During the first few weeks of my PS4 ownership, I played Contrast far more than either KillZone: Shadow Fall or Knack. I’m not kidding. Contrast is an amazing game and I loved every little bit about it, including the strategic pauses in some of the dialog that had me laughing for quite some time. And yes, there are some obscure things in it, and some very not so obscure ones… Anyone else find the TARDIS? My sincere thanks to the team, and I really hope there will either be additional content for Contrast, a follow-up, or a hell of a lot more great games from Compulsion team!
Great job on the game, very creative/entertaining game project you created with contrast. I have to be honest to think i wasn’t going to like this game. To my delight, after playing the first 30 minutes I was hooked, I needed to find out more about the story.
Thanks for the good wishes, and hope you guys had a great year too
Carlos A. Zamudio
Regards,
You certainly did create something beautiful. I love the art style of this game!
You should be grateful that all of this happened for the team as this game is a huge let down.
Really enjoyed the game…….but I wish a few more of the bugs could have been worked out.
My daughter and I took turns playing through the game over the christmas break and after getting through ACT III, getting to the top of the lighthouse and shining the light on the stage and then ……nothing. It would not jump to the final cutscene no matter what we did. So we had to settle for watching the final part of the story on Youtube. Kind of a letdown after all the time put into getting that far in the game.
Beautiful game to look & listen to.