The first iPhone application I’ve worked on has just been released. It is called “Prescription for Sleep” – read this link for more background on the concept of the software. I should start by mentioning that unlike most of my work it is not a game. It is a music visualizer that is intended to act as a sleep aid. The application will take you from reading a mysterious book in your house, to space, to an alien world, and finally to a psychedelic representation of the womb. I programmed the application and designed and implemented the majority of the visualizers. I also did some art – woot, first published art work in a game!
The music was composed specifically for the application by Norihiko Hibino, prolific composer most famously known for composing the music to the Metal Gear Solid series. It was produced by Marc Cellucci at Mission-One. It was a fun group to work with and I’m happy to have had the opportunity.
Here is the link to the full version in iTunes: Prescription for Sleep on iTunes
There is a free version but it is not yet up on the iTunes store (the mysteries of the Apple approval process at work). As soon as it is I will post a link. The full version includes four visualizers and the free version features one of the four.
Working on the platform was a fun diversion from my Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 work. It was also enjoyable working “outside the box” so to speak on a non-game application.
I will post again soon with more technical details about what it was like working on the project and platform. For now here are some brief development stats:
- Development time – approximately one month
- Number of developers – six (none were full time)
- Middleware used – cocos2d iPhone, Pinch Media analytics
I started watching the video on the Mission-One website and got about halfway through before I blacked out and regained consciousness five minutes later, feeling refreshed. :-)
Seriously, though, very cool art piece. I especially like this bit:
“High-Quality Sound with Therapeutic Frequencies
The music in Prescription for Sleep contains some inaudible frequencies in the 50-60 kHz range, which replicate frequencies found in nature, such as those of a murmuring forest stream. These 24-bit, 96 kHz recordings were created using special mastering techniques, and have a bandwidth that standard sound sources cannot duplicate.”
Neat!
Thanks for the kind words Steve. Glad to hear it had its intended effect, heh.
It was actually kind of a challenge working on something that is supposed to make you feel sleepy. I kept adding more and more layers onto the visualizers because I thought it made them more visually interesting. Eventually they got too busy though.
We ended up cutting them back and removing some elements and making everything slower to make it more of a sleepy dream like atmosphere.
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