August 24th, 2010 -- Experienced independent developer Ben Bradley reveals a unique new game currently in development. "Substream" is a highly animated, abstract 3D shooter which show cases multiple innovations and has already been in development for several months.


The following details have been made available:

Substream is a single-player game, currently being developed for Windows PC with other platforms in consideration. Gameplay involves flying a futuristic fighter ship over a dynamic landscape, whilst attacking and defending against various and numerous enemy ships and other entities. The game is built from the ground up in order to incorporate multiple innovative new technologies:

+ Substream uses a complex new approach to music synchronization, which allows in-game events to be associated with the notes and intensity of individual instruments, melodies, drums or sounds within a song mix. The approach here is one of careful and considered human design, which allows for a much broader and stronger set of associations than are normally seen within synaesthesia games.

+ The game features a fully dynamic environment. In Substream, the entire ground below the player is able to morph simultaneously. Color schemes, shapes and lighting methods are all designed to be dynamic. When combined with its music synchronization technology this leads to a game which is able to constantly reflect the themes, patterns and emotions in its music.

+ Substream exists in a universe with a spatial distortion causing objects to appear at multiple positions simultaneously. Within the game the player is effectively controlling an infinite chain of ships that are fighting infinite chains of enemies. This requires no additional controls or understanding from the player but leads to several interesting new gameplay possibilities.

The game will be independently funded and published, and developed with a creative freedom which focuses on the quality of experience. A release is planned for 2011.

"Musical synaesthesia has been used in several games now to great effect and I'm a big fan of it, but I wanted to take it further than automatic beat detection would allow. The best way to describe designing levels for Substream is 'choreography'. I'm creating a sequence of movements and physical changes that reinforce the themes, rhythms and moods of the music. Essentially the game is dancing." - Ben Bradley


At this time several other resources have been made publicly available:

- The game's website has gone live at:

- A video of game footage, viewable at:

- Screenshots, videos, and other press resources are now being made easily available at:


Ben Bradley is based in Sheffield (UK) and has been working as an independent game developer since January 2010. Prior to this he gained four years of games industry experience as a programmer at Sumo Digital where he contributed to the Wii and PSP versions of F1 2009 and Dirt 2, amongst other titles.

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