Ludography
Sentris cover

2014 · Indie · Puzzle

Sentris

Sentris is a musical performance game. Make your own music as you Drop, Recycle, and Stack "Sound Blocks" into a spinning loop. Freestyle with a huge degree of musical control. Or focus on achieving the goal and let your song emerge organically

Released
22 August 2014
Platforms
LinuxWindowsmacOS
Genres
IndiePuzzleRhythmSimulation
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Country
United States

About

Sentris is a music video game where players solve puzzles by composing musical loops. Following a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in October 2013, an early access version of the game was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows and OS X in August 2014, with an official release in August 2015. A PlayStation 4 version was planned, but it was never realised. An Ouya version was in development, until the Razer acquisition rendered the contract void.

Keywords

  • crowdfunding - kickstarter
  • steam greenlight
  • crowdfunding
  • digital distribution
  • music and rhythm
  • playstation experience 2015
  • crowd funded
  • pax prime 2014
  • pax east 2014
  • pax east 2015
  • music creation

Media

Sentris screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Sentris, players drop musical notes from various instruments onto a set of rotating concentric circles, these circles represent musical loops which replay the music to the player. Within these circles lie puzzle targets, players must drop the correct note onto the target to succeed. Aside from the puzzle gameplay, Sentris also offers performance and remix modes.

Development

Sentris is designed and developed by Samantha Kalman, founder and director of Timbre Interactive. While Kalman had prior experience shipping software as QA director at Unity, Sentris is her first commercial video game. Given her experience, Unity was a natural choice for the game engine, Kalman also cites Unity's low cost as an important factor in her decision.

Kalman began working on Sentris full-time in the Summer of 2013. She had first attempted full-time games development in 2011, and though that attempt failed, it did produce Sen, a free music video game with many of the concepts that would be found in Sentris. Kalman was inspired to make a music video game by her time spent playing in a band, she wanted to create a game which captured the joy of creation she felt during jam sessions. Kalman collaborated with musicians, Danny Baranowsky, Disasterpeace and Kasson Crooker on the game.

Reception

PC Gamer awarded the 62% in a mixed review. Their writer, James Davenport, found its interface unintuitive, requiring a "frustrating thirty-minute decryption session" to get started. He managed to create some worthwhile musical loops, but felt that the game "tries to be both a music creator and a music toy, and it just isn't a great example of either".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Linux5 July 2014Worldwide
Windows5 July 2014Worldwide · North America 31 August 2015
macOS5 July 2014Worldwide

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.