Transcend

About the game

Transcend is a shooter where the weapon and the soundtrack are the same thing. You steer a small glyph over a wide plane marked with a grid. Along the edge of the plane lie Elements, still objects that you can pick up and carry. Drop them near the centre of the plane, where a coloured line called the umbilical ties your glyph to the middle of the grid, and they form a collage. The collage is your power-up: its size and shape decide how strong your shots are. It is also your music, since each Element is a short piece of music and a cursor, shown as a red, yellow and green line, sweeps across the collage and plays them. What you put side by side plays one after the other. What you stack along the cursor plays at the same time, spread across the stereo field: red is the right speaker, green the left, yellow the centre.

You start weak. Your first shots cannot destroy even the small enemies. Gather an Element, drop it in the middle, and your shots become strong enough to take down any minor anti-glyph in one hit. The minor anti-glyphs chase you and your Elements, and when one of their shots hits an Element it flies away from the centre, so they are always trying to pull your collage apart. The big enemy, the major anti-glyph, flies a slow circle around the plane and is much tougher. It takes a large and balanced collage to destroy it easily, because a collage that grows lopsided or drifts off centre makes your shots weaker, and you see them turn transparent.

When the major anti-glyph is gone, a portal opens. While it is open the minor ones stop attacking, so you can walk among the Elements and listen to what you built. Fly into the portal to start the next level. There are three levels and, after the last, the game goes back to the first.

Transcend was made by Jason Rohrer between 2004 and 2005 and is free software under the GNU GPL. It has no art, sound or music files: the shapes, the colours, the music and the sounds are all generated by the program from the level files, and the more you build the more of it you hear.

Playing it here

This is the original game, compiled for the browser from its source code, with the complete source hosted alongside it. The download is under 2 MB. Click the game and press an arrow key to start. The game is in English, nothing is saved, and sound needs a click on the page first, as in any browser. Stereo speakers or headphones are worth using: the music lives in the stereo space.

The game picks up the keyboard once you click it, and it keeps the keyboard until you click outside.

Controls

Getting started

Collect an Element first. Fly to one of the Elements along the border, press D to pick it up, carry it to the middle of the plane and press D again to drop it near the centre of the grid. Until you do, your shots are powerless.

Defend the collage. Enemy shots that hit your glyph make you drop what you carry and throw you back toward the centre. Shots that hit an Element push it away from the centre. Shoot the minor anti-glyphs before they get close.

Add more Elements. A larger collage means stronger shots. Aim for one that is balanced around the centre rather than long on one side.

Tips

Think in stereo. Elements side by side in the cursor's direction play one after the other, and Elements stacked across it play together and are spread from left to right. Move Elements around to change what you hear as well as how hard you hit.

Use the portal. After the major anti-glyph falls you are safe until you enter the portal. It is a good moment to rearrange the collage and listen to it.

Take the time. There is no clock. Pausing with P is always there if you need it.

Frequently asked questions

How many levels are there? Three, and the game loops back to the first one after the third.

Does it need a mouse? No. The keyboard does everything.

Is the source available? Yes. The complete source of this build, with the files used to compile it, is hosted alongside the game and linked from the licences page.

Does it work on a phone? It needs a keyboard.