SA-made Cadence hits Kickstarter

South African-made synth music puzzler Cadence has launched its Kickstarter campaign, looking for some spare cash – £25,000 (R450,000) to be exact – to take it to the next level.

The game has been in development for some time now, headed up by Peter Cardwell-Gardner’s one-man Cape Town based studio, Made With Monster Love.

In 2014, Rodain Joubert, the creator of the popular IGF-winner Desktop Dungeons, teamed up with Gardner to lend some puzzle expertise to the whole affair.

The crux of Cadence revolves around forming complete, perpetual sound loops by linking nodes.

As you progress, the loops (and puzzles) get more complex, and introduce different types of nodes that have varied effects.

I got some hands-on time with an early build of the title in 2014, and even then the game’s minimalist design and synth mechanics were well polished.

Since then, features have been added, like the ability to change the sounds, pitch, and various other effects in real-time. The developers still intend for the game to be much more.

According to Gardner, the Kickstarter campaign is specifically to add more complexity to the game, in terms of transforming Cadence from a simple puzzle game to a complete music builder.

“We need to make it possible for you to create your own levels and compositions using Cadence. And of course, creating anything means that there needs to be an easy way for you to share that with the rest of the community,” the team said.

The Kickstarter will also allow Made With Monster Love to add more sounds and synthesizers to the pool, for more variety.

Cadence is expected to be released around January 2016, but the development team has warned that, depending on what the Kickstarter allows them to do, this may shift back.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign at this page.

Update: There is no an alpha/demo out for Cadence.

Disclosure: Rodain and the author are Facebook friends, and occasionally swap dick jokes.