Vessel (video game)

Vessel
Cover art
Developer(s)	Strange Loop Games
Publisher(s)	indiePub
Composer(s)	Jon Hopkins
Platform(s)	Windows, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux
Release	Windows March 1, 2012 Linux December 11, 2012 OS X January 7, 2013 PlayStation 3 PAL: March 12, 2014 NA: March 13, 2014
Genre(s)	Puzzle-platform
Mode(s)	Single-player

Vessel is a physics-based, steampunk, puzzle-platform game developed by Strange Loop Games and published by indiePub. It was released March 1, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, for Linux on December 11, 2012^[1] and for PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network in March 2014. An OS X version was released on January 7, 2013.

The main character of Vessel is M. Arkwright, an inventor who creates a liquid-composed labor-performing automaton, called the Fluro. He creates this automaton in order to perform laborious tasks more efficiently than human beings.^[2] However, the Fluros begin to run amok, and cause the world's machinery to malfunction.

In order to restore the machinery back to a functioning status, Arkwright must travel through the world of Vessel and fix the broken parts.^[3] In addition to creating the Fluro automaton, he creates Seeds, which are small devices that allow him to control an area's surrounding liquid and transform it into a Fluro.^[4] This newly created Fluro can then be used to fix the machinery by influencing it on where to go and what to do.

Vessel is a puzzle-platformer that teaches and reveals its mechanics as the player progresses through the game. Using many different forms of liquid, such as water or lava, the player creates Fluros to do things such as activate switches, move cogs, and pull levers. The player can also use M. Arkwright's liquid gun to spray fluid at switches that need to be activated. For areas that the player can't reach, they can create a Fluro from the available liquid in the world's level, and have the newly created automaton go there.^[5]

As the Fluros are automatons, they have their own habits and abilities. Some are attracted to light, and others dark. Considerations like these are key to progressing through a level, as the player must influence the Fluros to do what they would like.^[5]

The level design of Vessel grants the player freedom in how to solve a particular puzzle. Each one has multiple solutions, and it is up to the player's choices and creativity as to how to solve it.^[6]

Strange Loop Games is a company founded by two programmers: John Krajewski and Martin Farren. Both former employees of Electronic Arts, they left in order to pursue creating games with new and interesting gameplay mechanics instead of high quality graphics.^[7] The Vessel team includes Milenko Tunjic, the art director, and Mark Filippelli, the lead artist. Both were responsible for creating the visual component of Vessel's steampunk world.^[7] Further, under the direction of audio director Leonard Paul and audio programmer Kieran Lord, all of the music was composed by electronica musician Jon Hopkins.^[8]

The game itself consists largely of a custom liquid-physics engine, as well as music and artificial intelligence engines.^[8][9] The physics engine consists of individual particles that exhibit pressure on one another, as well as taking surface tension and viscosity into consideration. The created fluid shapes are also illuminated through a clustering algorithm that adds point-lights to a liquid depending on how closely packed a group of particles are.^[9] The artificial intelligence engine works in conjunction with the individual particle physics of the liquids in game.^[9] Vessel uses a custom built engine that specializes in physics and fluid simulation.^[7]

The art of Vessel is 2.5D style. It visualizes the steampunk world and allows the player to look at a machine in the game, and see all of its components and how it functions. This helps the player learn what they need to do in order to play the level and fix the machinery.^[3]

The music, composed by Jon Hopkins, builds as players progress towards solving a specific puzzle. Upon first starting a puzzle, the music is smooth and put towards the background. As the player begins to figure out the puzzle, the music gets increasingly more complex, adding in drums and bass. By the time the puzzle is complete, the full music track is playing.^[3] The game contains 7 tracks from Hopkins' 2009 album Insides (including the eponymous track Vessel), and 3 from his album Contact Note.

The sound of Vessel was the topic of a talk at the 2012 Game Developers Conference. Leonard J. Paul, the game's audio director, discussed its sound design and implementation. Using FMOD, Lua, and C++, the game uses techniques such as granular synthesis, subtractive synthesis, layered sequencing, spectral layering, LFO modulation, and asymmetric loops.^[10]

Reception
Review scores Publication Score PC PS3 4Players 87%[13] 87%[14] Destructoid 7/10[15] N/A G4 [16] N/A Game Informer 7.75/10[17] N/A GameSpy [5] N/A GamesRadar+ [18] N/A Gamezebo [19] N/A IGN 8/10[20] N/A PC Gamer (UK) 72%[21] N/A Push Square N/A 8/10[22] Aggregate score Metacritic 81/100[11] 84/100[12]

The PC and PlayStation 3 versions received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[11][12]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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