NOTE: The release date for this title has been pushed into February. We will republish this review again closer to launch.

Zoe Mode got together with OneBigGame and did a load of work on Chime. All of Zoe Mode’s royalties on the game go to the OneBigGame charity initiative (at least 60% of game sales if I read it correctly). All of the work by Zoe Mode was pro-bono, meaning no one got paid for it. It was all one big donation from every company, composer and person involved. Now that’s pretty cool.

Chime mixes the ambient, atmospheric sounds of music from composers such as Philip Glass, Paul Hartnoll (of Orbital), Markus Schulz, Fred Deakin (of Lemon Jelly) and Moby with Tetris-like blocks and a spatial awareness twist.

In the game you place blocks to create quads. Quads cover the game grid and give you points. You can continue to add to quads making them larger and therefore receiving more coverage area as long as you do so before the quad is finished filling up (being counted).

The music is incorporated into the game as not only background but also an integral part. A beatline scans the board and as it goes it hits blocks that have been placed and creates additional sounds in the music. Also when the beatline hits a quad that has already been totaled up the quad drops into the grid and you can then build over it. You cannot play pieces on top of other pieces or active quads. Covering more than 50% of a grid opens the next level. When you leave chunks of blocks behind (after a quad is hit by a beatline) they will exist for some time. Each time they are hit by the beatline their life is lowered until they disappear altogether.

The game consists of two modes Time and Free. Time allows you to choose a time limit for each level (3, 6 or 9 minutes) while Free simply lets you choose one of the five musicians to play.

The boards are generally large blank screens but later levels will incorporate elements that you will need to build around. Special bonuses are incorporated in covering the entire board and there are of course achievements and leaderboards.