Developer Summary:

Proun is a strange racing game in a world of geometric objects and large coloured surfaces. You avoid obstacles by rotating around a cable in order to gain as much speed as possible. There is no up or down; there is only the cable to which you are attached.

What We Think:

Over the weekend, the game Proun was released. It’s a pay-what-you-want racing game that is very player friendly when it comes to tracks. By pay-what-you-want, I really do mean exactly that. There is a free download, and if you choose to pay a small amount there is a separate download with a special track. This game is a ton of fun and full of addicting action. Let’s break it down a bit to see why I liked this game so much.

So let’s start with the basics, what the hell is this game about? Well, it’s not an easy thing to explain but it is simple if you can see it. Your a 3-D ball of some sort, racing against other 3-D balls… on a cable… or wire. Anyways, this wire loops and twists and turns its way past 3-D obstacles that you must dodge during the race.

As you win championships, you unlock faster speeds to race at. There is an online high-scores board to keep up to date with the fastest Proun players and to compare your own racing stats. You can even race up to three friends at the same time.

The game design it what makes this game really appealing. It is able to convey a great feel of speed as you race around. Once going at full pace, I found myself moving my whole body left and right with my ball trying to avoid obstacles. The basic free game comes with three tracks to start, and this is more than enough. Each track is difficult enough to create a sense of real accomplishment once you beat the computer racers in a championship to unlock the next speed.

Once a new speed is unlocked, you really have to practice to be able to finish the same track since the speed of the ball changes the game play immensely. This jump in difficulty is what keeps bringing me back for more of this game.

The music is also a great addition to this game. The soundtrack is new-age jazz, and fits well with the artistic styling of the tracks. The music is able to provide a nice calming feel when you get stuck on a specific track, playing it over and over again to beat those pesky computers.

One of my favorite features about this game though, is the ability to make your own tracks. If you have any background with 3D Studio Max, you can design your own tracks to share with others or play on your own. The game’s forum is where people go to share their new tracks and is a great resource for finding new tracks if you ever tire of the original ones. You can bet I’ll be putting together a track of my own at some point in the near future.

This game became so popular after its release (over 1.2 million HTTP requests) that its website went down for the entire weekend, and the creator of the game had to find a new web-hosting service. This is no surprise to me as this simple game is tons of fun to sit back and enjoy after a hard day of anything.

You can download for free, or pay whatever you feel fit, at www.proun-game.com to start racing today! While your there you can check out the forums and take a look at some user-created tracks or maybe even learn how to create a track on your own.

See you all on the high-scores board in the near future, but for now I need to get back to my race.

Rating: