Two of the world’s greatest things, together at last.

We’ve seen plenty of browser-based synths and drum machines recently, but The Broom Institute’s Synthesizer takes the award for the most unusual. Based on a subsection of the RPG genre called the roguelike, Synthesizer has an interface like a VST instrument, with a visual representation of the game world in the bottom left and the battle log on the bottom right. One oscillator is used by the player, while the other is controlled by the enemy.

Rather than having direct control over the synthesizer, knobs are changed whenever you or an enemy walks over a patch in the game world. Enemies take the form of “glitches” that can only be attacked when your sound waves are in positive values, and the player’s health is represented by the master volume. According to the developer, there is no ending to the game – the aim is simply to get as far as you can.

Synthesizer isn’t exactly a pick-up-and-play instrument – you’ll need to have fairly decent knowledge of both the conventions of turn-based RPGs and synthesis to have a clue what’s going on, but there are instructions here, as well as a tutorial video below that’s essential viewing for anyone who wants to give it a go.

You can find Synthesizer at The Broom Institute website, though you’ll have to download the free Unity web player to use it. If you want something a little more direct, you can always make acid house with a browser-based TB-303. [via Kill Screen]