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Welcome to the official site of independent game developer/music producer Julian Kantor, alias Funkmasonry Industries. Stay tuned for weekly updates about the upcoming musical action-adventure The Groov CosmosEmail me with questions, comments, suggestions or criticisms!

Saturday
Oct032009

Groov Price Drop!

We here at Funkmasonry Industries are pleased to announce that our award-winning debut into the trade of videogame-makery, Groov, is now only $1 (80 MS Points)!!

Groov has received positive coverage from outlets like 1UP.com, Gamasutra, Edge Magazine, and Official Xbox Magazine. See why Groov's addictive blend of interactive music and dual-stick shooting has earned its #7 rank in user ratings (out of over 500 Indie Games) on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and download it for only 80 MS Points!

Thursday
Jun042009

Getting the Band Back Together...

Things are going down here at Funkmasonry Industries headquarters (my bedroom). The band that started it all, Funkmasonry, is up to exciting new things. Stay tuned to this space...

Thursday
May212009

Edge Magazine Issue 202

The latest issue of Edge Magazine has a great article about the successes and challenges of Xbox Live Community Games. Along with other XNA creators, Funkmasonry Industries' own Julian Kantor was interviewed for the piece. Groov was described as "a neat spin on Geometry Wars with a nasty habit of stealing half an hour here and there," and even given its own sidebar (the only such sidebar in the article, I might add):

Julian Kantor's Groov, a dual-stick shooter with a musical bent, is one of the service's early highlights. You fly around a rectangle's interior as normal, but each of your shots produces a synth sound effect, and each enemy has their own instrumental effect that plays when they die. Visually it's functional rather than exceptional, but it uses its limited palette cleverly to differentiate live enemies from dead ones (which stick around before exploding on certain beats) and has a neat 'slowdown' special weapon rather than yet another smartbomb. There's a wonderful moment about 45 seconds into your first game - but we won't spoil it, because you're going to try it out, right?

To read the rest of the article, along with tons of other interesting features, check out Edge Magazine Issue 202 on newsstands.

Wednesday
Apr292009

Cinema Blend's "5 Actually Good XNA Games"

Cinema Blend included Groov on their list of 5 Actually Good XNA Games For $2.50 Apiece! Along with NextWar: The Quest for Earth, Johnny Platform's Biscuit RompPhilip Muwanga's Hexy Trench, and Miner Dig Deep, Groov was deemed a game "you should know about, unless you hate fun." Here's their whole write-up on Groov, awesome part emphasized by myself.

What at first appears to be a more-affordable version of Geometry Wars quickly distinguishes itself as some sort of music/rhythm/shooter type-thing-game. If that description made no sense, I'll clarify; every enemy in the game moves to a certain beat, and your bullets fire at that same beat. Once you hit an enemy and "kill" it, it will turn into a harmless, white version of itself. That white enemy will then die out at a time that is appropriate for the beat of the song. Each different type of enemy makes a different musical sound when it dies, and your bullets make piano... 

You know what? Just download the trial. It's like Geometry Wars mixed with Beethoven and Jesus. That's all you need to know.

Niiiice.

Monday
Apr132009

1UP Game Night 4/14/2009

Make sure you tune in to 1UP.com's game night tomorrow night! In addition to playing Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, the awesome people at 1UP will be playing some Xbox Live Community Games (Miner Dig Deep, Supercow, and a little game called Groov) and answering fan questions about the games in real time. The event will stream live at 5:00 PM Pacific Time (8 Eastern).

Thanks again to 1UP for giving such great coverage to Groov!