In SURI: The Seventh Note, the beat is more than accompaniment: it gives the island a common sense of time. Ahead of the game's planned October 30 release on PS5 and PC, Tathvamasi Studios director Glen Martin has explained how music and movement fit together in its illustrated world.
The rhythm platformer follows Ajira as she crosses the island to find a way to save her mother. Its landscapes draw on a range of Indian cultural and architectural influences, from Rajput forts to Himalayan monasteries, Martin wrote on PlayStation Blog.
One clock for movement and music
In an October 29 interview with Insider Gaming, Martin described a Universal Groove System that acts as a timekeeper. Mechanics and animation receive timing information from a clock tied directly to the music, an approach intended to keep the elements coordinated even when frames drop.
PlayStation's official SURI gameplay trailer.
Project: SURI: The Seventh Note
Production: Tathvamasi Studios
SURI: The Seventh Note imagery and game rights belong to Tathvamasi Studios and respective rights holders.
The audio team first establishes constraints such as tempo, time signature and phrase length, then creates musical patterns. Level designers use those patterns to work out traps and environmental obstacles that can animate in time, Martin explained. The sequence connects the soundtrack to what players see and navigate, rather than treating it as a layer added after the level is finished.
Designing space between the beats
In September's PlayStation Blog post, Martin said the team settled on roughly 480 milliseconds between main beats. The interval provides room for player input and failure feedback while preserving momentum, according to the director.
Platforms, hazards and illustrated scenery fill a second SURI gameplay image.
Project: SURI: The Seventh Note
Production: Tathvamasi Studios
SURI: The Seventh Note imagery and game rights belong to Tathvamasi Studios and respective rights holders.
That constraint also shaped the music. Martin describes combining a hip-hop-like structure with Indian percussion textures and using different instruments for different areas. The illustrated environments and musical palette take inspiration from several traditions rather than presenting the island as a single real place.
A journey on the horizon
SURI: The Seventh Note is listed for October 30 on Steam and PlayStation 5. Tathvamasi is its developer and publisher on Steam. The game is not yet available there at the time of writing, although a demo is listed.
Its shared clock offers a useful way to think about the connection between sound and animation: the timing of an obstacle can carry as much of a level's identity as its colour or shape. That is Re:Drawn's interpretation of the process Martin describes.
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