Kosada, Inc. will release a beta version of Vuo, a modern visual programming language for multimedia artists and creators, on October 24th, 2013. With Vuo, users will be able to create interactive audio, visual, and mixed multimedia applications and effects with ease. The Vuo beta will enable subscribers to begin to explore Vuo's capabilities while providing revenue to allow for continued development. This twist on crowdfunding provides immediate benefit for supporters — access to the beta release and all subsequent releases during the subscription period.

Steve Mokris, Kosada's owner, shared, "We've been working on Vuo for several years, and we now want to give media creators a glimpse at where we're headed with Vuo. Although the beta is not yet fully-featured, with it creators can begin to explore some of Vuo's possibilities. Purchasing a subscription helps support our continuing efforts. We're calling everyone who purchases a subscription before October 24th a Vuo "Founder" — they get a free Vuo t-shirt, and earn Vuo credits by encouraging others to sign up."

Vuo, which is 'flow' in the Finnish language, is designed to be both powerful and intuitive. Key features available in the beta include:

  • Allows for complete control of composition timing: A composition can run at a steady framerate, or it can react to events like mouse clicks or MIDI notes, so that some parts can run continuously, and others run only when needed.

  • Leverages modern computer architecture: Every Vuo composition is a native executable that runs directly on the processor (not in a virtual machine like other multimedia environments). Vuo automatically runs different parts of compositions on separate computer processors, to maximize speed.

  • Incorporates modern standards: 2D and 3D Graphics nodes use modern OpenGL for optimal graphics performance.

  • Provides a sophisticated editor with built-in debugging: Users drag and drop nodes and cables on a canvas to create compositions. Users can monitor the data flowing through one or more ports and nodes, and can see when different parts of the composition are running.

  • Has a first-class public API so other developers can take advantage of and expand Vuo's capabilities.

The vuo.org website includes video tutorials, a user's manual, and community questions-and-answers to help users learn Vuo. Access to Vuo is subscription-based, with three different tiers of benefits available. Source code for the Vuo compiler and core nodes are available to subscribers, and will be made publicly available after 12 months. Currently Vuo runs on Mac OS X, but support for iOS is planned for 2015 (with the scheduled release of Vuo 1.0), as is eventual support for Windows and Linux. Details are available on our roadmap.

Jaymie Strecker, a Vuo developer, remarked, "Our hope for Vuo is to empower a new generation of artists and makers of all ages. We want to provide a professional-quality tool that's easy enough for anyone to use."

Kosada is an owner-operated company that specializes in developing desktop and mobile applications for Mac, iOS, and Android, and in developing web applications using Drupal. Kosada has long been a supporter of the multimedia community though hosting Kineme, a site for Quartz Composer users, and through developing Quartz Composer plug-ins.

Press Contact:
Jean Marie Cackowski-Campbell, jmcc@kosada.com