MQP Meeting 10/28 Notes

• First meeting of B-term

• We went over what we have accomplished so far

• We also discussed what questions we still had left, such as multiplayer and the question of note durations

• Dylan mentioned it might be possible to use MIDI with the free version of Unity and we discussed where it potentially would make sense to use MIDI or to use samples

• We talked a bit more about the upgrade system, the binary trees, and also the relationship between upgraded weapons and being able to discern what monsters required what instruments

• We talked a little about possible milestones for the term, chiefly how many levels and monsters we want, and the further development of multiplayer
  

• We further expanded on the relationship between instruments and monsters and discussed how to integrate the communication as to what instruments are for what monsters into the actual game story and other elements (building the challenges into the narrative)
  

• Professor Rosenstock went about setting up a 3 week long schedule of concrete deliverables.

WEEK 1

• Fleshed out list of monster parameters
• One fleshed out instrument tree
• Settle on one to two finals options for multiplayer
• Deciding on the compositional game mode flow
• A complete list of art assets

WEEK 2

• Refined monsters (specific monster designs)
• Three fleshed out instrument & monster trees
• A compositional game mode flow prototype
• Monster battle design/sequence fleshed out

WEEK 3

• Testing up to 3 fully design monsters
• Prototype of monster information mechanism
• A battle mode prototype
• Some completed art assets independent of monster elements, such as general environmental/UI stuff
  

MQP Meeting 10/14 Notes

• the last meeting of A Term

• we discussed and shared all the monster ideas that we all had come up with

• the question of whether we should think of our project more as a composition tool or as a game that utilizes user generated music

• we discussed Brian's idea for the upgrade system and which was well liked by all

• moving forward we should focus on what beginning level game features and assets we want and how the initial upgrade system will look and function in order to establish the nature of the work flow between fighting battles and then unlocking/buying upgrades

• we discussed a little more about the visual style of the game: musically stylized modern society

• we discussed technical concerns over possible duration of notes, the viability different ways of approaching sixteenth notes, and how Unity would handle the sounds

• we discussed multiplayer again, how involved we might want it to be, and what we would want to get out of it

• up until this point we've come up with three possibilities for multiplayer: 1) a boss battle where players would each control and compose for one instrument, 2) players taking turns composing a sequence and then facing a monster, and 3) purely an online community to share user generated sequences

• we also then discussed the multiplayer possibility of players being able to create monsters to influence other player compositions via fighting the monsters, and the viability of this taking place in real-time or creating offline presets

• looking towards B Term a new meeting time has still yet to be determined

• at the end of B Term we should have a fully playable version of the game incorporating as many flushed out elements as possible
  

Updated Monster Idea List

These are just the ideas I listed in our last meeting of the term.

• monster that causes fog, either across the whole battlefield or just in an area around it
• monster that, once defeated, spawns two smaller monsters that rush towards the player
• monster that randomly plugs a wind instrument for a short time
• a microphone (or mime?) monster that requires one of the players instrument slots to have no pattern playing
• monster who's speed depends on how many notes are in a given patter (more notes = faster and vice versa)
• "magician" monster that temporarily melds two of the players instruments together, reducing the effectiveness of both
• a shape shifting monster that the player must determine its true identity in order to defeat it more efficiently
  

Weekly Progress

This is a little late; we've already had our last meeting for the term, so I'll use this opportunity to reflect on what we've accomplished so far.

The original concept for the game was a bit different from where we stand now (see Original Concept Document). We've mostly kept the general ideas and three different "modes", but we've significantly altered the concept for "Battle mode". The original concept for this feature called for a system where players would be matched against eachother, each with a musical composition. The compositions would be scored/judged/voted on by members of a (presumably online) community, which would determine the winner. This concept centered around being more of a composition tool rather than a game.

Before we expanded on/modified our concept of Battle mode, we asked ourselves if there were ways in which to rate "good" music using computer logic so as to have the game determine the player's sucess instead of other people. Unfortunately this is somewhat of a complex field of research, and there doesn't seem to be any feasible solution, which is probably why the original concept used people. From there we weren't entirely sure where to go; and then someone mentioned having the player fighting back hordes of monsters using music, and this idea sort of just became the general concept behind Battle mode. And so, we focused on this aspect of the design for most of the term. I think the appeal of this decision was that it made the project feel like more of an actual game, and not just a musician's tool.

Throughout the rest of the term we came up with a lot of ideas: Monsters approach a line of the player's instrumentalists, the player must compose patterns to defeat the monsters, monsters will have different attributes that determine how the player must respond to them and could possibly be used to guide the player to compose something that sounds good, etc... We were also originally undecided as to whether the gameplay should focus on composition or performance (real-time). It seems we decided on somewhat of a combination of both; composing patterns that the player can turn on and off while the battle plays out, and perhaps the possibility of the monsters interfering with these patterns and forcing the player to make compositional changes during the battle.

With all of these ideas, it seems impossible to try to invision just how all of these ideas would work once in a functional game. So, we decided to push forward the development of a prototype. We started off simple; just a field with line of blocks for instrumentalists and a quickly thrown together GUI to allow the player to select patterns for each of them to play. Next we added monsters that approach the player's instrumentallists from a point far off on the horizon (see Prototype Progress Screenshot). We worked on the prototype for several weeks and ultimately we added different types of monsters (eg. flying monsters, underground monsters) that needed to be defeated using specific instruments, a simple composition mode prototype, and started throwing some early art assets in. The prototype provided a good idea of how the basic gameplay would work, and from there we decided to create a more comprehensive list of monster types, as well as sketch out some ideas for the Upgrade system and to get an idea of the artistic style.

At the end of the term, we are left with lots of great ideas and a prototype that gives us a good idea of how to start creating a functional game. One of the challenges for the next term however will be deciding which of those ideas to actually start implementing, and coming up with a plan for how to do this. Overall, I think we are all pleased with the progress we have made so far, and are looking forward to actually turning our ideas into a playable and fun game.

Weekly Progress - Dylan

This week we planned on elaborating and specifying some of our game ideas. This week we decided on a few of the important issues we still hadn't addressed like the way patterns would switch, part of the way that upgrades would work, and some of the way the game would progress. We still were stuck on monster ideas and what we should do for those, so we each tried to come up with a few different ideas.

These ideas seem to have broken up into two different categories - ones that would be a fun game mechanic to play against, and ones which enforce certain musical ideas that would hopefully produce a good song. This comes down (again) to a question of whether we want the game to be a game that involves music, or an interactive composition tool that has some other unique elements to it.

My ideas mostly fit into the second group - ways we can enforce musical ideas. They are more along the lines of programmatic mechanics we can use to enforce musical ideas which could be programmed into monsters, and less along the lines of monster concepts with a defined character.

You can look at my ideas here.

Weekly Progress - Rob

This week i worked with Joey to put together a better idea of the overall visual style of the game and the world it takes place in. I also worked on coming up with possible ideas for higher level monster types or dynamics as well as possible unlockable upgrades that directly benefit or boost the player. Examples include monsters that become resistant to the most dominantly used instrument over time, monters that, upon death, release smaller monsters that rush towards the player, as well as the player being able to unlock and upgrade a conductor which increases damage.

Weekly Progress and Monster Ideas (10/13/10)

This week, Rob and I finally began to hammer out a more solid idea of what we want this game to look like. We have in mind a world similar to what we see in this day and age, except that the environment is full of musical imagery. Landmarks may include piano buildings, trees that look like organ pipes, trumpet cars, and tuba fire hydrants. This is going to be done in a cartoony style with a lot of bright colors, and the main characters will be humanoid in appearance. Most likely, the players will be young adults, dressed in a style of clothing that represents their instrument (For example, if one were a pianist, he might be dressed in a tuxedo, like a concert pianist.). Rob led me to this game called "Home Run in Berzerk Land" as a possible color reference.

Each of us was also supposed to come up with a few different ideas for monster variations. So, here are some I have thought of.
"Bomb": This enemy cannot be destroyed by your instruments. He sits in the back waiting to be activated by an instrument (possibly guitar). Once activated, he marches forward. After a couple of measures, he is supposed to reach the players and explode, destroying himself and dealing heavy damage to all players. He can be held off, however, by the beat of the drum, which slows him down. He will still explode a few measures after activation, but as long as he isn't near the players, they suffer no damage.
"Flamingo": This enemy normally struts along the ground, so the guitar's lightning that should hurt her is ineffective. You must first shake the ground up with your bass or drum to encourage this beast to fly. Once she is off the ground, lightning shuts her down.
"Flame": We started to discuss putting horns or woodwind instruments into the game that blast out strong winds. Fiery enemies like this could be extinguished or even vanquished. Otherwise, the roaring flames drown out other sound.
"Mini-Golem": This enemy throws rocks at you from a distance to hurt you. They are protected by a shield, usually, but if you smack them with their own rock by deflecting it with wind, then they will be briefly stunned. Then, you can wail on him to destroy him.
"Wizard": A rather difficult foe to beat. This monster throws fireballs at the band from a distance. These fireballs can not only damage you, but they absorb much of the sound you can play. Snuff the flames out quickly with wind to lower his defenses. After casting his magic a few times, he may forget to close his cape and leave himself open to attack. Any instrument can do some damage to him, but he suffers a lot from hearing 4-note chords (1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th notes of a key) being played. If he isn't vanquished quickly, he'll reseal himself and restart his routine.
"Rising Wedgehead": This enemy takes about equal damage from all instruments, but he is beaten more quickly if the notes being played go up their respective scale. (Do Re Mi...)
"Falling Wedgehead": The opposite of his rising brother, this enemy is driven off when the players play down the scale. (Do Ti La So...)
"Flying Electromagnet": As long as one of this enemies exist, all lightning strikes from the guitars hit this enemy instead, and he takes no damage from the lightning. They usually appear with swarms of flying or aquatic foes. They self-destruct if shaken too much, but since they fly initially, bass lines won't strike them until the wind or drums can knock them down.
"Screamer": Fast-moving flying monsters that let ultrasonic blasts out of their mouths. These blasts do no direct damage, but they can disrupt your song by screwing up a note of any instrument. They are not very tough, but missing them completely may end up trashing your tunes.
"Sidewalk": These crablike foes move quickly toward guitar and bass players in an attempt to cut the strings of their instruments. They attack these ones because they wish to stop the sounds that they make. They can dodge lightning and quakes as long as there is no drum slowing them down.

Just examples we might be able to work with. These don't even have to be the names.

Instrument / Game Design Ideas

After brainstorming about instrument ideas and the upgrade mode, I came up with a couple suggestions. First, instruments could be divided into seven complexity levels, and four different types: woodwind, brass, percussion, and string. As you progress through the game you can upgrade your instruments into higher level forms, which deal more damage or have extra effects. For example, every instrument starts out as a level 1 "Two sticks," which can be banged together but ultimately are not very useful. Once the user completes a certain criteria they will be able to upgrade the instrument, either into a simple drum or a bottle, both level 2. The simple drum can then be upgraded into various string and percussive instruments, and the bottle can be upgraded into woodwind and brass instruments. In this way, the upgrade system for instruments works similarly to a binary tree, although obviously it will need to be contained to prevent the need for 2^7 separate instruments. The way I see it, levels 1-3 will contain simple instruments that are easy to compose for; levels 4-5 will give the player lots of options without giving them full control, and levels 6-7 will theoretically allow the player to compose whatever they want. Higher level instruments will probably have more abilities; possibly level 6 instruments would have 2x capability, meaning they would be able to subdivide 16th notes, and level 7 would be able to subdivide 32nd notes (4x). Also, the way I see it level 6 instruments will represent the highest quality instruments available today, and level 7 will be imaginary / ancient / futuristic instruments that can be brainstormed as a group. Let me know what you guys think of these ideas at the meeting tomorrow.

MQP Meeting 10/7 Notes

Here are the notes from our weekly meeting with Professors Rosenstock and Finkel.


Firstly, the time for our next meeting will again be at 1:00PM on Thursday in the same room (FL 141)

• Dylan worked on putting together the prototype for composition mode

• Unity Pro is definitely going to happen (potentially on all machines in the IMGD lab

• We discussed the issue of switching patterns in real time during battle mode; how they would be handled, limitations on patterns, connections between patterns and specific character avatars

• We discussed how to implement greater monster requirements and other parameters in order to influence how the player mus compose patterns such as fatigue and an overall narrative to a battle

• We discussed potential methods we could show off monster/character models

• We briefly discussed issues such as how to organize a large number of patters, the set up of the composition mode as well as how upgrades work for instruments
  

• Moving forward we should all play the prototype in order to get a sense for the game and figure out what's fun, not fun, and what could be expanded upon

• Figure out a list of monster mechanics and requirements we like

• Art needs to put together a codified art pitch

• Flesh out the upgrade system, it's scope, and how we can get there (what the game will look like in the beginning, middle, and end)

Weekly Progress (10/06/10)

I think we have finally settled on an art style for the game. We do want to do a more cartoony style and implement monsters that have different "musical forms" implemented in their bodies. Rob and I seem to be taking this train of thought a little differently, but it still achieves a similar effect (or at least, it should).

This week, I designed two models and sent them out to the team. One is a mole that the player must pop out of the ground by playing bass. Though the model doesn't bear them yet, my idea for the mole is to give him music-note glasses. The other model is a bird. I don't think we've totally finalized how to beat the birds yet. Either it gets struck by lightning from the guitar, or (and this is just a thought) it gets spun around by air blown by a saxophone or some other woodwind instrument.

Weekly Progress - Rob

In our meeting monday we discussed other monsters and more diverse requirements that could be implemented into the prototype. Joey and myself took on the task of creating 2 monsters each that would have more stringent requirements for death in order to demonstrate a more complex battle mode dynamic. The two monsters i focused on creating this week were a drum monster, which would be more sensitive to the drums instrument, and a keyboard monster would would be sensitive to either keyboard or piano.

Weekly Progress

Work on the prototype continues. As Dylan already mentioned, he is working on the composition mode while I am implementing additiona types of monsters. There are now monsters that tunnel underground and must be forced out of the ground by a bass instrument before they can be dammaged, and flying monsters that must be knocked out of the sky by a guitar. More types should be easier to impliment now too.

Hopefully by Thursday's meeting we will have a combined version with composition mode and more monsters, as well as the additional art.

Weekly Progress

This week I worked on more of the prototyping. This weeks goals were to integrate some composition and new monster types. We met Monday to talk about ideas for monsters and came up with a few different ideas we could try to prototype this week. Kyle and I decided to split up these two sections of programming - he took the monster implementation and I took the composition segment.

I implemented a new control which is a simple sequencer based off of what I had before in earlier prototypes. I entirely rewrote it so it would be usable as a control instead of just a level. This way we can open one at any point during the game and create a pattern. I added the ability to change what instrument it is playing in (and therefore which it gets saved as, though any instrument can play it back with the current implementation anyway).

I added this sequencer control in a new 'composition' level and added the ability for the player to save the pattern they create with a name that they give. This data is stored into a manager that I wrote. There is a button to go to the battle mode, and all the patterns they have saved are added to the available choices for each instrumentalist they have. This way the player can write one, test it out, and go back and write another. (There is a button in battle mode to go back to composition, but I don't have an example of writing it during the battle mode. With the way the new control is written, it'll be very little extra work, but I wanted to discuss how we think that should be done.)

I also added the ability to switch what instrument is being played at each of the spots as a simple implementation of the player changing units during the game. This will be important for the new monster implementations.


Kyle is working on the monster implementations, but since we are working in parallel, this is not in this version. I will try to merge our two versions together Wednesday night or Thursday morning, but I'm busy this evening so I can't get it done by tonights 10 pm blog post deadline. Hopefully that should be there by the meeting Thursday though.

My version is playable here: Composition Prototype

MQP Meeting 9/30 Notes

Here are the notes from our weekly meeting with Professors Rosenstock and Finkel.


Firstly, the time for our next meeting has changed to 1:00PM on Thursday in the same room (FL 141)

• We discussed the game prototype that has so far been put together, specifically what else we might want to test or implement, specific requirements to defeat monsters, as well as visual cues or design styles of the monsters themselves to communicate how to defeat them

• We discussed trying to be more creative in how we might want to remove monsters from the playing field

• We discussed technical concerns, such as the question of dragging notes, tempo (concerning note length), and note limitations

• Professor Rosenstock expressed concern over characters and monsters potentially having to animate to different tempos.

• We also discussed Unity 3; Dylan had looked at it and said it has a real debugging mode, has some different sound effects, and improved web player performance, but other than that nothing else that would dramatically affect our game

• There was a general consensus that we should keep moving forward with building on the prototype (as opposed to working on the tech doc), specifically differentiating monsters, a composition mode, and potential GUI and other interface art

• It was also suggested to put together a list of potential design aspects as well as solutions to implementing them such as how to manage patterns, switching out instruments during battle, transferring compositions across multiple instruments, and reading .wav files to determine pitch and or rhythm to attack monsters

• Professor Rosenstock wanted the artists to develop a consistent art style including visuals, color palettes, visual world, etc., as well as designing monsters that have more complex death requirements

• At the very end we also briefly discussed concerns over using Dropbox, whether we might have to just try it, or whether the Pro version of Unity will eventually become an option

And finally, just as a reminder, the time for our next meeting has changed to 1:00PM on Thursday in the same room (FL 141)