Here we are!
Let's talk about music and playing with it!
Since the first moment we thought of the game, we wanted Pride Run to be a musical game, with new game mechanics based on music, but more than all, about the pleasure of music.
We decided for two game modes: Vanilla Mode, which is the Rhythm’n game mode (more traditional design), and Play Hard, musical real time strategy game mode (more original design).
Rhythm’n games are not difficult to design. They’re simple. As it is simple when you hear music and you start to dance. We struggled on how to keep this simplicity without making the game too simple. It seems easy: the “phisycal” action of pressing buttons following the rhythm, with the needed speed without losing a beat. But, not easy, being sure that the action will be different for every scenario and every music.
We built a production pipeline like this:
1) Mauro (Hard Ton) makes the music
2) Designers (Ivan, Michele and Max) find the right mood for that music, for example “let’s use buttons as a cross on the refrain, then stop stop, relax, then superclimax with a superquick sequence”. Obviously paying attention to the game progression through the levels.
3) Designers creates the first version of the sequence in a XLS sheet
4) Simone and Kyle (tech and playtesters) implement the data structure in Unity, creating Hard difficulty level, then medium, then easy
5) …they test it with the music in all the three difficulty levels
6) They modify the data structure to have the best feeling between music and buttons actions. …back to 5)
7) They are happy!
8) All the team plays so everyone is happy too!
And, again, sorry for my rough english!