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[tesselode]

Once in a while, people make games that show that you can make something fun by using a bizarre framing device. Like Space Channel 5. So I wonder if a musical and a game can be combined in a fun way.

I haven't thought about it too much, so see if you can come up with any ideas on how to combine the two in an amusing way.

My ideas so far:

• Play music during loading screens as if they were scene changes

[DavidCaruso]

I always thought a rail shooter or 2D shmup (or any other game with forced scrolling/movement) which was designed so that the entire level design synchronizes perfectly to the background music would be cool (and I don't mean a shitty Audiosurf-esque algorithm kind of thing either, I mean that the music and level are designed/chosen specifically to complement each other). Imagine a bullet hell game where the level followed the structure of

, for example (build ups, climaxes, pauses, etc. and all). You could even put in theater nods with the graphics, e.g. show a bunch of people pushing the boss character into the play area (or have a person be revealed underneath every enemy the player destroys), put curtain transitions and shuffling noises between levels, etc. (

had a sort of theater aesthetic going on, though it wasn't styled like a musical.)

[BattleBeard]

 YES.

YES.

Another Space Channel 5 fan? Seriously, I'll help you out on this--if it was possible with Game Maker.

 I was thinking a cooking game, but it's based around rhythm. Each stage is a different food. You get better jobs as the game goes on.

[Danmark]

See Level 2. Shame about the music.

[Christopher Fibich]

I was just thinking about this today... Although I really don't know how it would work gameplay wise.

[SundownKid]

Well... there is Rhapsody, the "musical RPG". But that game just has cutscenes that happen to be musicals. There's nothing really intertwined with the actual gameplay.

Also, I believe Paper Mario had battles that took place on stage as if they were a play, and the player was rated on how skilled they were by audience applause. I think an RPG that took the theater aesthetic even further, into more aspects of the game, would be interesting, and have the potential for comedy.

[tesselode]

Well... there is Rhapsody, the "musical RPG". But that game just has cutscenes that happen to be musicals. There's nothing really intertwined with the actual gameplay.

Also, I believe Paper Mario had battles that took place on stage as if they were a play, and the player was rated on how skilled they were by audience applause. I think an RPG that took the theater aesthetic even further, into more aspects of the game, would be interesting, and have the potential for comedy.

I think I want more of an action game, so that I can events going on without the player's input and have it go with the music. However, I'm not sure what to do about the gameplay. I want to stay away from quick time events.

[iffi]

Imagine a bullet hell game where the level followed the structure of

, for example (build ups, climaxes, pauses, etc. and all).

The Touhou stages (especially in later games) tend to sync a lot with the BGM, though not to the extent that you describe. I like it because at times it helps me remember what enemies are coming next.

[tesselode]

My current best idea for how the gameplay work is this:

The player can move around and interact with items. The player has to infer from the dialogue and music what they are supposed to do (it should be made somewhat obvious). If they fail to do that action soon enough, then based on how badly it affects the play, the player's "health bar" (not really pertaining to health or anything in particular) would decrease. If the run out of health, the scene stops, otherwise they get to keep going.

[s0]

I always thought a rail shooter or 2D shmup (or any other game with forced scrolling/movement) which was designed so that the entire level design synchronizes perfectly to the background music would be cool (and I don't mean a shitty Audiosurf-esque algorithm kind of thing either, I mean that the music and level are designed/chosen specifically to complement each other)

Well guess what, the project I'm currently sort of working (meaning work is proceeding very slowly) is exactly that. It's a sidescrolling rail shooter (not shmup) set in the wild west with an Ennio Morricon style soundtrack, with levels designed according to the structure of the music. Each level is tied to one (non-looping) piece of music.

It's meant to be my homage to the Spaghetti Western genre of film and the level design technique is inspired by the prominent use of music in these movies. Though the problem sort of is that, the game being an homage and all, I want to use REAL spaghetti western music and manipulated stills of real spaghetti westerns for some of the graphics (I'm aiming for  a collage style). But I'm not keen on causing controversy or even getting into legal trouble due to the inevitable copyright infringement that comes with that idea.

[Bree]

In all honesty, CA, unless you plan on selling your work commercially, you probably won't need to worry much about legal troubles; a company might send a cease and desist letter if the game gets big enough, but you can worry about that if the situation arrives.

On the topic here, I believe Pathologic incorporated a theatrical aspect; the game begins as the player observes a stage occupied by the major players in the story, and there are regular intermissions and chapters.

I'd look to see how other games use musical themes- Zelda and Final Fantasy both come to mind. There's a pretty brilliant blog here about the use of leitmotifs in FFVI that you should definitely look up.

If you were wanting to integrate it more effectively with the gameplay, Portal 2 is also a fantastic example. Each element in a testing chamber has its own musical part, and they layer on top of each other as they are used in a subtle but effective manner.

[zovirl]

I always thought a rail shooter or 2D shmup (or any other game with forced scrolling/movement) which was designed so that the entire level design synchronizes perfectly to the background music would be cool

I bought bit.trip runner because of the way the level synchronized with the music. More games should do this.


tesselode, I assume you already thought of this, but the most literal translation of "like a musical, but as a game" would be like a Harmonix game. Are the Rock Band accessories (drum, guitars, microphone) easy to use from other games? A "My Fair Lady" edition of Rock Band would be kind of awesome...

[moi]

There was this KnP game where the setting was theatre and you had to do things. It was frontpaged a few months ago.
It was simplistic but funny.