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[Tokyoma]

Goodevening friends, this marks the begining of my newest project. I'm very happy to say I've finally constructed an idea that I'm proud of. As far as I know it's original, very plausible, and extremely emersive. Close Your Eyes [Breathe] is a massively multiplayer online game, that features no specific visual identies for the player to attach to. No gameplay sprites, no backgrounds, no dancing polar bears with top hats.


The game will feature a display similar to an audio visualizer for it's main navigation, the players are represented not by visual stimuli, but by audio representation, each player is essentially a music tracker. They move around, listening to other indivuals, grouping near other trackers they feel they can integrate with, harsher faster tones being red, and more mello slow trackers being blue. And of course the audio will be oriented to your position, so trackers far away won't be heard and exploring can be an exciting thing. As there will be ranom in game "beacons" which will give off a constant beat, where similar musican minds can gather and build around the "beacons" beat.

So stay tuned for more info as the project progresses. 

[PlayMeTape]

I love your idea. I read a couple of lines and suddenly my creative juices were flowing along your lines. Just a suggestion, why don't you start of by making it local multiplayer on one comp just to try it out. Make a prototype. You'll be able to test all your ideas with other people and see what works or not.

When I read this my first idea was how cool it would be to use no visuals at all and only let the audio represent the game. So as you move around you'd listen to the audio to figure out where these beacons are. And every player would select one instrument or synth to play as. And when they found a spot near a beacon they'd start playing with just some basic notes and try to create something with the other players. It wouldn't even have a goal to it, just the experience. Just to see how it works. Then you could expand on the basic idea.

Well it's your show I just wanted to share the ideas I got from reading about your excellent idea. Good luck and I'll be keeping an eye on this!

[Mr. Yes]

Very cool idea!

When I read this my first idea was how cool it would be to use no visuals at all and only let the audio represent the game.

I've been meaning to make a game with a concept like this for a while now. But I knew that I would never be able to pull it off decently, so I kind of gave up on it.

Anyway, can't wait to see what becomes of this.

[GregWS]

Wow, this sounds really really cool; definitely looking forward to updates!

[Craig Stern]

no specific visual identies for the player to attach to

I am simultaneously intrigued and worried that this is not going to work.

[kyn]

Very cool idea!

When I read this my first idea was how cool it would be to use no visuals at all and only let the audio represent the game.

I've been meaning to make a game with a concept like this for a while now. But I knew that I would never be able to pull it off decently, so I kind of gave up on it.

Anyway, can't wait to see what becomes of this.

Just for the record, there is already a (indie!) game like that, it's called Sonic Invaders. It's pretty cool, give it a try.

And good luck to you Tokyoma, I think you struck gold with this idea

[Tokyoma]

Yeah, it will be local first for sure. But I've pretty much got the idea for the network setup. Essentially it will flow like this.

->Player connects to server.
<-Server messages all current players that a user has joined.
<-Server messages all current players the new player's tracker data.
--Players play tracker information on their side, alone with their own tracker, all on beat.
->Player changes his tracker.
<-Server messages all current players the player's new tracker data.
And then a sort of constant.
->Players send their positions to the server.
<-Server relays all their positions back to them.
--Players update postions and sound volumes inrespect to the updates.

Tracker data will probably be as follows.
[1 Byte][Tempo]
[1 Byte][Number of Channels]
[1 Byte][Channel 1 Step Length]
[1 Byte][Channel 1 Step 1 Sound]
[1 Byte][Channel 1 Step 1 Volume]
[etc...]

Max Channels for now will be 4.
Max Steps will be 32.

So that's around 262 bytes at a time. And they only need to be transfered when the player joins. All other changes will be sent to the server as individual changes, such as to tempo or changing independent steps, again like 5~8 bytes max.
 

[Mr. Yes]

Just for the record, there is already a (indie!) game like that, it's called Sonic Invaders. It's pretty cool, give it a try.

Oh wow. Thanks for pointing that out to me. Just tried it out, it's neat.

[Farbs]

DINGDINGDING!
There's a whole (smallish) genre/industry in audio games. Check 'em out:

http://www.audiogames.net/

[Tokyoma]

Interesting links, I'm glad to see the promotion of the audio game genere. But if we could stick to project discussion I'd appreciate it. No malevolent intent, I just don't want to get distracted and discouraged from then work at hand.
[Update status coming soon.]