APD Week 8 - Play & Sound

Theme: Play & Sound

Context:

When I was 14-year-old, I have played a rhythm game called PATAPON. Rather than other rhythm games in that time (or even now), PATAPON not asks player pressing correct button/beat in correct timing. It uses rhythm as order to control an army. Player has 2 beats “PATA” and “PON” and for example if player press “PATA” - “PATA” - “PATA” – “PON” in correct interval, their army will move forward and if the order of beats is “PON” – “PON” – “PATA” – “PON” the army will begin to attack the enemy in front them. Here’s link of gameplay:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrK-yfRlrZE)

PATAPON impressed me so much. So in this week of project, I tried to make a game with same mechanic with PATAPON but as what I have done in past weeks, I still used real world objects as my controller.

Method:

I used Unity to make the game. It is easy to make a rhythm game with keyboard inputting and my project will looks like a copy of PATAPON which is very boring. So I used pen knocking a pillbox and hand punching table to make those 2 beats.

Response:

After I decided to make a game with PATAPON mechanic, what I considered first is “How can I make the game different with PATAPON” and “What can I make the game have different gameplay experience with PATAPON”. As the result, I chosen real sound as the controller. That cause the gameplay becomes very different with keyboard/button input games. I have to find objects that can cause very different volumes so that I can control the beat correctly every time. In the other hand, make the sound by player’s hand provides more empathetic than button.

I do not have much time on polishing this game. To show my idea in game, there’s only 2 actions that player can make – Attack and Avoid. To prevent player from ONLY-ATTACK, the enemy also has 2 actions – Attack and Charge. Charge will increase lots of enemies’ attack and player must use Avoid to avoid this damage.

Reflection:

I think the “PLAY” in this week project is about the word “empathy”. This word always been used in VR and AR games. While both VR and AR are more about vision. So what I’m exploring is “How to give player the feeling that they are in the game rather than just playing the game”.

The “SOUND” is about my experience on playing rhythm game.

I have more than 13 years rhythm game play experience and during these years, I have a very strange found. Some of my friends include me play well if we mute the game. This is very unreasonable, but it does happen. When I’m playing, my attention is focusing on next few buttons or points rather than rhythm of music. Sometimes I will have feeling that I’m playing a reaction game.

So I want know “How could player like me can real join the game” and I think the way of inputting is a key aspect and this is my thinking for this week project.