Echoed Symphony (using this from now on) Prologue

Wrote up the Prologue for the game today:

The dark, moonless night sky holds its power over the city. It covers up every nook and cranny that escapes the hard industrial lights adorning the walkways with its cold, black nothingness.Rain falls in this darkness, as it always has; a reminder to the city's inhabitants that there is no hope for them. There is only work that will bestow them with credits, so they can feed and clothe their family and survive another day.

The society here is run on the principle that you are merely a slave to the system. To be able to work, you must enlist for an Interconnectivity Persona code, or IP, which entitles you to a slot in their system and a personalized hub to connect to the mainframe. Those who do are provided with lavish accommodations and are automatically assigned a job. Those who don’t are part of the Underground: a collective of many different walks of life that are either soon to convert to the business-side of society or are working out a way to level the playing field by taking down or hacking the system.

No one has hacked it yet, but there’s talk of technology that can. Everyone who has temporarily hacked into the system’s mainframe has been cut off within seconds, tracked down within an hour, and were never heard from again. Faint whispers and murmurs speak of a hacker able to crack the code and reclaim control over the world. It just so happens that these prophecies are about to come true.

Revised Design Document

Updated it today to reflect new changes:

E.code Symphon.exe

Bryan J. Taylor

High Concept
A third-person musical shooter. You are a hacker inside a computer system, using a VRV (virtual representation virus) to implant yourself into the OS and combat an AI that is trying to regulate data flow on the internet. Codenamed a "conductor", you use music to overload servers and shut down anti-virus executables, and ultimately their host programs.

Features

• Music is your ammunition, and instruments are your guns. Defeat enemies to amplify your music, overload the sector and shut it down!
  

• No health? No problem! In E.code Symphon.exe, you can not die. If you are hit, the volume of your musical infection dampens, but as you defeat enemies, the volume gets stronger, preparing you to overload each sector's gate and proceed to the next area.
  
• Each host produces one song (you will need to construct a new song to overload the signal of each host, as the mainframe will block your previous signature from access), and each sector contains one instrument from that song.
  
• The quicker you unlock the next area, the higher your score.
  
• You can level up your character's weapons as the game progresses as you will have more power over the connection.
• When you arrive through the final gate, there will be a guardian for you to battle. You will use tactical fire against the guardian's weak point to destroy the guardian and shut down the system!
  

Player Motivation
The player battles against an AI and it's forces that is trying to restrict data flow and enforce censorship on the internet.

Genre
Artistic TPS

Target Customer
Anyone that enjoys music and wants to play a somewhat casual shooter.

Competition
None are similar to this game that would directly conflict with the sale of this game or the other.

Unique Selling Points

• Dynamic musical shooter, compose a symphony of virtual destruction!

• Hacker-themed storyline, cool tech-based graphical style
  

• Cover system
  

• Intricate and challenging boss battles

Target Hardware
Windows PC

Design Goals
Awesome: Every moment in the game should offer an opportunity to pull back from the game and appreciate the musical gameplay.

Musical: Give the player the feeling that they are overcoming an uphill battle. Ensure that they are given the opportunity to play the game differently each time.

Fusion: The combination of light, color, and music will envelop the player in a controlled synaesthesia experience.

Back. Work commences.

I met up with IrishMobster (the other teammate of mine on this project), and we decided out of all the game ideas I had that we are going to work on this one.

We were looking for a game engine to work with, and we finally settled on the Unity Engine. It's only $199 for the indie license, and seems VERY versatile, so should it be able to tackle the complex nature of this game without breaking a sweat.

During our informal meeting yesterday, we also redefined some of our original concepts for the game and how it will "work":

• Each level contains one song
• Each section is based on one instrument
• As you kill enemies, the volume rises till maxed, and the barrier that keeps you from the next section dissipates.
• As you get hit, the volume dampens, making it a constant battle.
  
• As you defeat each sector, the power shuts off or dampens
  
• Proceed until you unlock all instruments (defeat all sectors)
• You can defeat enemies with weapons and melee attacks, any means possible.
• Possibly, as you progress, you get access to new, better weapons.
• As you continue, you can unlock new abilities
  
• "Tech", who is your information source on the outside world, is the narrator for the active tutorial

Sector Shut down

Unfortunately, the production of this game is on hold till next quarter (which I will be taking off) of college. Another reason is because I am working on a retail game right now, called Dominoze. I will post again here when production commences again.

Until then, here's some concept art for a boss design:

New address, same site

Just letting you know I signed up for a domain name today.

http://ecodesymphonexe.com is the domain for now until the DNS gets updated.

We haven't done much to the game lately, but will be working on it again soon. Life never ceases to complicate things.

Once we get more to the game done, I will put up a formal site. Until then, I will just update on here.

Cya,
Bryan

UPDATE: http://www.ecodesymphonexe.com now works. Bookmarks away!

New logo

We have a new logo thanks to a friend named "Humphrey."
Thanks Humphrey!

Planning is now complete for the game, and we are now starting to develop it. I will post minimal updates from here on out, but will post concept art and renders, and I still am going to keep my promise on delivering a prototype of how the music system in the game works.

Sign up for our RSS feed or bookmark us!
I'll try to post as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Bryan

Chains - This ain't your grandpappy's combo system

Yes, yes, I know I need to get the physical representation of the combo system into the hands of those of you who just don't "get it" so you can try out what we are doing with the music in the game. In the meantime, all I have is words, so I guess we'll all have to deal with that.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I chose the term chains because of obvious reasons, but also because you are binding your code to your enemies.

The following is how the system will work:

• Stratus "activates" himself in an area, triggering the AV (Anti-virus) squadron
• Instead of alarms, the beat will begin to rumble the environment in waves, the movement will be based on the central beat that plays (changes each level).
• Stratus will now be able to choose his weapon, but he will only be able to play one instrument at a time. The player can change this on the fly by switching the weapon, but will only allow one instrument per chain, to avoid discord. We want you to make music, not some stupid "bash on the piano" sounding beat. There may be a way for us to incorporate switching weapons between combos with a notifier of sorts, but that is to be discussed at a later date.
• Stratus will be able to shoot at any of the key points of the enemies at this time; he can choose to lock on, or just look "down the scope" and pop off unassisted shots.
• If the player doesn't follow the chain by continually shooting lighted segments of the enemies, and shoots an unlighted portion of the body, the chain will break and the "combo" will reset.
• When you fire off a shot, it will ping as it sinks into the enemy to signify that you hit a correct section, and will play a sequence of sequential notes with each successful hit that represent the sequence in which you are playing. You don't actually get to hear the whole segment until the enemy is defeated, and the music will then play during the correct segment of the "beat" (think Lumines, where the bar passes over the playing field and activates your blocks you've combined as it reaches them). This may somewhat pause gameplay to ensure correct beatmapping of the song.
• When you defeat enough enemies to fill up your energy meter, you will shut down the sector (the lights will go off, but the next area will still be lit up) and you can proceed to the next one.

That's all I got. I told my friend Chris who is going to help me with the game that I would get this system figured out, so here it is.

Let me know what you all think!
-Bryan