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.

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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

Musical Arsenal

I've been thinking about the weapons in the game, and I've been having a tough time solidifying my concept for them. I want to make them a combination of the musical instrument and an actual type of gun, but still keep the originality of both. This game is going to take a lot of studying for me since I know nearly nothing about guns, just how to pull the trigger.

I feel that there is going to be some liberty given to the environment so that 'Stratus' doesn't have to play each note out on his instrument to fire, and I will make it so that each weapon just fires out the music "capsules" as bullets, and when those hit the targets, the music is what is released when they are erased.

I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out, it's just something I've been thinking about. I haven't had a chance to work on the city mock-up yet, and I want to make some kind of flash demo or something so you guys can see what I am trying to accomplish with the combo system.

Till next time,
Bryan

So much time and so little to do. Wait...

Well, unfortunately, my break from classes is over and I will have to decrease my pace of delivered posts. This means the typical time I would have been working on making another informative post for my blog will now be utilized in completing homework for my classes the day that they are due.

I don't want to be a TOTAL loser and omit any progress related to the game, so I will say that I'm about 80% sure that we will be using the Source engine to deliver at least a prototype of the game, if not using it throughout the entire creation process. I've seen what talented individuals are able to do with the engine, and some of my favorite games of all time were created using the developmental tools that would be at our disposal. I've been told that it's difficult to use, but honestly, I think anything is better than building an engine from the ground up.

I am going to see if I can find some time to do a mock up of how I visualize the first city looking in 3ds max, but I make no promises.

Until next time,
Bryan

Putting a face to a name

Meet "Stratus". Stratus was a character I made when I was in Modeling I at ITT Tampa, for my final project. The project was actually to just .. model something (most people were modeling anything from a city block to a chessboard and pieces). I decided to do a little more than that since I was already familiar with 3ds max, and Stratus was born.

He hasn't been used in any of my projects since his original conception, and I think it may just be time to put him to good use. I think with some revision, he would be a perfect candidate for the lead character in E.code Symphon.exe. He's already got a sort of avatar-looking way about him, and I want to utilize some form of visual humor, and having someone commiting such a trivial deed dressed up as an anime character would surely accomplish that.

I think he'll look good with a pair of Heads Up Display glasses/shades and I'm more than likely going to change the design of his clothes. Other than that, the character is rarely going to be seen, except for during cutscenes; so the actual design isn't THAT important, but it's nice to have some personality to the disembodied hands that you are controlling.

Any suggestions? Comments are welcome!
- Bryan

Controls and other 8-letter words.

Controls are an obviously important aspect of any game. If you have controls that are difficult to use, then your game is uncomfortable and might as well be unplayable. I've been thinking about the options for the game, and I feel that borrowing a little from a similar game in the genre, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, would make sense in this case. In "MP3:C", you are able to lock on to targets, and then freely aim your reticle elsewhere, whether it be at different segments of the body of the enemy you are locked on to, or another enemy near them. It won't be identical to this, persay, but it should work quite similar. This would allow for easy targeting of the enemies and their cohorts, but wouldn't necessarily offer cheap kills for you since you have to hit certain targets in order to activate combos and actually defeat the enemies, not to mention that it would allow you to essentially target multiple at a time quickly without realigning yourself each time.

Since your character has the ability to manipulate the space around him, double-jumping would not be an issue, and I want to allow him to run up walls, but I don't know how that would translate into 3d. The reason he can't just all out manipulate everything around him is the fact that if the sector shuts down with him inside, it will nullify him, and manipulating the code too much would cause a sector to collapse. I also want to implement a cover system, but I can't really visualize a possible solution to that without jeopardizing the flow of the gameplay, so it most likely won't be included.

Another topic of discussion for today is the health system. I really like what some recent game titles have done so you can't die in a game. There is obviously still challenge in being able to complete the game because you start over at a nearby checkpoint, but with a game that depends on flow of gameplay/music, a variation of that concept would be required. I want to make the game casual so you don't have to worry about being defeated over and over again when you are trying to just enjoy the experience (it IS an art game, after all), and so I propose that there should be a system that works similar to today's arena laser tag. When your energy drops to a certain point, you are unable to fire for a set period of time. This will offer reward for not being hit, and ensure that you don't just run straight up to the enemies and try to pick them off (the combo system will also assist in this). Bosses will be set up the same way, but might have some variation to the fact that you might have to restart the boss over again or something.

I'm always open to suggestions, so leave a comment. Also, sign up for our RSS feed, I try to post daily updates!

Till next time,
Bryan