[SA Game Jam 2016] Synth Band

edited in Online Competitions & Jams
Synth Band is a VR (Vive-only) Music sequencing environment!
- Professional (man it's weird to say that, but there's no way I'm a hobbyist. Or am I?)
- 48hr

Download link (Vive only): http://makegamessa.com/uploads/FileUpload/aa/db0a20df9f791b1ebc3991c39178d1.zip

Gameplay video:


image

With the theme of Expression, I completely deviated from what I planned to do for the jam to do this baby :P

During brainstorming for Expression, I arrived at the original idea of a group musical experience so people can jam music together. Also, I wanted to learn more stuff about VR!

In Synth environment you can:

> Change the BPM.
> Chain up samples that play through the major scale by position.
> Scrub through more than one bar of music - so you can create a whole song.
> Copy blocks/samples.
> Pause playback.
> Switch between looping the current bar or the entire song.
> Play a drumkit.
> Throw things around, build stuff :)

The original idea was to have an asynchronous experience in which the main player in VR is supported by other players on controllers or other devices, doing other things around the environment like playing drums, and firing musical blocks onto the sequencer.

The main technicality in getting to that was to output a different camera to the monitor to what the VR headset sees, which I didn't work out in the allotted time - I think there's a technical flaw in the SteamVR library that conflicts with the Vive that works with Oculus VR, but I can't be sure.

Comments

  • Executable uploaded!
  • Played hours of this and made a huge mess on the floor!
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • Great big thanks to Greg and Marius and everyone who contributed samples! :D I can also make updates and stick more samples in if/when I make updates :) I DEFINITELY want to make the multiplayer update :D
    Thanked by 2Wolfbeard Greg
  • If more developers on these forums start making Vive only games, I'm gonna have a real problem testing and sharing comments until I can eventually get one. On the other hand I REALLY hope that happens!
  • @Fengol dude I really, really, really, really, really want one. The whole VR experience is just so damn next level and inspirational that I actually spent two days building UI and didn't even realise that that's all I did for two days - UI, not gameplay!!! That's nuts!

    I strung up some footage that I got from the jam to show some of how it works, along with some professional commentary ;)

    Thanked by 1MattMac
  • @tuism please can we get some timelapses of your work process. They would be fantastic.
  • @mikethetike sorry no time lapse this time, I used to take timelapses on my own laptop, but since the Vive isn't Mac compatible yet (it seems) I was working on Free Lives' machine and didn't do it. Maybe next time I VR jam!
    Thanked by 1mikethetike
  • This looks awesome! Great work!
  • I can't work on this at all unless I'm with a Vive (the project just plain crashes on my mac, and my PC here is a doorstop from 6+ years ago), which is a real bummer because I have some ideas for stuff I want to implement. I think what I'm going to do is to try and make separate components for the game and then slot them slot them in when I'm in arm's reach of a Vive and hopefully not break anything in the original game. MAN.

    Is there a Vive in Joburg somewhere, does anyone know? XD
  • Jo - I stumbled upon this video - looks pretty interesting too! Similar concept.
  • edited
    Yeah I stumbled on SoundStage too just today, it's a heck of a lot more advanced and seems to be tuned more to an actual musician, my direction was more for the layperson, and REALLY want that multiplayer too :P But indeed that looks awesome! :)
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