[GGJ] Welcome to The Ambassador

SUGBOERIE

This was by far my favourite jam yet. We decided to make a silly physics game about conducting a jazz band. It's hilarious and you should play it.

Andrew_Sound_Foundry

You had me at 'Blue Saxophone' :D

SUGBOERIE

SUGBOERIE

dammit

this looks fantastic :D

critic

It looks great, good enough for a Greenlight campaign as it is, really nice concept and execution.

/edit
If you add a strategic map with some cities and a soft economic simulation, like getting paid for attending different concerts with a touch of 'band' management, this is could be a very nice commercial game.

Andrew_Sound_Foundry

Do you need any additional music... *cough* *wink* *noodles-on-saxophone-suggestively* :P

dammit

Andrew_Sound_Foundry said:

Do you need any additional music... *cough* *wink* *noodles-on-saxophone-suggestively* :P

Tuism

Having played it a bit at the jam, here's my input:

I really liked the FEEL of the game, using the two sticks to simulate a conductor is a fun little thing to do. The graphics are nice and the juice is aplenty.

Though I really wish I could actually make some kind of order out of the chaos - I would like to actually feel like I'm making some kind of progress and making sweet, sweet music with some practice. Like with some piano apps and such you could mash anything and because of the way the rhythm and chords are structured, it's actually possible to make things sound good however you mash your buttons. I suspect that's how conductors actually operate, as musicians in the pit are actually still autonomous :P

Of course this being a jam game it could always have used more time, I understand that.

Timothy

Having been at the GGJ2017, watching this game come to life was honestly one of my biggest highlights of the weekend! Well up dude!

Pomb

I had a play, but I didn't manage to figure out what I was doing. I was trying to make sense of the controls and how they affected the everything but like Tuism I found it quite chaotic. I wanted to control the orchestra sections with more precision, but still I chuckled at the silly physics. I would be interested in playing a version of this where you had to control sections in a more structured way, maybe hitting riffs in particular bars with from specific section, with a rhythm of stick movements or gestures.
I like the look, awesome job on the characters and overall presentation :D

SUGBOERIE

@Tuism I'm glad the you enjoyed the feeling.

@Tuism said:

Though I really wish I could actually make some kind of order out of the chaos - I would like to actually feel like I'm making some kind of progress and making sweet, sweet music with some practice. Like with some piano apps and such you could mash anything and because of the way the rhythm and chords are structured, it's actually possible to make things sound good however you mash your buttons. I suspect that's how conductors actually operate, as musicians in the pit are actually still autonomous :P

So, we had a bit of back and forth with @DraughtVader on this one. We really like the idea of physics and the comedy it brings with the wobbly movement. I want to retain that comedy.

Question we kept asking ourselves was "Will trying to make real music make it less funny?". Plus we didn't have the expertise to understand music anyway. LOL. It's like will trying to make real music but having noodle-lego looking band players look stupid? I don't know but making something like FIgure's idiot proof music making system makes sense.

@Pomb said:

I would be interested in playing a version of this where you had to control sections in a more structured way, maybe hitting riffs in particular bars with from specific section, with a rhythm of stick movements or gestures.

You use the left stick to point at the different main players. And then the right stick to change pitch and tempo. Rotating clockwise will crash the cymbols and anti clockwise for the triangle. We really wanted to use PS Move controllers but couldn't get them to work.

YES. I definitely think that having some sort of structure to the gameplay/controls would make it better.

Maybe this could work in VR. Meaning that you could look at certain sections of the bands as a way of choosing. Leaving your arms to control the music.

Tuism

Incidentally, I made my GGJ music with Figure, took like 20 minutes, my own fault that everyone else was busy last minute crunching when I thought I need a new direction for my music :P

I think it doesn't need to sound like "real music" to feel like a conductor - just that I can make sense of it and make good enough music would be good enough! :) I think it's a matter of feeling agency :)