Now this is awesome. Empty Clip Studios is hard at work on a new vertically scrolling shooter called Symphony, which creates enemy patterns based on waveforms generated by whatever music you have playing. The game uses custom soundtracks, and enemies are produced dynamically to match the song's tempo and so on.
In other words, Bach for easy mode and Slayer for hard mode. It's up to you. What comes out, how mean it is and how much of it there'll be all depends on what you're listening to. The game is slated for release sometime in 2010, but no platform has been specified as of yet. Obviously, it's got to be something that supports custom soundtracks, so PC is likely, and possibly PSN or XBLA as well.
Long story short, it looks like a hybrid of REZ and Audiosurf. Judging by the trailer above, it's also beautiful, with its simple yet flashy vector-like graphics. We'll be keeping an eye on this one for sure, and we'll let you know when you'll be able to attempt to 1CC Raining Blood.
[Via the Shmups Twitter, which you should be following.]
Fucking awesome. What makes Audiosurf infinitely unplayable for me is the fact that my music collection grows every day. And while I liked the gameplay in Audiosurf, this is a lot more appealing.
As a wii owner/lover myself I agree. It would be so much better if they spread out to other platforms as well where the transferring of audio to hard drives would be so much easier. PC, 360, PS3 hell even the iPhone would be better suited. Hopefully they'll port it over to other consoles as well.
Good god that's awesome. I remember thinking an action game based on the music playing would be incredible while checking out Beats on the PSP. I'd love to see how maddening the game would become with something like [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf3F2ipTo74"]Nile's The Blessed Dead[/url] playing.
This is the game that I have always wanted since a little kid. That and a Public Enemy Number 1 game. And Men in Black.
Finally my mixed fleet foxes and Super Mash Bros playlist gets a use other than turning my friends and family insane.
Also, this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkOhXIsI0 beuty and destruction in one game. Topher wins not the INTERNETZ but the whole world for posting this. And the devs WIN FOREVER AT ANYTHING. Just like powerthirst but for ever.
That would be insane with some Powerviolence in the background. For those who don't know, that would be shorter, even faster than normal punk. Like, insanely fast. Would be awesome for this game.
i love this kind of stuff. i want my Every extended extreme extra on PSN. thats the only game miss from my 360. and if i recall that had some weird music generating mode to create enemy patterns.
but man i cant wait to try out some aphex twin or maybe some ORB on this game!
Just. That. This game MIGHT just get me into techno, though, as that would be insane. Also, Overclocked Remix! I hope it's for PC, and has a game mode where you can "shuffle" through your entire library!
No, "Carl Sagan", classical would not be the hardest. Sure, it's complicated on many levels, but doesn't have the volume, tempo and, in some cases, complexity of some Death, Proggressive and Math rock/metal. Listen to that BtBAM link I posted. No matter how fast you played the piano, it would never generate the same amount of waves as bands such as Between the Buried and Me.
@Nathaniel607: I didn't know what Between the Buried and Me were so I watched their video for Alaska on youtube. Wow. Really? Enjoy grimacing at the memory of liking music like that in five or ten years. Hopefully sooner for your sake.
This game looks awesome. Would enjoy seeing what some Aphex Twin would do in a game like this.
Now. Occams electric toothbrush! Don't do that! BtBAM is very tecnical and interesting music, granted, I could do without the screaming, but seriously, don't make a judgemunt on them after listening for tops 5 minutes. It took me a bit to get into them as well. I just have some wide musical horizons (though most of it ATM stems from rock, I'm open to pretty much anything that sounds good), unlike you obviously.
And, no, I'm already grimacing over the fact I used to like Green Day. And I won't make the same mistake twice!
Cool idea. I would like to be able to hear the sounds of the guns and whatnot though. just having the music isn't quite enough for me I don't think. Pretty sweet game though. I will definitely be on the lookout for it.
I'm intrigued but I'd kinda like the enemies to come at me instead of attack from the sides. hopefully they'll throw in a feature that will allow that.
@Nathaniel607: You are correct. Because I think a band you love sounds like the soundtrack for a teenager's hate for his parents, I have limited musical horizons. Obviously.
Technically, they're fine but so are all those other bands that have that exact same sound . Big ol' thumbs up that you like them but I find them to be boring.
At least 3 different games on Xbox Indies have already used this concept. They don't have as high of production values, obviously, but this isn't a very new idea.
All this talk, and I would love the game if it did what it said, but I really didn't see the interaction between what you were shooting and the music? Am I the only one?
Anyways, yeah, probably, if you here something then go "grumblegrumble damn teenagers" within 5 minutes, it means you're likely not very open with music.
I personally wouldn't say that BtBAM has the same sound, as, say, a metalcore band, or a band like Lamb of God. Between the Buried and Me, especially in their later songs, incorparate jazz and acustic sections into their traks, even polka sometimes. I reccomend you give "Mirrors", "Feed from Cloud Mountain" or "Desert of Song" a listen. After that I will accept you can't like them and just reccomend you don't be such a stereotyping arse about things.
ANYWAYS, back on topic. Game looks awesome. And yeah... Overclocked Remix... and stuff. Oh, I give up.
Could be more versatile than Audiosurf, too, since that only works well when you have fast or complex songs. That being said, Audiosurf is tight, gameplay-wise. It never, ever feels cheap or awkward. I'll have to fall back on a demo to know for sure.
Eh. The idea sounds awesome, but in practice it doesn't look that interesting it seems. The cool thing about Audiosurf was how it actually brought you in tune with the song using the bpm scaling and attempts at note reading. This doesn't look like it's really doing a whole lot along those lines...
- Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe
- Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
- Pat Metheny Group: Third Wind
- George Benson: Take Five
- The Castlevania:SOTN soundtrack. Maybe vampires would come out?
And then I'd go for something really different, like John Cage and Steve Reich.
THEN I'd go pop in a clip of me making fart noises.
I dunno. The idea sounds awesome, but from that video, it's not really apparent that the enemies are in any way *generated* through a procedure from the waveforms. It looks like a much simpler script. I could be wrong.
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Contest:
1:00 PM on 11.13.2009
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I am also hopelessly in love with shmups, so I'll be checking this out as soon as possible.
Wow... love music, love shooting ships. Seriously, I think I will start with easier shit... The Protomen will be awesome!
Also, yes, BtBAM will be insane... Christ! Imagine "Swim to the Moon"! Just... so epic.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/12/empty-clip-studios-composing-a-symphony-with-your-music/
I hope their wrong. That would seriously limit the market value of such a great game concept.
As a wii owner/lover myself I agree. It would be so much better if they spread out to other platforms as well where the transferring of audio to hard drives would be so much easier. PC, 360, PS3 hell even the iPhone would be better suited. Hopefully they'll port it over to other consoles as well.
Finally my mixed fleet foxes and Super Mash Bros playlist gets a use other than turning my friends and family insane.
Also, this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkOhXIsI0 beuty and destruction in one game. Topher wins not the INTERNETZ but the whole world for posting this. And the devs WIN FOREVER AT ANYTHING. Just like powerthirst but for ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerviolence
but man i cant wait to try out some aphex twin or maybe some ORB on this game!
Just. That. This game MIGHT just get me into techno, though, as that would be insane. Also, Overclocked Remix! I hope it's for PC, and has a game mode where you can "shuffle" through your entire library!
Yes, but that was on a tiiiiiiiny screen and looks worse than this.
This game looks awesome. Would enjoy seeing what some Aphex Twin would do in a game like this.
And, no, I'm already grimacing over the fact I used to like Green Day. And I won't make the same mistake twice!
If it is on PC, it's probably have keyboard control as well, unless the programmers are idiots.
Lol if you meant the problem was that it might be on PC.
wow on that John Butler track...
Technically, they're fine but so are all those other bands that have that exact same sound . Big ol' thumbs up that you like them but I find them to be boring.
Probably not if you're listening to Glenn Gould playing him, though.
It spreads...
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Soon beautiful music will take over the world!
You obviously didin't hear the lyrics... lol.
Anyways, yeah, probably, if you here something then go "grumblegrumble damn teenagers" within 5 minutes, it means you're likely not very open with music.
I personally wouldn't say that BtBAM has the same sound, as, say, a metalcore band, or a band like Lamb of God. Between the Buried and Me, especially in their later songs, incorparate jazz and acustic sections into their traks, even polka sometimes. I reccomend you give "Mirrors", "Feed from Cloud Mountain" or "Desert of Song" a listen. After that I will accept you can't like them and just reccomend you don't be such a stereotyping arse about things.
ANYWAYS, back on topic. Game looks awesome. And yeah... Overclocked Remix... and stuff. Oh, I give up.
Oh the humanity....
- Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe
- Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
- Pat Metheny Group: Third Wind
- George Benson: Take Five
- The Castlevania:SOTN soundtrack. Maybe vampires would come out?
And then I'd go for something really different, like John Cage and Steve Reich.
THEN I'd go pop in a clip of me making fart noises.