Intro Scene!

The story begins in the middle of bustling Yumport - We begin on a cityscape of the tops of skyscrapers, slowly making our way down into the heart of the city. We pass pigeons, radio antennae, laundry lines, and, finally, we focus on a modest yellow building, clearly worn and dilapidated, but bursting with heart. We fly into the building, past the pies and cakes displayed in the windows, past the room of empty dining tables, past the cheery but empty bar area, and straight into a dispersing cloud of flour to reveal...Basil Von Rutabaga! He is currently hard at work, stretching pastry dough over a pie pan. He glances up to a corkboard with various overdue bills printed bright and pink pinned to it. Basil frowns and continues to knead the dough. The tiny bell above the door sounds and Basil looks up, surprised to hear a customer. There stands Glouster Fry, world-renowned chef! Basil all but trips over himself in his haste to greet such a prestigious guest. As he wipes his hands on a towel, Fry surveys the bakery. He seems to not notice the younger chef, at first, and when his eyes land on him, his gaze is guarded and suspicious. Finally, with one great sniff of disdain, Fry manages to reach his hand towards Basil in greeting.

"Hello. I'm Glouster Fry," he says.

"Yes, hello, pleasure to meet you - have you - um...I'm Basil. Von Rutabaga. Basil Von Rutabaga," Basil stammers, as he grasps Fry's hand.

"Yes, I know who you are," Fry cuts in. "The Devious Desserts Competition board has been...abuzz...with news of the up-and-comer, Von Rutabaga. Tell me, are you attending the competition this year? It's in Bintaneo, you know."

Basil looks down and shoves his hands into his pockets. "No, I'm afraid not. I've sent in my application...the fee was so high! But no word." Basil looks around his ramshackle shop, seeing what the great Glouster Fry must see in its modest decor. "A shame, though. The winnings really could have fixed this place up..."

"Yes, how awful," cooes Fry, as though it really weren't. "I'll be going now." As he turns to the door he stops abruptly and glances over his shoulder. "Here," he said.

Basil fumbles to catch the parcel. He turns the box over in his hands to reveal the signature logo of Glouster Fry Incorporated Frozen Desserts and the picture of Glouster himself in the corner, endorsing the reheatable cream puffs depicted on the front.

"For luck," Fry says, then the tiny bell once again chimes his departure.

Basil stares after him. Just then, the back door flies open with a slam and Basil's charmingly hapless assistant chef, Lavender Drupe, barrels into the dining commons, flushed and out of breath. She has an official-looking envelope clutched tightly in her tiny fist.

"Basil!" Lavender shouts, impatiently harumphing a stray curl off her face. "Basil! Look! Look at this!"

Basil takes the envelope in one hand and turns it over. His eyes go wide as he recognizes the seal of the Devious Desserts Competition Board, a red wax circle with an indentation of a dipped strawberry. He promptly drops the box of frozen cream puffs in his excitement.

"Lavender! Do you know what this means?!" Basil picks her up and begins to dance around the dining room. "We have a shot, Lavender! We have a real chance!"

He sets her down and she flounders for a second or two, regaining equilibrium. "I've already told Mrs. Von Rutabaga. She's packing a bag for you, then it's to the port and off to Bintaneo!" She runs out the front door with a hoot of excited laughter. Basil follows, turning to give his home one last glance. He stoops to retrieve the frozen dessert and flips the sign from OPEN to CLOSED, locks the door, and makes his way down the street to the port.

***

Basil and Lavender arrive in Bintaneo and stand on the pier, completely gobsmacked by the beauty of the city. Cafes and bistros lines the cobblestone streets and little strings of lights criss-cross overhead. They dart in and out of the busy streets, Lavender often distracted by shop windows and women in giant hats. They finally find their way to a giant banner with the words "Devious Desserts Competition Sign In". As they walk towards the banner, Basil sees a man on a ladder untying the top corner.

"What's going on?" Basil asks.

"The competition is canceled, young man!" A portly man in a three-piece suit appears, one hand on his lapel, the other holding a business portfolio.

"Cancelled?!" Basil exclaims. He looks to Lavender, who seems to be on the verge of tears, her giant doe-eyes filling to the brim. Basil turns his attention back to the small man. "Why?"

"It seems that the main competitors have gone missing," he explains. "Ginger Boysen, Caraway Lingum...Every one of them! Every city! Even Taragon Clove of New Cardinal!"

"Missing?" Bail repeats. The little man nods emphatically.

"I'm sorry you've come all this way, but I'm afraid we're just closing up shop."

"No! You can't!" Lavender cries.

"There's nothing we can do, miss. No chefs, no competition."

"We'll find them!" Basil bursts out.

The man looks flustered and surprised. "H-how?" He asks.

"We'll...search for clues!" Basil clearly grasps for straws of ideas.

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt," the man sighs. "I'm the competition director, Parsley Risotto. Let me lead you to Ginger and Caraway's kitchen. Maybe it will prove useful in your search."

...and the hunt, my friends, is on.

Where we're at...and where we go...

On Wednesday, we discussed with Larry what we're main goal should be for the game. Having come so far from where we started, it has been difficult harnessing exactly what our game is, especially with the gorilla on our backs of what it was going to be.

Ultimately, we've come to the decision that our game is a "conceptual" game, one that seeks to fuse platforming and music in an integrated way so that by jumping and movement, we can ultimately layer music.

When discussing what our baseline design is, we reference the Incredibox flash "game":

http://www.incredibox.fr/

So, to get down to what our game is, we broke down the elements of a platformer:

Left -> Right Movement (or progression)
Run/Walk
Jump
Stop

At a fundamental level, we tried to pair these simple traits with the fundamental elements of music:

Progression = Moving forward moves the music forward. Question arisen: Do they have the opportunity to go back?

Run/Walk = Tempo

Jump = Does this make a sound? Does it turn up the volume/intensity?

Stop = Does the music continue to repeat or does it stop entirely?

---

Next, we discussed replayability or what the final goal of the level must be. Like "Incredibox," we didn't want you to be able to utilize all possible elements for the piece or level presented (thus implementing every level the song). The customization and experience of the song that you want to play is what is important.
So, in a particular level, you may be able to implement 2/4 vocal possibilities, or 1/2 horn possibilities.

---

Lastly, we discussed enemies. This seems to be where our game will hinge. In finding the "challenge" for the game, we began talking about the philosophical destruction or obstacle to music. Is it chaos? Is it broken instruments?

Some of the brainstorming turned up very literal destructions of music/instruments:

Too fast/slow of a tempo
Breaking of strings (guitar)
Smashing of drums
Out of tune piano

Etc.

What is the ultimate challenge? We also thought of there being pits or breaks in the music that if you failed to traverse properly would "kill" you by adding a nonmusical sound to your tract, like the turning on of a faucet, or the changing of a TV channel.

Ultimately, we have a better handle on what our game does. Now, it is a matter of smoothing and figuring out the details.

Thanks Larry and Raza for the insight.

What we did

We decided to flesh out the puzzle more and make each puzzle a series of sub puzzles. That comes to an ultimate goal. We decided to focus on our cookie puzzle in which you lure the guard away from the door.

Lab

check out this game I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VI4VplSK9A

I'm guessing our game would be similar to this? It's pretty cool how there is a choice of pathways: when you strum downwards, you jump up onto a higher string; when you strum upwards, you fall to a lower string. Don't know if it makes a difference in this game (Maestro), but being able to move up, stay on the same level, or move down allows for customization options (example: top level = horns instruments, middle = woodwind instruments, bottom = string instruments). Different levels (top, middle, bottom) may offer different themes (t = electronic, m= gothic, b = classical) and/or sound effects (techno beats, car alarms, dialogue (the woman going "I have a heart condition...") -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cx10MrMYB4. Also, it uses touch screen, so it would be ideal for the DS or smart phones.

Concept of Tonality - (mushing many sounds, yet still a coherent single piece) - Thanks Raza

http://www.inudge.net/ (similar to Fruity Loops)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRS13e5R8GI (Balinese Gamelan Music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FRKGU9Zu_o (Flower - same makers as Flow - more pedals = evolving the musical piece, each pedal with its own role/function)

What we did : )

We looked at music for our a game and decided on a few songs and made a detailed description of a level that we plan to present.

Morgan and destinys eleventeenth date. This is the aesthetic were leaning to. http://cdn.static.viddler.com/flash/publisher.swf?ref=&key=6abb602b

Other concepts to ponder about

November 3rd's lab:

Raza gave me some cool ideas + showed me some cool music-related games. I'll do my best to summarize.

Focusing on music as the theme, not just the costume. Making music the flow of the game. In my last blog entry, I was trying build and expand on our Mario/Canabalt + Guitar Hero idea. This idea seems reasonable, but Raza suggested that we also tried to make our game have an overall + underlying music base and theme.

Raza showed me:

Game 1: Flow - http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/

What I took from this is to have our music constantly evolving and parallel this with our constantly increasing momentum theme. So at the start of the stage, we have something like a simple, 1-dimensional beat (parallel with a slow momentum) and by the end of the game, we have this elaborate, chaotic rock orchestra (parallel with a fast momentum).

Game 2: Incredibox - http://www.incredibox.fr/

What I took from this is a constantly evolving musical piece with also a sense of customization. For example, there can be 3 paths (branching) our hero can choose from (or maybe he can pick up all 3 - no longer branching). Door 1: Pick up a bunch of screaming fans. Door 2: Pick up a pyrotechnician. Door 3: Pick up a drummer. Picking up any of these (and more along the level) will have their own advantages / fun / strategy as well as their disadvantages (by deciding to choose one over the other). First off, this will add to the complexity of the Hero's song - screaming fans, pyro: roaring flames, drums: beat + tempo setter. Second off, it is almost like picking up add-ons and power-ups to help you build up and prepare for the boss battle.

So if this was an MMORPG. Picking the screaming fans may be similar to including a warrior (in your party lineup): meat shield and/or overwhelming force. Picking up the pyrotechnician may be similar to including a rogue: long distance firepower. Picking up the drummer may be similar to including a spell caster: personal power ups for the hero (setting the tempo) + spell casting. I'm thinking we should allow players to have the option of picking none or all 3 instead of selecting one or the other.

Game 3: Music in Motion - http://armorgames.com/play/848/music-in-motion

Not much was said about this game, just the first link that appeared on Google search. But I think in this game: the stage is consistent with the music. We can use this idea of having our stage design's complexity be based on the complexity of the flow of the music. So, the more complex and elaborate the Hero's song is, the crazier and more flashy the stage gets.

Game 4: Wii Music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa_cTiMUjJQ&feature=related

Not a full-on game. Basically, turning music into a fun toy.

Well, that's about it. Thanks Raza for these new concepts to ponder about.

November 3rd

Pretty much made gameplay heres what we did copy and pasted

Level 1: Cinematic
Level 2: Basil shows up in Paris. He is in the missing persons bakery
and he sees a handprint. Upon clicking the handprint he recgonizes its
a special type of flour. He tastes and immediately knows its
from a flour company nearby. He goes to visit the company and *real
gameplay begins*

The gameplay for this level is a sidescroller where upon entering the
company he finds a trail of red flour. The person has to follow the
flour trail while avoiding obstacles and traps. He sees three levers
The player gets to zoom in on the levers and choose which to
push/pull. Upon pulling/pushing the levers the camera zooms out and we
see different doors open. He has to figure out the proper order of
pulling the levers to open all the doors. Once all the door opens he
goes through them and ends up in a kitchen room where he sees a
variety of items and one clickable item. Which is a rolling pn.
*Cinematic cutscene flashback of his past receiving his first rolling
pin from his dad" The player goes through the next room and in this
room he sees some rmovable ladders and a rope and also some security
guards.
He has to use the rolling pin to knock out the security guards while
trying to get through the room using the movable ladders and the rope
he finds. At the end of the stage we see a super big security guard
who is hungry.
You talk to him and he tells you he will let you through if you make
him some cookies. He gives you the ingredients and now you have an
interactive puzzle where you have to mix the right amounts of
ingredients to make a ymmy cookie for him. Upon completing the
challenge the guard lets you through and in the next room you find one
of the missing chefs. *cinematic cutscene chef talks to you about what
happened and gives u the location of the next missign chef.

level 3
He visits the kitchen of the missing chef and finds different noodle
shapes throughout the kitchen. While traveling the stage of the
kitchen there are rats attacking him so he has to use the rolling pin
once again. In this level there are also high unaccessible areas, but
he sees a bunch of boxes so to get through this level and to the next
area he has to stack them to get through the level. After collecting
all the noodle pieces he sees a huge door and big keyhole. Upon
clicking the keyhole a puzzle is presented where he has to use the
noodles he collected to make one big key. After opening the door a
swarm of rats come at him and one big giant rat is seen he has to beat
the giant rat. After he beats the rat he sees an array of chopsticks.
He picks one up "flashback or sometihng involvign chopsticks". He then
sees this time an array of trampolines and secuirty guards. He has to
either beat up the security guards with rolling pin or trip stun them
with the chopsticks while using the trampolines to traverse the level.
He can move these trampolines. At the end of the level he a machine
that will open a door but to open it he has to insert a food into it,
whic he has to makes "TBA". After the door opens he sees the missing
chef tied up "cinematic cutscene again and clues for next chef"

level 4
"Milk weapone Tres leches cake