Got this working to what I’ve decided is the new spec.
The requirements listed here are overbroad. What I’ve built so far, notes + scales, certainly enables chords, progressions, etc. I don’t want to go too far down the garden path here.
The next phase of the Music Theory Engine will be captured under
Live Design
The following link contains an in-depth look of how I’ve expressed music theory to the computer. It’s a blend of design doc, code tutorial and the struggles of setting up Unreal to work on C++.
Storytime
In the past four weeks we have created a box that shows digits above it:
We took those digits and made them musical notes:
- We created and exported the sound files of those musical notes from Ableton into Unreal.
- We connected the sound files to play when the box was stepped on.
We created a Spawner that will make new notes appear in front of the player:
This gives us the rudimentary workings of an actual game mechanic!
Let us consider what it takes to turn the above demo into a real game.
- Visual theme
- How do we represent the player?
- How do we represent the music? A white cube with a letter is a start, but far from the finish.
- How do we represent the world the player navigates?
- Review the player controller
- What are the player controls?
- How does the player navigate the environment?
- 1st person/3rd person?
- How do we make the music being played good?
- Random individual notes are a start
- Chords
- Percussion
- Bass and instrument frequency ranges (Soprano → Bass)
All these things are hard. All are important. But I’m going to do the one that seems most interesting to me: Build a music theory engine into the game that will allow us to make interesting musics.