xolotl
02-19-2013, 10:38 PM
So I assume that this is OFN for everyone else, but a game called "Beat Hazard" just recently got a Linux port, so it's new to me.
It's a shoot-'em-up of the Asteroids variety, but its hook is that the gameplay is entirely determined by the audio properties of whatever music you decide to use for the game. Most obviously, the volume of the music determines both the power of your ship's shots and the speed of the enemies. The game also analyzes frequencies in the music to determine things like what enemies spawn when, and what bosses get spawned, etc. The graphic effects also double as a music visualizer which is extremely heavy on the strobing - I'd personally recommend setting the visual effects down to 50% when playing, but if you want to burn your eyes out, feel free to pump it up.
Without the music hook, the gameplay is admittedly rather shallow - after you've played it for 20 minutes or so, you've probably seen just about every enemy in the game, but for whatever reason I've been really enjoying it. Possibly just 'cause I'm picking the soundtrack myself, I suppose.
At any rate, the game's programmed so that the same audio will always yield the same gameplay elements - you'll always get the same spawns at the same time, etc, which means that each song has a pretty distinct flow to it. I played through a number of Fragile tracks without noting much of interest, really, apart from that La Mer was surprisingly hectic. I really enjoyed a lot of Year Zero tracks - Vessel in particular was way cool (Me, I'm Not and The Warning function fairly similarly - lots of speed changes as the electronics pulse in and out). The Great Destroyer was pretty "meh" though. God Given starts out pretty dull, and has a weirdly inexplicable total dead space towards the end, but gets nicely frantic in the middle.
I've tried playing through the two HTDA EPs a couple of times, those are enjoyable as well. Stepping away from Trent's work a bit, I had a surprisingly great time on Hecq's "Hypnos" suite, from "steeltongued." Venetian Snares' "Hajnal" was pretty epic as well.
Anyway, I'd be curious if anyone finds any great tracks which happen to work well. I assume some Ghosts and Trent-soundtrack stuffs would be pretty nice.
It's a shoot-'em-up of the Asteroids variety, but its hook is that the gameplay is entirely determined by the audio properties of whatever music you decide to use for the game. Most obviously, the volume of the music determines both the power of your ship's shots and the speed of the enemies. The game also analyzes frequencies in the music to determine things like what enemies spawn when, and what bosses get spawned, etc. The graphic effects also double as a music visualizer which is extremely heavy on the strobing - I'd personally recommend setting the visual effects down to 50% when playing, but if you want to burn your eyes out, feel free to pump it up.
Without the music hook, the gameplay is admittedly rather shallow - after you've played it for 20 minutes or so, you've probably seen just about every enemy in the game, but for whatever reason I've been really enjoying it. Possibly just 'cause I'm picking the soundtrack myself, I suppose.
At any rate, the game's programmed so that the same audio will always yield the same gameplay elements - you'll always get the same spawns at the same time, etc, which means that each song has a pretty distinct flow to it. I played through a number of Fragile tracks without noting much of interest, really, apart from that La Mer was surprisingly hectic. I really enjoyed a lot of Year Zero tracks - Vessel in particular was way cool (Me, I'm Not and The Warning function fairly similarly - lots of speed changes as the electronics pulse in and out). The Great Destroyer was pretty "meh" though. God Given starts out pretty dull, and has a weirdly inexplicable total dead space towards the end, but gets nicely frantic in the middle.
I've tried playing through the two HTDA EPs a couple of times, those are enjoyable as well. Stepping away from Trent's work a bit, I had a surprisingly great time on Hecq's "Hypnos" suite, from "steeltongued." Venetian Snares' "Hajnal" was pretty epic as well.
Anyway, I'd be curious if anyone finds any great tracks which happen to work well. I assume some Ghosts and Trent-soundtrack stuffs would be pretty nice.