Greetings everyone,
As most of you probably don't know, I will be attending college this fall with a major in game programming. I originally wanted to go for game design, but I found the coursework rather easy. So I switched to something a bit harder. So how is this relevant?
The college I'm attending requires that several members of all the gaming majors collaborate to release a game. I plan on vouching for a rhythm game with custom song support built in. Even if my future group members don't agree with that idea, I will create it myself if necessary. Ultimately, whether it be from my college project group, the company I find a job at, or even myself personally, this game will happen within this next console generation (assuming it lasts as long as the current generation).
So let me begin by sharing some of my ideas for the game. As of now, the best name I can think of is BandMaster, although I'm obviously up for better suggestions. I plan on starting with Rock Band 3's features as a base, minus Pro Guitar/Bass and Pro Keyboard. I plan on incorporating Pro Instruments at some point, but they need a lot of revamping in order to be different from Rock Band (there are probably a lot of copyrights involved with names and such). Speaking of instruments, the game will have to rely on instrument controllers from other rhythm games, at least until a company picks up the game or someone from my college can manufacture prototypes.
Here is a base outline of features that I think this game should have (aside from the obvious):
1. Double Bass Support - Forget having two of the same song in your library just to have double bass. If you want to play double bass, you can select it when you select your difficulty. Of course, there would be a setting to have it on by default or off by default.
2. Rhythm guitar as a separate instrument - I'm thinking a max of three guitar parts per song. Any more than that is rare.
3. Automatic video recording - Similar to what FPS shooters are doing these days, the game will automatically take a video when you play a song. It will save the last 5 or so temporarily, but you can manually save your best playthroughs for future reference. Since the next generation of consoles will most likely have cameras and such built into them (like the Kinect) perhaps we could also add an optional feature to detect and film to player as well (since some people like to prove their FCs).
4. Social Media features - Since there are videos involved, it makes sense to build in a feature that allows you to automatically upload videos to YouTube, and perhaps some feature to post scores and such to Facebook and other sites.
5. Custom Song Support - I will detail this after this list since it is such an important and expansive feature.
6. On-stage Band Customization - With this feature, authors would be able to dictate how many band members are on stage and what instruments they play (to match the actual bands). I'm also thinking about allowing people to make default "skins" to make the game's bands members look like the actual band members, but there may be some weird laws dealing with representations of famous people. If it is allowed, there would be some settings to allow the player to decide whether they want default characters (like RB3 uses), or the band members that the author of the song designed.
7. Vocal assignments - Similar to above, this feature would dictate what band members sing what, as well as gender. This way, no one will ever have to deal with a chick character singing in a male voice (cough cough Linkin Park DLC).
8. Drum Controller Fix - If I do ever come around to making instruments for the game, I plan on moving the snare to the center, as it should be. Until then, Disco Flip will have to suffice. I also plan on adding a purple pad and cymbal, although I'm unsure where. Logic says to the right of the green, but perhaps to the right of yellow would be good (so the blue can be ride cymbal only). I would like opinions on this.
9. Guitar Expansion - Some of you may disagree with me, but I think that a purple button beyond orange would be a good addition to guitar. It's something to experiment with, seeing as shifting the hand again may make the game too unplayable. Although after authoring tons of crazy solos and such, I'm starting to see quite a few songs that would play better with 6 buttons versus 5. Again, share your opinions.
10. Expanded Difficulty Ratings - I prefer Rock Band 1's 10 star system as opposed to the 5 we use now. I think this is important because there have been more than a few occasions when I have had an instrument part that was borderline on a certain difficulty level.
So what about custom songs? Firstly, the editor will be built into the game. I just think of Reaper built into the game, but obviously we will need to make our own program from the ground up (or get a sponsor). Then, because everything will be built into the game, both Magma and RB3Maker would be a single step (again, everything would be named and coded differently). Furthermore, I hope to allow almost full customization of the song, beyond what Magma offers.
I plan on making the difficulty fully customizable, past the 10 star system mentioned before. Think of it like editing the numbers in the DTA presently, though integrated into the game, so you would never be looking at a raw file. This may not be necessary depending on how the songs are sub sorted after difficulty. I'm also contemplating more detailed guitar and bass animations, but I'm not sure if that would be worth it.
Another important feature is MID import. Since we will most likely need to create our own program in order to support the necessary audio and album art import, we would also make it possible to move MIDs to the console hard drive. This a would be a good way to have a huge song database shortly after the release of the game. Besides, it would be cruel to make everyone chart the same songs again. I'm also thinking about some kind of clean up feature, where the player can use a setting to automatically delete MIDs after importing them into the game, eliminating the need to clean out all the MIDs you import.
Ok, so what about sharing the songs with other people? I plan on a very organized and detailed database, though I haven't hammered out the details since there are a million different ways to implement a database. I plan on having a quick view with basic info for people who merely play the songs, then a detailed view for those who author and edit songs. Opinions welcome.
I also think a song review system is an excellent feature to add. Players and authors alike could make detailed reports that would be sent to the original author of the song, either through the console's messaging system or through an in-game system. The author could opt out of these, should they feel the songs don't need edited (blocking spammers would be necessary too). Speaking of editing, I plan on having a change log attached to each song, so the original author is always documented. Then, people can change the version number of the song and list what they changed. This could be a good way to give people credit for their work, and encourage collaborations.
One other interesting thing I'm considering is support for charting groups. Joining groups and chatting with other members is a somewhat cool idea, but the main reason I want to add this is to incorporate group collaboration software. I'm being influenced by Wunderkit, an old retired program that encouraged group collaboration through checklists, due dates, and such. This type of program would definitely benefit larger charting groups such as CCC, but I think it could also be used when only two or three people work on songs. Adding support for groups will also clarify the whole publishing label field.
Lastly, you're probably wondering what will happen if an artist wants to be a part of the game? Quite simply, we allow them to contribute stems that will be sold. We will have to code them so they can't be taken off of the console (for legal reasons), but once you buy the stems, you can add them to any chart you want. This would allow people to update their charts with stems, without having to rechart anything. If the author also wanted to create their own representations in-game (see #6 above), we could code the game to overwrite any player made representations.
Obviously, incorporating custom songs directly into the game brings a lot of challenges, but I'm hoping that most of them can be addressed. Foremost is controls. Most people would be using a controller to author songs, so I would need to think of a good control scheme that can be heavily customized to tailor to the player without holding them back. Maybe I'll do some photo editing on a picture of a controller one of these days. Of course, I will allow computer keyboard controls (should the next generation support keyboards).
The biggest issue I face with this setup is how people will be able to play together online. Since there could be different versions of the same song, some serious questions get raised. Does everybody have to have the same exact chart in order to play the song, or can they have separate charts with different tempo maps? What happens if someone mislabeled a song and someone tries to play with others? Will they hear the audio from their version or someone else's? If everybody is playing their own chart and listening to their own audio, do they even have to be playing the same song? What if they all have the same song, but different programmed characters? I have a couple theories on these, and I will share them should anyone be interested in debating.
These are most if not all of the ideas I have at the moment. I plan on updating this as I think of more things, and of course, I want the community's opinions as well. I'm a huge advocate of getting input from people who actually play the game, because testers can only do so much. So if you want to debate something I've already mentioned, or if you have a good idea, feel free to post.
We're all rhythm game players here.
